The Houston Independent School District (HISD) lost 161 teachers this academic year, according to public records obtained by the Houston Defender. This number is significantly less than the voluntary and involuntary teacher separations the district saw in the last two years, when 371 teachers left the district during the 2022-2023 school year, and 513 teachers the year before.
One teacher was terminated from the district this year, compared to the 19 teachers in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, data shows.
Staff turnover, comprised mainly of teachers, increased from 441 employees during the first five weeks of school last year to 535 this year.
Racial breakdown
While it is still early in the school year, data shows that Black teacher separations are lower than in the previous two years. According to HISD, 54 Black teachers left their jobs in the first few months of the 2023-2024 academic year, while 147 and 174 teachers left voluntarily or involuntarily in the years prior, respectively.
The rest of the separations comprised one American Indian or Alaskan Native teacher, five Asian teachers, 59 Hispanic or Latino teachers, 36 white teachers, five teachers of two or more races and one undisclosed.
Uncertified teachers
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) allows school districts to hire uncertified teachers. The process requires them to submit a request to waive the requirements for a limited number of years. HISD elected to use the certification waiver option in order to employ uncertified teachers for this school year.
Texas does not publish statewide data on unfilled teacher positions. It reported that 29,426 teachers were teaching a subject that did not fall within their certified subject area in the 2021–22 school year, in the Out-of-Field Teaching report.
Additionally, 10,691 special education teachers did not have special education and content certification for their assignments.
Another report states that the TEA hired 8,435 teachers without certification or permit, and 794 teachers with emergency permits for the 2021–22 school year. As these numbers represent only special hires that school year, the estimated number of teachers who are not fully certified for their teaching assignments could be underreported.
Uncertified teachers hired 2023-2024
50 Black
18 Hispanic
9 White
7 Asian
According to the TEA, there are five requirements for becoming a certified teacher in Texas. These include obtaining a Bachelor’s degree, completing an educator preparation program, passing certification exams, submitting a state application, and completing fingerprinting for a national criminal background check.
Meanwhile, certification waiver types could include allowing a person to teach without fulfilling certification requirements, for qualified persons to teach outside their areas of certification, teaching outside their areas of certification in a subject or course for which no state assessment has been developed, teaching outside their areas of certification in Alternative Education, and teaching ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps classes) outside their areas of certification.
Reaching the District of Innovation Status
On Nov. 14, HISD’s 60-member District Advisory Committee approved the “District of Innovation” plan, which will allow the school district to start the school year before the fourth Monday of August and will allow increased flexibility in hiring uncertified teachers without obtaining a waiver from the TEA, developing local teacher appraisal systems, and determining class size limits from pre-K through 4th grade, and minimum attendance requirements for class credit for high school students.
