Houston ISD considers selling closed neighborhood schools. The list of people who are helping decide is confidential<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe have a rigorous pay for performance, so we actually know who our most effective teachers are. And those teachers are being retained at 89 percent if you\u2019re exemplary, 82 or 83 percent if your proficient one, and for proficient two, it\u2019s somewhere in between. So, those are high retention rates. And that\u2019s the measure of success,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n
How to check your child\u2019s teacher\u2019s certification status<\/p>\n
Parents can check a teacher\u2019s certification status in just three steps directly from their phones:<\/p>\n
Get the teacher\u2019s first and last name.<\/p>\n
Google \u201cTEA Certificate Lookup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enter the name and look at the result. A Standard certificate means the teacher is certified. Provisional or Probationary are indicators the teacher is not yet fully certified.<\/p>\n
State timeline, waivers, a missed deadline question<\/p>\n
Under Texas Education Agency guidelines, provisionally licensed teachers are expected to complete all certification requirements \u2014 including required training and testing \u2014 within a set timeframe.<\/p>\n
The TEA states: \u201cIf you do not complete all requirements within one year, it is sometimes possible to extend the probationary certificate for up to two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, ENOUGH\u2019s reporting found that HISD has been seeking waivers that extend beyond that two-year deadline, and the state has been allowing a third year in many cases.<\/p>\n
A letter obtained by ENOUGH \u2014 sent to provisionally licensed teachers who missed state deadlines and subsequently lost their jobs \u2014 sheds light on the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your employment with Houston ISD ended, it was because you had reached the certification timeline that was in place,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n
But the letter continued: \u201cSince then, we\u2019ve received additional certification waiver options that may allow certain teachers to continue teaching while completing their certification requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Eisenbaum brought the letter to an interview with Elizabell Garcia, HISD\u2019s senior executive of teacher pathways and certification, her response raised more questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, this is an HR letter,\u201d Garcia said when asked about her knowledge of the correspondence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHR. Everything\u2019s HR. Am I talking to the right person?\u201d Eisenbaum replied.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson present at the interview confirmed Garcia could speak to uncertified teachers earning certification and the training HISD provides. <\/p>\n
Where uncertified teachers are placed \u2014 who decides?<\/p>\n
Beyond the question of certification timelines, ENOUGH\u2019s reporting also examined where uncertified teachers are being placed within the district.<\/p>\n
The Houston Federation of Teachers says the pattern is clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the same thing,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cNow the question is, why? Well, very simple. In those low socioeconomic neighborhoods, areas, you don\u2019t have the parent involvement that you have in, let\u2019s say, a West U or the River Oaks. And so he\u2019s not going to get any pushback. So it\u2019s OK if I just put this person over here. And if they struggle, well, it\u2019s OK, we\u2019ll make do. And as opposed to a West U where the parents are constantly going to be at the school, they\u2019re going to keep up with their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Eisenbaum asked Garcia directly how HISD decides where an uncertified teacher is placed, she deferred.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be a question maybe for HR, I don\u2019t have the answer to that question. I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
That answer sent Eisenbaum back to HISD headquarters for a press availability with Miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking about where they\u2019re placed within the district,\u201d Eisenbaum told Miles. \u201cIt seems like they\u2019re going to the most challenged schools instead of being spread evenly across the district.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miles did not dispute the pattern but challenged the framing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a policy of spreading the uncertified teachers across the district,\u201d Miles said. \u201cThat depends on every school and whether or not every school is able to hire certified versus uncertified. But I\u2019m going to say again, so we\u2019re not speaking past each other, that even in the cases where the schools have uncertified teachers, they\u2019re gaining gains. And so that\u2019s the important thing. It\u2019s not where they\u2019re placed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam Houston High among schools with most uncertified teachers<\/p>\n
The data backs up concerns about placement. Sam Houston Math Science and Technology Center High School \u2014 still widely known as Sam Houston High \u2014 was the top HISD school for the most uncertified teachers during the 2024-25 school year. It ranked second the prior school year.<\/p>\n
The school sits on Houston\u2019s northeast side, just off the Hardy Toll Road, in a neighborhood that has seen its share of challenges. ENOUGH previously reported on Sam Houston High School in connection with truancy issues and a shootout involving students in front of the building.<\/p>\n
A resident who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years told Eisenbaum the responsibility is clear: it\u2019s up to the district where teachers are assigned.<\/p>\n
Miles maintains that teachers \u2014 certified or not \u2014 go where they are needed. And he can point to measurable progress. Using the state\u2019s school accountability ratings system, 205 HISD schools earned an A or B rating in 2026, compared to 93 when Miles arrived in 2023. The number of D and F-rated schools dropped from 120 in 2023 to 13 in 2026.<\/p>\n
State law tightens rules on uncertified teachers<\/p>\n
Many social media users who responded to ENOUGH\u2019s coverage were supportive of uncertified teachers, arguing that certification does not equal classroom effectiveness. But regardless of public opinion, schools must comply with state law \u2014 and that law is getting stricter.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers passed House Bill 2 during the last legislative session, setting limitations on which subjects uncertified teachers can teach \u2014 including core subjects like math and English \u2014 and establishing a timeline to reduce the reliance on uncertified teachers by 2030.<\/p>\n
That is a significant challenge for HISD. The district employed nearly 2,200 uncertified teachers two years ago. That number dropped to just under 2,000 by the end of last school year. Over those two years, 683 previously uncertified HISD teachers completed their certifications.<\/p>\n
An HISD spokesperson said that the school district fully intends to comply with state law.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texas has more uncertified teachers in its classrooms than any other state in the country, driven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[94707,4045,56,58,57,114770],"class_list":["post-450825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-enough","tag-hisd","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-uncertified-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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HISD Superintendent Mike Miles addresses concerns after announcement of 12 school closures (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)Miles has also signaled a broader philosophical shift on the issue.<\/p>\n