texas teacher of the year essay examples

• CAREER CENTER
• JOIN + RENEW
• NEW MSC HOW-TO

Texas Teacher of the Year

Honoring excellence in the classroom.

Texas Teacher of the Year is the highest honor that the State of Texas can bestow upon a teacher. The official State of Texas program, facilitated by TASA since 2011, annually recognizes and rewards teachers who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and excellence in teaching.

In October 2023, Taniece Thompson-Smith was named the 2024 Texas Teacher of the Year. Naveen Cunha was named the 2024 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. The announcements were made during an awards ceremony honoring all 40 Texas Regional Teachers of the Year in Round Rock, Texas.

Eligibility & Selection Process

The journey to Texas (and National) Teacher of the Year begins at the local level.

Local Level

Texas school districts/charter school operators conduct their own local selection processes to choose their District Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year. Classroom teachers, school librarians, and counselors who teach students at least four hours per day are eligible; administrators are not.

Regional Level

Each official District Elementary and Secondary Teacher of the Year is eligible to advance to the regional/state levels . To do so, they must complete the online Texas Teacher of the Year application by the June deadline. The regional selection process is then conducted in June-July by the 20 Texas Regional Education Service Centers; each names a Regional Elementary and Secondary Teacher of the Year.

State Level

The 40 Regional Teachers of the Year are considered for Texas Teacher of the Year in a selection process facilitated by TASA. (If a Regional Teacher of the Year accepts a non-teaching position [in administration or outside a school or district] or moves to a position in which they teach students for less than four hours each day, they will not be eligible to advance in the state competition.)

Judges meet in August each year to narrow the pool of 40 Regional Teachers of the Year to six finalists — three elementary and three secondary — based on the information provided in the Texas Teacher of the Year application. In September/October, the finalists are interviewed by a panel of judges who select the Texas Elementary and Texas Secondary Teachers of the Year.

National Level

When selecting the Texas Elementary and Texas Secondary Teachers of the Year, the judges designate one to serve as the official “Texas Teacher of the Year” — Texas’ nominee for National Teacher of the Year, a program conducted by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

In January, a selection committee representing the major national education associations selects four finalists for National Teacher of the Year from the nominees submitted by the 50 states.

National Teacher of the Year candidates must have the respect and admiration of their colleagues and:

• is an expert in their field who advances growth for students of all backgrounds and abilities
• builds collaborative relationships with colleagues, students, and families to create a school culture of equity and success
• deliberately connects the classroom to community to impact student growth and learning
• as lifelong learners and teacher leaders, they utilize innovation to create learning experiences within and beyond the classroom
• express themselves in an engaging and clear way, conveying the lived classroom experience to a variety of audiences

The National Teacher of the Year is announced in the spring by the president during a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House and is honored at special events in the nation’s capital. The National Teacher of the Year takes a year’s sabbatical from classroom instruction and serves as a roving ambassador for the teaching profession.

Important Dates

District txtoy applications due to escs, regional nominations for txtoy due to tasa, txtoy finalists announced, txtoy finalist interviews, 2025 texas teachers of the year announced, latest news.

TASA Names 2024 Texas Teachers of the Year

Oct 19, 2023 | TASA News , Texas Teacher of the Year

TASA, which facilitates the Texas Teacher of the Year program, has named Texas’ top teachers for 2024. Taniece Thompson-Smith, a fifth-grade science teacher at Abilene ISD’s Stafford Elementary, was named the 2024 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year. Naveen Cunha,...

TXTOY Perspective

Planting Seeds for The Future

May 3, 2024 | TXTOY Perspective

by Naveen Cunha, 2024 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year The tradition of giving an apple to a teacher started in the 1700s when poor families gave teachers baskets of fruit and vegetables from their farms. Since then, it has become a symbol of our profession. What...

Texas Teacher of the Year Program Sponsors

The Texas Teacher of the Year program operates with financial support and in-kind contributions from the following sponsors.

Premier Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Jennifer Garrido

Coordinator, Texas Teacher of the Year Program

[email protected]

512.852.2105, awards programs.

Home — Essay Samples — Education — Teacher — Lessons from a Teacher of the Year: Professional Growth and Development

Lessons from a Teacher of The Year: Professional Growth and Development

• Categories: Teacher

About this sample

Words: 1592 |

Published: Apr 17, 2023

Words: 1592 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the teaching profession, teacher of the year, profile of the south carolina graduate.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

• Expert in: Education

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 516 words

2 pages / 1096 words

1 pages / 606 words

2 pages / 989 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Teacher

The fact that I could possibly impact a young person’s life is exciting to me. I do not want letter grades to be as important as growing characteristics in a student. My primary reason why I have decided to pursue this career is [...]

What makes a great teacher? Great teachers possess a unique blend of characteristics and skills that enable them to inspire, educate, and empower their students. This essay explores the essential traits of a great teacher and [...]

Gibson, Philip A., et al. “Changing Teachers, Changing Students? The Impact of a Teacher-Focused Intervention on Students’ Computer Usage, Attitudes, and Anxiety.” Computers & Education, vol. 71, 2014, pp. 165-174.Goodwin, A. [...]

I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to explore various career paths and gain valuable insights into the professional world. This experience has been instrumental in shaping my personal and professional [...]

The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct was developed to uphold the application of core values, ideals, and principles to assist teachers” decision-making about ethical issues. The Core Values of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct is [...]

All teachers are required to carry out the duties of a school teacher as set out in the current School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document. All teachers should also have due regard to all of the Teacher Standards (2012). [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

A Great ApplyTexas Essay Example

ApplyTexas allows its users to apply to hundreds of Texan colleges on one platform. While each school has its own essay requirements, most students should be prepared to answer either Topic A, B, or C. This article focuses on Topic A.

In this post, we’ll share an essay a real student submitted for Topic A. We will also cover what the essay did well and where it could be improved to give you ideas for your ApplyTexas essay. You’ll also have the opportunity to download another sample essay.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our ApplyTexas essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. 

ApplyTexas Topic A Essay Example

Prompt:   Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today? 

Soft melodies float in the air, feathery sounds of consonance and dissonance create a bed of melodies that I fall asleep on each night. I was born into a family of musicians. I’m the daughter of two pianists who moved across the world to continue their studies, built a home to house two grand pianos, and taught their children to write their life stories on black and white keys. My version of a bedtime story was The Swan by Saint-Saëns; I can sleep through a concerto to this day.

When I turned four years old, my parents dedicated a portion of my day to sitting and practicing at our piano bench. As my relationship with music evolved from reading into interpreting, my hours with the piano turned into adventures, times to transform a monochrome score into a piece of art with color and dimension. Throughout most of my life, the best part of my day was spent creating music.

Enter high school, I found myself taking more classes, joining more extracurricular activities to feed my resume, and spending more time studying subjects that never quite sparked my interest.

As a result, my hours spent with the piano were replaced with hours spent at my bedroom desk. I became increasingly frustrated when my parents would remind me daily to practice the piano and envious of my older brother whose piano accomplishments made my parents so proud. By sophomore year, it would need to be a good day for me to practice the piano for even an hour.

My performances became defined by cold hands and memory slips, and I found it difficult to keep up with others in competitions. I began to resent the instrument I once considered to be my first love because I believed I had digressed from the hardworking pianist my parents have always wanted me to be, to a girl who let her talents go to waste. For months, I felt empty and distant from even myself; I no longer had the means to express my emotions and relate to the people I love the most.

Two nights before my brother left for college, he asked me the question I had been avoiding: “Are you ever going to practice the piano again?” After watching my uneasiness and embarrassment of not having an answer, he shrugged and explained simply: “I don’t practice the piano to win anything. I practice because I enjoy the process. I thought you did too.”

When my brother moved to Austin, my home became quiet. I no longer studied to his late-night practice sessions or fell asleep to his classical music study playlists. Our pianos were left untouched for longer periods of time and scores of music begged to be read. This absence of music made my heart grow fonder of the piano. I realized that I longed for the process of learning. It wasn’t the awards or successful performances that I craved; I wanted to again embark on the journey of telling an infinite amount of stories with just eighty-eight keys.

As I began spending more time expressing myself through the piano, I felt the joy of being heard and the vulnerability of being understood. I learned that music, much like academics, is about the individual journey. In our overly competitive society, I forgot to simply enjoy the moment in front of me. My journey with music over the past years has taught me that the travel is often more important than the destination, that I should cherish the imperfections inherent to learning and be content with my capabilities.

What the Essay Did Well

This student’s writing brings a level of musicality to her essay that nicely echoes the piano motif. From the beginning, she introduces their topic with descriptive language and a metaphor, incorporating imagery that immediately creates an immersive quality and grabs the reader’s attention. The student then shows, rather than tells, how music has been a formative part of her life by saying her “ version of a bedtime story was The Swan, ” and her “ hours with the piano turned into adventures. ” Using this word choice rather than saying “ I am very passionate about music ” shows admissions officers what your life is like.

As the prompt asks for your story, this essay follows the flow of a traditional story. After establishing a sense of serenity in the exposition, she incites conflict in the form of a busy schedule that drew her away from the piano. Although this isn’t the most unique conflict—as every high schooler is busy juggling a dozen different activities—the student gives the reader enough context to see the impact on her life. She describes the experience of playing as “ cold hands and memory slips “, a feeling that she “ let her talents go to waste “, and effect it had on her relationship with others including letting down her parents and fueling sibling jealousy.

This student’s vulnerability about how she lost her passion and had a tense relationship with her family members allows the reader to appreciate just how integral piano is to her story; without it she became a shell of the person she once was. Being vulnerable with the reader is the key to building the pathos needed to make your story resonate. If we can feel for this student at her lowest, we will celebrate her when she triumphs.

The author concludes this essay by mentioning her family again and making an extended metaphor about the world being a piano. By reiterating her family’s influence, she effectively connects back to the beginning of the essay and thus improves the overall flow of the essay. Furthermore, her metaphorical ending demonstrates her writing prowess and allows the essay to end on a more general, future-facing note.

What Could Be Improved

One area that could be strengthened is the turning point of the story where the student learns to love the piano again. She overly emphasizes her brother’s role by making this climactic point revolve around the advice he gave. It is important to emphasize how you were able to overcome your challenges; while it is okay to get help, you should remain the focus of the passage.

The student mentions her self-reflection after her conversation with her brother and how she worked towards reframing the way she thought about piano. In the end, it is her brother’s absence that causes this student to start playing again.  While this thought process is informative, the essay could be stronger if she detailed tangible steps she personally took to relearn the piano.

For example, if she fell in love with a piece she heard in a movie and made it her mission to nail those notes, or if she taught a younger cousin how to play and in doing so, rediscovered her love of making music, this could be an even more compelling read. Thus, it is important to pick a topic in which you were an active part of the resolution. Detailing tangible actions will show colleges your approach to conflict-resolution more than a passive recounting of your thought process. 

Where to Get Your ApplyTexas  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your ApplyTexas essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

9 Questions For National Teacher of the Year Finalist Kelly Harper

The teach for america alum and d.c. teacher of the year winner talks about partnering with families and advocating for policy changes from the classroom..

Laura Zingg

Editorial Project Manager, One Day Studio

Kelly Harper, a 2012 Houston alum, was recently named the 2019 District of Columbia Teacher of the Year, and is one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year. Kelly currently teaches third grade at Amidon-Bowen Elementary School in Washington, D.C., not far from where her family has lived for generations, and where she yearned to serve after her time in the corps.

Kelly is a former Teach Plus policy fellow, a highly selective program for educators interested in shaping policies that impact high-needs students. She was also a 2014 Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award Houston finalist and national nominee.

