| TASBO: The Final Word By Tom Canby - TASBO Mar 25, 2011, 08:40 |
On the topic of the percent of teachers in the public education system, the chart below was prepared from the Texas Education Agency Snapshot publications for school years 1994-1995 through 2009-1010. Also, for school year 1985-86, the percent of teachers was 50.7% according to Table 79, in the Digest of Educational Statistics 1990, published by National Center Educational Statistics.
TASBO is concerned about misinformation published on this topic that reported there had been a significant shift downward in the percent of teachers in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Specifically TASBO is concerned about misinformation in reports that teaching staff to non-teaching staff shifted from 5:1 to 1:1, which is incorrect because staff counts reported to TEA in the 1970’s and early 1980’s prior to PEIMS did not include all staff. The Snapshot data and NCES data clearly show no shift has happened involving nonteaching staff over the last two and a half decades.
The chart prepared below by Moak, Casey & Associates provides additional information on the topic of staffing in public schools. Mandates, changing student demographics and reporting requirements have contributed to the percentage increase in professional support staff. According to TEA, “ Support staff are defined as therapists, psychologists, counselors, diagnosticians, physicians and nurses, librarians, department heads, and miscellaneous other support roles. This category does not include secretaries.” Many of the support staff work directly with students during the school day. Instructional aides work directly with students alongside teachers and also show an increase over this time period.
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