Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Evidence of effectiveness: Missouri's requirements for licensure advancement and renewal are not based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
Advancing to a professional license: To advance to the Career Continuous Professional Certificate, Missouri requires teachers to complete the following: four years of teaching; development and implementation of a professional development plan, consisting of at least 30 contact hours and including clearly stated goals for improvement and enrichment; participation in a mentoring program for two school years; participation in a beginning teacher assistance program; and participation in the district's teacher evaluations. Missouri requires individuals with Initial Professional Certificates (IPC) to complete 30 contact hours of professional development during the first four years of teaching.
Renewing a professional license: Missouri requires teachers with Career Continuous Professional Certificates to complete 15 contact hours each year in order to maintain their licenses. The professional development may include hours spent in class in an appropriate college curriculum (one college credit = 15 contact hours) or district-approved professional improvement activities. Teachers may exempt themselves from the professional development requirement by meeting two of the following three criteria: 10 years of teaching experience, possession of a master's degree, and/or holding rigorous national certification.
Require evidence of effectiveness as a part of teacher licensing policy.
Missouri should require evidence of teacher effectiveness to be a factor in determining whether teachers may renew or advance to a higher-level license.
Discontinue license requirements with no direct connection to classroom effectiveness.
Although targeted requirements may potentially expand teacher knowledge and improve teacher practice, Missouri'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 requirements tying licensure renewal to master's degrees.
Missouri should remove its option that teachers obtain a master's degree for
license advancement. Research is clear that master's degrees generally do not have any significant correlation with classroom performance. Rather,
advancement should be based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
Missouri asserted that teachers much participate in a comprehensive, performance based evaluations, and those evaluations must include evidence of student growth.
9A: Licensure Advancement
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. Therefore, 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.[1] 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.[2] The research evidence on requiring a master's degree is quite conclusive: with rare exceptions, these degrees have not been shown to make teachers more effective.[3] This is likely due in no small part to the fact that teachers may not attain master's degrees in their subject areas.
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.