The effects of the teacher turnover within HISD last year have posed a challenge for teachers and administration at Carnegie to acclimate to students’ demand for certain classes like AP Psychology and AP Environmental Sciences.
In June, one Houston Chronicle news article reported that HISD has a higher rate of teachers leaving the district than the state rate with roughly 11,000 teachers leaving in the 2023-2024 school year. Since Carnegie remains one of the many HISD schools affected by the recent teacher exodus, teachers have taken on subjects because of administrative pressures and student demand.
When asked why long-time AP Human Geography and Macroeconomics teacher Charlotte Haney switched from teaching Macroeconomics to AP Psychology, Assistant Principal Juan Garner states: “We had a lot of kids that signed up for AP Psychology, and since that’s an AP course, we don’t like dropping those.”
Student demand for specific AP classes puts Carnegie in a unique position. Due to seven out of thirty eight teachers leaving last year, one of the central challenges has been maintaining the same AP classes for students. The strong desire to maintain certain AP classes has forced teacher departments to adapt.
When commenting on how Carnegie has accommodated the teacher turnover Garner states “Okay, we know we need so many sections, classes of this particular course or so many classes of this particular course, so we give that to the departments, and they determine who’s going to teach what.”
Because former AP Psychology teacher Kris Casperson left, Haney stepped in, the only teacher with a background in psychology. Haney drew on her expertise in medical and psychological anthropology to teach the AP Psychology curriculum. Additionally, she dropped AP Macroeconomics, which is now taught exclusively by teacher Quang Tran. As a result, Tran is no longer teaching the single semester electives of World Religions and Mythology that are now taught by Kristen Davis-Owen.
“This school works really hard to try to make sure that student demand is met. So if there’s a course that’s really popular, like AP Psychology, then we want to make sure that we continue to staff it. And when Ms. Casperson left, somebody needed to teach AP Psychology,” said Haney.
Last year, Teacher Maisha Turner taught a combination of AP Physics and Pre-AP Biology. However, following the departure of former Carnegie Teacher Jamie Ford, Turner took on teaching AP Environmental Science, with new teachers Shemika Blythe and Paul Mata stepping in to teach Pre-AP Biology. As Turner explains, her background in environmental engineering facilitated the transition to her new role.
“It’s a good thing I was here and could pivot into teaching APES, because there aren’t a lot of teachers with the background or interest to teach it. The administration was relieved because it’s much easier to find biology teachers than APES teachers,” said Turner.
Moreover, the task for Turner and Haney to take on new subjects has also left them facing challenges with planning lessons and adapting their previous teaching methods to current curriculums.
“Because this is my first year in AP Psychology, I really prefer and believe in project-based learning. I think that it’s a much better way for students to learn. But unfortunately, there is no support for it, like nobody else is doing project-based learning in psychology.” said Haney.
In addition to the pressure of switching to APES this year, there is an added concern for Turner being the only teacher able to teach the course.
“Everything kind of rides on my shoulders, and I have to make all of the decisions for the entire course, so it’s really hard to get everything done and make all those decisions and try to select the proper materials,” said Turner.
Although the transition between teachers teaching subjects has been challenging, the district and campus administration have continued to support new teachers and teachers within new subjects.
“Particularly in the AP classes, there is a network of teachers that we work with from other campuses. So when we have those professional development days, often we’re meeting with those other teachers in those subjects,” said Turner”
Carnegie has been successful in providing the same AP classes this year as last year making the way they may adapt to future challenges promising. As the district continues to evolve, one cannot predict how it may affect Carnegie, but administrators maintain hopefulness.
“We have very little turnover. So what happened last year was an anomaly, but still not to the level that’s not compared to other schools,” says Garner.
