Certified Professional Educators Make A Difference
Every student and every classroom in Idaho deserves a high-quality educator.
Research shows an educator’s expertise is the single most important school-related variable for strong student achievement. In short, quality educators make quality schools. And the best educators — those skilled in their specific subject, steeped in the science of learning and well-versed in managing classrooms — are, most often, certified by a four-year university teacher training program.
IEA members oppose fast-track alternate routes to licensure that fail to provide aspiring educators the training they need for success. When first introduced in Idaho, alternative certification was intended as a short-term pathway to proper certification.
Unfortunately, alternative certification remains entrenched more than a decade later as one of many of many cost saving tools frequently deployed by school districts in the face of chronic underfunding of Idaho’s public schools.
Idaho must invest in, uphold and protect the integrity of education as a profession and rollback the degradation of professional standards because of underfunding.
Q&A
Why is it important to protect professional standards?
High-quality educators in the classroom are the most important indicator of student success. Educators invest time, money and effort learning their profession, earning certification and sharpening skills throughout their careers.
Dilution of standards robs students of an educator at the top of their practice, negates educators’ investment in their careers and trivializes expectations of such important professionals.
Do alternative educator certification paths make sense?
Yes, if they are seen and used as a pathway to full certification. Fast-track alternate licensure often shortchanges students and costs taxpayers more because of the need for retraining or replacing poorly prepared teachers.
What professional standards do certified educators bring to the classroom?
1. Subject Matter Content Knowledge – Certified expertise in the academic subject they will teach.
2. Pedagogy and the Science of Teaching — The method and practice of teaching; how students learn and how to teach their specific academic subject or subjects.
3. Classroom Management — Study and practice of how to keep students organized, orderly, focused, attentive, engaged and academically productive during a class.
What Do Idahoans Think?
92% say ensuring teachers have up-to-date training and certifications is important.