On a recent Friday, while leading her students to lunch in the cafeteria, Kelly took some time to discuss her work and some of the big issues impacting education.

How has your role as a teacher evolved over the seven years you’ve been in the classroom?

I've learned more about educating the whole child and understanding the child as a person. Before, I was so focused on just content. Content is critical. However, it's important that our students also have social-emotional learning and support. I've also evolved in terms of helping students make connections between what they are learning and how they can use it in their community.

Second, I've learned it's so important that you partner with families, and always assume the best intent. I always let parents know that I know you as parents; mom, dad, grandma, or whoever you are, you are the first educator for this child, you are the expert on this child. I want to partner with you to figure out what we can do to help your child meet and exceed their goals. I think that's one of the biggest things that helps to move the needle for students and to help communities and families.

How do you emphasize involving families in your students' education?

I've been a family engagement leader for several years, where I coach teachers on ways to connect with families. I've helped train teachers, both at my school and across the district, on how to do home visits, and how to use the home visit as a tool for learning about their students and their families. 

Studies show that students who receive home visits and additional teacher-school partnering have increased academic outcomes. Before we can get to conversations about a student's data or test scores, there has to be that foundation of trust. Home visits help to build that relationship.

What have you learned about your students from your home visits?

With the home visits, you're getting to see where the child lives every day, and what their passions are. One of my students was very reluctant to read. When I did the home visit, I saw that he had all these Legos and cars and hands-on items. I realized he was very interested in building things. So I said, “Let's check out some books that are related to that.” That student went from being a reluctant reader to loving to read. From there, he expanded the genres he wanted to read and realized he wants to be a civil engineer. 

A lot of times you ask families and students to come to the school, come to the classroom, come to the table. But when I'm sitting on a family’s couch, I'm in their space. It's a way to humble yourself and say, "I want to learn from you. What can I do to best educate your child?"

What are some ways that you have incorporated culturally relevant teaching in your classroom? 

It starts with learning about your students’ community. I asked a couple of parents to share some of the cultural treasures that are part of the community. There's a community garden, a corner store where everyone gets their snacks, different barbershops. Embedding those things into the classroom is important.

I found it's also critical to explore a variety of texts. In addition to providing exposure to diverse backgrounds that students can learn from, students also have to see themselves in the text. For example, one of the texts we read was from Harlem by Walter Dean Myers. When students learned how the families in Harlem were living, they were like, "Wow, that's like us."

Students have to be active participants in their education and feel as if it means something. Every year I take my students to Howard University, which is a couple of miles away and has been a mecca for generations in D.C., where students come to see older students on a college campus who look like them. It's the most beautiful thing when their eyes grow so big as they look at students who are “their future selves,” as they say. This helps create a visible road to success and to show them, "Here's why what we do in third-grade matters."

“That's what I want more educators to understand—that you can still make amazing changes while in the classroom.”

Kelly Harper

Third Grade Teacher, Amidon-Bowen Elementary School

Houston '12

Do you think you'll stay in the classroom? 

I definitely want to continue teaching for a few more years. However, my ultimate goal is to be the United States Secretary of Education. The fact that my educational experience and the experience of my cousins in D.C. were so vastly different and we're only about 20 minutes away from each other—that is not acceptable. But this is happening still across the nation.

I want to continue honing my craft because I feel that we have to have folks at the table who truly understand and have real on-the-ground experience with our students. However, I do know that we need folks in all arenas in order to enact change.

Why have you chosen to remain in teaching rather than working in another field that is addressing inequity?

Originally, I wanted to be an attorney. I thought this was how I could dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline . But after I interned at the prosecutor’s office in Maryland and at the Southern Center for Human Rights while in college, I noticed there were so many clients who were functionally illiterate. I thought, "What if we had prior support then that could have prevented this?" I wanted to unlock that door. That's how I came across Teach For America. 

My plan was to teach for two years and then go to law school. But then I got into the classroom and realized there's so much work to be done. I’m still in this field because I know that our students need consistency. And as a Teach Plus policy fellow, I'm able to enact policy changes while having a voice in the classroom. We advocated for social-emotional learning training for teachers. We now have a professional development program in place because of our advocacy work. That's what I want more educators to understand—that you can still make amazing changes while in the classroom .

If you had the power to change one policy that is impacting education right now, what would that be?

The way we're funding our schools needs to change. I think we need to start from the drawing board and shift how our schools are funded and how we support our most struggling schools because it's evident that what has been done is not working. 

In one of our schools that serves our most vulnerable students, there's a higher risk of absenteeism. There are additional social-economic challenges. In order to truly equalize the playing field, there has to be funding to ensure that the community has what they need to be successful.

What advice would you share with people who are interested in becoming teachers?

The biggest thing is to build intentional relationships with your students and their families. We want our students to feel like their classroom is their home away from home. It's essential that we figure out ways to get to know our students on the individual level and use that knowledge about their strengths and their areas for growth in the classroom. When we build intentional relationships, that's a foundation. Once you do that, the content will come. Content is much easier when you have that strong relationship.

Do you feel like teachers are valued in our culture, and if not, what keeps you going?

In my particular district, they've done a lot of work to provide very competitive pay and professional development opportunities for teachers. But when I hear that some teachers are making only $5,000 or $10,000 more than they started making 20 years ago, that's disheartening. It shouldn't be that teachers need to have multiple jobs in order to make their ends meet. Our educators are professionals. That's something I'm very passionate about, especially when it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers of color because we’re still not where we need to be. 

I don't think that we have all the respect, but I do believe some of the best encouragement I’ve received is from the kids and parents. When I get thank-you notes from parents or when I see other colleagues who are able to take a student who is really struggling to the next level—that is what keeps me going.

Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Sign up to receive articles like this in your inbox!

Thanks for signing up!

Content is loading...

• School Life
• Advocacy & Activism
• Educational Equity
• D.C. Region

Valuing Teachers

Related Stories

4 Inclusive Practices to Welcome All Students to Your Classroom

Create a classroom that prioritizes student agency and inclusivity for all students during back-to-school season and throughout the school year.

Christian Polizzi

Mentorship Helps Educators Find Their Path and Purpose

Educator mentorship can provide career development opportunities as well as emotional benefits like friendship and connection for teachers and school leaders.

Jessica Fregni

Writer-Editor, One Day

This Teacher Believes That Leadership Begins in the Classroom

Teach For America alum Melissa Rowland finds education to be a rewarding experience because she loves to see her students grow. After 10 years in the classroom, she hopes to serve as a school administrator in the near future.

Faviola Leyva

Video Producer

Almost half of Texas fourth graders scored a zero on the STAAR writing composition last year

Erika De La Rosa was excited when she heard about the sweeping changes to the STAAR exam .

"When they initially announced it, as an English teacher, it sounded like a fantastic idea because writing should be incorporated everywhere," De La Rosa said.

She teaches seventh grade in Houston ISD. Before last year, writing was only tested on a separate exam in fourth and seventh grade, as well as in high school.

"What I saw for years was that because it was only tested in fourth and seventh grade, students would only get explicit writing instruction in fourth and seventh grade," she said. "And so as a seventh-grade teacher, I would be scrambling to try to figure out how can I cover all of these grammar mechanics? How do I cover all of these writing techniques? What can I drop? What do we need to focus on?"

For the first time last year, every public school teacher in Texas from third through eighth grade had to grapple with those questions. The STAAR 2.0 redesign was complete, including a complete shift to an online testing platform, instead of the traditional paper exam. It also marked the end of the separate writing exams in fourth and seventh grade; instead, writing was included at every grade level.

The results were eye-popping. Before the changes, about 5% of students across the state scored a zero out of 8 on "constructed response" writing questions, which are similar to essay prompts. After the changes, 46% of fourth graders scored a zero out of 10 — 20% in seventh grade, and 25% in high school.

"I'm not fully surprised because the test is so new and so different from how things have been in the past," De La Rosa said. "Because years prior, the task was simply composition. Can they compose something that makes sense, that is all organized, that is grade-level writing? It didn't require, like, a literary analysis."

Students also performed poorly in grades where writing was assessed for the first time. Last year, 42% of third graders scored a zero on constructed response questions — along with about 25% of students in fifth, sixth and eighth grade.

Teachers, researchers and school leaders argue the new approach to writing assessment could kill creativity and curiosity in the classroom, especially with the way test scores tie into the TEA's more stringent school accountability system. The TEA continues to project confidence about the changes, arguing the shift is intended to align the test with how teaching happens in the classroom.

‘Comparing apples to celery'

Chris Rozunik with the Texas Education Agency argued that year-to-year comparisons of constructed response scores are "kind of comparing apples to celery in some ways."

As she pointed out, the shift from paper to online was not the only change. The writing composition questions are also different. They now include cross-curricular reading passages that reference multiple subject areas, and the grading rubrics for writing questions are more stringent.

"We are asking students to think differently about answering these questions," Rozunik said. "When we set those standards last spring, we like to think about it as a very different world."

It's also important to note that an increase in zeros on writing compositions doesn't necessarily mean an increase in the number of students who failed the STAAR. For example, 78% of fourth graders passed the RLA STAAR last year compared to 77% the year before.

Before the redesign, students had to get about half the questions on the test correct to "approach" grade level (to pass the test). Now, there are more types of questions , including ones that allow partial credit , and students only have to get credit for about a third of the questions to "approach" grade level.

"It's not a percentage as we think of in school — you know, 70% is passing," Rozunik said. "You need to step away from that scale entirely and think about the test as a whole, keeping in mind that we're required to measure every student in the state of Texas, including the most high-flying, smartest kid on the planet. Within the scale which we generate, you need a lot of room above the approaches category, which is that very first level that students can be considered on track for success in the future."

The TEA insists the online shift didn't make the test more difficult, but researchers still have questions about that. With the exception of pre-approved accommodations for kids with disabilities, all students from third grade through high school now take the exam on a computer.

Jodi Pilgrim is associate dean with the College of Education at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. She's also a former fourth-grade teacher.

"We're wanting to assess how good they are at writing, but there's a possibility that we're also assessing how well they can type," she said. "Those that are really good typers are going to do better on it."

Concerns about creativity

Pilgrim also worries the new approach to writing could stifle creativity.

Before the STAAR 2.0 redesign, in the spring of 2021, fourth graders were given this quote: "Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students." Their writing prompt: "Write about the best teacher you know."

"I liked this a lot as a teacher," Pilgrim said. "It was open-ended. Because if the prompt was a personal experience, any student can write about that. We tend to start our school years writing personal narratives because all students can tell about themselves."

All students now read longer passages, and then write a response.

Last year, the fourth-grade passage was 500 words about salamanders, Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer. Fourth graders were then asked to write about the importance of the aquifer.

"‘Explain why the aquifer is important in the article,' so I would just take that exact same sentence and say, ‘The Edwards Aquifer is important because ...' Well, that didn't take much thought," Pilgrim argued. "One of the things we really focus on in schools right now is critical thinking. The world we live in requires the critical thinker. I don't really have to think critically to write these responses."

Rozunick said the TEA intended to make the writing questions more universally accessible through the redesign.

"There's enough information in that prompt, in any prompt, in any text we have moving forward to be able to really get enough information in order to answer the question," Ruzunick said. "You do not have to bring in other life experiences or emotions in order to answer these questions. And quite honestly, they're probably more fair and equitable to students than, you know, ‘what's your favorite teacher' or ‘what you did last summer?'"

Pilgrim expects teachers will develop and teach a writing formula for students, especially with the rollout of "machine scoring" for writing questions this year. Most student writing is now graded by a computer, not a person, as first reported by the Dallas Morning News . According to the TEA, machine scoring is not significantly different from human scoring, but it is cheaper and faster.

