Louisiana Educator Workforce Report shows increase in percentage of teachers choosing to stay in the profession

More Louisiana teachers are choosing to remain in the profession and the percentage of certified educators is up according to data released today by the Louisiana Department of Education. The 2021-22 Educator Workforce Snapshot highlights key workforce data from the previous school year.

Key takeaways from the most recent annual report include:

• Overall teacher retention increased two points to 86%
• First-year teacher retention increased five points to 83%
• Certified teacher percentage increased two points to 69%
• Diversity of teacher workforce increased two points to 29%
• Average teacher salary increased by $1,268 to $52,174

“This is an enlightening report that shows Louisiana’s comprehensive recruitment and retention plan is working. Even with this early progress, we must remain laser focused,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “Every educator deserves quality pay, strong leadership, and to be valued as professionals. This encouraging data is early proof of what can happen when you listen to teachers and create an environment where their voice matters.”

Louisiana’s comprehensive recruitment and retention plan has included actions such as:

• $1,500 pay increase approved for teachers, $750 pay increase for support staff, and the inclusion of a $2,000 stipend for Mentor Teachers.
• Creation of the first Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council. Twenty-two educators were chosen from nearly 900 applications to serve on the inaugural council. This cohort of educators meets with Dr. Brumley quarterly to share feedback on current education initiatives and offer insight on how Louisiana can continue to improve student outcomes.
• The Geaux Teach Fund was established in the 2022 Regular Legislative Session with an allocation of $5 million for the purpose of awarding scholarships to high school students in teacher preparation programs.
• Over $1 million was allocated to school systems to expand pre-educators pathways, which offer education courses to high school students interested in the profession. The pre-educator pathway is offered in over 90 schools in 46 school systems for 2022-23. The Department released the Louisiana Grow Your Own/Pre-Educator Pathway Development and Expansion Guidebook and supports.
• The Department collaborated on new legislation that allows professionals with a master’s degree in any field to enter the classroom as a teacher.

2021-22 Educator Workforce Snapshots

• Statewide
• Southwest
• Southeast
• Northern
• Central

The Educator Workforce Snapshot provides an overview of workforce data for the 1394 traditional public schools in Louisiana from the 2021-22 school year based on end-of-year data. The purpose of this snapshot is to communicate annual workforce data and trends to stakeholders and to support decision making for statewide improvements regarding recruitment and retention. In this snapshot, “teacher” is defined as any teacher of certified courses, and “school leaders” are educators serving as principals or assistant principals in traditional public schools in Louisiana.

The snapshot provides high level information about the educator workforce in demographics, certification, recruiting and hiring, evaluating results, compensation, and retention. In addition to the Louisiana statewide snapshot, regional workforce snapshots communicate annual workforce data and trends for each region and display a state-to-regional comparison.

Because public charter schools do not have the same certification requirements, the Workforce Snapshot uses only traditional Louisiana public schools to inform certification tables in core courses for certified, uncertified, and out-of-field educators in K-12 English, math, science, social studies, and special education.