Over the course of my career, Teachers of Tomorrow have found their way into classrooms. In my stint in a large urban school district, I saw how teachers from ToT found their way into schools, touted by campus principals as the answer. But everyone knew there were problems with these teachers. Oh, not necessarily that they weren’t there for the good of the children they served, or that they weren’t good people.

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Rather, that they were being held up as wonderful examples of what a teacher should be, even though colleagues who worked side by side with them said they didn’t always know what they were doing. That they needed a lot of mentoring and support. Even as they were used as a way to supplant teachers from “traditional” teacher preparation programs.

As an alternative certification teacher, I certainly had some sympathy for these ToTs in education. I know that I always felt under-prepared, but I had the benefit of strong mentors and support. And, when I transitioned to a Campus Instructional Technology Specialist position, later Campus Tech Coordinator, I felt I could leverage my technology background.

That said, I continue to learn new stuff and read the research. Over time, you realize, the veracity of the saying, “The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know” (or something like that).

That may be why it didn’t come as a big shock when I read:

 Teachers of Tomorrow, is working in nine states, though its credentials may be in jeopardy in Texas, where the company has been placed on probation after state regulators found the company misled potential teachers in its advertising, and hadn’t shown that its training was based in research. (Source: Plagued by Teacher Shortages, Some States Turn to Fast Track Credentialing via The 74 Million)

 Apparently, this is something that the Texas Education Agency jumped on in 2022:

The Texas Education Agency is recommending the program’s accreditation be revoked after it failed to meet the conditions of an improvement plan. Depending on the hearing’s outcome, the State Board for Educator Certification will have to decide whether to take serious action against the company — a decision complicated by the fact that Texas schools are facing teacher shortages. Of the state’s nearly 132,000 candidates in teacher prep programs in 2021, more than half were enrolled through Texas Teachers of Tomorrow. (Source: The Dallas Morning News)

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