Background: It is unclear how to best meet the growing demand for high school computer science (CS) teachers. In many cases, current high-school teachers, without CS expertise, are trained to teach CS. However, such training may open avenues for teachers to transition into the computing industry and drive teacher attrition.

Purpose: This study explores whether high school CS teachers are at a higher risk of attrition compared to teachers of other subjects.

Methods: We use Cox-Proportional Hazards models to determine the likelihood of a CS teacher leaving compared to teachers of other subjects in North Carolina, a state that annually employs over 20,000 high school teachers.

Findings: Our results indicate that CS teachers have a lower risk of attrition than teachers in other subject areas, while also controlling for factors commonly related to attrition such as a teacher’s education level and demographics.

Implications: This lower rate of attrition among CS teachers is encouraging because teacher attrition negatively impacts students, incurs significant costs, and contributes to a current teacher staffing shortage in the US. CS teachers may have lower rates of attrition due to being experienced teachers: 48% of CS teachers in our dataset began teaching CS with more than five years of teaching experience. While there may be concerns about retraining current teachers to teach CS, training dedicated and experienced teachers to teach CS could continue to support growing efforts to expand CS education.