How well are Tennessee public schools retaining teachers?
Overall, the state's teacher retention rates have risen from a low in 2023-24, a Tennessean analysis of state data shows. However, they still have not fully rebounded to the higher, more consistent rates of years prior.
Tennessee Department of Education teacher retention data is available from the 2017-18 academic year through the 2024-25 school year. It showed the state's overall teacher retention rate hovered around the 90% mark from 2017-2020, then dipped slightly to 88.1% in 2020-21 before rebounding in the following two years. The 2023-24 school year saw the lowest rate at just 85.4% retention before rising to 87.8% the next year.
Here are the rates for all eight years:
- 2017-18: 90.9%
- 2018-19: 91.2%
- 2019-20: 90.9%
- 2020-21: 88.1%
- 2021-22: 92.1%
- 2022-23: 91.5%
- 2023-24: 85.4%
- 2024-25: 87.8%
So how did teacher
retention play out on the district and school level over the years in Tennessee? We analyzed all eight years of state data for more than 2,000 schools and talked to an expert to gain more insight. Here's what we learned.
What Tennessee teacher retention data tells us
While teacher retention is an important data point, it only paints part of the picture for the state's education workforce, according to Vanderbilt University professor Jason Grissom, who is the faculty director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance.
Grissom, who has talked extensively with educators statewide for his teacher labor market research, said some may choose to stay because of step increases in pay that come after they've worked a certain number of years. Others may stay because they have limited options for work in their communities. On the other side of that coin, Grissom said teachers may leave schools and communities they love because their pay does not compensate for heavier workloads or complex student discipline issues. Those issues can be further aggravated in high poverty schools that lack resources. The pandemic also triggered massive learning loss for students and disrupted their social and emotional development, Grissom said.
"We're getting a sense that teachers are feeling like the job is becoming more demanding," Grissom said of his recent conversations with Tennessee educators.
He said some may be surprised to see teacher retention rates didn't plummet during the COVID-19 pandemic. That may be because many were hanging onto a job in the midst of economic uncertainty.
"Teachers didn't have anywhere to go," he said.
Although the most current state teacher retention numbers are from 2024-25, Grissom pointed to the annual Teacher Educator Survey, which the alliance conducted in partnership with the state education department. In the 2025 and 2026 surveys, more than 80% of teachers said they planned to stay in their current schools, according to an analysis from the alliance earlier this year. Outside of personal or other reasons, those who said they planned to leave their roles cited leadership, culture, climate and workload as the top drivers behind their decisions.
See your school, district teacher retention rates
Want to see how your school and district fared with teacher retention over the last several years? Use the searchable table below to look up rates by county, district and school.
Teacher retention in Tennessee's largest districts
Retention rates were a mixed bag from 2017-2025 for the state's three largest districts, which are Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Knox County Schools.
The 2023-24 school year stood out, which is when all three districts saw their sharpest drop in retention rates from the year before. The same was true for the statewide rate. Knox County Schools logged the biggest change in 2023-24, falling from 88.7% the prior year to 71.3%. However, Knox County Schools rebounded quickly by the following year, seeing 87.6% retention.
On average, Knox County Schools had the highest retention rate over all eight years, while Memphis and Nashville tied for second. Here are the years with the highest and lowest retention rates for each of the three:
Memphis-Shelby County Schools
- High: 86.4% (2018-19)
- Low: 81.0% (2019-20)
Metro Nashville Public Schools
- High: 87.7% (2021-22)
- Low: 77.8% (2018-19)
Knox County Schools
- High: 91.8% (2018-19)
- Low: 71.3% (2023-24)
A look at Middle Tennessee teacher retention rates
We also analyzed 12 additional districts around Middle Tennessee. Like the statewide rate and its largest districts, they all saw declines in 2023-24. That year, Dickson County Schools saw the biggest drop, falling from 93.2% retention in 2022-23 to 83.8% in 2023-24. However, Robertson County Schools registered the sharpest single year-over-year drop in teacher retention rates by far over the eight years. It logged an 18.2 percentage point drop between 2021-22 and 2022-23.
While Maury County Schools was the most stable among the 12 with only a 4.6-point swing in retention rates, Dickson County Schools had the highest eight-year average of 89.35%. It barely edged past the average rate for Lebanon Special School District, which sat at 89.03%.
Here's a glance at the years with the highest and lowest teacher retention rates for all 12.
Cheatham County School District
- High: 87.6% (2018-19)
- Low: 77% (2020-21)
Clarksville-Montgomery County School System
- High: 88.7% (2017-18)
- Low: 82.6% (2023-24)
Dickson County Schools
- High: 93.7% (2017-18)
- Low: 83.8% (2023-24)
Franklin Special School District
- High: 91.2% (2019-20)
- Low: 84.6% (2020-21)
Lebanon Special School District
- High: 93.5% (2020-21)
- Low: 84.1% (2023-24)
Maury County Public Schools
- High: 87.1% (2018-19)
- Low: 82.5% (2024-25)
Murfreesboro City Schools
- High: 88% (2017-18)
- Low: 80.1% (2024-25)
Robertson County Schools
- High: 89.4% (2018-19)
- Low: 71% (2022-23)
Rutherford County Schools
- High: 90% (2017-18)
- Low: 84.6% (2020-21)
Sumner County Schools
- High: 91.7% (2017-18)
- Low: 84.5% (2020-21)
Williamson County Schools
- High: 88.9% (2017-18)
- Low: 81.1% (2023-24)
Wilson County Schools
- High: 89.8% (2018-19)
- Low: 79% (2023-24)
Rachel Wegner covers education and children's issues for The Tennessean. Got a story you think she should hear? Reach her via email at RAwegner@tennessean.com. You can also find her on X or Bluesky under the handle RachelAnnWegner.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How many teachers are leaving Tennessee jobs? We dug into the data