De La Rosa believes teachers will still have to spend time teaching to the test, but she doesn't think the pressure will kill creative writing entirely — at least not in her classroom.

"I've been really fortunate to be on the campus that allowed me that flexibility or kind of trusted me to make those calls," De La Rosa said. "There are plenty of campuses that I know and plenty of teachers in situations where they're not trusted and they're told exactly what they are allowed to do and what they're not allowed to do."

"So I think that is a very valid fear that STAAR being this way will limit a lot of creativity," she continued. "Because as much as we would love to say, like, ‘Oh, don't teach to the test,' it really is circumstantial to what campus and what district you're in because not all of us are at campuses that allow us the freedom, and not all of us are in districts that trust us to make those decisions for our kids."

This debate is not new

The pressure to teach to the test doesn't come from the STAAR exam itself — it comes from the way the state holds districts accountable for test scores.

One extreme example is the state takeover of Houston ISD, which was partially motivated by low test scores at one school. The TEA-appointed management board of Houston ISD wants to significantly increase the percentage of students across the district who meet grade-level standards on the STAAR, and TEA-appointed superintendent Mike Miles has implemented a centrally-created curriculum in dozens of schools that previously struggled with the test.

The pressure to improve test scores is a consistent presence across the state.

"Yeah, accountability can do that — those pressures of teaching," Pilgrim said. "The district feels the pressure of it, the principal feels it. It trickles down, and the teachers feel it. What's really unfortunate is when the students feel the pressure."

In many ways, the test is now low-stakes for students. They do not have to pass the STAAR to move on to the next grade level. But STAAR remains high-stakes for teachers, schools and districts.

The Texas Education Agency assigns school districts and campuses an A through F accountability rating, based largely on students' test scores and post-graduation readiness. As the STAAR 2.0 redesign unfolded, the TEA also overhauled its A through F system.

At a press conference about the A through F revamp in May 2023, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath explained the reason for the more stringent approach.

"We want to eliminate achievement gaps by race and by class, and we want to ensure that Texas is a leader in preparing students for postsecondary success across the nation," Morath said. "This is kind of the rigorous expectation Texas needs to be a national leader in preparing students for postsecondary success."

More than 100 school districts sued the TEA , and the new ratings are currently held up in court.

Tension over test-based accountability has been around for a while, as Duncan Klussman with the University of Houston's College of Education explained.

"Over the last 20 to 25 years, this has been a constant process where the state establishes a testing system, gives it a name, and then establishes an accountability system," Klussman said. "And what you see typically is in the first few years of a new system, you see kind of lower scores overall. Then districts start to understand it better, and teachers understand better, and you see scores kind of grow over time."

Throughout that time, debates raged over whether tests measure social inequality more than school quality, to what degree policymakers should use test scores to dictate how teachers work in the classroom, and whether there are more meaningful ways to measure "student achievement" than one test on one day of the year.

H.D. Chambers is the executive director of the Texas School Alliance.

"I don't want to dismiss any superintendent or any board member or any elected leader who is hyper-focused on student achievement," Chambers said. "But is that student achievement being defined by just one thing?" Copyright 2024 Houston Public Media News 88.7. To see more, visit Houston Public Media News 88.7 .

• The Education Gradebook

In their own words: Excerpts from finalists' essays for Hillsborough's Excellence in Education awards

• Marlene Sokol Times staff

TAMPA — Three educators will be recognized on Jan. 24 as the top teacher, diversity teacher and support employee in the Hillsborough County public school system.

To get this far, they submitted essays that speak to their accomplishments and their spirit, from the painstaking task of decorating hallway bulletin boards to the careful planning of a physical education lesson for children with severe disabilities.

They hold hands and head committees, run demonstration classrooms and lead math night for parents at the local supermarket.

Here, in their own words, is just some of what this year's entrants did to reach the final round:

Nicole Bates , 36, math resource teacher, Mendenhall Elementary, Teacher of the Year:

"I bring math into the community by hosting events at Publix and the Village Inn. Watching parents and their children solve problems together in a realistic setting is inspirational."

Aymee Carbon Mejias , 49, Head Custodian, Eisenhower Middle, Instructional Support Employee:

"I think the most important thing is to listen to all people, even if they speak another language, have a different culture or cannot express it verbally."

Dakeyan C. Graham , 34, Director of Instrumental Music, King High, Teacher of the Year:

"Our classroom is a second home for my students. We refer to ourselves as a family. Since we spend more time together than some of my students spend with their biological families, we have the opportunity to generate and cultivate an atmosphere of mutual respect and rapport that translates into an incredible work ethic and desire to always demonstrate our best for one another."

Jordan Luke Harris , 21, Custodian, Stowers Elementary, Instructional Support Employee.

"I am a college student during the day and have studied Spanish and use my ability in that area to direct parents who do not understand very well where certain places are around campus. My childhood preacher told me every Sunday morning, 'people don't care what you know, unless they know you care,' so I've always tried to keep that in mind in my interactions with others."

Scott Hottenstein , 48, Social Studies Teacher, Barrington Middle, Teacher of the Year:

"My passion for education led me to run for School Board this year and also to actively support education issues during the election. Each year, I sharpen my focus on what works, discard what doesn't, and add new things to benefit the students."

Barbara Jean Maxwell , 60, Secretary, Dover Elementary, Instructional Support Employee:

"I love greeting the parents and students each day with a warm happy smile and helping the teachers and staff any way I can."

Le'Jean Michelle Miller, 48, Kindergarten Assistant, Just Elementary, Instructional Support Employee:

"I love making our children smile each day. I love making our school bright and beautiful. Our hallways have display bulletin boards for each classroom. For each month or holiday I love to make our boards come to life. For the first day of school to the last day of school I try to display something different for our children to see. For Black History and our Hispanic Heritage month, I display the history and the culture of our children. I love hearing the students say, 'Ms. Miller, I love what you're doing to the boards today.'"

Catch up on top stories before rush hour

Become a Times subscriber to get our afternoon newsletter, The Rundown

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Sandra Misciasci , 42, Reading Teacher, Newsome High, Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator:

"I purposefully search to find my students' strengths; I make at least 10 positive phone calls to my parents weekly. It is so much fun to hear parents experience a 'good' phone call, it is like they found hope in their child again!"

Amalia Santiago , 40, Gifted Teacher, Crestwood Elementary, Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator:

"Since I have had the privilege to be at the same school for 14 years, it has given me an amazing opportunity to be a part of many things. The ones I am most proud of is starting an annual Father/Daughter dance. I feel that especially with our population, it is essential that our girls understand they are beautiful, special and valued."

Anne Smith , 64, Physical Education Teacher, Caminiti Exceptional Center, Teacher of the Year:

"I gear my lessons and my relationships with students with the belief that confidence in P.E. leads to positive feelings of self-esteem and that P.E. activities strengthen peer and family relationships. P.E. is an excellent laboratory for cooperation skills that transfer into the classroom and increase independence for life."

Jeffrey Van Hise, 28, Fourth Grade Teacher, Gorrie Elementary, Teacher of the Year:

"I unlock potential by creating a risk-free climate that embraces diversity and fosters relationships with every student, every day. I dissolve school-home barriers using social media and family courses. By bringing math night to a local grocer, I created a community partnership. I crafted the school theme, 'Be the Change,' and will adopt a charity with my class."

Unique Vernon , 42, Social Worker, Stewart Middle, Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator:

"My role as a servant leader is to help parents, teachers and students identify and address barriers that interfere with student success and their future endeavors."

Tamon Williams , 27, Third Grade Teacher, Foster Elementary, Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator:

"I've given my sweat, my heart, and my smiles to being (that) teacher! The teacher who waits outside with a student until their parent comes home, the teacher who takes a student to get a haircut the day before the picture day because their mom is at her wit's end, the teacher who attends sporting events that are extracurricular and on Saturday mornings at 8:30 a.m., a teacher who picks up the phone in the middle of the night because a student is scared and doesn't know who else to call. I'm that nurturing teacher who loves and gives and loves and gives AND teaches her students so they'll be prepared for whatever life hands them."

Contact Marlene Sokol at [email protected] or (813) 226-3356. Follow @marlenesokol.

Education Reporter

MORE FOR YOU

• Advertisement

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write perfect applytexas essays.

College Essays

The ApplyTexas college application contains many essay prompts, and each of the most popular colleges in Texas has different requirements for which essays they expect applicants to answer.

So how do you get advice on writing your best ApplyTexas essays, no matter which school you're applying to? Look no further than this article, which completely unpacks all possible ApplyTexas essay prompts. We'll explain what each prompt is looking for and what admissions officers are hoping to learn about you. In addition, we'll give you our top strategies for ensuring that your essay meets all these expectations and help you come up with your best essay topics.

To help you navigate this long guide, here is an overview of what we'll be talking about:

What Are the ApplyTexas Essays?

Comparing applytexas essay prompts a, b, and c, dissecting applytexas essay topic a, dissecting applytexas essay topic b, dissecting applytexas essay topic c, dissecting applytexas essay topic d.

• Dissecting the UT and Texas A&M Short Answer Prompts
• Briefly: ApplyTexas Essay Topic E (Transfer Students Only)

The ApplyTexas application is basically the Texas version of the Common Application , which many US colleges use. It's a unified college application process that's accepted by all Texas public universities and many private ones. (Note that some schools that accept ApplyTexas also accept the Common App.)

The ApplyTexas website is a good source for figuring out whether your target college accepts the ApplyTexas application. That said, the best way to confirm exactly what your school expects is to go to its admissions website.

Why Do Colleges Want You to Write Essays?

Admissions officers are trying to put together classes full of interesting, vibrant students who have different backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and dreams. One tool colleges use to identify a diverse set of perspectives is the college essay .

These essays are a chance for you to show admissions officers those sides of yourself that aren’t reflected in the rest of your application. This is where you describe where you've come from, what you believe in, what you value, and what has shaped you.

This is also where you make yourself sound mature and insightful—two key qualities that colleges are looking for in applicants . These are important because colleges want to enroll students who will ultimately thrive when faced with the independence of college life .

Admissions staff want to enroll a diverse incoming class of motivated and thoughtful students.

ApplyTexas Essay Requirements

There are four essay prompts on the ApplyTexas application for first-year admission (Topics A, B, C, and D). For Topics A, B, and C, there are slight variations on the prompt for transfer students or those looking to be readmitted. We’ll cover each variation just below the main topic breakdown. There are also several short-answer prompts for UT Austin and Texas A&M , as well as Topic D for art and architecture majors and  Topic E for transfer students only . Although there are no strict word limits, colleges usually suggest keeping the essays somewhere between one and one and a half pages long.

All Texas colleges and universities have different application requirements, including which essay or essays they want. Some schools require essays, some list them as optional, and others use a combination of required and optional essays. Several schools use the essays to determine scholarship awards, honors program eligibility, or admission to specific majors.

Here are some essay submission requirement examples from a range of Texas schools:

• You are required to write an essay on Topic A .
• You also have to answer three short-answer prompts (250–300 words each) .
• If you're applying for a studio art, art education, art history, architecture, or visual art studies major, you'll have to write a short answer specific to your major .
• UT Austin also accepts the Common App.

Texas A&M

• If you're an engineering major, you'll have to respond to  a short-answer prompt .
• Texas A&M also accepts the Common App .

Southern Methodist University

• You must write an essay on Topic A .
• You may (but do not have to) write an essay on Topic B .
• You also have to answer two short-answer prompts .
• SMU also accepts the Common App and Coalition App and has its own online application, so you have the option to pick and choose the application you want to fill out .

