Houston, Texas — Results from a new online survey of K-12 teachers in Texas, released Thursday, show that most are “seriously considering” leaving the profession this year, a 19% increase from the past two years.
The video above is from a previous report.
In its third annual Teacher Satisfaction Survey, last spring the Charles Bate Foundation sent an online survey to 1,291 Texas public school teachers randomly selected from the state’s Texas Education Agency’s 2020 teacher list. All of them replied.
The Charles Bate Foundation is a nonprofit organization named after the president and CEO of HEB, Texas’ largest private employer. The Foundation’s goal is to make public education more equitable across the country through community partnerships.
Of those surveyed, 77% are seriously considering leaving the profession in 2022, a 19% increase from 2020 results and a 9% increase from last year. Of those teachers, 93% have taken steps to leave such as preparing resumes or conducting job interviews within the past year.
“This is a huge and staggering number,” said Shari B Albright, president of the Charles Bate Foundation. “We need our public schools not just to survive, but to thrive and thrive.”
Victoria Wang, the institution’s senior researcher, cautions that when teachers are not supported, this effect is felt elsewhere at a local school.
“Schools are not just a place where children go and learn math and read,” Wang said. “It’s where they learn how to interact with each other. It’s where they learn how to be in community with each other.”
These survey findings come as Texas suffers from a teacher shortage and school districts seek innovative ways to attract talent as the state and nation emerge from the global coronavirus pandemic. Some larger areas, such as Houston, have the ability to agree to large wage increases while some rural areas have the ability to. Turned into four days weeks.
A key indicator of the shortage now is the state’s attrition rate, which tracks the number of teachers who have left the field in any given year. Since the 2011-12 school year, the attrition rate in Texas has ranged around 10%. That number fell to about 9% during the 2020-21 school year, but is rising – rising to nearly 12% during the 2021-22 school year.
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Teachers cite low wages, disrespect by both society and elected officials, excessive workloads, and epidemic school disruptions as reasons for their desire to leave. In the classroom, about 98% of survey respondents said they should buy their own supplies, with the average cost being around $500. Average teacher salaries did not rise between 2010 and 2019; Instead, it fell from $55,433 to $54,192, according to University of Houston report Released earlier this year.
In a Charles Bhatt Foundation survey, 91% of Texas teachers who said they feel unfairly paid earned less than $50,000 a year.
Last spring, Gov. Greg Abbott Texas Education Agency Management To create a team To address the problem of teacher shortage. The task force has met twice so far, and school leaders and teachers have shared different strategies they use to attract and retain the workforce.
In 2019, Texas lawmakers imposed increases on teachers in an overhaul of $11.6 billion in public school funding. The bill also included a merit increase system designed to help rural and poor school districts attract talent. In rare cases, the program rewards the highest-rated teachers in Texas with huge pay increases that can swell into a six-figure salary.
These factors contribute to low teacher morale. The results show that only 17% of teachers indicated that they felt appreciated by Texans, and only 5% of survey respondents said they felt appreciated by elected officials.
Lawmakers over the past two years have put more on teacher boards. Some teachers have been asked to take a 60- to 120-hour course in reading, known as reading academies, if they want to keep their jobs in 2023. Most have done so without pay on their own time.
RELATED: 70% of Texas Teachers Are Considering Quitting Their Jobs, Survey Finds
At the same time, teachers felt pressure to raise standardized test scores to pre-pandemic levels, but it was no easy task as teachers’ workloads increased because they also spent more time addressing teachers’ social and emotional needs. Students returning to school after the pandemic.
Survey results showed that 86% of teachers consider their non-teaching tasks and responsibilities to be an obstacle to being good teachers. Of those surveyed, 82% said they lack planning time, and 81% feel pressured to teach to achieve high scores on standardized tests.
Finally, teachers feel caught in the crossfire of state culture wars as school boards in some cities have focused their attention on banning books and removing more comprehensive curriculum rather than how to help teachers and students have a more productive year.
RELATED: Texas School District Removes and Review Dozens of Challenged Books
In the survey, 97% of teachers said that a positive work culture and work environment would keep them in the profession longer. Only 51% said they currently work in that environment. Educators also want more input into the decision-making process at the school and district level. Only 16% of respondents said they have input into these decisions now, and “I fear mass displacement and it’s not inevitable,” Albright said. “The teachers told us what we had to do.”
Lauren Cook, chief strategist at the foundation, said the future of the country and its workforce is at stake if improvements are not made.
“It’s really up to the legislature and at the local decision-making level to listen,” Cook said. “We couldn’t be at a more significant turning point.”
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