North Carolina Considers Easing Path To Classroom For Out-Of-State Teachers

On Tuesday, April 27, members of a North Carolina legislative committee voted to recommend removing the testing requirement for teachers new to the state’s schools. Intended to ease the state’s chronic and growing teacher shortage, the recommendation will go to the full legislature, which will convene in May.

Until recently, out-of-state middle and high school teachers recruited by North Carolina school systems have had to pass the state’s subject-area exams to receive a North Carolina teaching license. However in January, North Carolina’s State Board of Education agreed to a one-year moratorium on testing out-of-state teachers. This decision, backed by the state legislature, is meant to drop a requirement believed to discourage qualified applicants.

North Carolina hires about 10,000 new teachers every year, with about a third of those coming from other states. By eliminating the testing requirement, North Carolina will join a large number of other states who are relaxing their certification standards in order to satisfy the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which demands fully licensed teachers in every classroom.

Under the new system, thousands of middle and high school teachers recruited every year would not have to pass the North Carolina subject-area exams. Fully licensed teachers from other states would automatically meet North Carolina’s requirements, regardless of whether those states require similar tests or whether passing scores are lower than North Carolina’s.

While some people, like North Carolina Governor Mike Easley and his predecessor Jim Hunt, view the dropping of the testing requirement as a lowering of teacher quality standards, others, such as assistant superintendent for human resources with Johnston County schools Joyce Wade, see the measure as a means to rid the state of a barrier keeping North Carolina from getting the best candidates into the classroom. The North Carolina state board is reviewing other criteria, such as experience and subject-area preparation, as a way to ensure high quality instruction.

For more information on this topic please visit: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/state_board/

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