Arlington ISD started the school year optimistic about its teacher retention and recruitment, as school districts statewide struggle to keep classroom positions filled.

On the first day of the 2024-25 school year, about 96.25% of Arlington ISD’s approximately 3,600 teaching positions were filled by full-time teachers and bridge substitutes, said Scott Kahl, the district’s chief talent officer.

Through investments in alternative certification and teacher recruitment efforts, district officials are looking for ways to further close the gap, Kahl said at a Sept. 5 school board meeting. 

About 14% of teachers left Arlington ISD at the end of the 2023-24 school year, a drop from summer 2023, which saw 21.3% of teachers leave the district.

Statewide, school districts with over 50,000 students averaged a 17% attrition rate, according to numbers Kahl presented to trustees.

This shift follows four years of statewide climbing teacher attrition rates — the measure of teachers leaving the district — spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kahl said.

“You had the outcome of COVID where people were exceptionally tired and pressed,” Kahl said. “In general, people were opting out of careers much more so than they had in the past. That number spiked, it looks like we’re returning to normalcy.”

Gearing up for the 2024-25 school year, the district also saw a “richer pool” of certified applicants because educators whose positions were previously supported by federal pandemic relief funding needed to vie for classroom positions, Kahl said. 

District’s bridge substitute programs investment

Arlington ISD also expanded its use of bridge substitutes over the past four years. Using alternative certification programs, bridge substitutes are teachers who aren’t yet certified, but are teaching for a year as they study for alternative certification.

Bridge substitutes ideally will convert to full-time teachers once they are certified. If bridge substitutes can’t complete their alternative certification programs within a year, most are offered long-term substitute positions with Arlington ISD until they finish, Kahl said.  

During the 2023-24 school year, the district employed 324 bridge substitutes. As of Sept. 5, the district has employed 138 bridge substitutes for the 2024-25 year.

Fifty of these substitutes are part of the district’s new partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington, which launched a program over the summer offering a noncredit, online track-to-teacher certification. 

For some UTA students participating in Arlington ISD’s bridge substitute partnership, the district is covering the program’s $5,000 fee. By accepting the district’s financial aid, participants agree to stay in Arlington ISD for at least three years.

“We have brought people in to effectively take on the classroom where they will teach once they finish their certification or come in as a long-term substitute,” Kahl said. “(Bridge substitutes will) get their experience to finish off that certificate that they’ve already committed to and that’s well in progress, and then transition to a full-time staff member certified in that classroom.”

Bridge substitutes ideally will convert to full-time teachers once they are certified.

Out of Arlington ISD’s 324 bridge substitutes in the 2023-24 school year, 83 converted to full-time certified staff as of Sept. 5. Others either left the district or are staying as full-time substitute teachers.

The district’s current conversion rate isn’t ideal, Kahl said, but he hopes the new partnership with UTA is a step in the right direction.

Every bridge substitute who doesn’t eventually convert to a full-time position with Arlington ISD is a lost investment for the district, trustee David Wilbanks said.

Retraining and hiring new teachers can cost a school district $11,000 to $27,000, Wilbanks said, citing numbers presented to the Texas House Committee on Public Education in September. 

Bridge substitutes average high attrition rates, Wilbanks said, pointing to statewide data from the Texas Education Agency that reports 40% to 50% of teachers with alternative certifications leave public school teaching within five years.

“That’s a lot of cost for a lot of turn,” Wilbanks said.

Wilbanks said he’s interested in exploring teacher residency programs, which education experts say lead to much higher retention rates than other teacher certification methods. Similar to medical residencies for aspiring health workers, teacher residencies pair teaching candidates with mentors for a year of teaching in a K-12 classroom.

Superintendent Matt Smith said retaining teachers takes a combination of competitive compensation and a good culture. The district has consistently offered competitive teacher salaries, and it now needs to emphasize a culture people want to work in, Smith said.

Arlington ISD gave employees a 4% salary raise for the 2024-25 school year for the fifth year in a row. The raise kept the district one of the highest-paying for teachers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex across all teaching tenures.

“I think we have to constantly remember, if we’re leading the pack in compensation and we still see a turnover rate that we’re not happy with, then we have to look at other factors as well,” Smith said.

Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. 

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