BATON ROUGE, La. – Members of the Louisiana Board of Regents (Regents) and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) received a preliminary report from the Teacher Recruitment, Recovery and Retention Task Force (Task Force) today, elevating discussions of solutions to address multiple years of declining enrollments in teacher preparation programs around the state and across the nation. The Task Force, created through House Concurrent Resolution 39 (Mincey) of the 2021 Legislative Session, is charged to study, for a period of two years, strategies and best practices to increase the employment and retention of teachers statewide.
“Teaching is the profession that creates all others, so strengthening our educator pipeline is critical,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Kim Hunter Reed. “At a time when the premium on knowledge is higher than ever, we face a teacher shortage, with fewer students preparing to be teachers and even fewer teachers remaining in the classroom, especially among minority populations. Understanding these challenges and targeting solutions to address them is our charge and is at the heart of this legislative call to action,” said Reed.
“In a time of uncertainty, as Louisiana seeks to recover from multiple disruptions to education, we are certain of the value of educators in the classroom,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “We are committed to increasing the pipeline of great teachers to ensure students have access to the highest quality educators our state can provide.”
The Task Force, consisting of 17 stakeholders, including leaders in various secondary, postsecondary, professional education organizations as well as community representatives, spent the last five months reviewing local, state, and national data to investigate Louisiana’s teacher workforce. HCR 39 included 21 questions for the Task Force to consider. Today’s baseline report responds to 11 of those questions in order to provide a clear picture of current data and trends. Highlights include:
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- 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)
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- 60% of Louisiana’s teachers are white females, with only 5% identifying as African American. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education)
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- 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)
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- 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)
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In response to the trend data included in the preliminary report, the Task Force presented close to 30 recommendations across three categories (Recruitment, Recovery, and Retention), which will assist LDOE and Regents in reviewing current policies, creating new programs to recruit prospective teachers in high school, establishing guidance and direction through students’ college years and giving targeted support during the first five years of an educator’s teaching career. Members of both Regents and BESE expressed support for the shared goal of developing a larger, more effective workforce of prepared teachers over time.
With the adoption of the Task Force report, the recommendations will be forwarded to the legislature no later than January 2022. The Task Force will continue to meet bi-monthly and intends to host statewide listening sessions with educators, expand pre-educator pathway strategies in high schools, invest and promote the para-to-teacher model and develop strategies for recruiting teachers of color into educator preparation programs. The Task Force will present its final report in December 2022.
In other action, the Board of Regents appointed Dr. Tristan Denley as Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Innovation. Dr. Denley comes to Louisiana from the University System of Georgia, where he served as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer for more than four years. He previously worked for the Tennessee Board of Regents as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (2013-17).
“Dr. Denley is a rock star innovator and tremendous recruit for the team at Regents,” said Board of Regents Chair Blake David. “To have an education professional of his caliber, who researches and implements transformational initiatives at scale, is a testament to the work occurring in Louisiana among our higher education stakeholders. The board is honored to welcome him and looks forward to his creative and enthusiastic approach to talent development,” said David.
Known internationally for his hands-on approach in developing a variety of initiatives that have positively impacted student success, Denley is credited with creating the United States’ first new degree type in more than 100 years, for Georgia, called the Nexus Degree. His most recent work has been transforming developmental education in college-level mathematics and English, known as the co-requisite model, and implementing a wide variety of system-scale initiatives related to college completion.
“Tristan Denley is both a preeminent academic researcher and a practitioner whose work has benefited the lives of numerous students by dramatically improving their chances of graduation and finding a good job,” said State Higher Education Executive Officers President, Rob Anderson. “While working with Tristan in both Tennessee and Georgia I witnessed increased student outcomes based on the application of his research and watched as other states have emulated his work, which has served to close stubborn equity gaps and provide greater opportunity and success for students by removing unnecessary barriers and ensuring greater academic supports.”
“Dr. Tristan Denley has established himself as the most innovative chief academic officer in the country and will serve as a notable asset to the Louisiana higher education community,” said Uri Treisman, Executive Director with the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas Austin. “His work advancing remedial math reform and student success models has been revolutionary in many states, but it is his enthusiasm for creative solutions to postsecondary education’s most challenging talent development barriers that sets him apart from the rest.”
Additional personnel actions taken by Regents include the appointment of Dr. Susannah Craig as Deputy Commissioner for Student Success and Innovation as well as the promotion of Mr. Matthew LaBruyere to the position of Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration, effective immediately.