Experts say Texas is still experiencing a teacher certification crisis. As Texas Public Radio reports, students could pay the price, even after new state legislative efforts begin. The new education funding bill in Texas includes money to certify more teachers, but experts say that cannot happen overnight. Instead, such effort will take time to overcome. For the 2023-24 school year, more than half of the new classroom teachers in Texas lacked certification. That’s up from about 11% just a decade ago.
Studies show that only 45% of uncertified news teachers in rural communities stay in teaching beyond three years. They not only leave the field in higher numbers than certified instructors, they hurt students, says Bridget Worley with the education nonprofit Commit Partnership. “Students who are taught by uncertified teachers with no prior classroom experience lose three to four months of learning and reading and math.” Worley says the state’s new education funding bill put $187 million into a prep program so more qualified candidates can gain teacher certification. The law requires all K-thru-12 core instructors must be certified by 2030.” The hiring of uncertified teachers was not without reason. Officials explained such hirings had helped serve as an emergency stop gap measure, to at least temporarily ease the state’s ongoing teacher shortage.
According to a 2022 examination by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Texas Tribune, a toxic brew of low pay, work overload, bad benefits, and the negative effects of being caught in the middle of Texas’ culture wars, are seen as primary drivers for the continued exodus of educators year after year. But this year’s $8.5 billion funding bill is seen as a way to rebalance the equation back in favor of teacher certification.
Until such a certification balance can be restored in the Texas public school system, recent research by the College of Education at Texas Tech University reveals that “In the 2022-2023 school year alone, the largest percentage of uncertified teachers taught elementary (33%), early childhood (10%), Career and Technical Education (10%), Secondary Math (9%), Secondary English Language Arts (9%) and Special Education (8%).”
