Elkin City Schools has been identified as having the lowest teacher turnover rate in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The turnover rate for ECS in 2011-2012 was 2.02 percent.

According to the NCDPI, LEA level turnover for the 2012 School Report Card is calculated based on the individuals employed in the LEA as teachers in March 2011, but not employed in the LEA as teachers in March 2012, as reflected in the Department of Public Instruction Licensure/Salary database.

LEA turnover does not include teachers who moved from one school to another school in the LEA. Personnel administrators were provided a list of individuals employed as teachers in the LEA in March 2011, but not employed in the LEA as teachers in March 2012, and asked to provide data on the reasons these teachers left teaching.

The numbers of teachers leaving when totaled should equal the total number of teachers on the list provided to the LEA personnel administrator. This change brings consistency to the turnover numbers that are being reported.

Elkin City Schools ranks as seventh lowest in the state in the teacher turnover rate for the past five years.

North Carolina has 115 school systems. NCDPI reported that 11,791 teachers of the 97,184 teachers employed during the 2011-2012 school year left their systems for a system-level turnover rate of 12.13 percent

This represents a slight increase in the turnover rate reported for the 2010-2011 school year (11.17 percent). Of that 21.25% of the turnover rate is by teachers choosing retirement, while 18.07% chose another school system in-state or out-of-state.