Teacher transfers and the disruption of teacher staffing in the City of Sao Paulo

This paper analyzes preferences for certain school attributes among in-service teachers. It explores a centralized matching process in the city of Sao Paulo that teachers must use when transferring schools. Because teachers have to list and rank their preferences for schools, the desirability of school attributes can be estimated. The paper shows that the schools' distance from the teachers' home, school average test scores, and teacher composition play a central role in teacher preferences. Furthermore, preferences vary according to teacher characteristics, such as gender, race, age, and academic subject.