State officials once again flagged problems at Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, the behemoth educator preparation program that’s already on probation.
Texas Education Agency officials recently warned the company’s leadership it’s at risk of losing the ability to certify teacher candidates in several key areas if it doesn’t improve this year, according to documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
Under state requirements, educator preparation programs cannot continue training people to teach certain subjects if too many of their candidates fail certification exams three years in a row.
Texas Teachers of Tomorrow — the largest educator preparation program in the state — is at risk of losing 10 certification fields based on that rule.
For example, only 69% of candidates who took a certification test to teach secondary math passed in 2022. The next year, 68% of test-takers did so. The state requires at least 75% of candidates to pass.
Texas Teachers of Tomorrow customers also fell short in high school computer science, elementary core subjects and secondary social studies, among other areas.
New CEO Heath Morrison said his company is using free test prep and practice exams to ensure its candidates are ready this year. He said preliminary data is trending in the right direction and company officials are constantly monitoring the situation.
“I’m very confident that, by the end of the testing cycle this year, we will be exactly where we need to be and we will not lose those certification areas,” he said. Morrison joined the company in August.
It’s not unusual for teacher preparation programs to miss the testing benchmark in one or two areas, state education officials said. But Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, also known as A+ Texas Teachers, is an outlier because of the long list of certifications it’s at risk of losing.
A company representative said since Teachers of Tomorrow is larger than other programs, it attracts “a wider variety of people, including working professionals who may not have taken a test since college.”
These problems come amid a broader fight the company is locked into with the Texas Education Agency.
Teachers of Tomorrow offers an alternative pathway to the classroom, primarily through online coursework, at a time when schools are struggling to recruit.
In 2021, state auditors reported concerns with how the company operates. It misled potential teachers with its advertising, did not support candidates with required mentors and failed to demonstrate that its training was based on research, auditors found. Additionally, a large number of candidates filed complaints about the program. Some would-be teachers said they left the profession after getting poor advice from company officials.
Texas Teachers of Tomorrow was later placed on probation, and the Texas Education Agency recommended the program’s accreditation be revoked.
Without accreditation, a company can not continue producing certified teachers.
Such a drastic step remains far off. Company and state officials have discussed a potential settlement in recent months. Texas Education Agency officials said they could not discuss ongoing negotiations.
Morrison said the conversations have been productive.
“It’s our hope to have this settled so we can move forward and look forward, not backward,” he said.
The final say over whether to revoke the company’s accreditation would lie with the State Board for Educator Certification.
Even if a settlement comes to fruition, the company would still lose the ability to certify candidates in specific subjects if its 2024 passing rates don’t reach 75%.
The agency will collect test data through mid-September.
Morrison said the company is taking its turnaround seriously by adding a new director of compliance and more people devoted to customer service.
“The focus on quality has been huge for us,” he said. The company has “a lot more people available to answer questions, to be able to help people through their program, to be able to give them guidance and support.”
A former superintendent in Montgomery ISD, Morrison said the ongoing teacher shortage weighed heavily on him. He pointed to the fact that roughly one in three new teacher hires in Texas last year did not have a state certification.
“This is a challenge that needs to be solved,” he said.
Education researchers say strong preparation and training improves a person’s chances of becoming an effective teacher who remains in the classroom.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
