University of Houston Study Reveals Rising Student Challenges Amid Evolving Texas Teacher Workforce
As K-12 students across the state of Texas return to the classroom, some may not see the same teachers roaming the halls as they did the year before.
New research from the University of Houston’s College of Education – titled the “2024 Texas Teacher Workforce Report” – found that overall teacher retention has been trending down across the past decade, decreasing approximately 6.4 percentage points between the 2012-13 and the 2021-22 school year.
The main reason: Teachers face a slew of new challenges in a post-pandemic world. Aside from getting paid less and being expected to teach more subjects, teachers are increasingly entering the classroom with no prior experience or training.
That could be detrimental to the growth of students across Texas, said Toni Templeton, senior research scientist at the University of Houston Education Research Center.
“We have seen trends that those who are uncertified leave the classroom at higher rates. It’s creating this circular problem.” Templeton said. “As far as the students are concerned, we are unsure that teachers who are uncertified come to the classroom with a specific set of skills they need to best support students.”
One of the strategies Texas has taken to tackle teacher shortages is to increase the number of pathways prospective teachers can take to get certified, the report notes.
Individuals can be awarded a certification based on vocational experience and a Grow Your Own teacher certification program, which allows school districts to build teacher pipelines from within their respective communities, according to the Texas Education Agency.
“The combination of these changes has resulted in a teacher population with a wide variety of preparation experiences prior to entering the classroom,” according to the report.
To put that into perspective, 89.8% of public school teachers held a standard teaching certificate during the 2012-13 school year, according to the report. That percentage decreased to 83.2% during the 2022-23 school year while the percentage of uncertified teachers increased 6.7% – from 7.8% to 14.5%.
“We’re worried that not only is the increasing number of uncertified teachers going to create a school environment that’s not as supportive of students as it could be, but it’s going to compound the problem of teacher shortages because they’re not well-prepared to be a teacher,” Templeton said.
Not only do fewer teachers have standard certifications, they also may be responsible for more than one subject. The report shows that the number of educators overseeing at least two subjects has steadily increased across a decade, with small dips here and there.
During the 2012-13 school year, 75,282 teachers taught two subjects; a decade later, that number jumped to 87,477 – an increase of 16%.
“Teaching more subjects contributes to a stressful working environment – asking more of teaching without increasing pay does not entice educators to stay in the field.”
-Toni Templeton, Senior Research Scientist at Education Research Center, University of Houston
The number of teachers responsible for three subjects also rose, from 23,536 in the 2012-13 school year to 27,275 in the 2022-23 school year.
“Teaching more subjects contributes to a stressful working environment – asking more of teaching without increasing pay does not entice educators to stay in the field,” Templeton said.
Echoing Templeton’s point, the report shows those increased responsibilities do not appear to come with a larger paycheck.
In fact, the report shows that the average pay for a Texas teacher during the 2012-13 school year decreased across the decade from $64,638 to $61,336 during the 2022-23 school year. Teachers saw the greatest average pay during the 2019-20 school year at $68,030.
“While we know that pay is not the only reason that teachers leave or would avoid entering the field, we know that it becomes really troublesome and doesn’t contribute to interest or prestige in the field,” Templeton said.
Despite these challenges, the report suggests two reform policies that could ensure student success.
The first is to restore teacher certification requirements and increase university-based teacher preparation programs.
The second is to invest in public school finance equalization, address teacher pay scales, and oppose policies that direct tax-payer dollars outside of the public school system.
“The 2024 Texas Teacher Workforce Report offers evidence to support establishing prestige in the teaching profession through strong teacher preparation and certification programs, as well as equity-based finance reforms,” Templeton said.