The Effect of School Closings on Teacher Labor Market Outcomes and Teacher Effectiveness

School closings displace thousands of teachers in the US every year. This paper explores how 3rd to 5th grade teachers in North Carolina respond to this labor market shock. After documenting that declining enrollment is a key driver of school closings in our study, we find that while most displaced teachers move to new schools in the same district, a considerable share leave education altogether or take breaks from teaching. We find that the increase in the propensity to leave teaching is largest for the highest value-added and most experienced teachers. It is also twice as large for black teachers than white teachers. Although the primary goal of school closings is typically to move students out of declining or failing schools, an issue which generates considerable debate on its own, the potential impact on the overall distributions of teacher value-added, experience and race may have second-order effects on educational outcomes