Texas
Can Texas lawmakers close the ‘floodgates’ of uncertified teachers that they opened?
The explosion of uncertified teachers is a problem — that’s the message Texas’ education chief brought to lawmakers this week.
More than half of brand-new educators last year lacked a state certification, meaning it was impossible to know what kind of training they received.
“We are setting these folks up for a very rough ride,” Education Commissioner Mike Morath told lawmakers during a recent House committee hearing.
He ticked through data illustrating the myriad ways teachers without formal training can impact learning. A state analysis, for example, found that schools with lower academic accountability scores hired higher rates of uncertified teachers.
A decade ago, the Legislature created a system that empowered district administrators to loosen hiring requirements. Now, faced with the repercussions, lawmakers want to fix it.
Rep. Gina Hinojosa acknowledged this dynamic while calling the volume of uncertified teachers unacceptable.
“We need to take responsibility for some of that because we’ve made it easier to get into a classroom without certification,” the Austin Democrat told her colleagues. “That is a policy decision that we have made.”
Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, put it more bluntly: “We opened the floodgates.”
School administrators can waive certain requirements by applying for a “District of Innovation” designation. This ability, which began with a 2015 law change, is among the factors driving the spike in uncertified educators in public schools.
The law change gave traditional public schools some of the flexibility already afforded to charter schools. District leaders can exempt themselves from a wide array of rules related to school start dates, class sizes or teacher certification requirements.
More than 980 school districts have District of Innovation status, according to the Texas Education Agency. That’s the majority of the state’s public schools systems.
While agency officials log innovation plans, they don’t have power to approve or reject them, effectively giving them no oversight over how many schools open their classrooms to uncertified educators.
Texas’ reliance on uncertified new teacher hires shot up – hitting a historic high – after the pandemic exacerbated educator shortages and left administrators scrambling to fill classrooms. Meanwhile, the state’s largest teacher preparation program was under state scrutiny.
An omnibus school finance bill from Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, includes attempts to rein in the system that allows teachers to skirt certification.
The proposal would limit which classes uncertified educators can teach in the future. To encourage certification, it would give to districts a $1,000 allotment for every recently hired uncertified teacher who earns a standard certificate by the end of next school year.
Buckley’s proposal encourages district leaders to pay beginning teachers with certifications higher salaries than those who are not. Districts of Innovation could also not opt-out of notifying parents if their children are assigned to an uncertified teacher.
Kate Greer, managing director for policy and state coalition at The Commit Partnership, said the proposal reflects that “the more training a teacher can have … the better off those kids are.”
Texas must deal in the short-term with the fact that many students in uncertified teachers’ classrooms aren’t learning as much as children paired with educators who have extensive training, she said.
“And longer term, how do we incentivize what the data shows is really good for kids, which is having highly qualified, highly prepared teachers in front of students,” Greer said.
Impact of certification
To become a certified teacher in Texas, candidates must earn a bachelor’s degree, complete an educator preparation program, pass related exams, submit a state application and go through a background check.
The road to the classroom without state certification is less clear.
Some uncertified educators may be switching careers from the corporate world or the military. Others may have worked as teachers in other states and didn’t want to apply for a Texas certificate when they moved.
Others could be recent graduates who saw open positions in their local district.
The level of training these educators begin with is wide-ranging, officials say, from years in schools to essentially nonexistent.
That stands in contrast to educators who come from high-quality preparation programs where they must spend copious time learning how to manage student behavior, plan lessons and serve children with disabilities.
An emerging body of research examines the potential negative effects of uncertified teachers who lack previous experience in the classroom.
Students with new uncertified teachers lost the equivalent of about four months of learning in reading and three months in math, according to a Texas Tech University study.
Such educators also identified elementary school students for dyslexia services at a lower rate than their certified counterparts.
Roughly two-thirds of uncertified teachers left the profession after five years compared to about one-third of those who are traditionally certified, according to Texas Education Agency data.
And finally, a state analysis found that schools that saw decreased academic accountability outcomes since 2019 also saw an increase in the percentage of uncertified teachers.
When schools gained District of Innovation flexibility a decade ago, many officials initially used the certification waiver to hire career and technical education teachers. They looked for industry professionals who lacked a certificate but brought real-world experience to teach students about plumbing, culinary arts, graphic design and other industries.
These days uncertified teachers lead a much broader array of classrooms.
In elementary school, roughly 10% of those who taught English, social studies, math and science were uncertified last year.
Meanwhile, in high school, one in five career and technical education teachers was uncertified as was roughly one in 10 science teachers.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
DALLAS — Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into classrooms.
The 9-8 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a boost to backers of similar laws in Arkansas and Louisiana. Opponents have argued that hanging the Ten Commandments in classrooms proselytizes to students and amounts to religious indoctrination by the government.
In a lengthy majority opinion, the conservative-leaning appeals court in New Orleans rejected those arguments in Texas, saying the requirement does not step on the rights of parents or students.
“No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin,” the ruling says.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that challenged the Texas law on behalf of parents said in a statement that they anticipate appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights,” they said in the statement.
The mandate is one of several fronts in Texas that opponents have fought over religion in classrooms. In 2024, the state approved optional Bible-infused curriculum for elementary schools, and a proposal set for a vote in June would add Bible stories to required reading lists in Texas classrooms.
The decision over the Ten Commandments law reverses a lower federal court ruling that had blocked about a dozen Texas school districts — including some of the state’s largest — from putting up the posters. The Texas law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott took effect in September, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools.
From the start, the law was met almost immediately by a mix of embrace and hesitation in Texas classrooms that educate the state’s 5.5 million public school students.