Texas Christian University

• You must write an essay on any of the topics (A, B, or C) .
• TCU also accepts the Common App and Coalition App has its own online application, so it's another school for which you can choose the application you want to use.

The essays required as part of each admissions application differ from college to college. Check each institution's website for the most up-to-date instructions.

Three of the ApplyTexas essay topics try to get to the heart of what makes you the person you are. But since Topics A, B, and C all focus on things that are essential to you as a person, coming up with a totally unique idea for each can be difficult—especially since on a first read-through, these prompts can sound really similar .

Before I dissect all of the ApplyTexas essay prompts, let's see how A, B, and C differ from one another. You can then keep these differences in mind as you try to think of topics to write about.

ApplyTexas Prompts

Here are the most recent prompts for Topics A, B, and C on the ApplyTexas application.

Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.

You've got a ticket in your hand. Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

How to Tell Topics A, B, and C Apart

One helpful way to keep these topics separate in your mind is to create a big-picture category for each one: Topic A is outside, Topic B is inside, and Topic C is the future .

In other words, Topic A is asking about the impact of challenges or opportunities on you and how you handled that impact. Topic B is asking about your inner passions and how these define you. Finally, Topic C wants to know where you're going from here. These very broad categories will help as you brainstorm ideas and life experiences you can use for your essay .

Although many of the stories you think of can be shaped to fit each of these prompts, think about what the experience most reveals about you. If it’s about how your external community shaped you, that'd probably be a good fit for Topic A. If it’s a story about the causes or interests that you're most passionate about, save it for Topic B. If it’s primarily about an event that you think predicts your future, it'll likely work well for Topic C.

(Note: if you are a transfer student writing the essay variation for Topics A, B, or C, keep in mind that these variations still ask you about the outside, inside, or future respectively.)

Your years-long passion for performing in theater productions is an appropriate subject for ApplyTexas Topic B essays.

Now, we'll thoroughly deconstruct everything you need to know about Topic A, the first ApplyTexas essay prompt.

What’s the Prompt Asking, and How Should You Answer It?

This prompt wants to see how a particular external experience as a high school student has shaped you . The prompt uses the phrase "your story," signaling that admissions staff want to know what you believe has had the biggest impact on you.

Step 1: Describe Your Experience

The first part of the prompt is about identifying and describing specific experiences you've had as a high school student. You don't want your essay coming across too vague, so make sure you're focusing on one or two specific experiences, whether they've been positive or negative. The prompt suggests zeroing in on something "unique," or something that has affected you in a way it hasn't impacted anyone else.

You'll want to choose an opportunity or challenge that you can describe vividly and that's really important to you. In other words, it   needs to have had a significant impact on your personal development.

It should also be an experience that has been part of your life for a while . You're describing something that's affected you "throughout your high school career," after all.

Step 2: Explain How This Experience Shaped You

You shouldn't just describe your experience—you also need to discuss how that experience affected you as a person . How did this particular opportunity or difficulty turn you into the person you are today?

It's best if you can think of one or two concrete anecdotes or stories about how your chosen experience(s) helped shape you. For example, don't just say that a public piano recital made you a hard-working person— describe in detail how practicing diligently each day, even when you weren't feeling motivated, got frustrated by particular parts of the piece you were performing, and experienced stage fright showed you that working toward your goals is worthwhile, even when it's hard.

Elaborating on how a specific challenge or obstacle that you faced during your high school career helped shape your current perspective and personality is one option for Topic A essays.

What Are Readers Hoping to Learn About You?

Admission staff are looking for two main things. First, they want to see that you can be mature and thoughtful about your surroundings and events in your life . Are you curious about the world around you? If you've really reflected on your experience, you'll be able to describe the people, places, and events that have impacted you as a high school student in a nuanced, insightful way.

Second, they want to see how you stand out from other applicants . This can be accomplished in one of two ways: (1) you can emphasize how you are somehow different because of your experience and how it impacted you, or (2) you can emphasize how you learned positive qualities from the event that differentiate you from other students. Basically, how did your experience turn you into a special, interesting person?

How Can Your Essay Give Them What They Want?

How can you make sure your essay is really answering the prompt? Here are some key strategies.

#1: Pick a Specific Experience

You'll need to select a particular opportunity or obstacle to zero in on. Opportunities include travel, internships, volunteer or paid jobs, academic events, and awards. Challenges might include competitions, performances, illnesses, injuries, or learning something new. Remember, you'll want to focus on one or two particular events or experiences that have truly contributed to your personal growth .

As you're choosing the experiences you want to write about, think about significant things that happened to you in connection with those events. Remember, you'll need to get beyond just describing how the opportunity or challenge is important to you to show how its impact on you is so significant .

#2: How Did This Experience Shape You?

You then need to consider what about your experience turned you into a person who stands out . Again, this can be about how you overcame the difficulty or how the opportunity fostered positive qualities or traits in you that would make you an appealing member of the college's student body. You want to make sure you have a clear message that links your experience to one, two, or three special traits you have.

Try to think of specific stories and anecdotes related to the event. Then, thoughtfully analyze these to reveal what they show about you. Important adults in your life can help you brainstorm potential ideas.

#3: Think of the Essay Like a Movie

Like a good movie script, a college essay needs characters, some action, and a poignant but ultimately happy ending . When you’re planning out your personal statement, try to think of the story you’re telling in movie terms. Ensure that your essay has the following features:

• Setting: As you're describing your experience, taking time to give a vivid sense of place is key. You can accomplish this by describing the actual physical surroundings, the main "characters" in your community, or a combination of both.
• Stakes: Movies propel the action forward by giving characters high stakes: win or lose, life or death. Even if you are describing your experience in positive terms, there needs to be a sense of conflict or dynamic change. In the anecdote(s) you've selected to write about, what did you stand to gain or lose?
• External conflict resolution: If there's an external conflict of some kind (e.g., with a neighbor, a family member, a friend, or a city council), you need to show some level of resolution.
• Internal conflict resolution: Inner conflict is essentially about how you changed in response to the event or experience. You'll need to clearly lay out what happened within you and how those changes have carried you forward as a person.

Describing your feelings before, during, and after the opportunity or challenge is a crucial element of a Topic A college essay.

#4: Add Details, Description, and Examples

Your essay will really stand out if you add effective examples and descriptions.

For example, imagine Karima decides to describe how learning to navigate public transit as a high school first-year student made her resourceful and helped her explore the city she grew up in. She also discusses how exploring the city ultimately changed her perspective. How should she frame her experience? Here are some options:

I was nervous about taking the El by myself for the first time. At the station, there were lots of commuters and adults who seemed impatient but confident. At first, I was very afraid of getting lost, but over time, I became as confident as those commuters.

I felt a mixture of nerves and excitement walking up the Howard red line turnstile for the first time. What if I got lost on my way to the museum? I was worried that I would just seem like a nuisance to all of the frowning commuters who crowded the platform. If I needed help, would they help me? Was I even brave enough to ask? When the metal doors opened, I pressed my nails into my palms and rushed in after a woman with a red briefcase. Success! At least for the first step. I found a sideways-facing seat and clutched my macrame bag with my notebook and sketching supplies. A map hung above my seat. Pressing my finger to the colorful grid, I found my stop and counted how many I still had to go. I spent the entire train ride staring at that map, straining my ears for everything the conductor said. Now, when I think about the first time I rode the El by myself, I smile. What seemed so scary at the time is just an everyday way to get around now. But I always look around on the platform to see if any nervous kids linger at the edges of the commuter crowds and offer them a smile.

Both versions set up the same story plotwise, but the second makes the train ride (and therefore the author) come alive through the addition of specific, individualizing details , such as the following:

• Visual cues: The reader "sees" what the author sees through descriptions such as "frowning commuters who crowded the platform," "woman with a red briefcase," and "colorful grid."
• Emotional responses: We experience the author’s feelings: she "felt a mixture of nerves and excitement." She wonders if she's brave enough to ask for help. The train ride was "so scary at the time" but feels "everyday" now.
• Differentiation: Even though the commuters are mostly a monolithic group, we get to see some individuals, such as the woman with a red briefcase.

ApplyTexas Topic A Essay Ideas

There's no one best topic for this essay prompt (or any other), but I've included some potential ideas below to help you get started with your own brainstorming:

• Describe a time you organized the people around you to advocate a common local cause.
• Hone in on a particular trip with one or more family members.
• Identify a time when you were no longer in your comfort zone. Describe how you adapted and learned from that experience.
• Discuss being a minority in your school or neighborhood.
• Describe going through a cultural or religious rite of passage as a high school student.
• Elaborate on how you moved from one place to somewhere totally different and handled your culture shock.

ApplyTexas Topic A for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

If you are applying to transfer or to be readmitted, you likely already have some college experience. So in this case, ApplyTexas offers a personal statement option that allows you to write about your life beyond your high school years. This option still asks you to demonstrate what in your experience has turned you into a unique individual. But if, for instance, you left college and now are reapplying, you’ll want to address how some aspect of that experience made an impact on who you are now. Otherwise, follow the advice above for the standard Topic A prompt.

Here’s the current Essay Topic A prompt for transfer applicants:

The statement of purpose will provide an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances that you feel could add value to your application. You may also want to explain unique aspects of your academic background or valued experiences you may have had that relate to your academic discipline. The statement of purpose is not meant to be a listing of accomplishments in high school or a record of your participation in school-related activities. Rather, this is your opportunity to address the admissions committee directly and to let us know more about you as an individual, in a manner that your transcripts and other application information cannot convey.

Next up, let's go through the same process for ApplyTexas Topic B, taking it apart brick by brick and putting it back together again.

What’s the Prompt Asking?

At first glance, this prompt seems pretty vague. "Tell us about yourself" is not exactly the most detailed set of instructions. But if we dig a little deeper, we can see that there are actually two pretty specific things this question is asking.

#1: What Defines You?

This prompts posits that "most students"—which likely includes you!—have some kind of defining trait . This could be "an identity, an interest, or a talent," so you need to express what that defining trait is for you specifically.

For instance, are you an amazing knitter? Do you spend your free time researching cephalopods? Are you a connoisseur of indie movies or mystery novels? Or maybe you have a religious, cultural, ethnic, or LGBTQIA+ identity that's very important to you. Any of these things could plausibly be the main, framing theme of your essay.

#2: How Does That Defining Trait Fit Into "You" Overall?

Even though you have some kind of defining trait, that's not the entirety of you. Essentially, you need to contextualize your defining trait within your broader personality and identity. This is where the "tell us about yourself" part comes in. What does your defining trait say about you as a person? And how does it fit into your overall personality, values, and dreams?

In a Topic B college essay, you could potentially describe your knowledge of chess and how it exemplifies your talent for thinking several steps ahead.

Admissions staff are hoping to learn two main things:

#1: What You're Passionate About

It's essential that this essay communicates genuine passion for whatever you write about. College is a lot of work, and passion is an important driving force when things get busy. Therefore, readers are looking for students who are really engaged in the world around them and excited about specific causes and activities!

#2: How You View Yourself (and How Successfully You Can Communicate That)

A strong, well-developed sense of self goes a long way toward helping you weather all the changes you're going to experience when you attend college. Even though you'll change and grow a lot as a person during your college years, having a sense of your own core traits and values will help those changes be exciting as opposed to scary .

Colleges are looking for a developed sense of self. Additionally, they are looking for students who can communicate messages about themselves in a clear, confident, and cohesive way .

The challenge with this prompt is giving a complete picture of you as a person while still staying on message about your defining trait. You need to be focused yet comprehensive. Let's explore the best ways to show off your passion and frame your identity.

