Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Teacher Licensing

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Virginia has altered its teacher licensing requirements

by eliminating a basic skills test and replacing it with a more rigorous reading and comprehension exam.

The result is that teachers will have to be more literate and proficient in the subjects they teach, but educators who do not teach math will no longer have to pass a math test.

The State Board of Education also announced that

teachers who have not yet passed the new tests can spend only one year in the classroom on a provisional license. Previously, they were given three years.

Teachers already holding a Virginia license or those with two years’ experience and a license from another state will not be affected by the new requirements.

I’m by and large okay with these changes, although the one year provisional license may negatively impact the teacher shortage. That might be a necessary evil if those individuals can’t pass this test, assuming its a fair exam. I’m a proponent of making it easier for non-traditional professionals to enter the teaching profession and this new testing regimen, more in tune with a person’s base of knowledge, rather than their education class ticket punching, might help.

Still, there’s a subjective component to evaluating a teacher and I’m not sure how to fairly rate potential or performance in that area.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

  1. Sheila Avatar
    Sheila

    “I’m a proponent of making it easier for non-traditional professionals to enter the teaching profession and this new testing regimen, more in tune with a person’s base of knowledge, rather than their education class ticket punching, might help.”

    I couldn’t agree more! Here in Virginia we have a wonderful source of non-traditional professionals — retiring military. These are folks who are usually in their early 40’s, in good physical shape, know how to maintain control of youngsters (!) and have traveled the world.

    While I know that some school systems do have a legitimate shortage of teachers, the constant cries of Teacher Shortage! have become a pet peeve of mine. Our school boards have created some of this problem through their obsession with vastly reduced class size. I haven’t seen a lot of data on this topic because it is so hard to find, if anyone knows where I can find some more studies or reports, I would really appreciate the help!

    My oldest just graduated from high school, the average class size has dropped about 20% over the course of the 13 years (28 students down to 22 students) she spent in school. I’ve asked a variety of teachers and school administrators if they felt that during this time their students were learning more due to this smaller class size.

    The admins all stated that not only had there been improvements in ‘education’, but also in student behavior. They couldn’t back either claim up with documentation though (testing scores, report card averages or suspension rates).

    The majority of the teachers however said they saw no educational change, and that classroom behavior had become worse over the last few years.

    I think we need to look at what we have gained by making classes smaller, has this experiment worked? Just because something sounds like it should work doesn’t mean it does!

Leave a Reply

Read More