IVY PFEFFER: Takes questions from legislators on teacher shortage.

The Legislative Council’s executive subcommittee today took up an emergency rule proposed by the education department to make it easier for people seeking alternative certification as teachers to get a provisional license.

In the race of intense questioning, the department pulled down the request to gather more information and said it would seek a rule change through a regular rather than emergency process.

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The rule, aimed at coping with a teacher shortage, would allow provisional licensing for someone with a bachelor’s degree, 18 hours in college course work or professional experience in the content of a course they would teach. It would give those people three years to attain a standard teaching license, which also requires the passage of a test in the area being taught.

The proposal met resistance, from a belief that qualified teachers could be moved out of administrative ranks to a concern that this was just “throwing bodies” at a problem and would contribute to poor student scores.

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The meeting opened with remarks by some legislators who suggested they believed bloated administrative ranks could be responsible for a shortage of teachers, not a decline in the number of people entering the profession and an increased number of people leaving it.

Sen. Jimmy Hickey said he was sure the legislature would increase teacher pay next year, but he asked whether the state needed to take a broader look at filling open positions, such as by shifting administrative jobholders into the classroom. Ivy Pfeffer, the deputy commissioner of the education department, said the agency was looking at the number of employees in districts and the number of classroom teachers. She said it was also compiling the number of unlicensed teachers in districts.

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But she also said the emergency rule was in part linked to a decline in the number of people seeking teaching jobs with traditional credentials. She said 113 teachers are currently working under waivers, without licenses, who could qualify for a provisional license under the emergency rule. It would dispense with the need for an assessment test of an applicant first. That would allow such a teacher to be paid at the normal level for teachers and could encourage them to stay on the job.

Said Hickey: “I struggle that you throw out we have this shortage but we don’t know what the numbers are.” He said there were veteran teachers in administrative jobs who could go back into the classroom. And he was worried about “dumbing down” teaching positions by clearing people who haven’t, or can’t, pass a proficiency test in a subject area.

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Sen. Missy Irvin echoed this, saying it wasn’t entirely clear what created a teacher shortage. She, too, talked of moving “seasoned” teachers out of classrooms into different positions, which are better paying. That’s increasing the problem, she said. Is the objective to teach “or employ more people at a higher pay?”

Rep. Jeff Wardlaw pressed Pfeffer on whether the department would support the removal of a requirement of a test in a subject area for provisional licensing. She said it would.

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Rep. Fred Allen said test scores reflect a lack of certified teachers, particularly in poor Delta school districts. “Are we just throwing bodies in the classroom?” he asked. She said districts were doing their best to fill positions with capable people, but “it is a complex problem.”

Asked why districts couldn’t just get waivers for a lack of a licensed teacher, rather than create a provisional licensing plan. Pfeffer said this wouldn’t contribute to the “sustainability” of a workforce. She said districts are just repeating waiver requests over the years.

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Wardlaw complained that the department had waited until the Friday before the week school started rather than asking the legislature to do something in the just-concluded special session or previous Legislative Council meetings during the summer. Pfeffer said the department was still working through legal issues. “I don’t think that’s a good excuse,” Wardlaw said.

Districts in Southeast Arkansas have the greatest number of teachers working under waivers from licensure rules, Pfeffer said in answer to a question. But the problem exists elsewhere. She noted 50 unfilled positions in the Pulaski County School District and the recent decision by the Little Rock School District to hire a private company to provide virtual teachers to fill gaps in several schools.

Rep. Marcus Richmond asked if the department had compiled any data about why teachers leave the profession shortly after entering it. Pfeffer said the department did not. She did say the numbers of people entering education programs in college had stabilized in recent years after declining. Richmond suggested discipline problems discouraged some. They feel like they are entering a “war zone,” he said, and teachers feel they aren’t backed up by administrators.

 

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