This paper estimates the effects of a school accountability policy on year-to-year teacher mobility in publicly and privately managed low-performing schools in Chile. As school ranking depends on the institution's relative position according to a set of variables and their corresponding thresholds, we use a multivariate regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of the policy on teacher mobility. Our findings reveal that teachers are generally more likely to leave low-performing schools, although this result varies by type of management. Teachers in public schools tend to transfer to other schools within the system, and those who do so are more likely to be working in two or more schools. Meanwhile, teachers in private schools are comparatively more likely to exit the system altogether, with mobility concentrated among low-productivity teachers. Despite these differences, the introduction of accountability did not induce new hires at either type of school.

This paper uses the 2015 Peruvian national teacher selection process to explore candidates’ rank-ordered preferences for public schools. We show that, in seeking a permanent position, candidates prefer schools that are closer to where they attended their Teacher Education Program and that are located in urban areas. These preferences vary by candidates’ attributes: urban location seems to be particularly important for women and higher-performing candidates. Preferences for proximity to previous workplace are weaker for younger candidates and stronger for high performers. Candidates also prefer larger schools located in low-poverty districts, with one teacher per classroom (versus non-single-teacher/multigrade), Spanish language instruction (versus non-bilingual), and access to basic services. A greater understanding of which school characteristics are most valued by teachers can help to design effective policies for attracting candidates to hard-to-staff schools.