Hiring Policy
Substitute License(s): Ohio offers a Short-Term Substitute License and a Long-Term Substitute License. A bachelor's degree is required for the short-term license, and a bachelor's degree plus 12 to 20 semester hours of education courses in the license area sought is required for long-term substitute licenses.
Length of Assignment: Ohio permits short term substitutes to teach for no more than 60 consecutive days in the same classroom. There is no
limit specified for holders of Ohio's long-term substitute license.
Evaluation of Long-term Substitutes:
Ohio has no requirements for the evaluation of any of its substitute teachers.
Require long-term substitute teachers to be evaluated.
Ohio 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. Ohio 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.
Ohio 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.