Dallas ISD continues to be home to great teachers

Dallas ISD recently announced a teacher retention incentive for the 2022-2023 school year that ranges from $2,500 to $3,500, depending on the teacher’s effectiveness level. This incentive is one of the many initiatives Dallas ISD’s Human Capital Management has been implementing to retain and recruit the best staff for Dallas students.

Non-teaching staff who return for the 2022-2023 school year will also receive an incentive of $2,500. 

Through the years, the district’s teacher retention efforts have proven successful. Each year, the Texas Education Agency publishes data on teacher attrition through the Texas Performance Reporting System (TPRS) and Texas Academic Performance Reports. TPRS data shows that Dallas ISD retained teachers at a higher rate than the state and Region 10 districts and had the lowest turnover rate among market peers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Robert Abel, Chief of Human Capital Management.   

While data recorded in these reports on turnover reflects a lag year, it gives HCM a consistent measure of teacher turnover against the district’s peers across the region and state. The 2020-2021 TPRS data, published earlier this week, captures teacher attrition from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021, the first academic year impacted by the ongoing pandemic. While teacher turnover decreased across many districts, TPRS data shows that Dallas ISD retained teachers at a higher rate than the state and Region 10 districts and had the lowest turnover rate among DFW market peers.   

It is important to note that the state’s methodology includes in the turnover, or attrition, rate those teachers who remain employed in the district but who have transitioned to non-teaching positions, such as counselors or campus leaders.  

Further analysis of the figures shows differential retention to be a continued strength in Dallas ISD, where retention of teachers rated Proficient I and higher exceeds 90% in all years since TEI was first implemented, he said.

“With a combination of the retention incentive for staff who return for the 2022-2023 school year and other initiatives supporting teachers and campuses, we believe that our retention rate will remain strong, and we will be able to provide the stable learning environment our students deserve,” Abel said.