By Sue Loughlin
TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County’s education community is paying close attention to proposals that would revamp teacher licensing rules in Indiana.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett wants to eliminate what he calls burdensome regulations not proven to improve teacher quality.
The proposals were discussed Wednesday at a meeting of the Indiana Professional Standards Board. Among those attending was Brad Balch, dean of the ISU College of Education.
“I’m very concerned we were not involved in the rule change discussions,” Balch said as he was enroute to the meeting.
After the meeting, Balch said he finds some of the proposals alarming and is concerned the quality of teaching and education in Indiana could erode if they are adopted.
The proposals would decentralize and deregulate teacher licensure and place much more control in the hands of local school boards and superintendents, he said.
What’s being proposed as alternative pathways to licensure appear in many ways to be shortcuts that could erode educational quality, Balch said.
Those attending the meeting also wanted to know what’s broken that needs to be fixed, Balch said. “Why are we throwing decades of licensure work to the wind?”
Bennett did indicate that the proposed changes are aimed at helping the state secure Race to the Top federal stimulus funds.
John Orr, Vigo County School Corp. director of human resources, is concerned that the proposed changes in licensure would make it easier for non-teachers to become educators — but that doesn’t necessarily mean quality education for students.
“Why would you want to make being a professional teacher easier? Wouldn’t we want to make it more difficult and strenuous if we really value our children as our most precious commodity?” Orr asked.
Those who want to enter the profession need to learn about such things as teaching methods, child development and classroom management — courses taught at colleges of education, Orr said.
Sonja Frantz, education department chair at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, attended Wednesday’s meeting. “It looks like the process [of changing teacher licensing] is just beginning,” she said.
Initially, the changes seemed like a done deal, but that’s not the case, she said.
The focus appears to be on providing more flexibility for people to obtain a teaching license, and the proposals also place a greater emphasis on content areas as opposed to teaching methods, she said.
She shares concerns that non-educators entering the teaching profession need to understand how to teach their areas of expertise. They need to know how children learn and what motivates them to learn, Frantz said.
Cam Savage, Indiana Department of Education spokesman, said a key concept in the proposals is that educators have expertise in what they teach.
“That’s what every national study has said needs to happen,” he said. “We need to make sure all of our teachers truly have a deep knowledge of the subjects they are teaching.”
Also, the state Department of Education would like to ease the process by which other professionals — chemists, engineers, doctors, lawyers or physicists — become teachers, Savage said.
Now, the licensure process makes it difficult for those professionals to make that career change, he said. “We’d like to see those people make the transition into the classroom more quickly,” Savage said.
One way could be through certification by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, he said.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.
