PVAMU helps prepare Texas educators to become certified computer science teachers and expand access to career-ready CS education statewide
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (September 24, 2026) – Prairie View A&M University is making sure it stays ahead amid the ongoing proliferation of the global artificial intelligence race, by equipping qualified computer science (CS) teachers, particularly in schools serving historically underrepresented communities.
PVAMU is a partnering institute in the Texas Computer Science Pipeline (TXCSP) initiative at The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center.
The initiative marks a statewide effort to recruit, prepare, and support in-service Texas teachers as they work toward certification to teach computer science.
For the second year, the PVAMU WeTeach_CS Hub is part of the WeTeach_CS Certification Prep Hubs for 2026, led by project director Camille Burnett, PhD, associate professor of mathematics education.
The partnership reflects Prairie View’s broader mission as a land-grant historically Black University: preparing productive Panthers who carry the University’s standard of excellence in computer science into classrooms and communities throughout Texas.
Prairie View’s hub aims to turn experienced educators, many of them products of the University’s own alumni network, into certified computer science teachers ready to bring hands-on, career-ready instruction to students across the state.
The goal is for 10 in-service teachers to challenge and pass the Computer Science 8-12 TExES Examination and 10 more to pass the Technology Applications EC-12 TExES Examination — positioning all 20 educators to teach computer science in Texas classrooms.
Recruited teachers will move through professional development built around each certification pathway, including multiple rounds of test preparation and curricular training.
Calling it a team effort, Dr. Burnett highlighted her project team members: Laurette Foster, EdD, assistant project director; Yonggao Yang, PhD, instructional team member for CS 8-12; and J. Toufic Chahin, PhD, instructional team member for tech apps EC-12.
To date, over 400 teachers have participated in WeTeach_CS Certification Preparation Hubs through the TXCSP. In its third year, Cohort Three will recruit teachers from an even wider range of communities across Texas, with an estimated 250 teachers participating in 2026 WeTeach_CS Certification Preparation Hubs.
By Christine Won