Licensure Loopholes: Rhode Island
Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Rhode Island's policies
Rhode Island allows teachers who have not met licensure requirements to teach under its emergency permit. This permit is valid for one year and may be issued to individuals who lack the requirements for the professional certificate if the local superintendent can document that a certified teacher is unavailable.
Recommendations for Rhode Island
Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
While Rhode Island's policy minimizes the risks brought about by having teachers in classrooms who lack sufficient or appropriate subject-matter knowledge by offering its alternative license for one year only before teachers are required to take the obligatory subject-matter tests, the state could take its policy a step further and require all teachers to meet subject-matter license requirements prior to entering the classroom.
State response to our analysis
Rhode Island recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state noted that if adopted, proposed certification regulations would address this issue.
Last word
NCTQ looks forward to reviewing the state's progress in future editions of the Yearbook.
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Rhode Island
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Preparation Programs
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- 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
Research rationale
Research has shown that "the difference in student performance in a single academic year from having a good as opposed to a bad teacher can be more than one full year of standardized achievement." See E. Hanushek, "The Trade-Off between Child Quantity and Quality," The Journal of Political Economy 100 No. 1 (1992): 84-117. Hanushek has also found that highly effective teachers can improve future student earnings by more than $400,000, assuming a class of 20. "The Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality." National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper 16606 (2010).