Texas School Districts Taking Unique Steps To Combat Teacher Shortage – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
LANCASTER, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Imagine you are a slice of pizza that is being digested, ”suggests science teacher Patrice Lasley to her seventh grade students at Elise Robertson Middle School in Lancaster.
The comments came during a class discussion on enzymatic food breakdown in the small intestine.
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But Lasley guides her students through the digestive system from her home in Savannah, Georgia.
The Lancaster ISD students are located in their classroom on the second floor and receive lessons via a live stream from the internet. You have never met your teacher personally.
The educational facility is a classroom option accessed by the southern Dallas County’s school district to help address the growing teacher shortage.
“The reality is that we are facing a national crisis teacher shortage and Lancaster is not immune to that shortage,” said Kimberly Simpson, Lancaster ISD spokesman Thursday.
LISD started the school year with 7100 students and an expected 400 teachers. The district, which faces the same set of circumstances as the school systems at the national level, had a teacher deficit of 30, mainly science, math and foreign language teachers.
Despite aggressive recruiting efforts, offers to sign rewards, or rewards, the district turned to Elevate 9-12, a national e-learning company that offers certified teachers the ability to teach students remotely.
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Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Rice, Vernon, and five other Texas school districts use remote teachers streamed into the classroom while another adult supervises and supports students in the classroom.
“What you see is real life adapting to new things in education and turning to new things. One of them is distance learning. It is a reality for those of us who do not have the teachers personally. They are certified, highly qualified teachers, ”Simpson emphasized.
Students in Lasley’s class at 10:15 am on Friday followed the course instructions using laptops and a large video monitor to watch Lasley’s class.
“Classroom Coach” Terry Tucker makes sure that the students are on the job, reinforces instructions and helps with technical problems.
12-year-old student Eugene Dent quickly stood in front of the classroom camera and microphone, answering questions Lasley asked.
He and other students cited the past school year, which was filled with virtual learning and COVID logs, as a preview of using a distance teacher.
“She’s here because we couldn’t get science teachers to come here. It feels the same because when we were at home in quarantine, I got used to it. It’s not really any different, ”said Dent.
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Lancaster ISD wants to find qualified teachers for every classroom, they say. But until that happens, the teacher shortage will be filled by distance educators who can live elsewhere across the country.
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