This is regarding “Teacher standards ease amid reforms; States roll back licensing rules” (Metro, Aug. 1). The story leaves the public under the false impression that suddenly unqualified teachers will be instructing their children in classrooms throughout Illinois.
In a nutshell: The legislation placed an emphasis on teachers taking master’s level courses and entering the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Program, it provides for more oversight and rigor regarding the quality of continuing professional development courses or workshops that teachers may attend, and it recognizes teachers as professionals who will no longer be subjected to the mindless bureaucracy of the old system.
Lawmakers together with representatives from the teachers unions, higher education, civic organizations, the governor’s office and the Illinois State Board of Education drafted Senate Bill 1553.
This law helps teachers and will not hurt students. We listened to teachers’ complaints about the volumes of paperwork required for renewal of their standard and master certificates, so we eliminated much of that paperwork without lowering the bar or eliminating the need for improvement. We knew that administrative obstacles left thousands of teachers seeking their standard certificates in a lurch, so not only did we assist in creating the programs needed to acquire that certificate, but we also provided them a one-year reinstatement (without charge) to receive that required amount of professional development.
The question was raised and answered: Should a veteran teacher, endorsed in his or her content area, be subject to a barrage of tests when coming to Illinois? The legislation says no, when there is evidence that the teacher has passed equal competency exams in another state.
Therefore the result is not a lowering of our standards but is a streamlined teacher certification process in Illinois that assists both out-of-state teachers applying for certification here as well as those who are currently certified and applying for an advanced teaching certificate. Senate Bill 1553 is about professional reciprocity. It is not a free pass. A portrayal of teachers as anything less than professionals is both insulting and slanderous to the profession.
Your story should have included the following points:
– Teachers from out of state seeking certification in Illinois will not receive a rubber stamp of approval when they cross the state line. Instead they do and will continue to have their experience scrutinized and verified. If they arrive in Illinois from a state where their skills have not been sufficiently tested, they will be subject to tests here.
– There is a misunderstanding about out-of-state certified teachers no longer being required to take the Basic Skills test. The Basic Skills test is a tool higher education institutions in Illinois use to determine whether a college student seeking to enter a teaching program should be admitted. The new law requires that a teacher, who already holds a valid and comparable certificate in another state and is seeking certification in Illinois, has the basic skills test waived. Further, the law requires that if teachers have already passed a content test in another state, they need not take a duplicative test in Illinois.
– On the home front where we will continue to use the Basic Skills test for admission to a teaching program, candidates in Illinois will also have to demonstrate they are competent in the subject area where they are seeking certification: All candidates will have to pass a content area test before they begin their student teaching. This exam will only increase the caliber of new teachers coming into our schools.
– The changes made in rules to the subject areas in which a teacher specializes (endorsements) will ensure that all teachers now seeking to add a subject-area endorsement on their certificates in any of the core academic areas will meet No Child Left Behind requirements, either by having a major in the subject or by having a minor and passing the required state content area exam.