#1: Define the Core Message

First, you need to select that defining trait . This could be pretty much anything, just as long as you're genuinely invested in this trait and feel that it represents some core aspect of you.

It should also be something you can describe through stories and anecdotes . Just saying, "I'm a redhead, and that defines me" makes for a pretty boring essay! However, a story about how you started a photography project that consists of portraits of redheads like you and what you learned about yourself from this experience is much more interesting.

Be careful to select something that presents you in a broadly positive light . If you choose a trait that doesn't seem very serious, such as your enduring and eternal love of onion rings, you risk seeming at best immature and at worst outright disrespectful.

You also want to pick something realistic —don't claim you're the greatest mathematician who ever lived unless you are, in fact, the greatest mathematician who ever lived (and you probably aren't). Otherwise, you'll seem out of touch.

#2: Fit Your Message into the Larger Picture

Next, consider how you can use this trait to paint a more complete picture of you as a person . It's great that you're passionate about skiing and are a member of a ski team, but what else does this say about you? Are you an adventurous daredevil who loves to take (reasonable) risks? Are you a nature lover with a taste for exploration? Do you love being part of a team?

Select at least two or three positive messages you want to communicate about yourself in your essay about your key trait.

In a Topic B essay, a student could connect their long-time passion for cooking to their penchant for adding their unique touch to every project they take on.

#3: Show, Don't Tell

It's much more interesting to read about things you do that demonstrate your key traits than it is to hear you list them. Don't just say, "Everyone asks me for advice because I'm level-headed and reasonable." Instead, actually describe situations that show people asking you for advice and you offering that level-headed, reasonable advice.

#4: Watch Your Tone

It's important to watch your tone as you write an essay that's (pretty overtly) about how great you are. You want to demonstrate your own special qualities without seeming glib, staid, self-aggrandizing, or narcissistic .

Let’s say Andrew wants to write about figuring out how to grow a garden, despite his yard being in full shade, and how this desire turned into a passion for horticulture. He could launch into a rant about the garden store employees not knowing which plants are right for which light, the previous house owner’s terrible habit of using the yard as a pet bathroom, or the achy knee that prevented him from proper weeding posture.

Alternatively, he could describe doing research on the complex gardens of royal palaces, planning his garden based on plant color and height, using the process of trial and error to see which plants would flourish, and getting so involved with this work that he often lost track of time.

One of these approaches makes him sound whiny and self-centered, whereas  the other makes him sound like someone who can take charge of a difficult situation .

ApplyTexas Topic B Essay Ideas

Again, there's no single best approach here, but I've outlined some potential topics below:

• Are you known for being really good at something or an expert on a particular topic? How does this impact your identity?
• Discuss how you got involved in a certain extracurricular activity and what it means to you. What have you learned from participating in it?
• Describe something you've done lots of research on in your free time. How did you discover that interest? What have you learned as a result?
• What's your most evident personality trait? How has that trait impacted your life? (You can ask friends and relatives for help with this one.)
• Relate the importance of your LGBTQIA+ identity.
• Discuss your religious or cultural background and how this defines you.
• Describe your experience as a member of a specific community.

ApplyTexas Topic B for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

The ApplyTexas variation on Topic B is specifically designed for two different possible application situations. The first is for people who are applying as nondegree-seeking or postbaccalaureate students (aka “transient students”). In this case, they ask you to discuss the courses you want to take and what you hope to accomplish if you are admitted. That means they still want you to focus this essay on what you are passionate about, as mentioned above, but they expect that passion to be based on courses the university offers more directly.  

The second is for students who are reapplying after being suspended for academic reasons. In this situation, they ask you to describe any actions you have taken to improve your academic performance and to give them a reason why you should be readmitted. You’ll still need to focus on your positive traits in this variation, so this can be a tricky task. As in the example above, you’ll need to watch your tone and not come across as whiny. Instead, confront the cause of your academic suspension and what you learned from that experience; then, turn it into a newfound strength. Maybe you learned new study habits you can describe for them. Maybe working full-time while you were suspended improved your work ethic. Whatever you choose, show how a negative situation changed into a positive learning experience for you, and focus on the better person you are now because of it. 

Here’s the current prompt for Essay Topic B for transfer applicants:

If you are applying as a former student and were suspended for academic reasons, describe briefly any actions you have taken to improve your academic abilities and give reason why you should be readmitted. If you are applying as a nondegree-seeking or postbaccalaureate application, briefly describe the specific objectives you wish to accomplish if admitted, including the courses in which you would like to enroll.

Now, we can take apart Topic C to get a good handle on how to tackle this future-facing essay.

You've got a ticket in your hand—where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

If ApplyTexas Topic A and Topic B were all about your past experiences, Topic C wants you to give readers a glimpse of your imagined possibilities .

There are basically two potential approaches to this question. We'll break them down here.

Option 1: Describe Your Long-Term Goals

One approach to this prompt is to use your essay as a chance to describe your long-term goals for your career and life .

For some students, this will be a straightforward endeavor. For example, say you’ve always wanted to be a doctor. You spend your time volunteering at hospitals, helping out at your mom’s practice, and studying biology. You could easily frame your "ticket" as a ticket to medical school. Just pick a few of the most gripping moments from these past experiences and discuss the overall trajectory of your interests, and your essay would likely be a winner!

But what if you’re not sure about your long-term goals yet? Or what if you feel like you really don't know where you're going next week, let alone next year or 10 years from now? Read on for Option 2.

Option 2: Demonstrate Thoughtful Imagination

Although you can certainly interpret this as a straightforward question about your future, you can also use it as a chance to be more imaginative.

Note that this entire question rests on the metaphor of the ticket. The ticket can take you anywhere; you decide. It could be to a real place, such as your grandmother's house or the Scottish Highlands or the Metropolitan Museum. Or it could be somewhere fantastical, such as a time machine to the Paleolithic.

The important point is that you use the destination you select—and what you plan to do there—to prove you're a thoughtful person who is excited about and actively engaged with the world around you .

The destination you choose to write about, whether realistic or fantastical, should be clearly linked to a specific goal or set of goals that you wish to pursue or are currently pursuing.

If you're on a direct path to a specific field of study or career, admissions officers definitely want to know this. Having driven, goal-oriented, and passionate students is a huge plus for any college. If this sounds like you, be sure your essay conveys not just your interest but also your deep love of the subject, as well as any related clubs, activities, or hobbies you’ve done during high school.

If you take the more creative approach to this prompt, however, realize that in this essay (as in all the other ApplyTexas essays),  the how matters much more than the what . Don't worry that you don't have a specific goal in mind yet. No matter where your eventual academic, career, or other pursuits might lie, every activity you've done up to now has taught you something, whether that be developing your work ethic, mastering a skill, learning from a mentor, interacting with peers, dealing with setbacks, understanding your own learning style, or persevering through hardship. Your essay is a chance to show off that knowledge and maturity.

So no matter what destination you choose for your ticket (the what ), you want to communicate that you can think about future (and imagined!) possibilities in a compelling way based on your past experiences (the how ).

Whether you take the ideas of "where you are going" and "what you are doing" in a more literal or more abstract direction, the admissions committee wants to make sure that no matter what you study, you'll be able to get something meaningful out of it . They want to see that you’re not simply floating through life on the surface but are actively absorbing the qualities, skills, and know-how you'll need to succeed in the world.

Here are some ideas for how to show that you have thoughtful and compelling visions of possible futures.

#1: Pick Where You're Going

Is this going to be a more direct interpretation of your goals (my ticket is to the judge's bench) or a more creative one (my ticket is to Narnia)? Whichever one you choose, make sure that you choose a destination that is genuinely compelling to you . The last thing you want is to come off sounding bored or disingenuous.

#2: Don’t Overreach or Underreach

Another key point is to avoid overreaching or underreaching. For instance, it’s fine to say that you’d like to get involved in politics, but it’s a little too self-aggrandizing to say that you’re definitely going to be president of the United States. Be sure that whatever destination you select for your ticket, it doesn’t come off as unnecessary bragging rather than simple aspiration .

At the same time, make sure the destination you've chosen is one that makes sense in the context of a college essay. Maybe what you really want is a ticket to the potato chip factory; however, this essay might not be the best place to elaborate on this imagined possibility.

While you can of course choose a whimsical location, you need to be able to ground it in a real vision of the kind of person you want to become . Don't forget who your audience is! College admissions officers want to find students who are eager to learn . They also want to be exposed to new thoughts and ideas.

#3: Flesh It Out

Once you've picked a destination, it's time to consider the other components of the question: What are you going to do once you reach your destination? What will happen there? Try to think of some key messages that relate back to you, your talents, and your goals .

#4: Ground Your "Journey" in Specific Anecdotes and Examples

The way this question is framed is very abstract, so ground your thoughts about your destination (whether it's more straightforward or more creative) in concrete anecdotes and examples that show you're thoughtful, engaged, passionate, and driven.

This is even more important if you go the creative route and are writing about an unusual location. If you don't keep things somewhat grounded in reality, your essay could come across as frivolous. Make sure you make the most of this chance to share real-life examples of your desirable qualities.

Imagine Eleanor’s essay is about how she wants a ticket to Starfleet Academy (for the uninitiated, this is the fictional school in the Star Trek universe where people train to be Starfleet officers). Which essay below conveys more about her potential as a student?

My ticket is to Starfleet Academy. There, I would train to become part of the Command division so I could command a starship. Once I was captain of my own starship, I would explore the deepest reaches of space to interact with alien life and learn more about the universe.

I've loved Star Trek since my dad started playing copies of old episodes for me in our ancient DVD player. So if I could have a ticket to anywhere, it would be to Starfleet Academy to train in the command division. I know I would make a superb command officer. My ten years of experience in hapkido have taught me discipline and how to think on my feet. Working as a hapkido instructor in my dojo the past two years has honed my leadership and teaching qualities, which are essential for any starship commander. Additionally, I have the curiosity and sense of adventure necessary for a long career in the unknown reaches of space. Right now, I exercise my thirst for exploration through my photography blog. Using my DSLR camera, I track down and photograph obscure and hidden places I find in my town, on family trips, and even on day trips to nearby cities. I carefully catalogue the locations so other people can follow in my footsteps. Documentation, after all, is another important part of exploring space in a starship.

Both versions communicate the same things about the imagined destination, but the second essay does a much better job showing who Eleanor is as a person. All we really learn from the first excerpt is that Eleanor must like Star Trek .

We can also infer from version 1 that she probably likes leadership, exploration, and adventure because she wants to captain a starship, but we don't really know that for sure. Admissions officers shouldn't have to guess who you are from your essay; your essay should lay it out for them explicitly and articulately.

In the second essay, by contrast, Eleanor clearly lays out the qualities that would make her a great command officer and provides examples of how she exemplifies these qualities . She ties the abstract destination to concrete activities from her life, such as hapkido and photography. This provides a much more well-rounded picture of what Eleanor could bring to the student body and the school at large.

Eleanor's essay about her desire to explore the final frontier creatively illustrates her curiosity and leadership potential .

ApplyTexas Topic C Essay Ideas

I've come up with some sample essay ideas for the two different approaches to this prompt.

