Over half of newly hired Texas teachers are uncertified to teach in public schools, that's according to data from one Texas researcher. KTTZ reporter Brad Burt has more from a recent education forum, where local experts talked about how that’s impacting students, particularly in rural schools.
Assistant Professor Jacob Kirksey from the Texas Tech University College of Education spoke about the latest data with West Texas educators and professionals during a forum on teacher shortages at Texas Tech University last week.
He says while making sure teachers are paid enough is necessary, the rate of retention in teachers and the success that students see when they leave school can all be related to the quality of preparation that teachers receive.
KIRKSEY: “It is not a matter of ensuring that we have more teachers. It is a matter of ensuring that we have the quality teachers that we need, because that's where the real shortage is. It's not a matter of adults. We can find adults anywhere. It's a matter of putting high-quality educators in classrooms.”
According to Kirksey, out of data from 40 primarily rural Texas counties, over 80% of their first-time new teacher hires were completely uncertified. 72% of these uncertified teachers have never worked in a Texas public school before.
Jessica Gore is the assistant superintendent for Snyder Independent School District. She says the challenges she’s experienced in her rural district are “deeper” than she’s seen in more populated areas, but many contributing factors to teacher shortages in rural districts come back to what they can offer in salary.
GORE: “We don't even have a pool of applicants to even talk about who to interview. And the reason we're not having a pool of applicants is because the salary is not attractive enough to get people to desire to enter a field like education that does have many hurdles.”
In Sunday’s State of the State address, Gov. Greg Abbott highlighted teacher pay raises as a priority of his for the legislative session. Texas teacher pay currently lags nearly $9,000 behind the national average, according to Texas AFT.
