Teacher Salary Raises and Turnover: Evidence from the First Year of the Arkansas LEARNS Act
Andrew M. Camp 
What We Studied and Why It Matters
Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a pressing policy concern, and raising salaries is one of the most common proposals. Arkansas’s LEARNS Act — signed in March 2023 — offered a natural experiment: it increased the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed every teacher at least a $2,000 raise, and gave districts new flexibility to move away from seniority-based pay. We collected district-level compensation data from before and after implementation and linked it to administrative records on teacher retention and mobility. The results show a more equitable distribution of starting salaries, especially for rural and high-poverty districts, but only modest effects on teacher retention and mobility in the first year. Some positive signs emerged — fewer teachers shifted to non-instructional roles and more new teachers were placed in shortage areas — but broader impacts on retention were limited.
Links
Citation
@misc{zamarro2024,
author = {Zamarro, Gema and Camp, Andrew M. and McGee, Josh B. and
Wilson, Taylor and Vernon, Miranda},
title = {Teacher {Salary} {Raises} and {Turnover:} {Evidence} from the
{First} {Year} of the {Arkansas} {LEARNS} {Act}},
date = {2024-06-01},
url = {https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-972},
langid = {en}
}