A new report from San Antonio/Austin nonprofit the Charles Butt Foundation said Texas continues to struggles to find enough college-educated teachers to fill numerous vacancies that exist in school systems across Texas.
The foundation commissioned the University of Houston’s Education Research Center to prepare the new teacher workforce report. The ERC staff found the number of educators with certification from a college or university is at its lowest level in more than 10 years, further exacerbating teacher shortages.
Northside ISD, for example, confirmed in December it has 200 vacant full-time teaching spots.
Specifically, the number of initial five-year standard teacher certificates awarded in 2019-20 and 2020-21 was lower than those awarded in 2011-12, the report said.
Additionally, there is a decrease in certifications mainly due to declining certifications in public and private university educator preparation programs and nonprofit EPPs, the report said.
“When many teaching positions across the state are left vacant or filled with less qualified or uncertified teachers, the teacher shortages prove even more detrimental to students’ academic achievement in a post-pandemic era,” the report’s authors said in their executive summary.
The report also said certifications produced by for-profit alternative certification programs have continued to increase and, as of 2020-21, accounted for 58% of all initial five-year standard teacher certificates produced statewide.
“This trend is concerning, as research suggests teachers who choose ACPs go into the classroom with less experience and have higher attrition rates,” the report’s authors said.
Elsewhere, the CBF report found that Texas teacher pay overall has not significantly increased over the past 10 years and that the wage premium for each additional year of teaching experience has actually decreased.
“Understanding wage premiums for an additional year of experience is important because teacher experience has a significant, positive relationship to student achievement, and keeping the most effective teachers in the classroom is one way to influence student success,” the report’s authors said.
The report also said 93% of educators who are certified at a college or university are more likely to remain teachers over a longer period of time, compared with 89% of teachers who earned certification through for-profit ACPs.
Additionally, the report said the COVID-19 pandemic compounded economic inequality and disrupted the state educational system, resulting in many Texans, especially those in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, experiencing a higher level of disproportional effects and interruptions in their daily life.
The report makes several recommendations for state educational policymakers to consider, including:
- increase capacity to understand the role of teacher compensation in recruitment and retention;
- expand investment in strategies that cultivate a diverse teacher workforce;
- increase capacity to understand the role of the workplace environment on teacher retention;
- expand investment in research-based EPPs that well-prepare teachers to enter and stay in the profession;
- build on the existing strengths of the state’s Hispanic teacher workforce; and
- expand investment in closing the gap in high-need teaching areas.
