From Innovation to Infrastructure

After more than a decade of proving what high quality educator preparation can achieve, 2026 marked the year US PREP began helping states build the infrastructure to sustain it.

US PREP was founded on a simple belief: every student deserves access to an effective teacher, and achieving that goal requires more than improving individual preparation programs. It requires transforming the systems that recruit, prepare, develop, and support educators throughout their careers. Over the past decade, we have partnered with universities, school districts, state agencies, and philanthropic organizations to demonstrate what high-quality educator preparation can look like. This year, that work reached a new level of impact as research translated into public policy, technical assistance evolved into statewide infrastructure, and demonstration projects became sustainable statewide implementation strategies.

The strongest example of this transformation is Texas. Independent research continued to demonstrate that teachers prepared through the US PREP residency model produce stronger student learning, remain in the profession longer, and earn performance-based recognition more quickly than teachers prepared through other pathways. At the same time, the Learning Policy Institute published five reports highlighting US PREP’s leadership in transforming educator preparation, from yearlong practice-based residencies and the Site Coordinator model to the statewide technical assistance that helped shape Texas’ residency transformation. Together, this growing body of evidence helped inform the passage of Texas House Bill 2, establishing more than $400 million in recurring annual funding for educator preparation and certification built around the residency model US PREP helped pioneer.

Evidence That Changed Policy

Over the past decade, US PREP partnered with universities, school districts, the Texas Education Agency, Education Service Centers, and philanthropic organizations to redesign educator preparation through practice-based residencies, strategic staffing, mentoring, and teacher leadership. Independent research consistently demonstrated stronger student learning, higher teacher retention, and faster teacher effectiveness.

Stronger Student Achievement

Teachers prepared through the US PREP residency model significantly improved academic outcomes for PK–12 students, including English learners, students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, BIPOC students, and students with disabilities.

• Improved math performance compared to peers from other preparation pathways.
• Significant reading gains: the only students to show statistically significant gains linked to their teacher’s preparation pathway.
• Faster growth in effectiveness: by years 2 and 3, residency-prepared teachers posted the largest gains of any pathway.

Residency Graduates Earn Merit Pay Faster, and Stay Longer

A 2026 statewide analysis spanning more than 725,000 teacher-year observations found that Tech Teach and Tech Teach Across Texas (TTAT), Texas Tech’s residency-based preparation programs, substantially outperformed traditional and alternative pathways.

• Faster path to merit pay: Tech Teach and TTAT teachers earned Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) designations at two to four times the rate of their peers; TTAT teachers were 14.4 percentage points more likely to earn TIA within five years than traditional, university-prepared teachers.
• More student learning: students of Tech Teach and TTAT teachers gained roughly 0.7 and 1.3 additional months of learning compared to new, traditionally prepared teachers at the same campuses.
• Higher retention: TTAT teachers were 9 to 10 percentage points more likely to remain in Texas classrooms each year.

Stronger Learning Gains at UTEP’s Miner Residency

Compared to traditional, university-prepared teachers, UTEP Miner Residency teachers, trained through the US PREP model, help students learn measurably more, and are more likely to stay in the classroom.

Miner Residency graduates were also more likely to be retained in their first five years in the classroom than teachers from other preparation pathways.

Paid Residents Perform Like Veterans, and Stay Longer

Classrooms led by a mentor teacher paired with a paid resident consistently achieved higher student performance, especially in reading.

• Yr 1 = Yr 5: in reading, paid residents perform as well in their first year as teachers with five years of experience.

EPIC’s analysis found Texas would have needed 8,000 fewer new teachers over a four-year span had traditional and alternative programs matched residency retention rates, saving more than $40 million annually in hiring and induction costs statewide.

National Validation, Five Reports Deep

The Learning Policy Institute (LPI), an independent national research organization, has featured US PREP substantively across five major publications on Texas’s residency transformation, consistently positioning it as the principal technical assistance organization behind the state’s reform, a model for statewide educator preparation, and an influence on state policy itself.

Across these five reports, LPI consistently credits US PREP with:

• Transforming educator preparation through year-long, practice-based residencies
• Developing the Site Coordinator model
• Building strong EPP–district governance partnerships
• Leading statewide technical assistance and training all 20 Texas Education Service Centers
• Supporting strategic staffing for long-term residency sustainability
• Shaping statewide residency implementation and influencing state policy

Texas Mentor Training: From Pilot to Statewide Infrastructure

In November 2024, the Texas Education Agency selected US PREP to serve as the Technical Assistance Center for the Texas Mentor Training (TMT) Grant, recognizing more than a decade of leadership in transforming teacher preparation through high-quality residencies, mentor development, and district–EPP partnerships. What began as a grant-funded initiative has grown into one of Texas’ most ambitious statewide efforts to strengthen mentoring for beginning teachers.

