SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Independent School District will not place Teach for America members at its campuses next school year, the district announced as part of an increased focus on teacher retention.
The announcement ends Teach for America’s partnership with the district, which has lasted for more than 15 years.
SAISD currently has 25 full-time teachers through Teach for America, whose contracts will end at the end of the school year and will not be renewed.
There are 22 other teachers on SAISD campuses whose contracts extend until the end of next school year, and those teachers will remain until their contracts expire.
The district said its announcement does not impact Teach for America’s summer and tutoring programs.
SAISD said it is focused on developing internal pathways for teacher development.
“While some corps members remain in the district after two years of service,” the district said in a statement, “our focus is shifting to retention and career pathways.”
“To increase the likelihood of teachers staying in the classroom longer,” the statement continued, “SAISD is focused on replacing external corps members with internal Homegrown candidates through our certification support pathways and registered apprenticeship work.”
One of these programs includes its teacher apprenticeship program at Travis Early College High School, which offers students the opportunity to graduate with an associate’s degree in education, and paid opportunities to teach while they finish college.
The first batch of students will graduate this month, but only 15 of them will become apprentices and won’t lead their own classrooms for two more years.
Despite this, SAISD said it does not anticipate the shift will increase teacher vacancies.
“SAISD has a variety of pathway programs and support to bring in additional support,” a spokesperson told TheTXLoop. “We hire and onboard hundreds of teachers a year.”
While the district spokesperson did not specify its exact plan to replace the 25 teacher positions, they provided examples of its other pathways used to develop “homegrown” teachers:
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Teacher Residents: a paid, benefits-eligible clinical teaching experience that offers a year of guided support before taking over a classroom independently
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Alamo College Network: Support of registered apprenticeship path, seamless transition into bachelor’s degrees and SAISD employment
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Traditional clinical teacher pipelines
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Partnerships with Ready-to-Work, SAISD Foundation and ESC Region 20
Every year, the district paid Teach for America $4,000 per teacher who worked for SAISD in their first two years of service.
That represents a cost savings of $200,000 over the next two years, which a district spokesperson confirmed factored into its decision to terminate the partnership as it faces a deficit.
In a statement to TheTXLoop, Teach for America said it appreciates its continued collaboration with SAISD, and that it will continue supporting the more than 70 alumni members of the program currently serving as teachers and staff within the district.
Teach for America added that it continues to provide teachers and assistance for other districts in the San Antonio area.
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