“Teaching Towards Tomorrow” Calls on Texas Policymakers to Invest in Teacher Preparation, Guaranteed Planning Time, Affordable Healthcare, and AI Frameworks for Schools
Executive Summary:
- Findings: 80% of educators in Texas lack guaranteed planning time; 50% feel unequipped by prep programs for workforce partnerships; 66% use AI without state guidance
- Recommendations: Career-connected teacher prep, CTE-funded externships, expanded dual-credit access, protected planning time, statewide AI guardrails, and affordable healthcare
- Methodology: Focus groups and a survey of 608 Texas educators across all 20 Education Service Centers (ESCs)
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AUSTIN, TX, August 18, 2026—Thirty-six Teach Plus Texas Policy Fellows who teach across the state brought their new report, Teaching Towards Tomorrow: Building the Systems for Career-Connected Teaching and Learning, directly to nearly 60 legislative offices at the Texas State Capitol. The report charts a practical path forward for the 2027 legislative session and the Texas Education Agency’s updates to its College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) framework under mandates like HB 8 and HB 2.
Built on a statewide survey of 608 educators across all 20 Education Service Centers, the report makes the case that Texas’s goals for workforce-ready graduates are outstripping the capacity and support teachers have to deliver on them. To close that gap, the report lays out six concrete recommendations for state lawmakers ahead of the 2027 session that span teacher preparation and planning time, CTE externships and dual credit access for students, AI guardrails, and healthcare for educators.
Findings:
- Inadequate instructional preparation and limited industry and workforce exposure: Teacher preparation programs remain more grounded in theory than practice, and half of surveyed teachers say their programs didn’t equip them to build the employer, college, and community partnerships that career-connected learning requires.
- Misaligned professional learning and limited support for early career exploration: Only 40% of surveyed teachers say their district offers structured professional development for career-connected instruction, and 45% say their students lack early opportunities to explore careers before high school.
- Dual credit access and credentialing barriers, and inconsistent advising and partnerships: Strict graduate-level credentialing requirements limit who can teach dual credit, particularly in rural and small districts, and just 47% of surveyed teachers say their district designates dedicated college and career advisors, on top of counselors already stretched across 400 to 500 students each.
- Insufficient planning time and unsustainable staffing structures: Nearly 80% of surveyed teachers don’t receive the 450 minutes of planning time Texas law guarantees every two weeks, and 42% say their school’s staffing structure isn’t set up to support effective teaching.
- Unclear AI guidance and uneven AI training: Texas is one of the states that has yet to issue statewide AI guidance for schools; nearly two-thirds of surveyed teachers have access to AI tools, but only one-third know which ones actually fit their instructional goals.
- Unsustainable cost pressures: More than half of surveyed teachers say their district’s pay and incentives don’t support long-term financial stability, as rising TRS-ActiveCare premiums outpace the raises meant to offset them.
Policy recommendations:
To close those gaps, the report recommends that Texas:
- Align teacher preparation with the state’s college, career, and military readiness initiatives by making career-connected instruction a core competency in educator prep programs.
- Equip teachers to guide students through workforce pathways by opening up career technical education (CTE) allotment funds for industry externships and leadership development.
- Expand access to dual credit, industry credentials, and strong advising, with coaching to support effective implementation.
- Give teachers more protected planning time and let districts build flexible staffing models that fit local needs.
- Set statewide AI guardrails for classrooms by developing a model AI-use policy framework for K–12 schools.
- Make healthcare affordable for teachers by lowering out-of-pocket costs and increasing the state’s investment in employee coverage.
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Perspectives from Teach Plus leadership and educators:
“Texas has passed ambitious legislation to prepare students for the modern economy, but policies on paper cannot succeed without supported teachers in the classroom. Teaching Towards Tomorrow provides lawmakers with a clear, educator-backed policy roadmap for the 2027 legislative session and beyond. If Texas wants to lead the nation in workforce readiness, we must invest in the foundational systems, including competitive healthcare, meaningful planning time, and real-world teacher prep, that allow educators to deliver on that promise for every student.”—Natalie Brown, Teach Plus Texas Interim Executive Director
“Dual credit and dual enrollment courses give students a chance to practice college level learning skills before arriving on a college campus with the help of their high school instructor. These courses can also drastically reduce a student’s course load while in college as well as their financial burden. Teachers need support in obtaining credentialing to teach and offer these courses.”—Andrea Davis, Teach Plus Texas Policy Fellow and high school science teacher in Houston
“Ensuring that a career in education is sustainable is really at the heart of improving student performance. If our best, most experienced and effective teachers leave education because the career leaves them unable to afford healthcare and other costs of living, it’s our students who lose. What we found repeated consistently in our research with Texas teachers, is that, next to overall salary, the affordability of insurance and healthcare was the biggest factor in whether teachers felt a career in education was sustainable for them and their families.”—Robert McCraw, Teach Plus Texas Senior Policy Fellow and English high school teacher in Harts Bluff.
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About Teach Plus
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. In pursuing our mission, Teach Plus is guided by our Student Opportunity Mandate: To act boldly and create the conditions where every student can imagine their future—and experience an education that delivers the opportunity to realize it. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning for students. teachplus.org/tx