Possibility 1: Your Concrete Goals

• Describe your goal to pursue a particular academic field or career and discuss how specific classes or extracurricular activities ignited that passion
• Discuss how your plans to pursue politics, project management, or another leadership role were fostered by a first experience of leadership (this could be a straightforward leadership position in a club or job or a more indirect or unplanned leadership experience, such as suddenly having to take charge of a group).
• Discuss how your desire to teach or train in the future was sparked by an experience of teaching someone to do something (e.g., by being a tutor or by helping a sibling deal with a particularly challenging class or learning issue).
• Describe your goal to perform on stage, and discuss how your past experiences of public creativity (e.g., being in a play, staging an art show, performing an orchestra, or being involved in dance,.) led you to this goal

Possibility 2: Creative/Abstract Destination

• What would you do if you could visit the world of a favorite childhood book, movie, or TV series? What qualities does that show about you?
• Is there a relative or friend you would like to visit with your ticket?
• Is there a particular historical period you would like to time travel to?
• Is there a destination you've always wanted to go to that you've read about, heard about, or only conjured up in dreams or in a moment of creativity?

Remember to tie your imaginative destination to concrete details about your special qualities!

Topic C for Transfer, Transient, or Readmit Students

ApplyTexas offers a Topic C alternative in case there is personal information you want them to consider along with your application, such as why you are transferring to a new school. They still want you to focus on the future, but they encourage discussing any hardships, challenges, extenuating circumstances, or opportunities that have affected your abilities and academic credentials (in a positive way). They also want you to discuss how these circumstances can help you contribute to a diverse college community. In this case, this variation is not fundamentally different from the ticket question; it just asks for a more specific focus. So if this variation applies to you, use the advice above for question C option one. 

Here’s the current prompt for Essay Topic C for transfer applicants:

There may be personal information that you want considered as part of your admissions application. Write an essay describing that information. You might include exceptional hardships, challenges, or opportunities that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, personal responsibilities, exceptional achievements or talents, educational goals, or ways in which you might contribute to an institution committed to creating a diverse learning environment.

Would you use your ticket to visit Renaissance Italy, a journey you metaphorically hope to take as a history major?

If you're applying to one of several fine arts fields, you might have to write this essay.

Personal interaction with objects, images, and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image, or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

If you’re applying to study architecture, art, or art history, one of the essays you will likely have to write is this one. This essay topic is trying to ask as broadly as possible about an experience with art that has moved you in some way. This means that your options for answering the question are quite varied. So what are the two different parts of this prompt? Let's take a look.

Part 1: Observation and Reaction

Think of a time you experienced that blown-away feeling when looking at something human made. This is the reaction and situation the first part of the essay wants you to recreate. The prompt is primarily interested in your ability to describe and pinpoint exactly what quality made you stop in your tracks. The huge set of inspiring object options the prompt offers tells us that your taste level won't be judged here.

You can focus on a learning experience, which includes both classes and extracurricular activities, or you can focus on a direct experience in which you encountered an object or space without the mediation of a class or teacher. The only limit to your focus object is that it is something made by someone other than you. Your reaction should be in conversation with the original artist, not a form of navel-gazing.

The key for this part of the essay is that your description needs to segue into a story of change and transformation . What the essay topic is asking you to show isn’t just that you were struck by something you saw or learned about, but that you also absorbed something from this experience that impacted your own art going forward.

Did seeing the Angkor Wat Temple during a trip abroad with your family foster your intellectual passion for Southeast Asian art or religious monuments?

Part 2: Absorption

This brings us to the second part of the essay prompt: this is where you need to move from the past into the present — and then at least gesture meaningfully toward the future.

It’s one thing to look at a piece of art, such as a sculpture or architectural form, and feel moved by its grace, boldness, or vision. But it’s a sign of a mature, creative mind to be able to take to heart what is meaningful to you about this work and then transmute this experience into your own art or your interpretation of others' creative works.

This essay wants to see that developing maturity in you ; therefore, you should explain exactly how your own vision has changed after this meaningful encounter you've described. What qualities, philosophy, or themes do you now try to infuse into what you create or how you analyze art?

More importantly, this essay prompt asserts that being affected by something once isn’t enough. That’s why in this second part of the essay,  you also need to explain what you’ve been doing to keep having similarly moving encounters with other creative works .

You have some choice, too, when it comes to answering, "What have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?" For example, you could describe how you’ve sought out other works by the same artist who moved you the first time. Or you could describe investigating new media or techniques to emulate something you saw. Or you could discuss learning about the period, genre, school, or philosophical theory that the original piece of art comes from to give yourself a more contextualized understanding.

If you’re planning an academic career in the visual arts or architecture, then you’re entering a long conversation started by our cave-painting ancestors and continuing through every human culture and society since.

This essay wants to make sure that you aren’t creating or interpreting art in a vacuum and that you have had enough education and awareness to be inspired by others. By demonstrating how you react to works that move you—not with jealousy or dismissal but with appreciation and recognition of another’s talent and ability—you're proving that you're ready to participate in this ongoing conversation.

At the same time, this essay is asking you to show your own creative readiness.  For example, describe not only the work you have produced but also your ability to introduce new elements into that work—in this case, inspired by the piece you described. This way, you can demonstrate that you aren’t a one-note artist but are mature enough to alter and develop what you make. Or if you want to major in art history or art education, relate how your perspective on a particular piece of art or architecture is shaped by your unique perspective, based on your experiences, education, and cultural identity.

A student might write their Topic D essay on how Michelangelo's Madonna della Pietà   has influenced their own artistic renderings of youth and beauty in grief.

What are some best practices for teasing out the complexities of art in written form? Here are some helpful tips as you brainstorm and write your essay.

#1: Pick One Piece of Art or Learning Experience

Once you’ve chosen between these two contexts, narrow down your selection even further . If you're writing about an educational encounter, don’t forget that it can come from an informal situation as well. For example, you could write about something you learned on your own from a documentary, a museum visit, or an art book.

If you're writing about a direct experience with art, don't necessarily fixate on a classic piece . Alternatively, you could discuss a little-known public sculpture, a particularly striking building or bridge you saw while traveling, or a gallery exhibition.

Whatever you end up writing about, make sure you know some of the identifying details . You don’t need to know the answers to all the following questions, but do your best to research so you can answer at least two or three of them:

• Who is the artist?
• Where is the piece on display?
• What kind of work is it?
• With what materials was it made?
• When was it made?

#2: Figure Out Why You Were Struck by This Particular Work

The make-it-or-break-it moment in this essay will be your ability to explain what affected you in the object you're writing about . Why is it different from other works you’ve seen? Were you in the right place and time to be moved by it, or would it have affected you the same way no matter where or when you saw it? Did it speak to you because it shares some of your ideals, philosophies, or tastes—or because it was so different from them?

Be careful with your explanation because it can easily get so vague as to be meaningless or so obscure and "deep" that you lose your reader. Before you start trying to put it down on paper, try to talk out what you plan to say either with a friend, parent, or teacher. Do they understand what you’re saying, and do they believe you?

#3: Make a Timeline of Your Own Creative Works

When you think about what you've been making or thinking about making during your high school career, what is the trajectory of your ideas? How has your understanding of the materials you want to work with or study changed? What message do you want your works to convey, or what message in others' works most resonate with you? How do you want your works to be seen or engaged with by others? What is the reason you feel compelled to be creative or involved in the arts?

Now that you’ve come up with this timeline, see whether your changes in thought overlap with the art experience you're planning on describing . Is there a way you can combine what was so exciting to you about this work with the way you’ve seen your own ideas about art evolve?

#4: Use a Mix of Concreteness and Comparisons in Your Description

Just as nothing ruins a joke like explaining it, nothing ruins the wordless experience of looking at art as talking it to death does. Still, you need to find a way to use words to give the reader a sense of what the piece that moved you actually looks like —particularly if the reader isn't familiar with the work or the artist that created it.

Here is my suggested trick for writing well about art. First, be specific about the object. Discuss its colors, size, what it appears to be made of, what your eye goes to first (e.g., bright colors versus darker, more muted ones), what it represents (if it’s figurative), where it is in relation to the viewer, whether or not you can see marks of the tools used (e.g., brush strokes or scrapes from sculpting tools).

Second, step away from the concrete, and get creative with language by using techniques such as comparative description. Use your imagination to create emotionally resonant similes. Is there a form of movement (e.g., flying, crawling, or tumbling) that this piece feels like? Does it remind you of something from the natural world (e.g., a falling leaf, a forest canopy being moved by wind, waves, or sand dunes shifting)?

If the work is figurative, imagine what has been happening just before the moment in time it captures. What happened just after this point? Using these kinds of nonliteral descriptors will let your reader understand both the actual physical object and its aesthetic appeal.

Dissecting the UT and Texas A&M Short-Answer Prompts

Both UT Austin and Texas A&M require short answers as part of their first-year applications. For both schools, some prompts are required by all applicants, whereas others are required by those applying to certain majors or departments.

We'll go over the UT Austin prompts, followed by the Texas A&M prompt.

UT Austin Short-Answer Prompts

UT Austin requires three short answers from all first-year applicants and also offers an optional prompt. Each short answer should be approximately 250–300 words , or one paragraph.

Short Answer 1: Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?

Short Answer 2: Describe how your experiences, perspectives, talents, and/or your involvement in leadership activities (at your school, job, community, or within your family) will help you to make an impact both in and out of the classroom while enrolled at UT.

Short Answer 3: The core purpose of The University of Texas at Austin is, “To Transform Lives for the Benefit of Society.” Please share how you believe your experience at UT Austin will prepare you to “Change the World” after you graduate.

Optional Short Answer: Please share background on events or special circumstances that may have impacted your high school academic performance.

What Are These UT Austin Short-Answer Prompts Asking?

Obviously, these short-answer prompts are asking four different things, but they do have some similarities in terms of their overall goals.

These prompts basically want to know what you can offer UT Austin and why you'd be a great fit as a student there . They also want to know why you chose UT Austin and your specific major.

In other words, all these prompts essentially work together as a "Why This College?" essay .

How Can You Give UT Austin What They Want?

Admissions officers will be looking for evidence that you're genuinely interested in the school, the major you've chosen, and the career you want to pursue . Make sure to identify features of the program that appeal to you. In other words, why UT Austin? What makes you a good fit here?

Be as specific as possible in your responses. Since you won't have much room to write a lot, try to focus on a particular anecdote, skill, or goal you have.

Admissions officers also want to see that you have an aptitude for your chosen career path , so if you have any relevant work, research, or volunteer experience, they definitely want to know this! It's OK to take a broad view of what's relevant here.

Finally, they're looking for individuals who have clear goals as well as a general idea of what they want to do with their degree . Are you interested in working with a specific population or specialty? Why? What led you to this conclusion?

Texas A&M Engineering Prompt

All engineering applicants to Texas A&M must submit an esssay responding to the following prompt:

Describe your academic and career goals in the broad field of engineering (including computer science, industrial distribution, and engineering technology). What and/or who has influenced you either inside or outside the classroom that contributed to these goals?

What Is This Texas A&M Engineering Prompt Asking?

The engineering prompt wants to know two essential things:

• What are your future goals for your specific field of interest (i.e., the kind of engineering field you want to go into or are considering going into)?
• What environmental or external factors (e.g., a person, a mentor, a volunteer experience, or a paper or book you read) contributed to your development of these goals?

How Can You Give Texas A&M What They Want?

Be as specific as possible in your response. For the engineering prompt, what admissions officers want to know is simply what your biggest engineering ambition is and how you came to have this goal.

You'll want to be as specific as possible. Admissions officers want to see that you have a clear future in mind for what you want to do with your engineering degree. For example, do you plan to go on to a PhD program? Why? Do you have a particular career in mind?

In addition, make sure to specify the main inspiration for or motivation behind this goal. For instance, did you have a high school teacher who encouraged you to study engineering? Or perhaps you decided on a whim to take a computer science class, which you ended up loving.

Remember that the inspiration for your engineering goals doesn't have to be limited to something school-related. If you get stuck, think broadly about what initially got you interested in the field.

