Certification and Private School Teachers' Transfers to Public Schools

This Issue Brief uses data from the Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS) to report teachers' transitions between public and private schools for teachers with and without certifications in the subjects they teach. In this exploratory study of the association between state certification and private school teachers' movement to other private schools and public schools between 1987-88 and 2000-01, private school teachers who either obtained a state certification in their main assignment between one year and the next or who switched main assignments into one in which they were state-certified were more likely to change schools than were those without a regular state certification in the subject area of their main assignment. In three out of four time periods, higher percentages of movers who held state certification in year two of the time period only switched to public schools than did those without regular state certifications in their main assignment in either year of the time period. In all four time periods for which data were collected, higher percentages of movers with regular state certifications in both years of the time period moved to public schools than did their peers without the certification. However, regardless of certification status, 11 percent or fewer of private school teachers changed schools during any 2-year period.

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