Bill paves the way for unlicensed teachers in Indiana classrooms as answer to shortage

Like the rest of the country, Indiana is struggling to find enough qualified teachers to fill its public school classrooms. Lawmakers have proposed a possible solution: unlicensed teachers.

Right now, traditional public schools can only hire teachers who've met the state's licensing requirements. While there are alternative paths to teaching, the traditional route to a license is a college teacher preparation program, student teaching and licensing exams in content and pedagogy, the actual practice of teaching.

Lawmakers say some would-be teachers are getting hung up on the testing step, performing well in school but failing to pass the state's licensing exam. A proposal in the Statehouse would give them a path into the classroom anyway.

Senate Bill 387 will give new flexibility to Indiana's public schools in their hiring practices, allowing for schools to fill up to 10 percent of their teaching staff with unlicensed teachers.

"There have been a number of students who've graduated from our teacher prep programs, who've graduated with a 3.0 or 4.0 (grade point average) and have not been able to pass our content area exams," said Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis. "This bill is trying to deal with that in several ways."

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The decision to hire unlicensed teachers will still be left up to superintendent and local school boards. The bill does not require districts to hire unlicensed teachers, but does give them the option.

According to state data, about 82 percent of test takers eventually pass their content-area exams. More than 93 percent pass their pedagogy exams.

To be eligible, teaching candidates must hit certain benchmarks with regard to academics, student teaching and testing.

"It mirrors what we allow for charter schools," said Risa Regnier, director of educator licensing for the Indiana Department of Education. "Charter schools already have that flexibility."

A second avenue for unlicensed teachers to enter the classroom would be created through a "career specialist" permit for individuals with work experience in a certain field but not necessarily a teaching license.

The bill also would target particular hard-to-staff positions by allowing teachers specializing in special education, science, technology, engineering or math to receive additional pay. Supplemental pay was previously reserved for teachers who led Advanced Placement courses or had a master's degree.

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Both provisions have been controversial, but have the backing of the Department of Education. Looking for creative solutions to the teaching shortage has been a priority of the department and Jennifer McCormick, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Increasing hiring flexibility for districts was part of McCormick's legislative agenda, released in November ahead of the General Assembly's 2018 session.

During final debate on the House floor this week, some lawmakers questioned the wisdom of hiring unlicensed teachers and likened the bill to putting a band-aid on larger problems.

"We don't have enough qualified teachers and we don't want to pay to have enough qualified teachers, so we create a teacher facsimile," said Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis. "This is a very big problem and we're not addressing it."

The bill passed the Senate 35-12 and cleared the House, 66-29. The bill has been changed since it passed the Senate, so those differences will be hashed out during conference committee in the next week.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.