Briefly: ApplyTexas Essay Topic E (Transfer Students)

US transfer students and international transfer students must typically submit an additional essay responding to the following prompt (or must submit an essay on one of the topic variations listed above ).

Choose an issue of importance to you—the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope⁠—and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

What's the Prompt Asking?

This prompt, which is intended for transfer students, essentially wants to know what hardship, challenge, or social issue has affected you on a personal level (or a larger group you're part of) and why you think this particular issue is so important to you .

For example, maybe you identify as LGBTQIA+ and have personally experienced discrimination in your local community because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Or perhaps you grew up in a wealthy family but have begun to see recently how widespread the issue of homelessness really is and now are making a more conscious effort to find ways to remedy this problem in your own community.

The issue you choose doesn't have to relate to a wider social issue; it could be a learning disability you have, for instance, or the fact that you no longer share the same religious beliefs as your  family.

The most important part of this question is the connection between the issue and yourself . In other words, why is this issue so important to you ? How has it affected your life, your goals, your experiences, etc.?

This essay is a way for admissions officers to get to know you and what matters to you personally on a much deeper level than what some of the other essay topics allow, so don't be afraid to dive into topics that are very emotional, personal, or special to you .

Furthermore, be sure to clearly explain why this particular issue—especially if it's a broader social issue that affects many people—is meaningful to you . Admissions officers want to know about any challenges you've faced and how these have positively contributed to your own growth as a person.

The Bottom Line: Tips for Writing ApplyTexas Essays

The ApplyTexas application contains four essay prompts (Topics A, B, C, and D), with different schools requiring different combinations of mandatory and optional essays . There are also short-answer prompts for UT Austin, as well as a Topic E only for transfer students.

One way to keep these three similar-sounding essay topics (A, B, and C) separate in your mind is to create a big-picture category for each one:

• Topic A is about your outside .
• Topic B is your inside .
• Topic C is about your future .

Now, let's briefly summarize each essay topic:

Essay Topic A

• Overview:  Describe any unique experiences you've had as a high school student and how these have shaped who you are as a person.
• Pick a specific aspect of your experience.
• Describe how it made you special.
• Describe the setting, stakes, and conflict resolution.
• Add details, description, and examples.

Essay Topic B

• Overview:  Describe a defining trait and how it fits into the larger vision of you.
• Define the core message.
• Fit that core message of yourself into the larger picture.
• Show things about yourself; don’t tell.
• Watch your tone to make sure that you show your great qualities without seeming narcissistic, boring, glib, or self-aggrandizing.

Essay Topic C

• Overview:  Describe "where you are going" in either a literal, goal-oriented sense or a more imaginative sense.
• Pick where you’re going, but don’t over- or underreach.
• Flesh out your destination. How does it relate back to you?
• Ground your “journey” in specific anecdotes and examples.

Essay Topic D

• Overview:  Describe being affected by a work of art or an artistic experience to make sure that you are ready to enter a fine arts field.
• Pick one piece of art or one specific experience of learning about art.
• Figure out exactly why this work or event struck you.
• Examine your own work to see how this artwork has affected your creativity or engagement with art or art history.
• Use a mix of concrete descriptions and comparisons when writing about the piece of art.

Short-Answer Prompts

• Overview: Specific to UT Austin applicants
• Describe your relevant experiences and interests up to this point.
• Describe what about the program appeals to you and how you will use your degree (i.e., your future goals).
• Treat the prompts as parts of a "Why This College?" essay.

Essay Topic E (Transfer Students)

• Overview: Specific to US and international transfer applicants
• Pick an issue that means a lot to you and has had a clear effect on how you see yourself.
• Emphasize how this issue or how you've treated this issue has ultimately had a positive impact on your personal growth.

What's Next?

Curious about the other college essay choices out there? If your target college also accepts the Common Application, check out our guide to the Common App essay prompts to see whether they would be a better fit for you.

Interested to see how other people tackled this part of the application? We have a roundup of 100+ accepted essays from tons of colleges .

Stuck on what to write about? Read our suggestions for how to come up with great essay ideas .

Working on the rest of your college applications? We have great advice on how to find the right college for you , how to write about your extracurricular activities , and how to ask teachers for letters of recommendation .

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

NEW: Classroom Clean-Up/Set-Up Email Course! 🧽

Free Teacher Resume Template and Tips, Plus 21 Teacher Resume Examples

Make a great first impression!

Whether you’re searching for your first teaching job or you’re ready for a change, you’ll need a solid resume. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there on how to write a resume that will land you an interview, so it’s worth taking some time to review teacher resume examples first. We’ve rounded up examples for pretty much any kind of educator and assembled tips for how to write a strong modern teacher resume.

Best of all, we’ve got a free, fully customizable teacher resume template to get you started quickly and easily. Fill out the form on this page to grab your template, then use our tips to start building your resume today.

Teacher Resume Tips

Teacher resume examples.

Resumes have changed a lot in recent years, so do your research to find out what the latest trends are. For instance, while an “objectives” section used to be a resume standard, people often drop this section today in favor of more space to highlight their accomplishments. Start with these general resume tips, then get more advice for completing our free teacher resume template, section by section.

General Tips

• Keep it to one or two pages. Hiring managers don’t have time to read overly long resumes. Put the most important information up front, and remove anything that doesn’t truly strengthen your application.
• Be honest. While you want to highlight your strengths and achievements, don’t go overboard. If you exaggerate your experience but are unable to perform certain tasks, you may put your future job at risk before you even get started.
• Skip the gimmicks. Some people will tell you the way to make your resume stand out is to use fun fonts or a “creative” design. The fact is, people who are hiring want an easy-to-read, clear presentation that highlights your achievements and credentials. That’s what will land you an interview.
• Tailor your resume. Keep a standard resume document that you can customize for the specific job you’re applying for. That might mean moving sections around, highlighting specific skills or experiences, or deciding which parts of your career deserve to be placed up front. Take a close look at the job description, and tailor your resume accordingly.
• Don’t try to circumvent the system. Years ago, people would tell you to ignore requests to send your resume and instead show up in person. Our advice: Don’t do it! Application systems are nearly all online these days, and for good reason. This helps hiring committees by organizing information efficiently and ensuring they meet all anti-discrimination laws. So just send your resume and application using the method requested.
• Don’t forget a cover letter. A great cover letter really can help your resume stand out. Learn how to make your teacher cover letter special here.

Contact Information

On today’s resumes, your mailing address is optional. In fact, if you’re looking for a job outside of your current geographical area, it can sometimes be helpful to leave it off. This way, employers won’t worry about whether you’re willing to relocate for the job.

Email addresses are not optional. This is the way most schools will contact you today, so be sure to provide yours. You might want to take a look at your address to make sure it sounds relatively professional too. Ideally, it simply contains a version of your name (e.g., “[email protected]”); don’t forget you can grab a free email address from sites like Gmail if you need to. But other addresses are fine too, as long as there’s nothing questionable. “[email protected]” is fine. “[email protected]” is not.

Professional Objective/Summary

As mentioned earlier, resume objectives are used less and less today. Recent college grads or those transitioning to teaching careers might still decide to include a professional objective statement. Those with more experience have replaced objectives with a summary statement that provides an overview of their career. It’s also OK to delete this section altogether if you’d like more space in the Relevant Work Experience section.

Education and Certifications

Include your undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as any certifications or licensures you hold. Note: It’s up to you whether you include your graduation date. Some people worry it can open them up to age discrimination. You’ll likely be asked for this information if you continue in the hiring process, so they can verify your degrees.

Related Experience

This is the real meat of your teacher resume. You can list jobs chronologically starting with the most recent, or choose to place your most relevant experience first. Either way, include your employer’s name, dates of employment, and the position/s you held. Then, highlight your experience and achievements. Strive to make your statements measurable and quantifiable rather than just a listing of your job duties.

Weak statements:

• Taught fifth grade science and math
• Prepared students for standardized math tests
• Oversaw annual school science fair

Strong statements:

• Instructed 100+ students each year in fifth grade science fundamentals, including human anatomy, electricity and magnetism, and earth and space science
• Improved standardized testing math scores by an average of 8% over a period of five years
• Organized seven annual school science fairs by coordinating 200+ participants, finding qualified judges, and arranging for prizes donated by the community

New college grad? You should definitely include your student teaching or internship experience in this section!

Additional Experience

You can use this section to include jobs you’ve held that aren’t quite as relevant to the one you’re applying for. If you’re new to the working world, it’s OK to include non-teaching jobs here. For those with longer careers, it’s probably not necessary to list every job you’ve ever had. Just highlight any experience that helps support your application or fills any employment gaps.

Professional Honors and Leadership

If you’ve received awards or honors related to teaching, share them here. The same goes for any leadership roles you’ve held in educational professional orgs.

Professional Affiliations

If space allows, you might want to include a short list of respected professional organizations you belong to. You should definitely include them if you play a very active role, have been invited to speak as an education expert at a conference, etc. Otherwise, this section is optional.

Other Teacher Resume Sections

Here are some sections you might consider adding if you have space, and a few to skip altogether.

• Professional skills: Don’t include this section if your skills are simply those expected of any teacher. But if you’ve built up any unusual and relevant teaching skills through experience or professional development, you could include them here. (Fluency in multiple languages, for example.)
• Community involvement or volunteer work: If you’ve been heavily involved in community organizations that work with children or education, consider highlighting those achievements on your resume.
• Publications: Have you published articles in an educational or professional journal, or had your work featured on a trusted, well-known website? Include any relevant articles and links.

Here’s what you don’t need on your resume:

• Hobbies or “unique” unrelated skills (like “juggling” or “Cordon Bleu chef”).
• Any information about religious or political affiliations, or your marital status, gender, race, or age. These could lead to potential bias or discrimination in the hiring process.
• References: Most people leave this section off their resume these days, as job applications or hiring committees will ask you for them separately. Line up your references and gather their contact information, but hang onto them until you’re asked to provide the info. You don’t even need to put “References available upon request,” since hiring managers already assume that.

As you complete your teacher resume template, use these examples for ideas about what to include and how to word it.

1. First-time teacher

This is a great resume for teachers with little to no experience.

2. Another first-time teacher example

Here’s one more example of a great teacher resume for those with limited experience.

3. Experienced elementary teacher

This one allows you to showcase your skills in a compact, visually appealing design.

4. Another experienced elementary teacher

This is one of those teacher resume examples that work best for those with some experience but who are still early in their career. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

5. Summer school teacher

Use this resume to highlight the unique skills of summer school teachers who work with students who are either repeating a course or trying to get ahead for the following school year.

6. Assistant teacher

Applying for an assistant teacher job will be much easier using one of the five fantastic teacher resume examples through this resource.

7. Special education teacher

As a special educator, your responsibilities may change from minute to minute and your skills need to adapt. This template helps you simplify your experience in a one-page resume.

8. School counselor

This resume will help you showcase your excellent mentoring, counseling, and leadership skills.

9. School guidance counselor

As a guidance counselor, your role is to guide students through academic development as well as personal growth. Use this template to show you how to highlight your unique talents.

10. Library media specialist

Showcase your ability to collect and maintain the valuable resources needed to foster a strong learning environment for students.

11. High school English teacher

Use this guide to create a great English teacher resume that will highlight your communication, interpersonal, and planning skills to edge out the competition.

12. Technology teacher

Emphasize your commitment to the ongoing professional development necessary to continue integrating the latest technology into the existing curriculum, and coming up with new lesson plans for today’s classrooms.

13. Music teacher

Share and showcase your love of introducing music to students with this straightforward teacher resume.

14. Drama teacher

This resume example is simple but perfect for drama teachers who want to emphasize their experience as well as their knowledge of acting techniques and production.

