"The Exit: Teachers Leave. Students Suffer."

STORYTELLING CATEGORY

KXAN-TV
08/15/2022

As a new school year began in Fall 2022, Texas was reeling from a record number of teacher resignations. While leaders and districts looked for solutions to combat recruitment and retention challenges, some worried classrooms may continue to be left without qualified educators. But what was really behind the shortage? To find out, KXAN obtained thousands of exit surveys detailing why teachers left and the impact it has on students.
The results revealed how inflation, stagnant salaries and last-minute legislative mandates led to state-wide teacher shortages. The impact across the state was many classrooms left with permanent substitute teachers – less familiar with the curriculum – for weeks at a time and students struggling to keep up with academic expectations. Following KXAN’s investigation, state lawmakers, education leaders, classroom advocates and members of the Governor’s Teacher Vacancy Task Force reacted, calling for policymakers to address the problem with more funding and resources in the state’s legislative session in 2023.
To highlight our discoveries, KXAN produced a four-part docuseries on-air and embedded it online with jump links in an immersive digital story, which also included interactive data features and legislative resources for more context. In the months to follow that initial launch, our team continued its coverage with an additional round of stories, a half-hour special episode of our statewide political program dedicated to the topic and a livestream discussion for an in-depth look at how this project came together.

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Continuing Coverage
Why this Texas teacher stayed amid an education vacancy crisis
Lawmakers invite Texas teacher task force to testify
Survey of 20,000 Texas teachers found ‘overload’ top reason for exit
Weeks into school year, vacancies impact bilingual and special education classrooms

Submitted by Josh Hinkle.