Teacher Certification: Part 7—Substitute

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released updated Teacher Attrition and Hiring Reports, and two new teacher hiring and retention resources are available now to local education agencies (LEAs).

TEA updates the Teacher Attrition and Hiring Reports with LEA-reported data annually. Key takeaways from the current report include:

• The attrition rate for Texas teachers rose to an all-time high, with 13.4 percent of teachers leaving between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022.
• The proportion of newly hired teachers without any type of Texas certification or permit reached a new high of 28.8 percent; an increase of 10 percentage points over the previous year and an increase of 23 percentage points from a decade ago.
• One-, three-, and five-year retention rates were slightly lower for all preparation routes, with traditional preparation having the highest retention and out-of-state preparation having the lowest retention rate.

Visit TEA’s website for the full Teacher Attrition and New Hires Report and Teacher Retention by Preparation Route Report.

TEA also announced the Critical Shortage Area Certification Exam Reimbursement Opportunity for educator preparation programs (EPP) certifying candidates in approved shortage areas for the 2022-2023 school year. LEAs are encouraged to communicate with EPP partners to collaborate on ways to leverage this recruitment opportunity. A list of the current teacher shortage areas and an FAQ are available on the TEA website.

Optional guidance, tools, and other resources to support teacher retention, recruitment, and hiring have been compiled by TEA and are available on the new TEA Teacher Hiring Resources webpage.