FBISD already allowed uncertified educators to teach core subjects, career and technical education courses, and world languages; however, the board of trustees voted at the July 22 meeting to revise FBISD’s District of Innovation status to allow educators in more subjects.
The state-awarded status allows districts that meet performance requirements to be exempt from certain sections of the Texas Education Code, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The details
Glenda Johnson, FBISD’s chief human resources officer, said district staff hope the revised status will expand the teacher pipeline by allowing uncertified teachers in the following subjects:
- Non-core content area, such as alternative physical education through the district’s Kickstart Kids program
- Out-of-grade band
- Out-of-state certification
Superintendent Marc Smith said district staff are still prioritizing hiring certified educators to fill the teacher shortage.
“It’s definitely our top priority to make sure we have certified teachers in every classroom,” he said. “At the same time, we understand we have a national teacher shortage crisis, and so we have to be very flexible and pursue all options to be able to get teachers in our classrooms.”
Digging deeper
FBISD is among other school districts nationwide challenged by an ongoing teacher shortage, with the district ending the 2023-24 school year with 85 teacher vacancies, trustee David Hamilton said.
Texas’ teacher attrition rate, which is the rate teachers are leaving the profession, reached 13.72% in the 2022-23 school year—its highest since at least the 2011-12 school year, according to TEA data.
Additionally, the 2023 Texas Teacher Poll from the nonprofit Charles Butt Foundation showed 75% of teachers were seriously considering leaving their jobs, a slight decrease from the previous year. The 1,029 teachers surveyed cited pay and growing workloads paired with shrinking resources as stressors, Community Impact reported.
To fill the need, school districts across the state are hiring more uncertified educators. Almost 34% of teachers hired for the 2023-24 school year in Texas were uncertified, according to TEA data. This is a rise compared to the 2021-22 school year when 18.98% of new hires were uncertified.What else
FBISD launched its instructional apprenticeship program in the 2023-24 school year and will continue the program this year, Johnson said. The program offers college-degreed individuals the opportunity to work in FBISD while completing their teacher certification.
Fifty-four percent of the 273 apprentices who worked in FBISD last year are returning for the upcoming school year in some capacity, Johnson said.
Additionally, district staff have brought in 486 new teachers through the apprenticeship program for the 2024-25 school year, Johnson said.Digging deeper
Trustee Angie Hanan said she was concerned about the district’s reliance on uncertified teachers, saying she wanted to ensure the district was imposing standards on them to get their certification.
“I struggle to think of my own child sitting in a first grade classroom [where], hopefully, the person has a certain level of proficiency and language in their reading and their writing,” she said.
Smith assured trustees the district works closely with apprentices to help them work toward their certification.
“We are committed to providing the support and training so that those teachers get the pedagogy and support that they need so they can be successful and then creating a pathway for them to actually earn their certification,” Smith said.
