“For every action…

…there is a reaction.” Newton said that about motion, but he could have just as easily said it about the inertia of education reform—particularly when it comes to getting more teachers into the classroom. Circling around the news today, a Tacoma News Tribune column demonstrates this very point.

Responding to Liv Finne’s editorial on the barrier of teacher credentials in Washington state, Jill Van Glubt flies to the Professional Educator Standards Board’s (PESB) defense. Van Glubt, chair of PESB (which governs teacher certification in WA), seeks to make it clear that changing teacher certification laws to allow more professionals access to the classroom isn’t the silver bullet to increasing math and science teacher capacity or student performance.

“A high degree of knowledge in math and science is necessary for effective teaching, but not sufficient. Just knowing a tremendous amount about a subject does not mean you can teach it to a classroom of 14-year-olds,” writes Van Glubt.

“Teaching credentials that reflect attainment of both subject knowledge and teaching skills do, and must, matter. The purpose of a license is to assure the public that the holder has achieved an expected level of competency. After all, we are entrusting our children to that person’s care. Not only do we know that parents want licensed and qualified teachers, we know from research that it does make a difference.”

But what about Teacher for America? you might ask. Don’t those young teachers lack full licenses and have been shown to increase capacity and test scores?

Van Glubt responds: “Studies on TFA graduate effectiveness haven’t addressed the impact of credentialing and, in one, more TFA graduates held certification in the subject they were teaching than non-TFA. TFA has an impressive track record of high-caliber recruits that achieve positive student learning results. However, very few teachers in TFA stay beyond their two-year commitment.”

The debate on whether or not to reduce teacher certification laws in order to allow more mathematicians and scientists to teach is certainly far from over. Van Glubt recommends “a more aggressive recruitment strategy and greater access to a wider variety of training options,” but one wonders if this is merely more of the same strategy we’ve been using along. On the other hand, as the shortage of math and science teachers captures more attention, we may see more of a public push for dramatically improving current teacher recruitment and retention practices.

Perhaps only time will tell. I wonder what Newton would say…

To learn more about this issue and Alternative Routes to teacher certification, visit PESB’s website.