About one in five teachers in Texas left the profession within their first year in the 2024-25 school year, according to data from the Texas Education Agency.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Education launched Texas Education THRIVE under a pilot program to address teacher attrition rates. The initiative, which focuses on mentoring starting educators, will expand to 113 campuses over six Texas school districts this year to keep starting teachers from leaving the profession, according to a College of Education news release.
“We spend a good deal of time preparing aspiring teachers for the profession, but are also recognizing that those first few years of teaching are really challenging,” said LeAnne Hernandez, director of Texas Education THRIVE. “(We want) to make sure that we are sending off our graduates into places that receive them well and are positioned to make them successful teachers.”
In the first two years of implementation, THRIVE kept 90% of its early-career teachers enrolled in the program, typically those in their first three years, in education through mentorship and support services, according to the news release. The program pairs up these beginners with experienced instructors in their schools to guide them through obstacles in education.
Taylor High School, located about 35 minutes northwest of Austin, is one of the many schools THRIVE will expand to this year. Megan Wendler, the academic dean at Taylor High School and the school’s instructional coach, said despite the high school only having the program for a few months, she can already see its benefits.
“Part of the reason why we can tell that this is being successful is because by the end of those (first) three days (of the school year) on that Friday afternoon, all the new teachers were still smiling,” Wendler said. “They felt like they were prepared and supported, and none of them were rethinking their life choices. All of our new teachers have been super positive, and (it’s) because they feel like they do have a community of support.”
THRIVE mentor Scott Bishop is starting his 28th year teaching at Taylor High School and said he looks forward to working with THRIVE because of its well-organized setup.
“This year is our first year with THRIVE, and I like what I’m seeing from it,” Bishop said. “There’s a lot more structure, a lot more planned approach, which is going to make the mentoring program so much better.”
Although mentors train mentees on how to lecture, schools also have instructional coaches to help mentors with any difficulties they may have. Ashley Loeve, the instructional coach at Main Street Elementary, said THRIVE also sends members to assist instructional coaches and all the involved teachers in the program.
“Not only do (THRIVE members) train us on how to work with mentees, but they themselves actually come and coach on our campus,” Loeve said. “It’s super helpful to have another set of hands, another set of eyes and ears on our campus.”
