Why Teacher Retention for Diverse Learners Matters
Across Tennessee and the nation, schools are facing a critical challenge: retaining educators who serve students with disabilities and English learners. These roles require deep expertise, collaboration, and sustained support, yet too often educators leave not because of students, but because of systems that make the work unsustainable.
To better understand this challenge, The Diverse Learners Cooperative (DLC) facilitated a statewide study to identify what influences special education and English learner educators to enter, remain in, or leave the classroom.
What This Study Set Out to Learn
This data-informed effort elevates the voices and experiences of educators across Tennessee. Rather than focusing solely on vacancy numbers, the study examines the conditions that shape day-to-day professional life.
The report explores:
- Why educators choose to enter special education or English learner roles
- What supports and conditions encourage them to stay
- What systemic barriers contribute to burnout and attrition
By centering educators’ perspectives, the study provides a clearer picture of what retention truly requires.
“Understanding why educators leave is a necessary step toward creating conditions that help them stay.”
— Diverse Learner Teacher Retention in TN, DLC 2026
Key Findings
One finding rises above the rest: educators consistently pointed to working conditions, not lack of commitment to students, as the primary factor influencing whether they stay or leave. Caseload size, clarity of role expectations, access to collaboration, and sustainable service delivery models mattered more than intent or passion.
Across roles and regions, educators consistently named the conditions that make this work sustainable. Five interconnected themes surfaced as critical to retention:
- Supportive teams and policies. Educators are more likely to remain in the classroom when collaboration is protected, expectations are clear, and policies align with the realities of serving diverse learners.
- Individualized professional growth opportunities. Targeted coaching, relevant professional learning, and clear pathways for growth signal that educators are valued as specialists.
- Access to specialized resources. Appropriate instructional materials, related service supports, and technology are essential for delivering high-quality services and reducing burnout.
- Manageable caseloads. Caseload size and composition directly affect service quality, compliance, and educator well-being. Sustainable workloads matter.
- Equitable compensation. Competitive, transparent pay that reflects expertise and responsibility plays a meaningful role in retention decisions.
Together, these themes underscore a central finding of the study: Educators stay when systems support both their students and the people doing the work.
Using This Resource as a Team
School teams can integrate this tool into:
- IEP meetings and service planning discussions
- Professional learning or case study reviews
- Problem-solving conversations when services feel hard to sustain.
By grounding decisions in student needs, teams are better equipped to respond with clarity and confidence.
Why This Study Is Especially Relevant Now
Today’s schools are navigating persistent staffing shortages, increased student needs, and heightened accountability. For diverse learner educators, these pressures are often intensified.
This study offers timely insight by:
- Providing a shared language to discuss retention challenges
- Validating the experiences of special education and EL educators
- Offering evidence to support changes in policy and practice
Understanding why educators leave is a necessary step toward creating conditions that help them stay.
Using the Report to Improve Practice
This resource is designed to be used, not shelved.
Educators, leaders, and advocates can leverage the findings to:
- Reflect on local working conditions and support structures
- Identify opportunities to improve collaboration, staffing, and role clarity
- Ground retention efforts in educator-informed data
Whether used in leadership discussions, professional learning, or strategic planning, the report provides a foundation for meaningful action.
From Insight to Impact: A Policy-Focused Call to Action
At The Diverse Learners Cooperative, we believe that retaining diverse learner educators is a systems responsibility; one that requires coordinated action across practice, policy, and funding.
This report offers clear direction to:
- District leaders: Audit caseloads, staffing models, and service delivery structures using this data. Prioritize sustainability as a retention strategy, not a secondary goal.
- Policymakers: Use these findings to inform funding formulas, licensure pathways, and accountability systems that reflect the real conditions of diverse learner educators.
- Educators: Leverage this report as evidence, bringing lived experience and data together to advocate for change at the school, district, and state levels.
This study moves the conversation beyond awareness. It provides the evidence needed to align policy and practice with what educators and students need to succeed.
Sustainable systems retain educators. Retained educators strengthen outcomes for all learners.