![]() ![]() Arizona last year allowed substitute teachers to take full-time positions to address the teacher shortage in that state. Some states are pressing “temporary” teachers into service. Oklahoma enacted a law last year to remove the requirement for a general education exam. California lawmakers decided in 2021 to allow aspiring teachers to eliminate two different exams as long as they had taken courses to address basic skills and the subject matter they intend to teach. States have other options to address the teacher shortage, including lowering standards to try to bring in more recruits.Įducation Week reported last year that about a dozen states had relaxed credentialing standards for teachers or were considering doing so. The states hope the new paths to certification will help ease the shortages, but critics argue those who take the programs are not as well trained as traditionally credentialed teachers and will do a disservice to young students. Virginia is just the latest state to turn to for-profit teacher certification companies in an urgent effort to recruit and train more teachers. “Post-pandemic, the gulf is just too wide we can’t fill it with better retention and people coming out of school.” He said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, it probably would have been possible to make up the teacher gap with better retention. “Having the online-trained teachers is better than having the untrained subs we’ve been having.” “We are in the middle of a fairly significant teacher shortage,” Gecker said in an interview. ![]() The situation was worse than the year before, the statistics showed.ĭaniel Gecker, a then-member of the state board of education who voted for the online certification plan, said he agreed only because the program is a three-year pilot and an “opportunity to gather data.” The iteach program includes online courses, after which candidates are placed in classrooms, with some supervision and the agreement of the school districts.Īccording to state statistics, Virginia had more than 3,500 full-time teacher vacancies for the 2022-2023 school year, which is about a 4.5% rate, though vacancies in some specialties are higher. Such companies pledge they will get a candidate teacher-ready in about a year. The board unanimously approved a three-year pilot program and partnered with one of the bigger companies in the fast-track credentialing business, iteach. While some of the Virginia school board members had qualms about the process, they agreed to give it a try due to the nagging high teacher vacancy rate. Faced with alarming teacher shortages, Virginia last month agreed to partner with a for-profit online teacher credentialing company, hoping to get more teachers into classrooms faster and without the higher tuition costs of traditional colleges and universities. ![]()
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