Economics of Education Review 31 (2012) 431–441 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Economics of Education Review jou rn al h om epa ge: www . elsevier.com/locate/econedurev Teacher retention in Appalachian schools: Evidence from Kentucky  Joshua M. Cowen a,∗ , J.S. Butler a , Jacob Fowles b , Megan E. Streams c , Eugenia F. Toma a a University of Kentucky, United States b University of Kansas, United States c Tennessee State University, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 20 May 2011 Received in revised form 14 November 2011 Accepted 23 December 2011 JEL classification: I21 Keywords: Teacher labor markets Rural education Education reform a b s t r a c t In this paper we analyze teacher attrition from Appalachian school districts over nearly twenty years of data. We employ a unique panel of public K-12 teachers active in Kentucky between 1986 and 2005, and discern several patterns of interest to scholars and policymak- ers. Inter-district mobility is rare in Kentucky, and rarer still among Appalachian teachers. Few teachers transfer between regions, but teachers are considerably more likely to leave Appalachia than to transfer to it. Our results also indicate that Appalachian teachers are more likely to exit the profession. One implication of this evidence is that improvements to teacher quality in such isolated areas would require a focus on the home labor pool. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Study after study finds that academic achievement is related to student characteristics such as race, fam- ily educational background, socioeconomic status, and the geographic location in which students are located. Policymakers and researchers are currently focused on the quality of teachers as a large part of the answer to this achievement gap between the rich and poor, white and non-white, and suburban and non-suburban stu- dents. This large literature suggests that teacher quality  This research is sponsored by a Spencer Foundation Grant (No. 201000055) under the project title, Teaching Careers in Rural Schools. We thank the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board, and espe- cially Terry Hibpshman, for invaluable research and data assistance. We also thank Leanna Stiefel, Joydeep Roy and other participants at the 2010 meetings of the Association for Education Finance and Policy in Richmond. Finally, we appreciate the perceptive comments of an anonymous referee. All errors are our own. ∗ Corresponding author at: 433 Patterson Office Tower, Lexington, KY 40506-0027, United States. Tel.: +1 859 257 4387. E-mail address: joshuacowen@uky.edu (J.M. Cowen). varies substantially within and across public schools (e.g., Aaronson, Barrow, & Sander, 2007; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004). Most studies that have looked at teacher quality and the achievement gap from a loca- tion perspective have tended to focus on the differences between suburban and urban (and particularly inner-city) schools. Urban schools with primarily minority students, students of lower socioeconomic status, and students with low academic performance are generally served by lower-quality teachers (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wycoff, 2008; Chester & Beaudin, 1996; Goldhaber & Hansen, 2009; Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2004; Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2002; Loeb, Darling-Hammond, & Luczak, 2005). In this literature, one of the phenomena under study is the movement of teachers between schools, between districts, and out of the public school system altogether. Research on teacher mobility has tended to focus on contextual factors associated with teachers’ work envi- ronments (Ingersoll, 2001). Teachers are more likely to leave lower-performing schools (Boyd et al., 2008; Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2005a; Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006; Lankford et al., 2002; Podgursky, Monroe, & Watson, 2004) and students (Goldhaber, Gross, & Player, 0272-7757/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.12.005