Two complementary pathways — piloted, refined, and codified — are no longer pilot projects: they’re being implemented statewide, delivered by more than 100 TMT facilitators certified across all 20 Texas ESCs.

Early Results: Exceptional Impact, Both Pathways

These results represent more than strong satisfaction scores: they show educators leaving with the confidence, practical strategies, and implementation plans needed to strengthen mentoring systems across Texas.

Through partnerships with the Texas Education Agency, Education Service Centers, educator preparation programs, and school districts, US PREP is helping build the capacity needed to support thousands of beginning teachers for years to come.

Pipeline to Leadership: Connecting Educator Workforce Systems

Texas has made significant investments, through the HB 2 PREP Allotments, in strengthening the educator workforce, from Grow Your Own pathways and year-long teacher residencies to mentor development and teacher leadership. As these initiatives expanded, a new opportunity emerged: how do they work together to improve teaching and learning?

Pipeline to Leadership is becoming the Texas Education Agency’s strategy for connecting these investments into one coherent educator workforce system. Rather than viewing educator preparation, mentoring, strategic staffing, teacher leadership, and instructional improvement as separate initiatives, Pipeline to Leadership aligns them into a coordinated approach that supports educators from recruitment through teacher leadership.

The framework below illustrates how these investments create a continuous educator pipeline. Beginning with high school students and school system employees, candidates enter preparation through Grow Your Own pathways and teacher preparation, receive support through PREP Allotments and mentor development, and continue to grow as novice, developing, and accomplished educators. Along the way, teachers expand their impact through leadership roles that strengthen instruction across entire school systems.

This work extends beyond preparing individual educators. Pipeline to Leadership helps school systems redesign staffing models, teacher leadership roles, and school schedules so educators have dedicated time for coaching, collaborative planning, Professional Learning Communities, and implementation of high-quality instructional materials. By intentionally connecting educator preparation with instructional leadership and continuous professional learning, school systems are creating the conditions that strengthen teaching every day.

Today, US PREP partners with 17 school systems implementing this approach. Participating school systems have created innovative roles including Demonstration Teachers, Teacher Leader Coaches, Success Leaders, Department Chairs, High Impact Demonstration Teachers, and Instructional Facilitators, enabling highly effective educators to extend their impact while remaining closely connected to classroom instruction. Early implementation demonstrates promising results, including teacher retention rates as high as 100 percent, 95 percent, and 94 percent, alongside stronger coaching systems, increased teacher leadership, and improved instructional quality.

Pipeline to Leadership also represents an important shift in how Texas approaches statewide implementation. Rather than relying on US PREP to lead the work indefinitely, the initiative is intentionally building state capacity. This year, US PREP prepared and launched State Leads, who now provide implementation support and coaching within their own regions, significantly expanding Texas’ ability to sustain and scale the work. In partnership with the Texas Education Agency, US PREP also developed a multiyear implementation roadmap that gradually transitions leadership from US PREP to the state. Beginning in January 2029, Texas will launch the first phase of statewide Pipeline to Leadership implementation with 50 school systems, representing a deliberate transition from demonstration projects to sustainable, state-owned infrastructure.

An Exceptional Vote of Confidence

Independent research validates our work across Grow Your Own and teacher preparation, and Pipeline to Leadership. We also ask the universities, districts, and state leaders who work with us directly to grade us, through our Partner Perception Survey. In its inaugural year, based on 49 respondents, the results were extraordinary.

Partners consistently rated US PREP among the most valuable technical assistance organizations with whom they have worked, a measure not of our own perspective, but of the universities, school districts, and state leaders implementing this work every day.

What Our Partners Told Us

Across survey responses, several themes emerged consistently. Partners described US PREP as:

• One of the most impactful technical assistance organizations they have partnered with.
• A trusted thought partner that helps organizations move from ideas to implementation.
• Responsive, practical, and deeply invested in local success.
• Skilled at translating complex challenges into actionable strategies.
• Committed to building authentic partnerships that strengthen systems, not simply individual initiatives.
• Able to tailor support to local contexts while staying relentlessly focused on educator preparation.

Looking Ahead

Texas demonstrates what is possible when research, implementation, partnership, and policy are intentionally aligned around a common vision for instructional excellence.

Today, other states are adapting these lessons to strengthen educator preparation and build educator workforce systems that connect teacher residencies, strategic staffing, teacher leadership, mentoring, Professional Learning Communities, and high-quality instructional materials into one coherent strategy for improving teaching and learning.