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Louisiana State Education Boards Target Teacher Recruitment, Recovery, and Retention

Dec 15, 2021

Baton Rouge, LA – On December 15, 2021, members of the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) received a preliminary report from the Teacher Recruitment, Recovery, and Retention Task Force kicking off discussions about how to address multiple years of declining enrollments in teacher preparation programs across the state and the country. The Task Force, established by House Concurrent Resolution 39 of the 2021 Legislative Session, is entrusted with researching solutions and best practices for increasing teacher employment and retention across the state during a two-year period.

The Task Force, which included officials from secondary, postsecondary, and professional education organizations as well as community members, spent the last five months evaluating local, state, and national statistics to analyze Louisiana’s teacher workforce. HCR 39 asked the Task Force to consider 21 questions. In order to provide a comprehensive picture of current facts and trends, today’s baseline report answers 11 of those questions. Among the highlights are:

• Of Louisiana’s 44,000 teachers in AY 2019-20, 24% teach out of their field or are not certified, the majority in Mathematics and Science. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education)
  60% of Louisiana’s teachers are white females, with only 5% identifying as African American. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education)
• Louisiana had approximately 12,600 students enrolled in teacher education programs for AY 2020-21 compared to 17,898 in AY 2011-12. Additionally, 2,743 students completed teacher education programs in AY 2020-21 compared to 3,231 in AY 2011-12, revealing declines in both enrollment and completion over the past decade. (Source: Statewide Student Profile System, Regents, September 2021)
• Exit interviews with teachers leaving the profession in Louisiana indicate 74% of teachers are retiring, transferring to another school system, or leaving the profession due to personal reasons. Meanwhile, a national survey showed 32% of teachers say they plan to leave the classroom earlier than expected, suggesting burnout post-pandemic. (Source: Gosner, 2021)

The Task Force presented nearly 30 recommendations across three categories (Recruitment, Recovery, and Retention) in response to the preliminary report’s trend data, which will assist the LDOE and Regents in reviewing current policies, developing new programs to recruit prospective teachers in high school, providing guidance and direction throughout students’ college years, and providing targeted support during the first five years of an educator’s teaching career. Members of both the Regents and the BESE indicated support for the shared goal of building a larger, more effective teacher workforce over time.

The suggestions will be forwarded to the legislature no later than January 2022, following the adoption of the Task Force report. The Task Force will meet bi-monthly going forward, with plans to hold statewide listening sessions with educators, expand pre-educator pathway strategies in high schools, invest in and promote the para-to-teacher model, and develop strategies for recruiting teachers of color into educator preparation programs. In December 2022, the Task Force will give its final report.