image: University of Houston students gain hands-on experience when studying to be a teacher.
Credit: University of Houston
As Texas faces a shortage of certified teachers, University of Houston researchers are at the forefront of developing a strong, sustainable teacher workforce — backed by a $1 million grant from the Houston Endowment.
The funding, awarded this fall, supports the work of UH’s Center for Research, Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education, or CREATE, which will study how school districts are using different teacher certification pathways — such as residency and grow-your-own programs — to improve student outcomes and teacher recruitment and retention.
The project aims to provide new statewide data, research and policy analysis to reduce the number of uncertified teachers in Texas classrooms — with research showing this group accounted for 52% of new hires in 2023-24.
“Being in collaborative, data-centered work with districts and other key partners allows us to be better stewards of our responsibility — to infuse extraordinary teachers into public schools,” said Cathy Horn, dean of the UH College of Education. “Every student deserves to have an amazing teacher; this grant helps us do our part in making that happen.”
CREATE will leverage data from UH’s Education Research Center (ERC), which houses K-12 data from the Texas Education Agency as well as higher education and workforce data from multiple state agencies.
Why it Matters
The percentage of uncertified teachers in traditional public school classrooms in Texas nearly doubled from 7.8% in 2012-13 to 14.5% in 2022-23, according to ERC data.
Uncertified teachers are more likely to leave the profession early, and students taught by uncertified teachers can lose up to six months of academic progress, according to a study from The UTeach Institute.
Over the two-year grant period, CREATE will:
- Provide actionable, localized data and research to school districts and Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs)
- Understand the ways in which school districts are planning to meet new teacher certification requirements passed by the Legislature and suggest ways policy could support more certified teachers in classrooms
A statewide advisory committee composed of education leaders and stakeholders will also help guide the project to ensure it meets the field’s evolving needs.
“This investment will expand CREATE’s efforts to strengthen the teacher workforce and support the state’s 5 million public school children,” said August Hamilton, education program director for the Houston Endowment. “CREATE will equip state leaders and districts with the evidence they need to increase the number of certified teachers in Texas classrooms.”
Aligning with Statewide Reforms
This project supports state efforts to increase teacher certification. A portion of House Bill 2, passed during the 89th Texas Legislature, limits the use of uncertified teachers in core subjects and introduces incentives like providing districts $1,000 for each new, uncertified teacher who gains certification by the end of 2026-27.
While the state had previously reduced the barrier to entry into the teaching profession to assist school districts reporting teacher shortages, the changes lacked long-term sustainability, according to Toni Templeton, principal investigator on the grant, CREATE researcher and senior research scientist at the ERC.
“While reducing the barrier to entry for teaching allowed for a greater pool of candidates, it didn’t solve the underlying issues diminishing interest in the teaching field, such as comparably low pay,” Templeton said. “The guardrails put back into place by the Legislature are a first step in the right direction of supporting a thriving teacher workforce.”
Although CREATE researchers applied for the grant before HB 2 passed, the team has since adapted its scope to evaluate how school districts will respond to the new policies. The group will produce data reports, policy briefs, and academic publications to inform both lawmakers and education leaders.
“There’s this whole cafeteria list of options to become certified, and what we’re interested in understanding is which of these are working and for whom,” Templeton said. “What teachers are thriving under each of these programs? How are those programs related to student outcomes for different groups of students?”