Florida lawmakers eye teacher certification rules

bileca
Bileca

FORT LAUDERDALE – Two key Florida lawmakers say they’re looking to “blow up” the state’s teacher certification regime, giving school administrators greater authority to hire instructors who don’t follow traditional paths to careers in the classroom.

Speaking at a gathering of district and charter school leaders last week in South Florida, Reps. Manny Diaz and Michael Bileca said reducing barriers to entry to the teaching profession might help schools hire qualified instructors — including career switchers with expertise in areas like physics or computer science.

The two South Florida Republicans have both chaired education subcommittees and shaped big-ticket legislation over the past six years. Their influence could grow after the November elections.

If someone has an interest in teaching and an advanced degree in, say, electrical engineering, they said, that person shouldn’t have to take a series of classes on topics like pedagogical theory before going into the classroom. Schools or districts could help those new hires learn to plan lessons and manage classrooms.

“Allow the superintendents and the principals on the ground to make decisions on who is a quality teacher, because they are the ones who know,” said Diaz, R-Hialeah, a former public school teacher and administrator. “There has to be some formula to go with it as well, but give them some say over that. A principal in today’s day and age, with the accountability system that we have, and the competition we have, is not going to keep somebody in the classroom that they don’t feel is going to do the job.”

Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, chairs the House Choice and Innovation education subcommittee.
Diaz.

Florida requires prospective teachers to pass exams in general knowledge, their subject area, and educational practice before they receive full-blown certificates. Those who didn’t get a degree in education typically have to take a series of professional preparation courses.

Bileca, R-Miami, said he’s looked at certification rules in other states, and research casting doubt on the efficacy of those requirements. He said schools should be able to hire teachers based on their subject-matter expertise and “passion” for education, rather than their ability to persevere through a preparation program and jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops.

The idea received a mostly warm reception at a meeting hosted by the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools. But several school leaders said other factors — including funding and compensation — affect their ability to recruit top professionals and keep them around for the long haul.

“I think you should blow it up,” said Linda Terranova, the principal at Western Academy Charter, an A-rated school in Palm Beach County, said of the existing certification system. She said her best teachers improved with the help of the professional development offered by her school and the local district, rather than the classes they took to get certified.

To make the teaching profession more attractive, she said, administrators need to stop micromanaging teachers’ every move, down to how they decorate their classrooms.

“I think we need to start treating these teachers as professionals,” she said. “That’s what you hire them for, and you need to respect them and allow them to be innovative and pragmatic in the classroom. That’s how you’re going to get highly effective teachers.”

Jim Pegg, who leads the charter school office for Palm Beach County Public Schools, said teacher recruitment is often a make-or-break issue for upstart charters.

“There is a large relationship between a failing charter school, and their ability to recruit and retain highly effective teachers,” he said.

But Pegg also offered a personal anecdote to drive home the point that lower barriers to entry won’t solve teacher recruitment on their own. His son is a career switcher, who left his job as an X-ray technician to teach science this year at an alternative high school. A few weeks ago, when his first paycheck arrived, Pegg recalled his son’s reaction: “‘Dad, this is all I get?'”

His point: Money matters too, especially in math and science fields where college graduates command higher salaries.

Diaz and Bileca said they agreed teacher pay is an issue. But they said there’s also a need for structural reforms.

Superintendent Robert Runcie
Runcie

“We need to get away from this factory model and treat these teachers like the professionals that they are,” Diaz said, adding: “We have to blow up this box, and look at the ways that we can attract the experts in these fields into the teaching profession, and then figure out how to compensate them on performance, on quality.”

Robert Runcie, the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools (Florida’s second-largest district), said that to recruit people with math and science expertise, districts may need more money to offer higher salaries. But they may also need to break away from traditional step-and-lane salary schedules that pay all teachers the same way, based on graduate degrees and years of experience.

“It can’t just be about tweaking the existing system that we have, and throwing more money into that model,” he said.

