Stay Interviews: A Proactive Strategy for Strengthening Teacher Retention

May 28, 2026

By Reino Makkonen and Alicia Okpareke

This blog post originally appeared in the May 2026 REL West newsletter and is published here with permission.

Most schools find out what teachers need just as they are losing them. Stay interviews offer a different approach: scheduled, one-on-one interviews with teachers to understand what helps them thrive, what obstacles they are facing, and what changes would make it more likely that they will stay and grow.

Interest in stay interviews has grown since a 2022 Education Week article profiled the strategy. Recent Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West efforts in Arizona and Utah have helped partners use stay interviews in different contexts while keeping the same core goals: Listen early, respond thoughtfully, and improve conditions so educators want to stay on the job.

How Stay Interviews Work

Stay interviews are typically conducted between a principal and a teacher to guide school improvements and better understand what’s keeping teachers engaged. Principals strategically identify teachers and invite them to participate in structured, one-on-one conversations focused on the following:

• building and strengthening relationships
• highlighting areas for celebration
• identifying areas for improvement in the teacher’s day-to-day experiences

Stay interviews are intended to be informative and action oriented. They are not associated with performance evaluations, and they are not punitive. Rather, these interviews are supportive conversations aimed at strengthening relationships, surfacing concerns early, and helping to improve working conditions.

Where Are Stay Interviews Being Used?

School districts have begun using stay interviews as a proactive complement to teacher exit interviews and surveys. While exit interviews provide insights after someone has already decided to leave—and surveys may not provide enough context—stay interviews create protected time for educators to share what is working and what needs attention while there is still time to respond.

Several school systems have referenced stay interview–style conversations within their broader retention and engagement efforts, including the following:

• Aurora Public Schools (Colorado)
• Richardson ISD (Texas)
• Royse City ISD (Texas)

A Schoolwide Strategy Led by Principals

In Arizona, the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Office (MCSS) developed its stay interview strategy as part of a recent Teacher Incentive Fund grant, with the intent of helping districts in the region better understand and respond to teachers’ needs. After initially developing and informally piloting stay interviews in a few districts, MCSS approached REL West to partner on refining, standardizing, and studying the strategy as a school improvement intervention.

Together, REL West and MCSS have focused on building principal capacity to do the following:

• Collect actionable information on teacher needs through stay interviews.
• Analyze the information to identify themes.
• Select evidence-based teacher retention strategies aligned with what teachers shared.

Since early 2024, REL West and MCSS have continued to develop and refine MCSS’s stay interview materials and have supported several districts in successfully implementing the strategy. Importantly, in the model REL West helped develop, stay interviews are not treated as one-time conversations. They are integrated into a broader improvement cycle in which principals identify patterns in what teachers are saying and respond with targeted changes within the school’s influence.

District-Led Stay Interviews Focused on Early Career Teachers

In August 2023, officials from the Utah State Board of Education and human resources (HR) leaders from eight Utah districts participating in REL West’s Utah Early Career Teacher Retention partnership attended a presentation about the MCSS stay interview work in Arizona. The approach resonated. Stay interviews were also an increasingly popular topic in HR circles in Utah at the time, with discussions occurring through professional associations and other networks.

In late 2023 and early 2024, HR leaders from four districts—Cache, Canyons, Logan, and Ogden—conducted stay interviews with their early career teachers. More than 200 early career teachers participated. REL West published a resource describing lessons from the effort, including questions asked in each district during the interviews and themes that emerged among teachers’ responses.

Utah leaders wanted protected, individual time with teachers to proactively learn what was or was not working on the job. The focus was on identifying improvements that could strengthen support and working conditions for early career educators.

A District-Led Model

Utah districts structured the conversations so that district officials (HR leaders and instructional coaches) spoke directly with early career teachers. They intentionally avoided having teachers’ direct supervisors (site administrators) conduct the interviews.

In response to what they heard, Utah district leaders took steps to address themes raised in the interviews. For example, they began seeking ways to provide the following:

• more time for early career teachers to collaborate with peers
• more opportunities for teachers to problem-solve with counselors about challenging student behavior

Moving Forward in 2026 and Beyond

REL West partners are continuing to build on this work in both Arizona and Utah.

In Arizona, several district leaders continue to conduct local stay interviews with their teachers. The partnership is also exploring stay interviews as a strategy to retain principals, including a pilot focused on potential multilevel effects. There are also tentative plans for an implementation toolkit that could include videos, templates, guides, and other practical supports.

Similarly, in Utah, district leaders continue to conduct local stay interviews with their teachers. In spring 2026, REL West will reconnect with district HR leaders from across the state to learn more about their ongoing efforts to improve working conditions and supports for early career teachers. Additional resources are planned for summer 2026.

A Practical Takeaway

Stay interviews are simple in concept and powerful in practice. They create a routine, structured opportunity to listen to educators while there is still time to act. Most importantly, teachers’ input is translated into improvements that strengthen working conditions and support teacher retention. Whether led by principals as part of school improvement or conducted by district teams focused on early career teachers, stay interviews offer a concrete way to learn what helps educators stay and what leaders can do now to improve their experience.

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