/Licensing ‘misunderstanding’ may cost some teachers their jobs, heightening state’s critical teacher shortage

Licensing ‘misunderstanding’ may cost some teachers their jobs, heightening state’s critical teacher shortage

Mississippi News Non-Profit She was not eligible to teach next year, and she found out just a few days later. She said, “I just broke down…because it’s really really difficult.” For fear of losing her visa or being retributed, the elementary school teacher requested not to be identified. Due to an administrative issue, she cannot return to the Mississippi Delta to teach next year. This will result in her losing dozens of teaching jobs in an already difficult area. “You can’t even imagine what kind of stress it is right now. I thought I would be here, so that there wouldn’t be any problems with my family (moving from Mississippi). The teacher explained that right now, we are in a huge mess as I can’t enroll my daughters in school or university due to the fact that I don’t have a job. According to the Mississippi Department of Education, the problem of many non-traditional teachers in Delta – and possibly more throughout the state – potentially being ineligible for renewing their licenses is due to school district leaders misunderstanding the licensing requirements. Others in education believe the situation of the elementary school teacher is indicative of ongoing confusion about how these licenses will be administered. MDE has not provided any clarification. Teachers can obtain a variety of licenses that will permit them to teach in Mississippi. The most confusing is the “Special Non Renewable License for Non Traditional Teachers” which allows anyone who has graduated from college, but not in education, to teach in Mississippi for up to three years. However, they must reapply each year and follow the guidelines for reapplication. The teacher candidate must have passed the Praxis (statewide certification exam) as well as an alternate route program. This is a series of courses that teach educators specific skills, such classroom management. This license is for “non-traditional” teachers who are not able to meet the requirements of traditional teachers. Here is the problem. District superintendents and college deans of Education believed that candidates had three years to complete the requirements and that applicants only needed to demonstrate that they are making progress towards completion to be eligible to teach with the Special Non-Renewable License. Many teachers who used this license were able to teach their first year without having to pass the Praxis. “They (district administrators) told me to go to the Praxis and to enroll in an alternate route program. It doesn’t matter if I pass or fail. They are now telling me that it’s not the case, and the rules have changed,” the Indian elementary school teacher said. She is referring to the “rule change” that states teacher candidates must pass all Praxis requirements in order to reapply to teach for a second school year. This does not mean they can pass it before their three years with this license expire. The state is not able to give an exact number of affected teachers, but they can try to pass Praxis in July and then come back at the beginning of the school year. However, the Praxis is a complex exam that requires proper preparation. The teacher who relocated from India to the Delta can’t return to her classroom to teach unless she passes the July Praxis. Officials at MDE claim that the rule has always been that second-year candidates must be admitted to an alternate route program. This requires passing all Praxis requirements. This confusion may be caused by an incident that happened back in 2016, when the license was first introduced. “We discovered that some institutions had chosen to skip state board requirements for admission to programs. Cory Murphy, executive Director of the Office of Teaching and Leading (MDE), stated that what the department decided to do was to directly address the concern with the institution and not penalize candidates. Murphy stated that MDE only allowed one group of candidates to have the required three years, but that was to be an exception and not the norm. Murphy stated that emails were sent to superintendent groups and meetings were held informing them, but many education leaders weren’t aware of the fact. It is a significant change, because (teacher candidates) at the beginning had three years to complete coursework for the alternate route program, and then to pass all licensure exams. They had to show progress at each year’s end, but they now have to pass the licensure exams at the end of the first,” stated Ben Burnett, ex-director of Meridian Public School District, and dean of William Carey University School of Education. There are many other factors that could have contributed to confusion. * The August 2016 general instructions for the license does not mention passing the Praxis. Although it does state that candidates must enroll in an alternate route program to be eligible for the program, some universities didn’t require applicants to pass the Praxis at the time. * This law does not require that non-traditional candidates must pass all Praxis requirements to be admitted to a program. In addition, the guidelines state that the license will allow the candidate to “allow three years to satisfy all certification requirements.” * The May 2017 general guidelines say that candidates must complete all requirements by the end of their third year. * A memo was also sent to the superintendents in May 2017. Although the memo didn’t specifically mention that candidates must have passed Praxis within the first year, it did state that they would. The memo included guidelines for second-year candidates. The last page of the guidelines is bolded and states that candidates must pass Praxis after 2017. Factoring in high superintendent turnover in the Delta makes it possible for superintendents who arrived in 2018 to have not read the licensing requirements and may have forgotten this memo. It doesn’t matter what the reason for the miscommunication was, teachers will lose their jobs due to it. This is happening at a critical time when there is a shortage of qualified teachers. There were 2,100 teaching positions available and 2,256 uncertified teachers in the state in 2018. The Delta is the epicenter of the crisis. In some districts, as high as 30% of teachers may not have been certified. Burnett acknowledged that while teacher candidates needing to pass Praxis by the second year will be a benefit for the school system overall, there will be immediate negative consequences. He stated that he could see how it would increase the teacher shortage in the short-term. “As we know, the teacher shortage in the state is severe across all regions of the state. Districts that may have had multiple candidates in this situation could make it worse for these school districts._x000D