Louisiana is slowly but surely growing its teacher workforce.

According to new state data, the number of teachers working in traditional public schools grew by about 1,000 last school year, the second straight year of growth. The increase came as fewer Louisiana teachers are leaving their jobs and more aspiring educators are preparing to enter the workforce, the data show, suggesting that some of the state’s efforts to reduce its teacher shortage could be working.

The share of educators exiting traditional school systems decreased by two percentage points in the 2023-24 school year, dropping from 15% the prior year to 13%, according to data in a report released by the Louisiana Department of Education on Thursday. The figures exclude teachers in charter schools.

During the 2022-23 academic year, the most recent available, the number of individuals completing state-approved teacher preparation programs increased for the first time in more than a decade. That year, 1,776 teachers finished a program — a 13% increase over the year before.

Like much of the country, Louisiana has been grappling with teacher shortages in several subjects, leading to larger class sizes and more work for teachers who do stay.

Educators and representatives from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the state’s largest teachers’ union, have given several reasons for why teachers are leaving the profession, including mounting workloads, large class sizes and low pay.

According to state surveys, the top three reasons educators gave for leaving their roles during the 2023-24 school year were transferring to another school system, retiring or “personal reasons,” which 66% of teachers cited. The survey did not ask teachers about pay, job duties or other factors that might influence their decision to leave.

Louisiana teachers remain among the worst-paid in the nation, earning $5,000 less on average than their counterparts in other Southern states and almost $15,000 less than the national average, according to recent numbers from the Southern Regional Education Board.

In one effort to narrow the wage gap, the state Legislature approved a measure in November requiring public school systems to permanently increase teacher pay by $2,000 and support staff pay by $1,000. The public must vote to approve a constitutional amendment to release the funds before the raises can take effect.

Louisiana educators also say that working conditions in schools remain challenging.

According to a teacher survey distributed by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers last year, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they’d had to supervise additional classes more than once a month due to substitute shortages. Meanwhile, schools that have unfilled teaching positions are forced to spread students out among classrooms, sometimes pushing class sizes above the state’s maximum limit, a union representative said during a legislative hearing in April.

To address teachers’ concerns, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley assembled a task force of two dozen educators who made a host of recommendations that were approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in August and are set to take effect before the end of this school year.

The recommendations included giving teachers rated “effective” or higher more autonomy over teaching and lesson planning; reducing the number of mandatory teacher trainings; and giving teachers the right to remove disruptive students from the classroom immediately when their behavior impacts other students.

The state is also trying new ways to attract teachers and make it easier to become certified. The changes include doing away with a requirement that students take a fundamental-skills test before enrolling in teacher prep programs and making it easier for teachers from other states to transfer their licenses to Louisiana.