Hiring Policy
Emergency License(s) Availability: Oklahoma allows teachers who have not met licensure requirements to teach under an emergency certificate. A school district may hire an individual meeting minimum standards only after efforts to hire a certificated teacher have been exhausted. In addition, verification that the applicant has either passed the requested subject-area test or is registered for the next available test date is required.
Emergency License Validity Period: Oklahoma's emergency certificate expires June 30th of the school year for which it was issued—making it normally valid for one school year.
Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
Oklahoma's policy offering its emergency certificate for one year only minimizes the risks inherent in having teachers in
classrooms who lack appropriate subject-matter knowledge; however, the state
could strengthen its policy by requiring all teachers to meet subject-matter
licensure requirements prior to entering the classroom.
Oklahoma recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
6B: Provisional and Emergency Licensure
Teachers who have not passed content licensing tests place students at risk. While states may need a regulatory basis for filling classroom positions with a few people who do not hold full teaching credentials, many of the regulations permitting this put the instructional needs of children at risk, often year after year.[1] For example, schools can make liberal use of provisional certificates or waivers provided by the state if they fill classroom positions with instructors who have completed a teacher preparation program but have not passed their state licensing tests. These allowances are permitted for up to three years in some states. The unfortunate consequence is that students' needs are neglected in an effort to extend personal consideration to adults who cannot meet minimum state standards.[2]
While some flexibility may be necessary because licensing tests are not always administered with the needed frequency, making provisional certificates and waivers available year after year could signal that the state does not put much value on its licensing standards or what they represent. States accordingly need to ensure that all persons given full charge of children's learning are required to pass the relevant licensing tests in their first year of teaching, ideally before they enter the classroom. Licensing tests are an important minimum benchmark in the profession, and states that allow teachers to postpone passing these tests are abandoning one of the basic responsibilities of licensure.