Are incentives to retain Texas teachers working? Job turnover remains high
Job turnover among teachers in Texas remains high after hitting a record in 2023, when more than 13% left their jobs.
In 2022, after 11.5% of teachers left, Gov. Greg Abbott commissioned a task force to find solutions to the growing shortage of educators.
The commission, made up of 46 people from across the state, created a list of recommendations aimed at improving teacher recruitment and retention. The recommendations were broken into three categories: Improving teacher compensation, improving teacher working conditions and improving teacher training and support.
Eric Hale, a teacher at Dallas ISD's Burnett Elementary School, served on the task force. He recently spoke with CBS News Texas's Andrea Lucia about his involvement with the recommendations on compensation.
"Teachers across the state were tired of 'atta boys.' 'Oh, you're doing so great,' but they can barely feed their family," Hale said.
The task force recommended both an increase in overall teacher pay and investing in programs like the Teacher Incentive Allotment, which aims to reward higher-performing educators with higher salaries.
Hale, once a teacher of the year, said those incentives have allowed him to more than double his salary over the past decade.
Highland Park ISD teacher Jean Streepey also worked on the task force. She was focused on how to better train and support teachers.
Recommendations included expanding "grow your own" programs that help existing paraprofessionals, and even high school students, become certified teachers.
The task force also recommended establishing a teacher residency pathway. Streepey was able to make that happen through her position on the State Board for Educator Certification,
"It's a whole new pathway where teachers are in the classroom for an entire year, working alongside another mentor teacher, rather than having a classroom of their own," Streepey said.
Hale and Streepey both said that despite their accomplishments, they feel there is more work to be done.
"I'd like to see a greater sense of urgency," Hale said. "We're driving now, we're headed in the right direction, we just need to get there faster."
New laws that were passed during the regular legislative session increased teacher pay and made more investments into the Teacher Incentive Allotment, as well as money to help teachers pay for certification.