SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Wearing lots of hats, fighting for better pay and school safety are just some of the challenges teachers face these days.<\/p>\n
There is a nationwide shortage of teachers, and here in Texas, it is no secret.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been struggling since COVID with the recruitment of teachers,\u201d said Yvette Gomes with Education Service Center Region 20, which provides support to local school districts. \u201cYears ago, our superintendents got together and formed a collaborative here at Region 20, and since then, we have continued to work towards recruitment efforts in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
One solution is creating programs for students in middle and high school who may want to become teachers, offering them a direct path to that career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want a career where I\u2019m actually doing something, making an impact where I\u2019ll love what I\u2019m going to do every single day,\u201d said Dani Valdez, a senior at Clark High School.<\/p>\n
Valdez not only knows she wants to be a teacher, but she\u2019s already making career moves while in high school.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s in a specialized education career class where she\u2019s in the classroom for that course just two days a week with Sydney Golden, a Clark High School family and consumer sciences teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019ll teach us about classroom management and lesson planning. She\u2019ll teach about different things, different students, different accommodations,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n
Then, three days a week, Valdez is off campus interning at another school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still work with fifth-graders now, and I truly just found love for it,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cI like working with the students. I like getting to build those connections with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to get them with hands-on skills as well as industry-based certifications,\u201d Golden said. \u201cThey\u2019re partnered with a mentor teacher, and we have them working with as young as almost infants at the daycares. Then we also have our local sister schools if they\u2019re interested in going into elementary education or even middle school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden, who graduated from Northside Independent School District and has now taught there for seven years, teaches nearly 20 students in the education training courses. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like I was in their shoes!\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n
Watching future educators thrive gives her hope for the profession\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think finding those kids early on and getting them to practice that allows them to be more effective as educators when it\u2019s their time in the classroom,\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n
Valdez is far from the only local student on that journey.<\/p>\n
The Education Services Center Region 20 recently held its annual Teach 20 Conference for 11th- and 12th-graders interested in becoming teachers.<\/p>\n
More than 300 students showed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a keynote speaker that really motivated them. We have breakout sessions, and they get to understand all the different pathways,\u201d said Yvette Gomez, component director with ESD Region 20. \u201cThey get to hear a student panel. They had opportunities to meet with local colleges in the area. We had some community partners, Teach San Antonio was there, San Antonio Ready to Work, City of San Antonio Initiative and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gomez said getting those students in the door early means more certified teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have probably 12% of our teachers who are non-certified in our region, and so it has been a really big concern for us,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n
Valdez already has plans to attend Our Lady of the Lake University on a scholarship next year, earn her degree and certification, and start changing students\u2019 lives as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope also to get my bilingual certification because I am a Spanish speaker,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cMy parents they\u2019re both from Mexico and I want to be able to help out those other students that come from other countries and be able to help with their learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also other efforts in our area to provide a direct teaching pipeline for young students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most high schools, there are connections with TAFE, the Texas Association of Future Educators,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cWe also have Travis Early College High School, which is part of the SAISD collaborative, where they have the Associate Arts of Teaching, and so they are going to come out with an Associate\u2019s degree in teaching. So their pathway into undergrad school is going to be shortened because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some districts and centers are making efforts to keep trained students at local schools once they become teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that some school districts have begun to think about programs and pathways that will allow the districts to retain a high school student,\u201d Valdez said. \u201dSo I think there are probably two districts right now that are working on that kind of collaborative with the students to say if we will support you, will you support us in staying?\u201d <\/p>\n
ESC Region 20 is also training high school students to become paraprofessionals, such as educational aides.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if they get out of high school with a paraprofessional certificate and the district pays, then the district is going to bring them back into the fold to be a teacher in their district,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n
Any students interested in learning about the many paths to becoming educators can contact ESD Region 20 at 210-370-5420.<\/p>\n
Read also: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Wearing lots of hats, fighting for better pay and school safety are just some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93708,163,6527,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-246244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-clark-high-school","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-ksatkids","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","13":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}