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Testimony by TCTA pointing out the apparent lack of accountability to the state by Temporary Teacher Certification programs forced a lengthy discussion at the Jan. 11, 2008 State Board for Educator Certification meeting. TCTA has testified consistently against the program as a mechanism to circumvent state educator certification and preparation requirements by allowing a person with a bachelor’s degree to teach for two years without completing or even being enrolled in an educator preparation program; rather, the rules require a school district to train the teacher. Since the program was adopted in Spring 2004, only one TTC has been issued.
The chapter of rules containing the TTC is now up for readoption for the first time, and appeared on SBEC's November 2007 meeting as a discussion item. TCTA testified against the TTC at that meeting, questioning whether it met the federal No Child Left Behind Act's "highly qualified' requirement. The TTC was listed as an action item on the Jan. 11 SBEC agenda. After hearing testimony by TCTA that questioned whether the TTC would be subject to the same state accountability system as all other educator preparation programs, board members expressed concern and asked SBEC staff to clarify the issue. When SBEC staff responded that the TTC is not subject to the state educator preparation program accountability system, but that they would be bringing forth changes to the state accountability system rule at the next board meeting. Board members voiced strong support for changing the rules so that the TTC program has the same accountability to the state as all other educator preparation programs.
Based on the testimony of TCTA and others, SBEC member and TCTA President Janie Baszile introduced a motion to eliminate the TTC, which was seconded by SBEC member John Shirley/counselor. Mr. Shirley spoke strongly in favor of Ms. Baszile's motion, saying that to allow the TTC to continue without resolving the accountability issue first was "putting the cart before the horse'" and the fact that only one TTC certificate had been issued in almost four years certainly begged the question about continuing the TTC. Despite much discussion, Ms. Baszile's motion failed, 3-7, with the majority of the board members' concerns about accountability for the program seeming to be quelled by SBEC staff assurances that the issue would be addressed when the educator preparation program accountability rules were changed and proposed to the board at its next meeting in March.
Web posted: 01/15/08
