ARLINGTON, Texas — Schools nationwide, including Texas, continue to deal with teacher shortages at the elementary and secondary levels.
Evidence of that could be found Monday morning at UT Arlington where a job fair featured 63 Texas school districts vying for the attention of an estimated 200 UTA Mavericks education graduates.
"Yes, I am a senior, graduating, I'm so excited, yes," said Kynice Vickers who said her visits with prospective employers went extremely well. "Yes of course. That makes me feel awesome," she said of the high demand for future teachers with her background and certification. "I absolutely love that there are so many districts that are open to hiring incoming and new students like us."
"And just ready to hire them on the spot," said UTA College of Education dean Tim Jacobbe. "It's unbelievably large and growing," he said of a state-wide teacher shortage and the 13% teacher turnover rate reported by the Texas Education Agency last year.
"Districts are stepping up and paying over $60,000 a year," he said of the growing competition for teaching talent. "And if you really factor that in for a 9-month position, that's the equivalent of an $80,000 a year position."
"It can be challenging especially for our bilingual and special ed, things like that," said Arlington ISD recruiter Miranda Borchers. TEA includes multiple education categories in need: including Bilingual/English as a Second Language, Career and Technical Education (secondary level only), Computer Science/Technology Applications, English Language Arts and Reading (secondary level only), Mathematics (secondary level only), Science (secondary level only), Social Studies (secondary level only), and Special Education.
"We have amazing mentorship programs available to them, career growth opportunities and things like that," Borchers said of the hiring incentives offered to prospective teachers. "We make sure we listen to our teachers and help them out any way we can."
Because of the statewide teacher shortage, and with the benefit of job fairs like the Monday event, education graduates at UTA have a nearly 100% placement rate. So if you are a math and science education major like Omar Sanchez who attended the job fair, you leave with the prospect of multiple potential offers.
"I'm probably hoping to hear from them really soon," he said. "I do hope to receive some offers in the next couple weeks."
UTA says that as districts across Texas continue to struggle to fill vacancies with highly qualified teaching candidates, state records show that nearly one in three new teachers hired across Texas last year lacked certification.