The mandate animated school board meetings, spun up guidance about what to say when students ask questions, and led to boxes of donated posters being dropped on the doorsteps of campuses statewide. Although the law only requires schools to hang the posters if donated, one suburban Dallas school district spent nearly $1,800 to print roughly 5,000 posters.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, called the ruling “a major victory for Texas and our moral values.”
“The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day,” he said.
Tuesday’s ruling comes after the appeals court heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana. In February, the court cleared the way for Louisiana to enforce its law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the Texas ruling “adopted our entire legal defense” of the law in her state. In Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey also signed a similar law earlier this month.
“Our law clearly was always constitutional, and I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit has now definitively agreed with us,” Murrill said in a statement posted to social media.
Judge Stephen A. Higginson, in a dissenting opinion joined by four others on the court, wrote that the framers of the Constitution “intended disestablishment of religion, above all to prevent large religious sects from using political power to impose their religion on others.”
“Yet Texas, like Louisiana, seeks to do just that, legislating that specific, politically chosen scripture be installed in every public-school classroom,” Higginson wrote.
The law says schools must put donated posters “in a conspicuous place” and requires the writing to be a size and typeface that is visible from anywhere in a classroom to a person with “average vision.” The displays must also be 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.
Texas’ law easily passed the GOP-controlled Legislature and Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have backed posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
___
Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Texas
Glam influencer who drowned during Texas Ironman had battled flu but ignored pleas to ditch race
The glam influencer who drowned during a Texas Ironman swim had been battling the flu – but ignored pals who begged her to pull out of the brutal endurance race, according to one friend.
“She was ill before the trip, she wasn’t okay,” Luis Taveira said of close friend Mara Flávia, 38, who died during Saturday’s race in The Woodlands.
“My wife and I spoke with her to say she was too weak for this race, although a couple of days ago when we talked to her, she insisted she was okay,” Taveira said of the Brazil-born influencer, according to sports website the Spun.
“I still cannot believe what’s happened. She was ill because of the flu.”
Flávia continued “training hard” even while “weakened” by her illness, the friend said.
Just two days before the competition, Flávia shared a picture of herself in a pink swimming costume and cap sitting by the edge of a pool.
“Just another day at work,” she wrote in Portuguese.
Her Instagram account was peppered with snaps, showing her working out in a gym, by the pool, or running outdoors.
“Not every victory is photogenic, not every growth is pretty to watch. Sometimes evolving is being silent, stepping back, saying no, crying in the background, and coming back the next day more aware,” she said in one motivational post.
In others, she said that skill “only develops with hours and hours of work” and sport is “the best tool for transformation.”
The Ironman Texas competition features three legs — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. The women’s event got underway just after 6:30 a.m. Saturday, with fire crews alerted around an hour later that there was a lost swimmer.
Flávia’s body was found around 9 a.m. in about 10 feet of water.
Officials have ruled her preliminary cause of death was drowning, and relatives have paid tribute.
Flávia’s sister, Melissa Araújo, said her sibling “lived life intensely” – and revealed a piece of her had vanished, People reported.
“You were always synonymous with determination, with courage — with a strength that seemed too vast to be contained within you,” she wrote on social media.
“You never did anything halfway; perhaps that is why you left such a profound mark on the lives of everyone who crossed your path.
“A piece of me is gone, and I will have to learn to live without it. And it hurts in a way I cannot even explain.
“It is a strange silence, a void I knew existed all along — as if the world itself had lost a little of its color.”
Flávia’s partner, Rodrigo Ferrari, described the swimmer as his “love” and said not waking up next to her was hard.
“Ursa, you were the best person I have ever met in my life,” he wrote in a note shared on social media.
A Brazilian fitness influencer has died after getting into difficulty during the swimming portion of an ironman event in Texas.
Mara Flavia Souza Araujo was reported as a “lost swimmer” around 7.30am at the Ironman Texas in Lake Woodlands near Houston on Saturday. According to KPRC 2 News, safety crews could not immediately locate Araujo. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered around 90 minutes later in 10ft of water by divers. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department confirmed her identity in a statement to NBC on Monday.
“MCSO can confirm that Mara Flavia Souza Araujo, 38, of Brazil died while competing in the Ironman event in The Woodlands on Saturday,” the sheriff’s department told NBC News. “Preliminary investigations indicate she drowned during the swimming portion of the event.”
Araujo was an experienced triathlete and had completed at least nine ironman events since 2018. She had more than 60,000 followers on Instagram and had posted about the importance of making the most out of life in the days before her death.
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
“Enjoy this ride on the bullet train that is life,” she wrote in Portuguese. “And even with the speed of the machine blurring the landscape, look out the window – for at any moment, the train will drop you off at the eternal station.”
Organizers of the race expressed their condolences on Saturday.
“We send our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the athlete and will offer them our support as they go through this very difficult time,” race organizers said in a statement on Saturday. “Our gratitude goes out to the first responders for their assistance.”
-
Detroit, MI15 minutes agoChris Simms projects Detroit Lions first-round NFL draft pick
-
San Francisco, CA27 minutes agoSan Francisco sets $3.4B price tag for public takeover of PG&E
-
Dallas, TX33 minutes agoGame Day Guide: Stars at Wild | Dallas Stars
-
Miami, FL39 minutes agoMay a steadying presence as Cards hold off Marlins in Miami
-
Boston, MA45 minutes agoTyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe flex in Boston: Takeaways from Celtics-76ers Game 2
-
Denver, CO51 minutes agoMotorcyclist seriously injured in Denver hit-and-run crash – AOL
-
Seattle, WA57 minutes agoBrock: 2 drafts fits at edge rusher for Seattle Seahawks
-
San Diego, CA1 hour agoJoseph Allen Oviatt – San Diego Union-Tribune