 


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BY Travis Pillow

Travis Pillow is Director of Thought Leadership at Step Up For Students and editor of NextSteps. He lives in Sanford, Fla. with his wife and two children. A former Tallahassee statehouse reporter, he most recently worked at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research organization at Arizona State University, where he studied community-led learning innovation and school systems' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. He can be reached at tpillow (at) sufs.org.

17 Comments

Vance Scheer

We used to do Criss strategies and incorporate best practices. You were never forced to do it. You did it when you were ready to add these items into your teacher toolbox and tweaked it into your teaching. Now, you must be an expert in Marzano best practices so that you pass your observations. Then you must be a grand participant in your PLC meetings in order to be deemed a team player. Some teachers must still take their ESOL classes and tons of PD in order to keep their certificate current. I am not complaining. Teaching is just evidence that you are a life long learner. I do think that many of the classes in college do not lend themselves to prep for what you have to do once you get that teaching job. It’s still a noble career. The kids, even the rough ones, are worth it. The best education for what you have to do in the classroom however, is the knowledge you get from working with teachers who do it everyday. And when that kid sees you after he./she graduates, the intrinsic awards and their smile tells you that you did a great job as a teacher.

Liz Hernandez

Not everyone that gets a degree in anythi g can TEACH.
Just like Manny Diaz and Michael Bileca prove that not everyone that gets elected can legislate correctly.

Travis Pillow

Liz,
The argument here is not that anyone can teach. It’s that the state’s current certification rules don’t really separate those who can from those who can’t, and may be keeping good people away.

Sanity is keeping good people away!!! Vilify a profession, underpay them and expect people to be lined up to do the job… REALLY!!??

Lets apply this to other professions such as doctors. I have an advanced Math degree, so ….. when can I start operating on people in the hospitals. I promise to go to night school while I’m cutting open people lol

Travis Pillow

Greg, that’s an interesting analogy, but I’m not sure teaching and medicine are analagous in this regard. Have you seen any evidence suggesting teacher certification is associated with competence in the classroom? Most of what I’ve seen (e.g. https://www.nber.org/digest/aug03/w9545.html) seems to suggest there’s little association.

Florida’s leaders astonish me in their drive and determination to become the absolute worst state in the country for education.

As I have been educated in NY and taught in NY, VA and FL, I can honestly say it is NOT the best state… probably one of the poorest run, thanks to the Republican ideology that dumber keeps them voting for the Republicant’s.

The analogy with teachers and doctors is the correct analogy. The human mind is a physiological organ. What the Florida legislature is trying to do is pull a fast one. Teachers need to understand pedagogy as equally as content. No where in this article is there mention of this critical aspect of education. Do all learners learn homogenously?

Travis Pillow

Clyde,

I think I – and many of the people weighing in on this issue – take it as read that it’s critical for teachers to understand pedagogy.

The question here is whether the current certification system is effective at imparting that understanding, and ensuring that all teachers have it.

Some people might argue that the current certification regime is effective, and changing it or dismantling it would be harmful. Others assert that it needs to be changed – or that it’s so backward that it should be scrapped altogether, and replaced with something completely new.

I’m not an educator, and I don’t know what the answer is. I’d like to hear what more trained educators think.

As a teacher, I find this approach fascinating. Growing up I attended a public magnet school with ‘artist in residence’ teachers and I truly believe their approach to teaching content in the classroom was knowledgeable and effective, which is the ultimate goal. Perhaps being more open minded would help to shed light into the salary discrepancy issue. Obviously people would be hired based on their current skill set knowledge, a computer science professional wouldn’t be thrown into teaching literature, and classroom management can be taught. The traditional education system could use a shake up and, as they say, it takes a village.
Thanks for the article!

Just because an engineer has excellent math skills doesn’t mean that engineer has the ability or temperament to teach children. Credentialed teachers are trained to teach children. It’s probably safe to assume an engineer is not. Geez Louise! This isn’t rocket science. Florida lawmakers are spending entirely too much time in the sun.

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