Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy
West Virginia allows individuals from out-of-state who have completed an approved teacher education program but have not passed West Virginia licensing tests to teach under a temporary certificate. The state may issue a nonrenewable, one-year temporary certificate to individuals who otherwise meet all of the requirements for a professional certificate but who have not passed licensing tests.
Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
While West Virginia's policy minimizes the risks brought about by having teachers in classrooms who lack sufficient or appropriate subject-matter knowledge by offering its temporary certificate for one year only, the state could take its policy a step further and require all teachers to meet subject-matter license requirements prior to entering the classroom.
West Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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).