Teacher Certification

What’s it all about?
Arguments in Favor
Arguments Against
FYI: Further Reading

What’s it all about?

• With the call across the country for improved public schools, a great debate has begun about how exactly to achieve a higher standard of education for our nation’s children. One proposal has been to reform the teacher certification process. Currently, the teacher certification process varies greatly across the states, but for the most part, at least a Bachelor’s degree or even a Master’s degree in addition to a state certification test is required. Unfortunately, most of the research conducted about the relationship between teacher certification and student performance has been inconclusive and, therefore, it is more difficult to cite statistics to prove one side or the other in this debate. Click here for more information from TeachersCount on teacher certification.

Arguments in Favor:

• In many states, teacher certification policies require that the prospective educator attend years of additional schooling, despite the possibility that they may be experts in their field, i.e., math or science and may be perfectly adequate teachers already. A relaxation in teacher certification laws could allow these professionals to enter the education sector more quickly.
• In the coming years, more and more teachers are planning on retiring and there will be a large deficit in the number of available teachers. Offering alternative routes to teacher certification (such as Teach for America) could encourage more people to pursue a career in education and fill this deficit.
• In many private schools, teachers are not required to be certified, but these schools perform as well as or better than public schools where teachers are required to be certified.

Arguments Against:

• Certification tests ensure that there is a nationalized or state-wide standard for the teaching profession.
• Studies have not yet proven that certification requirements are inadequate. Education schooling can instill many important skills in prospective teachers, such as classroom management and lesson plan design.                 

FYI: Further Reading

• Education Sector has multiple articles and research related to teacher quality on its website. The links come from all sides of the teacher certification debate and are great resources for further reading.
• The Organization of American Historians provides an unbiased, neutral survey on its website of teacher certification requirements across the fifty states. It is a great, easy-to-use resource when comparing teacher certification programs around the country.
• The Research Center at EdWeek.org provides an article with background and a summary of research on alternative certification programs. According to this article, most studies have shown mixed results.
• The Education Resources Information Center has an article about the pros and cons of alternative certification programs. It is an overview of the history of alt-cert programs and how they have changed over time and exist as of now. This report must be purchased.
• The American Federation of Teachers is clear in its support of high-quality educators and provides a resource on its website that lists the efforts the AFT has been involved in to improve teacher quality.
• The Center for Teaching Quality recognizes the need for and positive effects of high-quality teachers. They work to build leadership among educators and conduct research to prove the important impact that teacher certification has on student performance. Their website has extensive resources on the subject and their blog from President and CEO, Barnett Berry, is particularly informative.
• The National Council on Teacher Quality is a nonpartisan organization that seeks to improve teacher quality on the federal, state, and local level. They focus on the three main institutions that affect teacher quality: state policy, teacher unions and teacher preparation programs. They have a wealth of scholarly research on the effectiveness of teacher certification programs and other such methods that can produce a high-quality workforce.
• Blackwell Synergy: Establishing Standards for Teacher Certification Tests is a deeper look into teacher certification requirements in comparison to the certification exams for other professions. This report must be purchased.
• Economic Policy Institute: Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes is a comprehensive review of many empirical studies that looks at the correlation between teacher characteristics such as certification and coursework and teacher effectiveness. It is meant to be a guide for putting the highest quality teachers in the nation’s public schools.
• Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University published an essay in response to the Abell Foundation’s report (see below) that had argued against teacher certification. She is clearly in support of continuing teacher certification requirements.
• An additional paper from Linda Darling-Hammond along with other authors looks at the effects of teacher certification on student performance in Houston, TX from 1995-2002. In this study, the authors found that certified teachers generated higher student performance, in contrast to uncertified teachers, especially those in the Teach for America program.
• A Monopoly on ‘Relating to Children’?: Teacher Certification Further Refuted is an article from the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University that makes the argument that traditional teacher certification programs do not necessarily teach teachers how to relate to children. Therefore, a relaxation of certification requirements could allow more people who relate well to children naturally enter the teaching profession.
• The Teacher Certification Debate: Certified and Qualified Are Not the Same is an article from the Center for Education Reform, which argues that simply because a teacher is certified, does not mean that he or she is qualified for the job as seen by the inadequacies of the certification process. CER is a non-profit organization that focuses mostly on school choice and advancing the charter school movement, but comments on many areas of education policy including the debate surrounding teacher certification.
• The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has a newsletter that critiques the current requirements for teacher certification, arguing that they do not differentiate between those teachers who are qualified to teach and those who are not. They compare teacher certification with other professional certifications and give suggestions for future reforms to make teacher certification more comprehensive.
• The Abell Foundation has a report that looks at Maryland certification specifically, but also at national certification requirements as a whole. They argue that current teacher certification programs are inadequate and are often counterproductive when trying to improve teacher quality. They also show that previous studies linking teacher certification to student performance are inaccurate.
• The Progressive Policy Institute released a report in 2001 that makes the case for extensive teacher certification reform. It proposes a competitive model so that prospective teachers could choose a program that fits their needs and emphasizes extensive on-the-job training among other requirements.