Texas is not alone in trying to find enough teachers to fill classrooms, but its heavy reliance on uncertified teachers does raise a concern when it comes to experience in the classroom.
Our problem is not with seeking uncertified teachers as a stopgap. Many of these educators go on to great careers. The problem is that uncertified teachers often enter the classroom with the expectations they are ready to teach, despite having too little experience and a lack of mentoring that certified teachers already have.
Districts need to be cautious about putting a person in a classroom and calling them a teacher. It would be far better if uncertified teachers first had experience as substitutes or time alongside a veteran teacher. We would ask as much of teachers fresh out of teaching institutions.
This is critical since the quality of the teacher, mastery of the subject, classroom presence and other intangibles shape student success. Whether they emerge from a long career in private industry or from an education college, first-year teachers need support at the district level.
A recent study by Texas Tech University supports this conclusion. Students taught by new uncertified teachers lost the equivalent of about four months of learning in reading and three months in math. However, students of an uncertified teacher who had classroom experience as a substitute performed on par with those taught by certified educators.
Yet, just about as many new teachers in the classroom are uncertified as are certified. Based on data from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, the Texas Tech study concluded that nearly half of first-time, full-time new teacher hires in Texas were uncertified, with a disproportionate concentration in rural districts. Similarly, a Dallas Morning News analysis of state data last fall found that roughly 1 in 3 new teachers hired in the state during the 2022-23 school year were uncertified, up from 12% in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This trend shows no signs of abating. State data for the just completed 2023-24 school year reveal that 17,053, or 34%, of the 49,400 newly hired teachers in Texas lack certification.
Earlier this year, Education Commissioner Mike Morath expressed concern that some schools “gave up on teacher certification” and moved to “hiring people off the street.” He also warned that short-term efforts to fill gaps with uncertified teachers could worsen an already serious teacher retention problem in Texas. Separately, the Texas Education Agency has raised concerns that the Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, the state’s largest educator preparation program, could lose authority to certify teacher candidates in several key subjects unless more candidates pass certifications tests. TEA officials on Friday declined to comment, citing ongoing legal issues.
State officials must increase high-quality alternative certification and traditional education programs, and compile better data about the impact of teacher readiness on student achievements. As a state we must aspire to make sure that students receive the best trained teachers possible.
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