How Texas’ largest teacher prep company sought to avoid a long legal battle

As recently as last month, officials with Texas’ largest teacher preparation program tried negotiating a settlement to get them out of a protracted legal fight that could jeopardize their accreditation.

Texas Teachers of Tomorrow’s proposal involved submitting to increased state oversight and committing millions of dollars to the Texas Education Agency, according to an email obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Texas Teachers of Tomorrow has been on probation for roughly a year, beginning after auditors found it had fallen short on several key benchmarks. The behemoth company has so far failed to prove to the TEA that it has fixed long-standing operational problems, so agency officials recommended revoking the company’s accreditation. Without it, the company would not be able to produce certified teachers.

The company offers people an alternative pathway to the classroom through primarily online coursework. Texas, like many other states, faces an educator shortage that threatens to expose children to larger class sizes and a rotating door of substitutes.

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Documents obtained by The News through a public records request illustrate how the company’s leaders sought “to avoid the time and expense of litigation” by offering a settlement.

The viability of a settlement proposal in this case is unclear. TEA officials declined to comment because of pending litigation.

For now, the company’s future remains tied up in court and the final say lies with the State Board for Educator Certification.

Before that board takes a vote, company officials and TEA leaders are supposed to make their case before an administrative judge.

Teachers of Tomorrow leaders delayed — and potentially derailed — that step by filing a lawsuit in Travis County court, alleging that the state unlawfully held them to “invented, invalid, and inapplicable standards.” The company won a temporary injunction May 10.

In a May 3 email to Education Commissioner Mike Morath, Beekman laid out the company’s proposal. It would remain in place until July 2024, he wrote.

It called for embedding a monitor to oversee the company’s compliance with various state standards, a weekly review of files and a monthly status report to the TEA. The monitor would have regular meetings with top company leaders.

The company would also commit $3 million “to fund initiatives to be reviewed and approved by TEA” related to teacher shortage.

According to the email, those could include: training for mentor teachers, stipends to help paraprofessionals seeking their teaching certificates, and support for candidates looking to work in special education or bilingual classes.

“We hope that we can engage in conversations with TEA about this proposal; we understand any settlement would need to be approved by [the State Board for Educator Certification],” Beekman wrote in the email.

Beekman said in a statement to The News that he believes a resolution would create a “mutually beneficial operating framework” for the company to continue supplying educators to Texas schools.

“Our position continues to be that Teachers of Tomorrow has operated, and will continue to operate, within full compliance with the applicable regulatory requirements,” Beekman said. “We have made significant investments in people and resources to further strengthen our processes.”

The state’s revocation recommendation came after auditors repeatedly found concerns with how the company operates. It misled potential teachers with its advertising, did not support candidates with required mentors and failed to demonstrate that its training was based on research, according to a 2021 state report.

A high number of candidates filed complaints about the program. Some would-be teachers left the profession after receiving poor advice from company officials.

Faced with these issues, the state appointed a monitor to review operations.

Ultimately, the monitor found that Texas Teachers of Tomorrow fell short in multiple categories.

The company is disputing the monitor’s findings, saying they included fundamental errors. New leadership has taken over at Teachers of Tomorrow since the audit was conducted.

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