2019 Georgia K-12 teacher and leader workforce report, executive summary

2019 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Executive Summary
Ryan Pelfrey
February 2020

2019 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report Executive Summary

Executive Summary
As required by statute O.C.G.A. 20-14-27(a)(4), the Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Executive Summary provides a snapshot of the current K-12 teacher and leader workforce. It incorporates data from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS).1 This executive summary analyzes the K-12 teacher and leader workforce, production, retention, and retirement patterns according to available data for the 2018-2019 school year.2 In January 2019, GOSA released a similar report analyzing the similar patterns for the 2017-2018 school year.
Key findings include:

Current Status of the Workforce

2018-2019

116065

9635

2017-2018

113422

8952

Teachers Leaders
o During the 2018-2019 school year, Georgia's public education workforce consisted of 116,065 teachers and 9,635 leaders, an increase of 0.91% and 2.40% respectively from the previous year.3
o The majority (approximately 71.00%) of the teacher workforce was white.
o The percentage of black leaders (40.71%) was larger than the percentage of black teachers (26.43%).
o The percentage of leaders identifying as Hispanic (1.55%) was lower than the percentage of Hispanic teachers (2.51%).
o Approximately 44% of teachers held a Master's degree as their highest earned degree.
o Approximately 59% of leaders throughout the state held Education Specialist degrees.
1 The Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) provided GOSA with data regarding experience, training/certification, and demographics of public educators and leaders. The retirement status of public educators was provided by Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. 2 This year's report does not include analyses of teachers/leaders returning to the workforce after a break or inter-district teacher and leader mobility. 3 Leaders included principals, Pre-K directors, alternative school directors, assistant principals, instructional supervisors, community school directors/coordinators, Career Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) directors, and CTAE directors (extended year). If an employee served at least part of the day in a leadership role, he/she was counted as a leader.
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2019 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report Executive Summary
o Less than half (38.53%) of the teacher workforce had 10 or fewer years of experience working in Georgia public education. Thirtyfive percent of teachers had 11 to 20 years of experience in the previous school year.
o Leaders with 10 or fewer years of experience consisted of 12.55% of the workforce.
o The percentage of leaders with 11 to 20 years of experience is 45.74%. Those leaders with 21-30 years' experience are 46.38% of the workforce. In the previous school year (2017-2018) the percentages were 46.17% and 44.52% respectively.
o High-poverty schools had larger percentages of black teachers and leaders and significantly smaller percentages of white teachers and leaders compared to low-poverty schools.4

Percentage of Leaders

Education Levels of Leaders at Low- and HighPoverty Schools

70.00% 60.00%

64.77% 60.48%

50.00%

40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00%

10.10% 6.70%

35.08% 28.51%

23.00% 18.80%

0.00%

Bachelor's

Master's

Education Specialist

Leader Education Level

PhD/EdD

Low-Poverty High-Poverty

o Low-poverty schools had higher percentages of leaders with Bachelor's, Master's, and Education Specialist degrees, whereas high-poverty schools had a larger percentage of leaders with a PhD/EdD degree.
o 8,179 teachers (7.05% of all teachers) were new teachers in 20182019.
4 High poverty and low poverty schools are determined using direct certification percentages. Low poverty schools include schools in the lowest quartile of directly certified students, and high poverty schools include schools in the top quartile. For more information on the use of direct certification percentages, see GOSA's e-bulletin.

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2019 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report Executive Summary

o 530 leaders (5.50% of all leaders) were new leaders in 2018-2019. o Black teachers made up roughly 27% of new teachers in the 2018-
2019 school year, which is nearly the same percentage of black teachers in the overall teacher workforce.

Percentage of All Percentage of New

Race/Ethnicity

Teachers

Teachers

Asian

1.30%

1.50%

Black

26.40%

26.68%

Hispanic

2.50%

3.24%

Multiracial

1.70%



Native American

20.00%

0.90%

Pacific Islander



0.15%

White

71.30%

65.94%

= Missing from data or too few teachers

Teacher and Leader Production

o During the 2018-2019 school year, 33,092 teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in Georgia preparation programs.

Teacher/Leader Candidate Sources

8.75% 12.37%

78.88%

Public Private Alternative
o Seventy-nine percent of teacher and leader candidates were enrolled in public in-state programs and roughly 12% were enrolled in private in-state programs.
o Of those same candidates, 85.98% of them were enrolled with traditional providers while 14.02% were enrolled through alternative providers.

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2019 Georgia K-12 Teacher and Leader Workforce Status Report Executive Summary
Teacher and Leader Mobility o Between the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years, the average retention rate among schools was 79.59%. o The highest retention rate among schools for this time period was 96% while the lowest was 56%.
Teacher and Leader Retention o The 2018-2019 school year had an average retention rate of 81.97% across the state at the district level. o High-poverty schools had an average retention rate of 78.14% whereas low-poverty schools had an 82.06% average retention rate. o The retention rate for teachers with 10 or fewer years of experience was 83.47%.
Teacher and Leader Retirement o As of 2018-2019, 90.36% of Teachers Retirement System (TRS) members being classified as teachers or leaders were active members.5 o Teachers and leaders eligible for retirement or a reduced retirement benefit consisted of 9.66% of all active TRS members. o Approximately 47% of all active teacher and leader TRS members were vested. o Nearly 38% of active TRS members had 10 years of credited experience but were not yet eligible for retirement. o Forty-three percent of active teacher and leader TRS members had fewer than 10 years of service credit.
5 Active members have made at least one contribution to TRS in the past four years.
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