School districts should certify their own teachers to answer the shortage
On May 27, after eight years of work in the classroom at all levels K-12, I decided to exit the teaching profession.
I have been proficient and effective for many years without being certified. I even drank the kool-aid and enrolled in the iTeach certification program. After a few months in the program, I saw it as a waste of time and money and stopped taking the online courses. Sure, I’d completed Praxis 1, Praxis 2, and the PLT. To me, I considered this good enough to be considered “certified”.
Afterall, many of the veteran educators and administrators only had to have completed the Praxis tests to be considered certified.
The issue, I feel, is that educators with a Bachelors degree in any degree program other than education are deemed individuals that must go through a program they must pay for to be taught how to write lesson plans, how to manage a classroom, the ethical duties of educators, and how to combat child and adolescent psychology.
All of these factors are important and should be required of educators. But to demand that teachers take a $4,000 program to prove that they understand these lessons is a heavy burden. You have many individuals out there that don’t mind teaching, but they just don’t have that kind of money to spend on a certification program.
Districts say “well we will reimburse you after you finish the program”. That is not enough. Go ahead and pay for the program…or eliminate the need for the program. In most school districts, teachers undergo weekly professional development sessions. Sometimes these are quarterly whole-day sessions. What is covered in these sessions? Usually the same type of material covered in a teacher certification program of which many seasoned educators find boring, time consuming, and redundant because…..well..they’re certified.
I think districts are well equipped to certify their own teachers. When I worked for the Monroe City School District, I took a month-long technology course under Mr. Jodie Morehead. We met afterhours at the central office and learned about all of the exciting software and website programs available for teachers to use in the 21st century classroom. We even received a Google Chromebook to use for our own personal use as a reward for attending the program. Teachers did not have to pay for the course but the lessons learned were exactly what were needed for today’s classroom.
The same could be done for certifying teachers. You have long-term subs or interested individuals who have Bachelor’s Degrees that want to come in and be teachers, go ahead and hire them as fully paid teachers and put them in a one-two month long after school certification program. They’d meet 1-2 hours once a week, then at the conclusion of the program, you’d have teachers who have met certification requirements. They’d have taken Praxis 1, Praxis 2, the PLT and have gone through the district’s certification program.
Here’s the recommendation: The school district should be able to write up a plan to present to the state that outlines that the district-level certification program is aligned to state requirements. Ensure that interested educators have a Bachelor’s degree, pay for their Praxis exams (a check refund when they pass them), and put them through a district-level certification program (of which the teacher does not pay).
Take one of your former principals from the central office and make him/her the evaluator of the teachers to go to the sites and observe their performance in class. Give them a year to complete the Praxis exams and district-level program, under a Practitioner’s License. That should be sufficient enough time. All of this should be completed while the teacher is earning “certified pay”.
I taught for 8 years. I was never a certified teacher.
However, my students were very successful in social studies in successive grades, some becoming Salutatorians of their high school graduation class. I was brought in by the Monroe City School District twice to serve on the New Teacher Orientation Panel and named Teacher-of-the Year in 2021 while a teacher at Bastrop Junior High School. I even found time to earn a Master’s Degree in History and set up the Dual Enrollment program for Bastrop High School. Interestingly, I was qualified to give high school students college credit, but I wasn’t certified to teach the high school students the same American History course.
I’ve never made less than a 2 on a Compass Evaluation and have scored many 3s and some 4s on regular observation.
You don’t have to be a certified teacher to know how to care for students and give quality education. There are more people like me out there who are willing and able to do the job. They know their content and can teach. Hire them and train them yourselves. That will answer your shortage!
