“Grow-Your-Own” (GYO) teacher recruitment programs, such as residency programs and aide-to-teacher pipelines, have increased in recent years, in part on the belief that local candidates committed to their communities reduce teacher turnover. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park reveals that a teacher’s localness predicts how long they stay in the classroom, but not how well they teach, which is instead more closely related to their certification pathway.
The researchers examined data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (2012-13 through 2023-24), tracking 35,246 novice public school teachers to measure retention at three and five years of employment. They then linked a subset of over 12,000 elementary and middle school teachers to student test records to measure their early-career effectiveness on student achievement. To separate a teacher’s “localness” from how and where they were trained, the team drew on high school graduation records, university preparation programs, prior work as classroom aides, and licensure types. Doing so allowed the researchers to contrast teachers who graduated from high school in the district they later taught in with those who entered through in-state or out-of-state college programs. And it allowed them to track how each group’s students performed on math and English Language Arts (ELA) standardized tests.
Growing up locally, on its own, had little effect on student achievement. Teachers who graduated from a Maryland high school and returned to teach in the same district saw a small uptick in both math and ELA scores, but neither result was statistically significant. Teachers who graduated from a Maryland high school but taught in a different district saw essentially no effect in math and a small, statistically insignificant dip in ELA scores.
The type and rigor of a teacher’s training predicted achievement far more reliably than local roots did. In teachers’ first two years, those who completed the high school Teacher Academy of Maryland (TAM) program that introduces high schoolers to the teaching profession, a Maryland university teacher-preparation program, or a residency program (such as Teach for America or the Baltimore City Teacher Residency) all produced statistically significant math gains, with residency-trained teachers showing the largest improvement, roughly double the gain posted by university-trained teachers.
Teachers trained out of state posted math gains higher than any other pathway. The researchers attribute this to hiring selectivity rather than program quality—Maryland school districts typically hire in-state graduates at high rates while only the strongest out-of-state applicants are offered positions.
Though training best predicted achievement, local ties predicted teacher retention. Teachers who graduated from a high school in the district where they now teach were 12 percentage points more likely to still be teaching there three years after hire, and 17 percentage points more likely at five years, compared to those who didn’t graduate from a Maryland high school. Teachers trained through in-state university programs showed similarly strong retention numbers.
Out-of-state-trained teachers, despite their strong achievement gains, showed modest retention by comparison. Residency-trained teachers, who also posted large achievement gains, kept pace with conditionally certified teachers (those with a bachelor’s degree but no formal teacher training) on retention through year three, but were significantly more likely to have left Maryland’s public-school workforce entirely by year five.
Only one pathway avoided this tradeoff; teachers who had worked as classroom aides before entering the classroom produced similar academic gains to conditionally certified teachers and were more likely to remain in Maryland’s teaching workforce long-term, suggesting that the aide-to-teacher GYO strategy supports both goals at once.
The authors conclude that GYO programs should be evaluated on their impact on student achievement, not simply on whether they produce local hires. When achievement and retention move in opposite directions, the researchers recommend that policymakers prioritize achievement, as low effectiveness affects students each year a teacher remains in the classroom, whereas turnover is a one-time disruption.