How principal leadership and person-job fit are associated with teacher mobility and attrition

While existing studies of teacher retention have attempted to isolate economic and organizational factors that predict teacher turnover, this paper extends the research base by incorporating measures of principal leadership and person-job (P-J) fit. Using data from roughly 3000 teachers from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 2012-13 Teacher Follow-up Survey, we explore how leadership and P-J fit are associated with teachers' mobility. The results confirm that leadership and P-J fit predict retention in one's school and retention in the teaching profession, respectively, and we find no evidence that these associations are moderated by school or teacher characteristics.