Heather Mace: New certification does disservice to teachers, students

As Arizona’s students return to school this year, one question is on the minds of many families: How is my child’s school addressing the current teacher shortage? With over 2,000 teaching vacancies still remaining in June, many Arizona schools have turned to hiring teachers with non-standard certificates.

While a Standard certificate is often held by graduates from a teacher preparation program, a non-standard certificate establishes an alternative pathway to certification. The training and experience required to obtain these non-standard certificates can vary widely.

When I began teaching 21 years ago, non-standard certificates were still relatively new. After graduating college, I entered a program that placed folks with degrees outside of education in hard-to-fill teaching positions. Armed with some summer training and an Alternative teaching certificate, I was nervous but excited to meet my class of fifth graders at a low-income school in Phoenix.

Unfortunately, a positive attitude and six weeks of training were not enough to prepare me for what lay ahead. I struggled to manage student behavior, design curriculum, and support my English language learners, all while taking night classes toward my education degree. As a 22-year-old with limited experience and knowledge of best teaching practices, my principal could see I was floundering. By winter break, she had placed me on an improvement plan.

Thankfully, as my training and confidence increased, my teaching improved dramatically. However, I still think back about how my unpreparedness might have impacted the learning of my first-year students.

Those memories came rushing back on July 5, when Gov. Doug Ducey signed Senate Bill 1159 into law. SB 1159 allows Arizona college students to begin teaching grades K-12 while they are still working toward their bachelor’s degree. Under this bill, districts and charter schools can create their own teacher preparation programs, meaning they can drop undergraduate degrees as prerequisites or stop requiring that teachers take college-level education courses.

The law states that these teachers-in-training cannot “regularly instruct students without the presence of a full-time teacher” or instructional coach. However, it also provides a loophole: if these teachers secure an Emergency Substitute certificate, they are allowed to teach unsupervised for 120 days.

Arizonans may wonder how we got to a place where undergrads engaged in on-the-job training are being certified to teach our children. The answer is that SB 1159 is simply the latest in a line of bills that have lowered the requirements for teacher certification. In 2017, the Subject Matter Expert certificate was created so that folks without an education degree could teach a subject area in which they have work experience, a bachelor’s degree, or postsecondary teaching experience.

Then in May 2020, Arizona lawmakers created an Emergency Teaching certificate to allow those with a bachelor’s degree to teach any grade or subject level, even if it is not in the area of their degree. Some districts have begun recruiting international teachers to fill vacancies, and over 1,000 classrooms are being staffed by long-term substitutes.

More than two-thirds of folks with non-standard degrees work in Title-I, or low-income, schools. That means our students with the greatest needs are often being taught by our least prepared teachers.

All this is not to say that folks holding these certificates have done anything wrong. On the contrary, we should be grateful that they have answered the call to teach when schools desperately need them. Plus, with time and training, non-standard-certified teachers have the potential to become truly great practitioners. The problem is, when we throw unprepared teachers into our highest-need classrooms, many will burn out before they can reach that potential.

Instead of creating new certifications every few years, our goal should be to reduce the need for non-standard certificates in the first place. To do that, we must address the root causes of teacher shortages. Chronically low teacher pay, lack of public support and constant battles with the Legislature for funding have impacted Arizona’s ability to attract fully certified teachers.

If we want qualified teachers in classrooms, we must commit to addressing these issues. If we refuse, our attempts to temporarily address this teacher shortage will have permanent effects on our children.