‘Unheard of': Data shows one Fort Worth ISD school had an 88% teacher turnover rate

A teachers' union out of the Fort Worth Independent School District said their schools are in crisis.

Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association, said new data on teacher turnover rates is troubling, especially in light of student enrollment declines.

Poole said he requests a breakdown of teacher turnover rates by school nearly every year. This month, he received those numbers for the 2022-2023 school year: Harlean Beal Elementary topped the list, with an 88% teacher turnover rate.

"That's absolutely unacceptable," Poole said, calling the number, "unheard of."

The year before, 2021-2022, showed a 42% turnover rate at the school, which Poole said was already "astronomical."

"That should be a red flag for the superintendent and her leadership to really identify what's going on in that school. It can't continue that way," he said.

NBC 5 looked over the data, finding that four out of the top five schools with the worst turnover, and seven out of the top 10, were elementary schools.

"We don't have enough teachers as it is. So, the district needs to start identifying some of these hotspots and making corrective actions so we can keep these excellent teachers in our schools," Poole said.

He said among the factors he's been hearing from leaving teachers: Beal is a difficult school, and leadership is lacking.

"Just because it's a hard-to-staff school and hard circumstances at that school doesn't mean that it's a bad school and that we should put up with this kind of turnover," Poole said.

Poole pointed to other schools he said are hard to teach, but still have low turnover rates, like Morningside Middle School and John T White Elementary.

NBC 5 brought the numbers to school district leaders, asking them what's leading to the high turnover at Beal. After a few days, a spokesperson couldn't give a direct answer, only saying it could be a few different things.

"It could be a group of teachers that have reached the great opportunity to retire that particular year. Are there administrative changes?" said Woodrow Bailey, Fort Worth ISD Chief Talent Officer.

Bailey said declining student enrollment could also be leading to teachers leaving.

"Are there changes in the student population where they're losing students? And so therefore that communication has gone out to that campus to say, 'Hey, we're going to be losing teachers next year?'" he said.

Poole said even if the school has declining enrollment, the trend may working the other way: Students may be leaving because teachers are.

"When there's this churn of teachers at a school, parents take notice, and then they wonder if that chaos is affecting their students and they're taking their kids out of the school because of it," Poole said.

A recent NBC 5 report found that a vast majority of students leaving FWISD are elementary students.

Poole said declining student and teacher populations indicate "our schools are in crisis."

Bailey said the 2022-2023 numbers are not fully "baked in, yet," but that their districtwide teacher turnover rates are improving.

Data shows so far, the 2022-2023 district turnover rate is 14.65%, compared to 17.6% the year before, which was just below the statewide average of 17.7%.

Still, Bailey said they are working on how to keep more teachers in their classrooms.

"Teacher incentive allotment, increasing the teacher salary schedule, making sure that benefits are attractive all the way through their career from beginning to the end," he said.

Bailey said they're also creating an office for teacher retention and employee engagement, to be able to listen to teachers more and act on their concerns.

"Making sure that we are hearing what teachers are saying and then we're responding because it's one thing to hear, but then you have to be able to respond," he said. "That's going to be our focus and our attention for this upcoming year."

That's something Kamethia Perez would like to see. The former math teacher at Stripling Middle School decided not to come back this year due to burnout.

"I would work in the evenings at home, if not at school, I would work on the weekends," she said. "If you're doing that 100 miles an hour every single day, yeah, you're going to get burnt out."

She said for many of her colleagues, lack of leadership also contributed to them leaving.

"I know teachers that don't feel supported by any principal at any school," she said.

She also had experience with students from other "hard to teach" schools and thinks discussions should include students, too.

"I'm talking about the teachers who are in the trenches, the students who are in the schools that nobody wants to teach at. Let's have a dialogue with these teachers and students from these schools and see what the real problem is. And I bet we'd all be surprised to see what can come out of that," Perez said.

Poole said he's brought his concerns about Beal and teacher turnover rates to the superintendent, Angélica Ramsey.

"She's very responsive to the information and she is taking action. So, hopefully, we'll see some results, not only for that school but across the entire district," Poole said.

FWISD TEACHER TURNOVER RATES FOR 2022-2023