Teacher turnover: This Fort Worth elementary school lost 88% of its teachers in 2022-23
Although the overall teacher turnover rate in the Fort Worth Independent School District decreased by almost 3% for the 2022-2023 school year, one elementary school retained only 12% of its teachers.
Harlean Beal Elementary, located in Forest Hill, had a teacher turnover rate of 88% last school year, according to data obtained by the United Educators Association and shared with the Star-Telegram. It was the highest rate district wide, and Harlean Beal Elementary was among six elementary schools with the top 10 highest turnover rates for teachers when looking at individual campuses in Fort Worth ISD.
The district’s overall turnover rate was 17.6% for the 2021-2022 school year and 14.7% for the 2022-2023 school year, data shows.
Comparing these same school years, Harlean Beal Elementary’s teacher turnover rate more than doubled. It reached 42% in 2021-2022, said Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association.
“The burnout is real,” Poole said. “The expectations on a teacher do not match the support that they are given. They need more support. And then not just the working conditions, but sometimes it’s the individual school leadership that affects the school climate, morale and turnover. I think that’s what we’re seeing at Harlean Beal.”
Fort Worth ISD officials said in a statement that the district is “committed to retaining our valuable teachers and staff, fostering a positive and supportive culture for the success of both students and educators.” Turnover rates are influenced by promotions, transfers inside the district, retirements and resignations, officials said.
“At Beal last year, the turnover rate due to resignations was reflected in the departure of six teachers, accounting for 28%. We recognize the importance of understanding and addressing these factors, and the district is actively engaged in initiatives to enhance teacher retention through targeted support and professional development opportunities,” said Cesar Padilla, spokesperson for Fort Worth ISD. “To amplify our commitment, FWISD has established an office for teacher retention and employee engagement, providing a platform for listening to teachers’ concerns and taking decisive actions.”
From the perspective of the teachers union, some of the contributing factors to resignations include larger class sizes, additional paperwork and issues with classroom management as teachers grapple with problematic student behavior in the aftermath of COVID-19, Poole said.
Fort Worth ISD has been seeing declining student enrollment as district officials point to growth of charter schools and limited housing supply for families as contributing factors. Enrollment declined from 87,233 students in 2016 to 72,783 students in 2023, a 16.6% decrease that has prompted an ongoing school-building-capacity study with “rightsizing recommendations.”
Poole said it’s unclear if there’s a direct correlation between this trend and teacher turnover, but they could be connected in regard to parents seeing an unstable workforce at their neighborhood school and turning to other education options for their children.
“As the enrollment declines, and they’re having to cut budgets, that’s where the workload of teachers increases with larger class sizes. And it’s just a vicious cycle,” Poole said. “The sheer amount of turnover that we see among the teaching corps is going to have to cause a reckoning at some time. We’re going to have to really rethink what we expect of our public schools and our public school teachers.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 3:27 PM.
