Shows that teachers who are paid more stay longer in teaching, that teachers with high opportunity costs, as measured by scores on the National Teacher Examination and subject specialties, stay in teaching less long than other teachers do, and that salaries influence duration less for teachers with high test scores than for those with low scores.…

The career paths of a sample of 5,100 White North Carolina teachers were analyzed using hazards modeling. Subject specialties, lower salaries, and National Teacher Examination scores were important predictors of secondary teacher turnover. Elementary school teachers were less likely to leave overall and more likely to return to teaching. (SK)