(The Center Square) – A new law requires public school districts to reduce the number of uncertified public school teachers after data shows the majority of new hires are uncertified.
State data also shows the total number of uncertified teachers has exponentially increased over the past five years, worsening student achievement, education experts argue.
The problem is multifaceted stemming from the COVID-lockdown era beginning in 2020.
A new report from the Texas Education Agency reveals that the number and percentage of uncertified teachers in Texas increased over the past five school years.
In the 2019-2020 school year, 3.8% of Texas’ 344,129 public school teachers, 12,908, were uncertified.
By the 2024-2025 school year, 12% of Texas’ 352,234 public school teachers were: 42,103, according to TEA data.
“Uncertified teachers are individuals who have a teaching assignment who do not have any active credential issued by the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC),” the TEA says. Public schools hire them through a teaching permit.
Certified teachers included in the report include “individuals who have a standard, intern, probationary, one-year, provisional (lifetime), or Visiting International Teacher certificate, or emergency and JROTC permits,” with SBEC-issued credentials active as of October 2025. They were employed at Independent School Districts (including Consolidated and County Independent School Districts), Common School Districts, Open Enrollment Charters, Education Service Centers among others.
“An unintended loophole” enabled districts to hire uncertified teachers as a temporary stopgap measure due to a teacher shortage exacerbated by the COVID-lockdown era, making “districts’ use of uncertified teachers nearly universal,” Education Week says. The result “hinders student learning and damages, rather than strengthens, the teacher pipeline in the long run,” the publication argues, citing data.
During the COVID-lockdown era, the Texas legislature passed laws enabling public school districts to address a range of challenges, including expanding virtual learning programs, which proved to be detrimental to student achievement.
At least 800,000 students reported failing grades by the spring of 2021 and a record number of parents pulled their children out of public schools as failing grades doubled in some areas, The Center Square reported. At the same time, the number of homeschooled children more than doubled. In 2021, the legislature fully funded public schools, gave bonuses to teachers, allowed for noncertified teachers and licensing changes to meet shortfalls and fill gaps as schools continued to report failing grades and declining enrollment, The Center Square reported.
During the COVID-era, “The state was trying to responsibly deal with the impact of the pandemic,” Heath Morrison, CEO of Teachers of Tomorrow, told Education Week. The organization offers an alternative teaching certificate in Texas. “But flexibility for individuals was never intended to be used at scale … and a lot of states are allowing these people to stay on these temporary licenses for three years, five years, 10 years. I think people are starting to recognize that the problem is a lot bigger than they originally thought.”
In addition to the total number of uncertified teachers increasing over the past five years, the majority of new hires are uncertified, according to a 2024 University of Texas at Austin report. It found “that half of newly hired teachers in Texas lack state certification and classroom experience. 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.”
In the 2013-2014 school year, 10% of newly hired teachers were uncertified. Within 10 years, by the 2023–2024 school year, 52% were, the report states.
“Uncertified teachers now lead the teaching workforce of first-time newly hired teachers,” the report states. “Over time, more teachers are hired without state certification than teachers from other routes. This means that more unprepared teachers are filling Texas classrooms.”
It also points to data indicating that “student achievement suffers when teachers have no classroom experience.” High school students lost six months of learning in English and nearly four months of learning in Math “when they had uncertified teachers compared to standard university-certified teachers,” the report states.
Lawmakers addressed the issue last year during the 89th Legislative Session. State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, filed HB 2, which requires districts to reduce uncertified teachers in core subjects; compliance is slated for the 2029–2030 school year. Now law, HB 2 also allocated a record $8.5 billion for public schools and $4 billion for teacher and staff raises.
HB 2 was part of an expansive education package, including the state legislature for the first time creating Texas’ first school choice Education Savings Account program, Texas’ first Teacher Bill of Rights and Parental Bill of Rights, The Center Square reported.
