The Texas House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment published an interim report that claims teachers in the state are “underprepared to enter the classroom and under-supported once there.”
Findings from the report were made public ahead of a likely special legislative session on education in October, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Relative to other states, Texas offers a variety of preparation routes for teachers to meet requirements to enter the classroom. Despite this flexibility, as of the 2022-23 school year an increasing number of newly hired teachers (approximately 1 in 3) taught with no certification at all,” reads the report.
Teacher retention has been an ongoing issue in the state, which has led to public school systems increasingly leaning on uncertified instructors and even recruiting educators from abroad.
The committee report identified disciplinary problems among students — especially in bigger classrooms — as a significant contributor to teachers spending additional time working outside of classroom hours. The dynamic has put a serious strain on the workforce.
Former Dallas elementary school teacher and principal Amber Shields told NBC 5 DFW she saw many veteran colleagues leave the profession because of how many hours they had to spend working on their personal time.
“Teacher burnout and the amount of time they’re required to spend working on their profession after they leave for the day [are a problem]. … If we could reduce the amount of time teachers are spending finding the resources, creating resources, that can help people to stay in the profession,” Shields said.
With so many veteran educators leaving, the amount of turnover has led to a relatively inexperienced pool of working teachers.
“In addition to the staggering amount of underqualified incoming teachers, trends suggest that the workforce is also largely inexperienced: about 35% of current Texas teachers have less than 5 years of teaching experience, 41% of whom are leaving the profession in these first few years,” reads the report. “In light of this, Texas has seen a growing overall attrition rate — now at an all-time high — outpacing national averages by approximately 25%.
State lawmakers have reacted with concern.
“I would like to think it’s not a situation where we’re advertising on Craigslist and taking whoever comes in,” said Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston), NBC 5 reported.
He noted that pay might also be an issue contributing to the situation.
“Just trying to maintain order and educate those children is just a task that is very daunting. And many of them just don’t feel the pay is worth it,” VanDeaver claimed.
The report comes at a time when larger school systems are struggling to provide students with quality education, logging underperforming metrics in student achievement.
The Texas Education Agency recently had to take over Houston ISD because of chronic underperformance at one of its campuses. For its part, Dallas ISD — the second-biggest school district in Texas — saw only 41% of its students score at grade level on their STAAR exams in the 2021-2022 school year. Additionally, almost 20% of the district’s Class of 2022 failed to earn a diploma in four years, despite the hard work of the system’s dedicated teachers.
Respondents to a poll conducted last year suggested that mismanagement was one of the main reasons Dallas ISD is struggling academically.
