This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After years of steadily rising attrition rates, Utah is now faced with a serious teacher shortage. Unfilled teaching positions are a concern for every district in our state.
As members of Utah State Teachers of the Year and National Network of State Teachers of the Year, we wish to respond to the recent Utah State Board of Education ruling, R277O511, referred to as APT, or Academic Pathway to Teaching Level 1 License, which has received national attention this past month.
This ruling, we believe, was made in good faith in response to the immediate need of many schools, in particular our schools in remote areas of Utah. We understand and appreciate this ruling was meant to assist districts in filling positions where there simply are no longer teacher candidates available. However, as teaching involves a complex set of skills and pedagogical understanding, we believe this fast track to licensure is a potentially problematic solution.
This ruling does not focus on the problem of attracting and retaining strong teachers. It offers districts a temporary fix while creating further challenges for individual schools that must mentor individuals with literally no pedagogical background. This ruling perpetuates the perception that "Anyone can teach." Rather than hiring graduates who have chosen education as a career, this ruling encourages other professionals to "try out" teaching as an alternative occupation. It does nothing to guarantee classroom management training, rich study of pedagogical theory, and intense instructional coaching, all elements that strengthen a teachers' success in the classroom. For these reasons and more, this ruling has come under nationwide scrutiny.
As professional educators, we are well aware that students do not necessarily care what we know. However, students are intensely aware of how well the teacher understands how children learn. In other words, no matter how great a teacher's depth of understanding is, that knowledge is worth nothing unless the teacher can instruct the target audience. Whether students are 5 or 15 years old, a teacher must employ various instructional strategies to be effective. The methodology of teaching is much more complex than merely delivering the content knowledge.
Why are teachers leaving the profession? Forty-two percent of Utah teachers leave within the first five years. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed with solutions that offer teaching as a sustainable career choice. This problem cannot be corrected when the focus centers on yet one more alternate path to teaching. We must look at why we are losing teachers who have been trained to understand the multi-faceted complexities of teaching rather than quickly pull in those who have no instructional background.
We are asking the board to reconsider R277O511. Instead of patching the wound with replacement teachers qualified only in content, we must find a way to demonstrate that Utah really does put their children first. We must respect the rigor demanded by a Utah Level 1 Educator Certificate and be willing to fund education at a level where we can recruit and retain those teachers who are highly qualified and trained.
As members of Utah's chapter of State Teachers of the Year and the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, we are willing and eager to offer feedback on this and other issues the board discusses. We appreciate the board's hard work and dedication to Utah's schools, teachers, and students.
The authors are Utah State Teachers of the Year Melody Apezteguia (2016), Gay Beck (2011), Mohsen Ghaffari (2015), Allison Riddle (2014) and Leigh VandenAkker (2012).