Draw a circle around the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock and stretch the radius out to the next major metro, and you’ve covered an enormous swath of the state, full of communities, school districts, and students whose realities don’t always show up in education conversations centered in Austin, Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio. That geography is part of what makes the Center for Innovative Research in Change, Leadership, and Education (CIRCLE) at Texas Tech a distinctive voice within LONESTARP3.
CIRCLE partners with districts across the region – including Lubbock ISD and Ector County ISD, through research-practice partnerships (RPPs). Together, they co-construct research that advances the field and directly benefits those local communities.
As the Texas Tech College of Education’s tagline puts it:
“Where research leads, policy moves, and practice transforms.”
A significant portion of CIRCLE’s recent work focuses on the educator workforce, exploring who teaches Texas students, how they’re prepared, and how those pathways shape student learning. Research led by CIRCLE Associate Director, Dr. Jacob Kirksey, documented the rapid rise of uncertified hires in Texas classrooms, finding that students taught by uncertified teachers without prior classroom experience lose roughly three to four months of learning in reading and math compared to peers taught by university-certified teachers.
Additional research revealed similar concerns about fully online alternative certification programs, while pointing to the value of yearlong student teacher residencies. In partnership with Ector County ISD, CIRCLE researchers evaluated their Opportunity Culture implementation, showing substantial reading and math gains for students reached by Multi-Classroom Leader teaching teams.
Insights from this work don’t stay local—they inform conversations at the state level. Dr. Kirksey shared his work with the Texas Legislature during the most recent legislative session, which was marked by a historical investment in teacher preparation and paid student teacher residencies.
CIRCLE’s work also examines College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR). While Texas’s accountability system treats CCMR indicators as roughly interchangeable, CIRCLE research suggests important differences. Their findings show that students earning CCMR through dual credit are significantly more likely to enroll in four-year institutions, avoid remediation, and complete a credential than peers meeting CCMR through college prep coursework alone.
Earlier CIRCLE research evaluating Texas House Bill 5 and associated CCMR indicators extends this thread into rural communities, where access to advanced coursework is uneven and the stakes for getting CCMR right are especially high. With increasing credential completion showing up as a priority in the interim charges for the 90th legislative session, no doubt CIRCLE researchers will again be offering testimony based on their research to inform policymakers.
CIRCLE is committed to connecting research, policy, and practice in ways that are responsive to the diverse communities across Texas.
Interested in learning more or connecting with CIRCLE’s work? Reach out to CIRCLE Director Jessica Gottlieb.
