Half of newly hired teachers in Texas now lack certification and classroom experience, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University’s Center for Innovation Research in Change, Leadership and Education (CIRCLE).
According to statewide data, the trend of newly hired uncertified teachers has grown since 2020 as an already existing teacher shortage was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and schools raced to fill empty classrooms and meet student needs. Now, researchers warn that hiring uncertified teachers is not an effective solution as new findings show that uncertified teachers are leaving the classroom sooner, districts are overwhelmed with teaching their teachers to teach and students are negatively impacted.
Meanwhile, financial and time costs have become limiting barriers for hopeful teachers seeking certification.
Dr. Michael Marder, professor of physics and executive director of the UTeach Natural Sciences Program at UT Austin and lead researcher on the study, said when teachers lack certification,
students in traditional school districts learn less from a teacher without certification than they do when taught by certified teachers in all tested subjects and grade levels.
Additionally, uncertified teachers leave the classroom at higher rates and more experienced teachers become burdened with training and mentoring their uncertified colleagues.
“Certification is the Texas seal of quality: a promise from the state that teachers know their subject and meet basic professional standards,” Dr. Marder said. “Without certified teachers, the Texas constitutional right to an efficient system of public, free schools, is at risk.”
The findings of this supplemental report, which will become publicly available in full on September 10, will extend a comprehensive, longitudinal study commissioned by the College of Education in 2019 and published in 2022. The 2022 report, titled Texas Educator Preparation Pathways, examined the different aspects of a growing teacher shortage made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the shortage of teachers continues in Texas and nationwide, hiring uncertified teachers is only a temporary fix as less than 40% of uncertified teachers remained in the classroom after five years, with 30% leaving after their first year of teaching, according to statewide data featured in the supplemental study.
In interviews featured in the study, school and district leaders across Texas told UT Austin researchers that new teachers who lack classroom experience, quality training and the necessary tools to succeed become rapidly overwhelmed and burn out quickly. Many district leaders mentioned that existing teacher preparation programs were inaccessible to people wishing to teach due to cost and time commitment barriers.
At Alpine ISD, superintendent Michelle Rinehart said that they began hiring teachers lacking certification in the last few years, but the number has rapidly risen from one the first year to more than half of their new hires as a worsening teacher shortage leaves them constantly searching for new educators.
“In essence, our hiring process has shifted from selecting and hiring a certified, well-qualified professional to acting as the screening hire for a teacher certification program,” Rinehart said.
College of Education Dean Charles Martinez said in the same way that a nurse or doctor would not be allowed to visit with a patient without the proper training because lives are at stake, an entire future generation of Texans is at stake when we allow teachers without a certification to be placed in classrooms.
“Somehow, with education and teachers, we have accepted a much lower threshold that it is adequate to have someone who might have a heart and interest in teaching to learn on the job entirely, even with no or little prior experience,” Dr. Martinez said.
According to statewide data analyzed by Dr. Jacob Kirksey, assistant professor at Texas Tech University and associate director at CIRCLE, between 2018 and 2023, fourth to eighth-grade students taught by uncertified teachers without previous experience lost three months of learning in math and four months of learning in reading compared to those taught by university-certified teachers.
“We are seeing immediate months of learning loss that are not just going to be immediate impacts,” said Dr. Kirksey. “So, a kid is now four months behind in reading. What does that do the next year?”
Dr. Laura Torres, director of data analytics, assessment and translational research at the UT Austin College of Education, testified in August before state legislators ahead of Texas’ 89th State Legislative Session on behalf of the research team.
“I think Texas has the capacity to turn around the teacher shortage in an effective way,” Dr. Torres said. “We just need to better understand the issue and get resources in the right places.”
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