Licensure Advancement: Michigan
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Michigan's policies
Most of Michigan's requirements for licensure advancement and renewal are not based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
To advance from a provisional certificate to a professional education certificate, teachers are required to complete one or a combination of the following: six semester hours in a planned course of study after the issuance of the provisional certificate, 150 state continuing education clock hours, 150 district-provided professional development clock hours, or a master's degree or higher. In addition, teachers must have three years of successful teaching experience.
Teachers also have the option to apply for the Advanced Professional Education Certificate, which is valid for five years. To obtain this level of licensure, a teacher must: "hold the Professional Education Certificate; hold a National board certification or have completed a teacher leader training or preparation program approved by MDE; and have received five consecutive 'effective' or 'highly effective' ratings on annual teacher evaluations in the most recent 5-year period."
Teachers must renew their licenses every five years by completing six semester hours or 150 hours of continuing education units, or a combination of the two. In addition to the above, renewal of the Advanced Professional license requires five consecutive performance ratings of effective or highly effective.
Recommendations for Michigan
Require evidence of effectiveness as a part of teacher licensing policy.
Although Michigan has an optional Advanced Professional license requiring teachers to have five consecutive ratings of effective or highly effective, the state should use evidence of effectiveness from its teacher evaluations as a factor in determining whether teachers advance to the next licensure level or renew their certificates (see "Evaluation of Effectiveness" analysis and recommendations). However, states must consider carefully how to use this evidence, as the standard for denying licensure—the right to practice in the state—should not necessarily be the same standard that might result in termination from a particular position.
Discontinue license requirements with no direct connection to classroom effectiveness.
While targeted requirements may potentially expand teacher knowledge and improve teacher practice, Michigan's general, nonspecific coursework requirements for license advancement and renewal merely call for teachers to complete a certain amount of seat time. These requirements do not correlate with teacher effectiveness.
End policies that tie teacher advancement to master's degrees.
Michigan should modify any policies that encourage or require teachers to obtain a master's degree for license advancement. Research is conclusive and emphatic that master's degrees do not have any significant correlation to classroom performance. Rather, advancement should be based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
State response to our analysis
Michigan was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis. The state added that while it is true that a master's degree earned at any time is an option for fulfilling professional development obligations to advance from the Provisional to the Professional certificate, it is not required nor is it explicitly encouraged.
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Michigan
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
The reason for
probationary licensure should be to determine teacher effectiveness.
Most states grant new teachers a probationary license that
must later be converted to an advanced or professional license. A probationary
period is sound policy as it provides an opportunity to determine whether
individuals merit professional licensure. However, very few states require any
determination of teacher performance or effectiveness in deciding whether a
teacher will advance from the probationary license. Instead, states generally
require probationary teachers to fulfill a set of requirements to receive
advanced certification. Thus, ending the probationary period is based on
whether a checklist has been completed rather than on teacher performance and
effectiveness.
Most state
requirements for achieving professional certification have not been shown to affect
teacher effectiveness.
Unfortunately, not only do most states fail to connect
advanced certification to actual evidence of teacher effectiveness, but also the
requirements teachers must most often meet are not even related to teacher
effectiveness. The most common requirement for professional licensure is
completion of additional coursework, often resulting in a master's degree.
Requiring teachers to obtain additional training in their teaching area would
be meaningful; however, the requirements are usually vague, allowing the
teacher to fulfill coursework requirements from long menus that include areas
having no connection or use to the teacher in the classroom. The research
evidence on requiring a master's degree is quite conclusive: These degrees have
not been shown to make teachers more effective. This is likely due in no small
part to the fact that teachers generally do not attain master's degrees in
their subject areas. According to the National Center for Educational
Statistics, less than one-fourth of secondary teachers' master's degrees are in
their subject area, and only 7 percent of elementary teachers' master's degrees
are in an academic subject.
In addition to their dubious value, these requirements may
also serve as a disincentive to teacher retention. Talented probationary
teachers may be unwilling to invest time and resources in more education
coursework. Further, they may well pursue advanced degrees that facilitate
leaving teaching.
Licensure Advancement: Supporting Research
For
a meta-analysis of the research on the relationship between advanced degrees
and teacher effectiveness, see M. Ozdemir and W. Stevenson, "The Impact of
Teachers' Advanced Degrees on Student Learning" which has been published
as an appendix in Arizona's Race to the Top: What Will It Take to Compete? (NCTQ, 2009).
Studies
in the analysis include: Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L., 2004, Teacher sorting, teacher shopping, and the assessment of teacher effectiveness, which is the previous draft of the current paper entitled C. Clotfelter, H. Ladd, and J. Vigdor, Teacher-student matching and the assessment of teacher effectiveness, January 2006 from the National Bureau
of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 11936, web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w11936; C. Clotfelter, H. Ladd, and J. Vigdor, How and why do teacher credentials matter for student achievement?, January 2007 from the NBER, Working Paper 12828, web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12828. R. Ehrenberg and D. Brewer, Do school and teacher characteristics matter? Evidence from high school and beyond. Economics of Education Review, Volume 13, No. 1, March 1994, pp. 1-17; D. Goldhaber and E. Anthony, Can teacher quality be effectively assessed? National board certification as a signal of effective teaching. Review
of Economics and Statistics, Volume 89, No, 1, February 2007, pp. 134-150; D. Goldhaber and D. Brewer, Why don't schools and teachers seem to matter? Assessing the impact of unobservables on educational productivity. The Journal
of Human Resources, Volume 32, No. 3, Summer 1997, pp. 505-523; D. Goldhaber and D. Brewer, Does teacher certification matter? High school teacher certification status and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy
Analysis, Volume 22, No. 2, June 20, 2000, pp. 129-145; E. Hanushek, J. Kain, D. O'Brien, and S. Rivkin, (2005) The market for teacher quality. Retrieved February 2005 from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 11154 from web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w11154.pdf; E. Hanushek, J. Kain, and S. Rivkin, Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Retrieved August 1998 from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 6691 from web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w6691.pdf; D. Harris and T. Sass, Value-added models and the measurement of teacher quality. Unpublished paper, Florida State University; D. Harris and T. Sass, What makes for a good teacher and who can tell?, Calder Institute, September 2009, Working Paper 30; Harris, D. and T. Sass, Teacher training, teacher quality, and student achievement; Calder Institute, March 2007, Working Paper 3; D. Harris and T. Sass, The effects of NBPTS-certified teachers on student achievement, Calder Institute, March 2007, Working Paper No. 4; C. Jepsen, Teacher characteristics and student achievement: Evidence from teacher surveys. Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 57, No. 2, March 2005, pp. 302-319; D. Monk, Subject area preparation of secondary mathematics and science teachers and student achievement. Economics of Education Review, Volume 13, No. 2, June 1994, pp. 125-145; J. Riordan, Is There a Relationship Between No Child Left Behind Indicators of Teacher Quality and The Cognitive and Social Development of Early Elementary Students? April 8, 2006, Paper presented at the annual meeting of
the American Education Research Association, San Francisco, CA; B. Schneider, Further evidence of school effects, Journal of Educational
Research, Volume 78, No. 6, Jul.-Aug., 1985, pp. 351-356.
For
evidence on the lack of correlation between education coursework and teacher
effectiveness, see M. Allen, "Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation: What Does the Research Say?" Education Commission of the States, 2003