15. World language teacher

Establish yourself as the ideal candidate by demonstrating teaching skills, language proficiency, communication, and organizational skills.

16. Sports coach

As a coach, this template will help you demonstrate your ability to manage teams and sports programs as well as encourage academic performance.

17. ESL teacher

This teacher resume example allows you to highlight your classroom management skills, as well as your commitment to empathy, patience, and cultural awareness. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

18. Math teacher

This clean resume template showcases a math teacher’s ability to break down complex math concepts through patient, meaningful engagement with students.

19. Pre-K teacher

It takes a special person to be a great pre-K teacher. Working with young children while creating lesson and activity plans, monitoring progress, and providing quality supervision takes patience and kindness.

20. Business teacher

Put your best foot forward with this business teacher resume that emphasizes teaching methods and a commitment to ongoing professional development.

21. International school teacher

Use this resume to let hiring managers know that you’re not only motivated to help students learn but uniquely qualified. Be sure to highlight any experience living or traveling abroad as well as foreign language skills.

Get Your Free Teacher Resume Template

Just fill out the form on this landing page for instant access to a free Google Doc featuring a fully customizable teacher resume template.

Plus, check out tips for teacher job fairs and the most common teacher interview questions.

Want more articles like this be sure to subscribe to our newsletters , you might also like.

25 Teacher Cover Letters Examples To Help You Get Hired

Your guide to a killer cover letter that will get you that interview. Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

June 09, 2024 78 °F PBS Passport .st0{fill:#0A145A;} .st1{fill:#5680FF;} .st2{fill:#FFFFFF;} UH Search for: Search MENU CLOSE News & Information Features Hello Houston inDepth Topics Local News Statewide News Business Education News Energy & Environment Health & Science Immigration Politics Transportation All Stories >>> Arts & Culture Arts & Culture Main Classical Music Music Opera & Musical Theater Dance Visual Art Literature Theatre & Film Voices and Verses: A Poem-A-Day Series Awareness Hispanic Heritage Pride Month: Better Together! Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Black History Women’s History Education Programs & Podcasts Local Programs Party Politics Houston Matters with Craig Cohen I SEE U with Eddie Robinson Texas Standard UH 100 Years of Houston Bauer Business Focus Briefcase Engines of Our Ingenuity Health Matters UH Moment Features Dead and Buried Career Frontier Podcasts Below the Waterlines: Houston After Hurricane Harvey Party Politics Skyline Sessions Encore Houston All Podcasts >> Support Membership Update Payment Method Upgrade Your Monthly Gift Give a Gift Membership Giving Programs Affinity Council Studio Society In Tempore Legacy Society Innovation Fund Volunteers Foundation Board Young Leaders Council Mission Ambassadors Donations Vehicle Donation Giving Opportunities Employee Match Program More Ways to Give Partnerships Corporate Sponsorship About About Us Meet the Team Join the Team Contact Us Ethics and Standards Reports & Financials Press Room Listen Watch Donate Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Linkedin Mastodon googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1488818411584-0'); }); Education

Almost half of texas fourth graders scored a zero on the staar writing composition last year. teachers and researchers worry, while the tea projects confidence.

The Texas Education Agency changed a lot about the state’s standardized test over the past couple years. Researchers and teachers worry the new approach to writing could kill creativity, but the TEA argues it better reflects how learning happens in class.

Erika De La Rosa was excited when she heard about the sweeping changes to the STAAR exam .

"When they initially announced it, as an English teacher, it sounded like a fantastic idea because writing should be incorporated everywhere," De La Rosa said.

She teaches seventh grade in Houston ISD. Before last year, writing was only tested on a separate exam in fourth and seventh grade, as well as in high school.

"What I saw for years was that because it was only tested in fourth and seventh grade, students would only get explicit writing instruction in fourth and seventh grade," she said. "And so as a seventh-grade teacher, I would be scrambling to try to figure out how can I cover all of these grammar mechanics? How do I cover all of these writing techniques? What can I drop? What do we need to focus on?"

For the first time last year, every public school teacher in Texas from third through eighth grade had to grapple with those questions. The STAAR 2.0 redesign was complete, including a complete shift to an online testing platform, instead of the traditional paper exam. It also marked the end of the separate writing exams in fourth and seventh grade; instead, writing was included at every grade level.

The results were eye-popping. Before the changes, about 5% of students across the state scored a zero out of 8 on "constructed response" writing questions, which are similar to essay prompts. After the changes, 46% of fourth graders scored a zero out of 10 — 20% in seventh grade, and 25% in high school.

"I'm not fully surprised because the test is so new and so different from how things have been in the past," De La Rosa said. "Because years prior, the task was simply composition. Can they compose something that makes sense, that is all organized, that is grade-level writing? It didn't require, like, a literary analysis."

Students also performed poorly in grades where writing was assessed for the first time. Last year, 42% of third graders scored a zero on constructed response questions — along with about 25% of students in fifth, sixth and eighth grade.

Teachers, researchers and school leaders argue the new approach to writing assessment could kill creativity and curiosity in the classroom, especially with the way test scores tie into the TEA's more stringent school accountability system. The TEA continues to project confidence about the changes, arguing the shift is intended to align the test with how teaching happens in the classroom.

‘Comparing apples to celery'

Chris Rozunik with the Texas Education Agency argued that year-to-year comparisons of constructed response scores are "kind of comparing apples to celery in some ways."

As she pointed out, the shift from paper to online was not the only change. The writing composition questions are also different. They now include cross-curricular reading passages that reference multiple subject areas, and the grading rubrics for writing questions are more stringent.

"We are asking students to think differently about answering these questions," Rozunik said. "When we set those standards last spring, we like to think about it as a very different world."

It's also important to note that an increase in zeros on writing compositions doesn't necessarily mean an increase in the number of students who failed the STAAR. For example, 78% of fourth graders passed the RLA STAAR last year compared to 77% the year before.

Before the redesign, students had to get about half the questions on the test correct to "approach" grade level (to pass the test). Now, there are more types of questions , including ones that allow partial credit , and students only have to get credit for about a third of the questions to "approach" grade level.

"It's not a percentage as we think of in school — you know, 70% is passing," Rozunik said. "You need to step away from that scale entirely and think about the test as a whole, keeping in mind that we're required to measure every student in the state of Texas, including the most high-flying, smartest kid on the planet. Within the scale which we generate, you need a lot of room above the approaches category, which is that very first level that students can be considered on track for success in the future."

The TEA insists the online shift didn't make the test more difficult, but researchers still have questions about that. With the exception of pre-approved accommodations for kids with disabilities, all students from third grade through high school now take the exam on a computer.

Jodi Pilgrim is associate dean with the College of Education at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. She's also a former fourth-grade teacher.

"We're wanting to assess how good they are at writing, but there's a possibility that we're also assessing how well they can type," she said. "Those that are really good typers are going to do better on it."

Concerns about creativity

Pilgrim also worries the new approach to writing could stifle creativity.

Before the STAAR 2.0 redesign, in the spring of 2021, fourth graders were given this quote: "Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students." Their writing prompt: "Write about the best teacher you know."

"I liked this a lot as a teacher," Pilgrim said. "It was open-ended. Because if the prompt was a personal experience, any student can write about that. We tend to start our school years writing personal narratives because all students can tell about themselves."

All students now read longer passages, and then write a response.

Last year, the fourth-grade passage was 500 words about salamanders, Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer. Fourth graders were then asked to write about the importance of the aquifer.

"‘Explain why the aquifer is important in the article,' so I would just take that exact same sentence and say, ‘The Edwards Aquifer is important because ...' Well, that didn't take much thought," Pilgrim argued. "One of the things we really focus on in schools right now is critical thinking. The world we live in requires the critical thinker. I don't really have to think critically to write these responses."

Rozunick said the TEA intended to make the writing questions more universally accessible through the redesign.

"There's enough information in that prompt, in any prompt, in any text we have moving forward to be able to really get enough information in order to answer the question," Ruzunick said. "You do not have to bring in other life experiences or emotions in order to answer these questions. And quite honestly, they're probably more fair and equitable to students than, you know, ‘what's your favorite teacher' or ‘what you did last summer?'"

Pilgrim expects teachers will develop and teach a writing formula for students, especially with the rollout of "machine scoring" for writing questions this year. Most student writing is now graded by a computer, not a person, as first reported by the Dallas Morning News . According to the TEA, machine scoring is not significantly different from human scoring, but it is cheaper and faster.

De La Rosa believes teachers will still have to spend time teaching to the test, but she doesn't think the pressure will kill creative writing entirely — at least not in her classroom.

"I've been really fortunate to be on the campus that allowed me that flexibility or kind of trusted me to make those calls," De La Rosa said. "There are plenty of campuses that I know and plenty of teachers in situations where they're not trusted and they're told exactly what they are allowed to do and what they're not allowed to do."

"So I think that is a very valid fear that STAAR being this way will limit a lot of creativity," she continued. "Because as much as we would love to say, like, ‘Oh, don't teach to the test,' it really is circumstantial to what campus and what district you're in because not all of us are at campuses that allow us the freedom, and not all of us are in districts that trust us to make those decisions for our kids."

This debate is not new

The pressure to teach to the test doesn't come from the STAAR exam itself — it comes from the way the state holds districts accountable for test scores.

One extreme example is the state takeover of Houston ISD, which was partially motivated by low test scores at one school. The TEA-appointed management board of Houston ISD wants to significantly increase the percentage of students across the district who meet grade-level standards on the STAAR, and TEA-appointed superintendent Mike Miles has implemented a centrally-created curriculum in dozens of schools that previously struggled with the test.

The pressure to improve test scores is a consistent presence across the state.

"Yeah, accountability can do that — those pressures of teaching," Pilgrim said. "The district feels the pressure of it, the principal feels it. It trickles down, and the teachers feel it. What's really unfortunate is when the students feel the pressure."

In many ways, the test is now low-stakes for students. They do not have to pass the STAAR to move on to the next grade level. But STAAR remains high-stakes for teachers, schools and districts.

The Texas Education Agency assigns school districts and campuses an A through F accountability rating, based largely on students' test scores and post-graduation readiness. As the STAAR 2.0 redesign unfolded, the TEA also overhauled its A through F system.

At a press conference about the A through F revamp in May 2023, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath explained the reason for the more stringent approach.

"We want to eliminate achievement gaps by race and by class, and we want to ensure that Texas is a leader in preparing students for postsecondary success across the nation," Morath said. "This is kind of the rigorous expectation Texas needs to be a national leader in preparing students for postsecondary success."

More than 100 school districts sued the TEA , and the new ratings are currently held up in court.

Tension over test-based accountability has been around for a while, as Duncan Klussman with the University of Houston's College of Education explained.

"Over the last 20 to 25 years, this has been a constant process where the state establishes a testing system, gives it a name, and then establishes an accountability system," Klussman said. "And what you see typically is in the first few years of a new system, you see kind of lower scores overall. Then districts start to understand it better, and teachers understand better, and you see scores kind of grow over time."

Throughout that time, debates raged over whether tests measure social inequality more than school quality, to what degree policymakers should use test scores to dictate how teachers work in the classroom, and whether there are more meaningful ways to measure "student achievement" than one test on one day of the year.

H.D. Chambers is the executive director of the Texas School Alliance.

"I don't want to dismiss any superintendent or any board member or any elected leader who is hyper-focused on student achievement," Chambers said. "But is that student achievement being defined by just one thing?"

Resources like these are made possible by the generosity of our community of donors, foundations, and corporate partners. Join others and make your gift to Houston Public Media today! DONATE

Sign up for our daily weekday newsletter - hello, houston sign up now.