Pearland - Friendswood Edition | August 2024

School districts struggle with teacher turnover From the cover

Diving in deeper

The overview

students per teacher for kindergarten through fourth grade, and 19-30 students per teacher for fth through twelfth grade, ocials said. However, Lindsey Foley, FISD’s executive director of human resources, said budgetary constraints—not a lack of teachers available—will lead to increased class sizes this school year.

While turnover rates have increased, Alvin, Friendswood and Pearland ISD ocials all note they’ve been able to maintain student-teacher ratios, even though these three districts are under the District of Innovation plan, meaning they are not bound by ratios provided by the state. Ratios for AISD, FISD and PISD range from 18-22

Experts and ocials locally and across the state said there are several factors that may cause teachers to leave the profession. Some include low pay, having to complete an abundant amount of tasks, paperwork and spending time working while at home, which all lead to burnout, Cave said. For many teachers, these factors have made leaving the profession a reality. Alvin ISD saw its turnover rate, or the number of teachers who leave their respective districts each year, increase by nearly 12% from 2020-23. Texas saw its turnover rate increase by 7% from 2020-23, according to TEA data. Friendswood and Pearland ISDs have also seen an increase in turnover rates, TEA data shows.

Number of students per teacher

2019-20 2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24

Alvin ISD

Friendswood ISD

Pearland ISD

+0.5%

+0.2%

-0.6%

-0.7%

+0.5%

+0.2%

Grades 5-12

Grades K-4

Grades 5-12

Grades K-4

Grades 5-12

Grades K-4

NOTE: THE FIGURES COME FROM DIVIDING AVERAGE STUDENT AMOUNTS BY AVERAGE TEACHER AMOUNTS

SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Teacher turnover percentages

Alvin ISD Pearland ISD

Friendswood ISD Texas

What they said

25%

20%

“Until kids physically walk in the door, I don’t know what this year is going to look like. The impact aecting class sizes, sometimes you don’t know until that rst week of school.” SUNDIE DAHLKAMP, HUMAN RESOURCE SERVICES AND COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PEARLAND ISD

“We have a long way to go just to keep up with the national average [for teacher pay]. We’re having

15%

22.8% 21.4% 17.3% 17.2%

a hard time in Texas not only keeping teachers but attracting them to the profession as well.” BOB POPINSKI, SENIOR POLICY DIRECTOR, RAISE YOUR HAND TEXAS

10%

0 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23

SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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