By Candace Wofford
Teachers are leaving the profession with half of all new teachers exiting after five years, and fewer people pursuing a teaching career. There is more data than ever about the challenges and potential solutions facing the teaching profession. One of the more distressing panel discussions this year at SXSW EDU explored the issue that is affecting most districts in America. By first asking the question of why teachers are leaving, the administrators and policy-makers may be able to finally affect positive change to ensure they stay.
JoLisa Hoover (Teacher Specialist at Raise Your Hand Texas) sat down with Susan Hansen (teacher and instructional coach at Leander ISD), Yisbeth Puckett (dual language reading specialist and science curriculum specialist at Leander ISD), and Stephanie Stoebe (4th grade teacher at Round Rock ISD) to explore the problem.
The panel started by presenting some staggering statistics. The Charles Butt Foundation (CBF) conducted a poll with Texas teachers and determined that 77% of teachers in Texas are considering leaving the profession. Of those considering a career change, 93% are actively taking at least one step by updating their LinkedIn profiles, rewriting resumes, and applying for jobs. Teachers coming in through traditional university routes are staying at a higher rate than those who are alternatively certified, and yet despite the routes, the turnover rate is the highest it has been in 5 years.
Another study investigated how underpaid our teachers are and determined that Texas teachers are earning 21.5% less than other people with the same degrees. Furthermore, over half of the teachers in Texas reported that they are working a second job and not just in the summer; 89% say that they work these second jobs year-round.
Perhaps the most poignant statistic showed that when teachers were asked if they had input into the school and district decision-making, only 16% felt that they did. This directly affects whether or not teachers themselves have a sense of belonging. Experts always talk about how a sense of belonging is necessary for a successful and fulfilling school experience for the students. No one ever talks about how that same concept should also apply to the teachers, but the implications of such feelings of belonging, or lack thereof, correspond to the lack of retention of teachers.
People enter the profession because it brings them joy, they love teaching, they love their students, and they enjoy seeing those light-bulb moments when the students learn and understand something new. Unfortunately, as Hoover shared, teachers today, “Feel overwhelmed, demoralized, anxious… they talk about lack of autonomy, lack of trust from the public, the STAAR standardized test, and the continued increase of added paperwork.” Stoebe added that teachers she talks to don’t feel valued and don’t feel respected. She says, “We have bachelor’s degrees, we have master’s degrees, we are professionals, and when voices are not being heard and decisions that the higher ups are making are not identifying our needs, it makes us feel overwhelmed.”
The CBF poll mirrored what other investigations have shown, which includes the need for Texas teachers to have a competitive salary. They need a livable wage that also includes more affordable medical benefits. There needs to be more people in the schools so the ratio of students to teachers isn’t astronomical and so the people who are already there aren’t being pulled in all different directions to cover classrooms. Teachers want their planning time to be protected as well. Salary, working conditions, autonomy, and planning time need to be addressed. However, there is also the fundamental issue of preparing teachers for what actually goes on in the classroom.
Puckett explained that to be a teacher, you have to be a learner until the day you leave the classroom, meaning that you need to be equipped to handle the reality changes that happen year to year. The obvious example of this happening was during the Covid-19 pandemic when all teachers and students adjusted to a virtual learning environment. But not-so-obvious would be navigating the crises that children in the classroom show up with daily. Teachers are not trained to handle these daily crises and it gets overwhelming and disheartening when you come in without any training, there is no training or professional development throughout the years, and there is no mentor to guide the newer teachers.
An established mentorship program goes back to the sense of belonging. There should be a place where teachers can vent to other teachers and hear suggestions of how to get through tough situations. There should be training and professional development offered year-round to learn about the latest research in how to deal with pre-adolescent and adolescent mental health. So many institutions are falling down, but teaching is the only profession that is there to build. Of course it is there to build up the students, but for public education to be sustainable, the teachers need to be built up too.
Policies need to ensure that the teachers are taken care of as well. They need to support their needs and shape the environment of the school and classroom into a place where they can actually do their jobs instead of encroaching on them. House Bill 4545 was passed, which mandated that every student who did not pass the state standardized test must receive an additional 30 hours of tutoring that should be documented by the minute. There was no financial support and there was no time compensation. It’s not feasible to uphold these types of policies written by people who have had little-to-no-time in the classroom.
So how do we change the teacher retention crisis? Raise Your Hand Texas says we need to educate, engage, and activate as teacher advocates. Teachers should be able to both protect their mental health, and stand up for themselves. Part of the training for teachers needs to tackle the learning process of advocating for change. Teachers are absolutely the experts in their classrooms and experts in how policy impacts their classrooms, but we need to make sure they learn about the political process as well.
Just as teachers are good at engaging parents at open houses and meet-the-teacher nights, understanding how advocacy is a conversation can be a very transferable skill for them. Advocacy is needed at the school level, the district level, the state-wide level, and the national level. We need professional developments to help them discover in which level they could best serve. Then, when enough teachers have a sense of belonging and have been empowered to speak up, it will be impossible to not hear them and affect change.
Candace Wofford is a University of Texas alum, where she holds her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She has her MS in Marine Science with a focus on Reproductive Endocrinology. She is an expert in the Social and Emotional Learning Field where she shares her passion to teachers and high-school students to inspire them to become the best versions of themselves. She is a mother of two beautiful children, Jace (5) and Piper Beverly (1.5) so together they are PB&J, and she is happily married to her Action Sports Expert Hubby, Jade.
