Research Question:Do school districts with higher teacher turnover rates tend to have lower accountability ratings?
Dependent Variable (x):DZRATING — District Accountability Rating (A–F scale). This rating reflects overall academic performance as determined by the Texas Education Agency’s accountability system, which includes measures of student achievement, growth, and closing performance gaps.
Independent Variable (y):DPSTURNR — Teacher Turnover Rate. This represents the percentage of teachers who leave the district from one academic year to the next, either to teach elsewhere or to exit the profession entirely.
Null Hypothesis (H₀): There is no effect of teacher turnover on accountability ratings. Districts with higher teacher turnover rates do not differ significantly in their accountability ratings compared to those with lower turnover rates.
Alternative Hypothesis (H₁):There is an effect of teacher turnover on accountability ratings. Districts with higher teacher turnover rates are more likely to earn lower accountability ratings.
This question looks at whether keeping teachers longer actually shows up in how well a district performs overall. Teacher turnover is a big issue in education as it affects consistency, morale, and even how confident students feel in their classrooms. When teachers leave frequently, districts often scramble to fill positions, and that constant reshuffling can make it hard to build stable learning environments.
If teacher turnover really does connect to accountability ratings, it might mean that districts with strong retention practices like better support, mentoring, or leadership, see better results across the board. On the other hand, if no relationship shows up, that could tell a different story: that maybe the challenges facing districts are more about resources, student demographics, or community factors than about staff turnover alone.
Either way, it’s an interesting question because it gets at something deeper about how much workforce stability matters for student outcomes. Understanding that connection could help explain why some districts are able to maintain consistently strong performance while others struggle to do so from year to year.