Hiring Policy
Eligibility for Standard License: Ohio allows teachers with comparable out-of-state certificates and at least three years of experience to be eligible for its professional certificate.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Ohio does not require evidence of effective teaching during previous employment in its reciprocity policy.
Testing Requirement: Ohio requires all out-of-state teachers to meet its licensure test requirements. Those who have passes content exams for their out-of-state licenses may submit their official score reports for consideration. Out-of-state teachers seeking an early childhood (PK-3), middle childhood (4-9), intervention specialist, or early childhood intervention specialist educator license must also pass the Ohio Assessment for Educators Foundations of Reading exam. Ohio offers a nonrenewable out-of-state educator license, which allows candidates up to one year to pass its licensure assessments.
Additional Requirements: Ohio requires out-of-state teachers seeking an early childhood, middle childhood, or intervention specialist license to complete teaching of reading coursework, which includes: nine semester hours in the teaching of reading and a three-semester hour course in the teaching of phonics. At least six hours of coursework must be completed prior to the issuance of a standard teaching license; the remaining coursework is listed as a limitation on the license and must be completed prior to advancement or renewal.
Background Checks: Ohio requires a full criminal-history background check.
Require evidence of effective teaching when determining eligibility for full certification.
To facilitate the movement of effective teachers between states, Ohio should require that evidence of teacher effectiveness, as determined by an evaluation that includes objective measures of student growth, be considered for all out-of-state candidates.
Offer a standard license to certified out-of-state teachers, absent unnecessary requirements.
Although NCTQ applauds the spirit of the science of reading coursework requirement, the achievement of these skills can be sufficiently demonstrated with a test-out option. Offering this option would not only ensure that out-of-state teachers possess the knowledge to teach children to read, but it would also alleviate the potential to deter those who have already fulfilled a similar requirement in their originating state from applying for certification.
Ohio recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
6A: Requirements for Out-of-State Teachers
Evidence of effectiveness is far more important than transcript review.[1] In an attempt to ensure that teachers have the appropriate professional and subject-matter knowledge base when granting certification, states often review a teacher's college transcript, no matter how many years earlier a bachelor's degree was earned. A state certification specialist reviews the college transcript, looking for course titles that appear to match state requirements. If the right matches are not found, a teacher may be required to complete additional coursework before receiving standard licensure.[2] This practice holds true even for experienced teachers who are trying to transfer from another state, regardless of their prior success. The application of these often complex state rules results in unnecessary obstacles to hiring talented and experienced teachers.[3] Evaluation systems which prioritize effectiveness and evidence of student learning offer an opportunity to bypass counterproductive efforts like transcript review and get to the heart of the matter: is the out-of-state teacher seeking licensure in a new state an effective teacher?
Testing requirements should be upheld, not waived. While some states have historically imposed burdensome coursework requirements, many have simultaneously failed to impose minimum standards for licensure testing. Instead, some states have offered waivers to veteran teachers transferring from other states, thereby failing to impose minimal standards of professional and subject-matter knowledge. In upholding licensure standards for out-of-state teachers, the state should be flexible in its processes but vigilant in its verification of adequate knowledge. It is all too common for states to develop policies and practices that reverse these priorities, focusing diligently on comparison of transcripts to state documents while demonstrating little oversight of teachers' knowledge. If a state can verify that a teacher has taught successfully and has the required subject-matter and professional knowledge, its only concern should be ensuring that the teacher is familiar with the state's student learning standards.
States licensing out-of-state teachers should not differentiate between experienced teachers prepared in alternate routes and those prepared in traditional programs. It is understandable that states are wary of accepting alternate route teachers from other states, since programs vary widely in quality. However, the same variance in quality can be found in traditional programs.[4] If a teacher comes from another state with a standard license and a clean criminal record, has demonstrated evidence of effectiveness, and can pass the state's licensure tests, whether the preparation was traditional or alternative should be irrelevant.[5]