Career Pathways of Urban Teachers in Los Angeles: Who stays, who leaves, and who shifts into other education work?
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Lauren Anderson & Brad Olsen
This paper reports on a yearlong mixed methods study aimed at better understanding the motives, processes and consequences of urban teachers’ decisions to change roles within education. This study has involved charting Center X teacher education program graduates’ career pathways, analyzing year-to-year interval data, and conducting survey research on a sub-sample of shifters – graduates who reported changing roles within education at least once since they first entered teaching. Preliminary findings indicate the richness and variety of post-graduate pathways in urban education and raise important questions about how to conceptualize careers in education, how to support teachers and education professionals over the course of their careers, and how to frame retention.