Committed to serving others, Austin Byrd ’24 initially planned to become a physician. But his career path completely changed when he realized during his sophomore year at Texas A&M University that his true passion was educating and inspiring instead of healing others.
That a-ha moment came while he was working as a tutor and volunteering as a coach. “I found each experience enjoyable, and when I went back the next time, I noticed that the kids were using words I used the previous week,” Byrd said. “I suddenly recognized how impressionable they are and how important it is to have somebody who cares about them in these positions of influence.”
As his career path began shifting from a pre-med track to education, the biology major, who remained in the College of Arts and Sciences, was well-served by the innovative aggieTEACH-Arts & Sciences program, which supports Aggies who aspire to become content-area teachers in secondary schools.
Now, Byrd has achieved his goal, and thanks to aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences’ mentoring and induction pilot, he is successfully navigating the professional difficulties that often sink new teachers’ budding careers. With support from aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences, he is increasingly comfortable teaching forensic science classes and coaching junior varsity soccer at Arlington Heights High School, a Title 1 school in Fort Worth Independent School District with an enrollment of 1,900 students.
An Aggie Pipeline of New Teachers
The pilot mentoring and induction program is a signature extension for aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences. While the program consistently graduates the most preservice secondary math and science teachers of any Texas higher education institution and has a 100% employment rate, aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences is now stepping up to the plate to tackle teacher retention, a worrisome issue that has plagued school districts since the 1990s.
The Texas Center for Educator Excellence reported that 29% of teachers serving economically disadvantaged students left the profession between October 2022 and October 2023.
Additionally, school districts continue to struggle with retaining new teachers. According to the Texas Education Agency, approximately 33% of new teachers who enter the classroom in Texas’ prekindergarten through Grade 12 schools after completing their undergraduate programs leave the profession within the first five years. Researchers have found that the primary reasons for their departure include inadequate preparation, a lack of support, challenging working conditions, low compensation and better career opportunities in other economic sectors, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
Commitment to Serving Others
Yet, aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences is determined to turn the tide. “The aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences program boasts a slightly higher retention rate (67.7%) measured through the number of alumni who have renewed their certification after the five-year renewal period,” said Program Manager Kenric Davies ’10, who is a former high school physics teacher and an aggieTEACH alumni.
Davies and Program Coordinator Kolby Richardson are piloting the mentoring and induction program, which builds on the program’s previous induction efforts (funded by the Greater Texas Foundation), which lapsed during the COVID pandemic.
Starting from scratch, the pair participated in an evidence-based program hosted by Texas A&M’s College of Education and Human Development called the We Teach Texas P12 Mentoring and Coaching Academy. Information from the academy served as the foundation for aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences’ virtual mentoring program since many new Aggie teachers are employed in districts outside of the Brazos Valley.
The aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences mentoring/induction program includes regular meetings, seminars and a book study. Davies and Richardson are working individually with Byrd and Brianna Moreno ’24 to coach them when issues arise, help them learn how to self-assess and improve their instructional process, and provide appropriate resources.
The two former teachers believe this scaffolded approach to mentoring and induction could eventually be expanded to support future cohorts of new teachers. “They know they have a connection with us,” Davies said. “They can ask us questions, and we are here to support them. “Our program is not integrated into the teacher appraisal system score, which means we can discuss topics like issues with administration that they may not feel as comfortable bringing up within their school.”
With eyes on the future, Davies and Richardson are also involving current aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences students in some of the mentoring/induction elements, such as the book group. This approach helps aspiring teachers learn more about the daily realities of leading a classroom from the new Aggie teachers. “It's a way to keep alumni connected to our students and create space for conversations about the profession,” Davies said.
A Far Reach
The aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences staff are using this pilot to identify other retention issues faced by first-year teachers. For example, Richardson, a former Texas high school history teacher, is supporting Moreno, whose first teaching job is in Virginia’s Fairfax County School District. “She is working through a lot,” Richardson said. “Being from Texas, she went in with limited knowledge of how that school system works and had to learn the state laws, which are different from Texas. She’s also had to learn different technical resources that Virginia uses so she had to hit the ground running."
Despite the distance, Moreno’s classroom experience mirrors Byrd’s, and she is increasingly confident in leading her algebra and pre-calculus classes, thanks to continued support from aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences and her school’s helpful environment.
She was especially appreciative of the program’s self-assessment process, which helps her identify the best way to work with a diverse student population, which includes children from different nationalities, many of whom have parents who work in the international diplomatic corps. “As a whole, the program has challenged us to choose one of our classes to chart active student participation,” she said. “We’re also learning to gauge where individual students are academically.”
Both Moreno and Byrd believe adding the new program enhances commitment to Aggie teachers. “Having aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences as a student, I was better prepared to lead a classroom while also building strong connections with other preservice educators,” said Moreno, who hopes to eventually teach in South Korea. “While in the aggieTEACH program, I made two good friends who are currently teaching at Texas high schools. It’s nice to talk to them about how aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences prepared us for the very moment we are living in, despite teaching in different states. I am extremely grateful for the preparation the program has given all of us and look forward to the future of the aggieTEACH Arts & Sciences program.”