Let’s Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE!
Two weeks ago The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in partnership with a host of other groups (Leadership Group on School Staffing Challenges) released proposed changes to teacher licensing in the state of Wisconsin. The leadership group cited the teacher shortage, enrollment declines in teacher education, and school administrators’ need for flexibility when placing teachers in different grade levels and subject specific content areas.
However, other than creating some flexibility for administrators, the proposed changes do little to address the teacher shortage and will likely increase inequities across the state by promoting “fast track” teacher education and an emergency licensing system lacking any incentives that promote full licensure.
More specifically the proposed changes ignore the EXODUS of teachers across the state and the nation and the plummeting enrollment in teacher education programs.
Early this week I had a meeting with a school principal. I asked what he thought about the proposed changes. He said he liked the idea of more flexibility in placing teachers across different grade levels but went on to comment that the changes won’t help issues of teacher morale that are pushing teachers to leave the profession.
And that’s the key issue. While general flexibility and a common sense approach to licensing makes sense, the idea that these changes are related to the teacher “shortage” is problematic. The proposed changes ignore the root of why teachers are leaving and why Let's Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE! | BustED Pencils: