Incentivizing Teachers Leaving

In January of 2019, Alief ISD contracted Moak, Casey, & Associates to conduct a Risk Load Assessment, which I routinely refer to during my patron presentations. 

The District spent about $28,000 of taxpayer money for the Risk Load Assessment. In the report presented to the School Board on January 15, 2019, they found that the largest risk load factor for elementary campuses were teacher turnover rates. 

Alief ISD’s salary for new teachers is approximately $56,000.  The district currently has one of the highest salaries for new teachers in the Greater Houston Area.  After doing research on the Texas Education Agencies (TEA) website, related to Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR Reports), Alief ISD on average has approximately one thousand and one hundred (1,100) new teachers each year with 0-5 years of teaching experience.

Considering this data, a student at an elementary school like our elementary campuses that are mostly struggling, all of which are on the east side of the district, (Landis, Best, Collins, Cummings, Sneed, Smith, and Horn) students could attend one of these elementary campuses from pre-kindergarten through 4th grade and have a teacher with 0-5 years of experience for five consecutive academic school years. 

Based on the staffing plan presented during the October 15, 2019 school board meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Elizabeth Veloz-Powell presented that each year the district loses 58% of teachers with 0-5 years of experience.  In that same report, it said that those teachers stated that lack of opportunities for advancement and lack of support from their supervisors (administrators) was the main reasons for teachers leaving the district.

Even though the district likes to tote that Alief is one of the highest paying districts in the greater Houston area, it was surprising to see in the report that compensation was not the top reason for teachers leaving our district.

My concern is for those responsible for hiring teachers in our district, what are the tools used to determine what a highly qualified teacher is, and what is the district doing to retain highly qualified teachers for our students? 

I noticed in the District Improvement Plan (DIP) for Priority #5, that the district is offering bonuses to teachers at our high needs schools if they let their principals know by February that they have no intention on returning the following school year. 

Basically the district is rewarding teachers to leave the schools that need them the most. The district is using tax money to entice teachers to come to our district and then turning around and using more tax money to reward teachers for leaving.  I am curious on why our tax money is being utilized in this manner?

If the district has such a high turnover rate each year, its time to start questioning those responsible for hiring.  Could it be that non-highly qualified teachers are becoming principals then in turn are hiring teachers who are not highly qualified?

I did an open records request for the Equity Toolkit that the district submitted to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the 2016-2017, and 2017-2018 school years. As I stated in a previous patron presentation, the District says that our high poverty campuses, which happens to be out TEA Improvement Required campuses, are served by a higher percentage of inexperienced teachers than our campuses with lower poverty ratings.

Teachers at high poverty campuses need professional development that is targeted for high poverty students and communities, along with additional mentoring and support. 

If the Risk load assessment and the Equity toolkit both say the same thing that salaries are not the main reason why teachers are make a mass exodus out of our district, then what is the district doing to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers?

Our children deserve a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, yet alief is incentivizing non-highly qualified teachers to work for our district through starting salary and then turning around and providing those same under qualified teachers resignation bonuses.  

I am asking that the board start holding Superintendent Chambers accountable for the hiring practices of his administrators. There appears to be a constant eagerness for everyone, including the board, to accept responsibility for accolades, yet no one wants to be held accountable for the concerns of the community or the shortcomings of the district.