Hiring Policy
Substitute License(s):
Alaska does not offer substitute licenses, but it does maintain minimal requirements regarding the length of assignment of substitute teachers
(see below).
Length of Assignment:
Alaska specifies that any substitute teaching for more than 20 consecutive days in the same classroom must have a valid teaching certificate.
Evaluation of Long-Term Substitutes:
Alaska has no requirements regarding the evaluation of any of its substitutes. Alaska state policy is unclear on whether substitutes with a current teaching license would be subject to evaluation under the state's evaluation requirements.
Require substitute teachers to have a substitute license or meet uniform minimal requirements.
Alaska should require all substitute teachers to obtain a substitute teaching license. Licenses issued by the state allow for uniform minimum requirements so that all districts have access to a similarly qualified substitute teaching pool. In the absence of requiring a state substitute license, Alaska should establish uniform baseline requirements to help ensure that all substitutes are at least minimally qualified to teach students.
Require long-term substitute teachers to be evaluated.
Alaska should maintain standards for substitute teacher quality and accountability for all substitutes, but especially for long-term substitutes who are expected to stand in for licensed teachers for extended periods of time. Alaska can help ensure that substitute teachers are held to high standards and have access to the supports necessary to improve their practice by requiring evaluations — which it may find appropriate to modify from its standard, state-required teacher evaluations — of long-term substitutes.
Alaska recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
Research finds that teacher absences negatively affect student achievement and growth.[1] While some of this is attributable to the disruption of regular classroom practices and instruction,[2] it may also be attributable to substitute teacher quality. The gap in instructional quality and daily productivity when a regular teacher is replaced by a substitute teacher is significant.[3] However, absences covered by substitutes licensed by the state are not as detrimental to student achievement as those covered by non-licensed substitutes.[4] Some research hypothesizes that the low-skill level and mobility of substitute teachers may contribute to the reduction in instructional focus and quality and that even when substitute teachers are good instructors, they may be unable to effectively implement a teacher of record's long-term instructional strategies.[5] Parents, teachers, principals, and students have concerns about substitute teachers' quality and qualifications.[6] States should maintain rigorous standards for substitute teacher quality and accountability for all substitutes, but especially for long-term substitutes who are expected to stand in for teachers for long stretches of time.