Low-Ranking Texas Eyes Teaching Reforms

By Robert C. Johnston

When a national report pointed to Texas as one of the nation's three most delinquent states in the training and hiring of qualified teachers--and supporting them in their early years--Texans took it hard.

Unaccustomed to such a lowly ranking, Texas educators and policymakers have already started responding in a big way. Five hundred representatives from 27 university, teacher, and business groups met in Houston last month for the first-ever Texas Congress for Educator Preparation. Though the event had been planned, organizers say the dire findings from the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future gave them the impetus they needed to demonstrate just how serious the situation is.

"The timing of the release couldn't have been better as far as we're concerned," said Robert Houston, an education professor at the University of Houston...