Part Time Teaching Licenses: Georgia

Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should offer a license with minimal requirements that allows content experts to teach part time.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Part Time Teaching Licenses: Georgia results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/GA-Part-Time-Teaching-Licenses-7

Analysis of Georgia's policies

Georgia offers the Adjunct License for part-time teaching. To be eligible for the Adjunct License applicants must have a bachelor's degree or higher from an institution of higher education. Candidates are required to a have a minimum of two years work experience in the desired field of certification.
 
Adjunct License applicants are also required to pass a content exam.

The employing district must assign a mentor to the Adjunct Licensed teacher. The adjunct instructor cannot be employed for more than 50 percent of the school day.

Citation

Recommendations for Georgia

State response to our analysis

Georgia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

The origin of this goal is the effort to find creative solutions to the STEM crisis. While teaching waivers are not typically used this way, teaching waivers could be used to allow competent professionals from outside of education to be hired as part-time instructors to teach courses such as Advanced Placement chemistry or calculus as long as the instructor demonstrates content knowledge on a rigorous test. See NCTQ, "Tackling the STEM Crisis" at: http://www.nctq.org/p/docs/nctq_nmsi_stem_initiative.pdf

For the importance of teachers' general academic ability, see R. Ferguson, "Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money Matters," Harvard Journal on Legislation 28 (1991), 465-498.

For more on math and science content knowledge, see D. Monk and J.R. King, "Subject Area Preparation of Secondary Mathematics and Science Teachers and Student Achievement," Economics of Education Review 12, no. 2 (1994), 125-145; R. Murnane, "Understanding the Sources of Teaching Competence: Choices, Skills, and the Limits of Training," Teachers College Record 84, no. 3 (1983)