STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses: Alaska
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Alaska's policies
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: Alaska offers a certificate that enables individuals with subject-matter expertise to teach without a bachelor's degree in the subject. The state offers a limited teacher certificate, or Type M, for individuals teaching career and technical education (CTE), military science, or Native Language and Culture. The school district under which the individual will be teaching must request the issuance of this certificate.
Employment with this certificate is not restricted to teaching part-time, nor is it restricted to teaching only STEM subjects. The Type M certificate is good for five years.
Subject-matter test: Alaska requires candidates for a Type M certificate to demonstrate "both subject matter expertise and teaching competency, as verified by the local school district" but does not explicitly require a subject-matter test.
Induction support and evaluation systems: Alaska does not explicitly require individuals with a limited teacher certificate to have access to induction support or evaluation systems.
Other licensure requirements: Alaska requires candidates for this certificate to complete a criminal background check and fingerprinting.
Recommendations for Alaska
Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
Although Alaska requires evidence of subject-matter expertise for both of its limited certificates, the state should still
require candidates of these certificates to pass a subject-matter test. The state should explicitly require those with a subject-matter expert limited teacher certificate to pass a competency exam specifically in the subject the candidate intends to teach.
State response to our analysis
Alaska was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis.
Updated: December 2017
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General Teacher Preparation
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- Teacher Shortages and Surpluses
- Program Performance Measures
- Program Reporting Requirements
- Student Teaching/Clinical Practice
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Secondary Teacher Preparation
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- Secondary Licensure Deficiencies
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Alternate Routes
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- Provisional and Emergency Licensure
- Licensure for Substitute Teachers
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Teacher and Principal Evaluation
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Retaining Effective Teachers
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How we graded
Research rationale
Part-time licenses
can help alleviate severe shortages, especially in STEM subjects.
Some of the subject areas in which states face the greatest
teacher shortages are also areas that require the deepest subject-matter
expertise. Staffing shortages are
further exacerbated because schools or districts may not have high enough
enrollments to necessitate full-time positions.
Part-time licenses can be a creative mechanism to get content experts to
teach a limited number of courses. Of
course, a fully licensed teacher is best, but when that isn't an option, a
part-time license allows students to benefit from content experts—individuals
who are not interested in a full-time teaching position and are thus unlikely to
pursue traditional or alternative certification. States should limit requirements for part-time licenses to
those that verify subject-matter knowledge and address public safety, such as
background checks.
Part-Time Teaching Licenses: Supporting Research
The origin of this goal is the effort to find
creative solutions to the STEM crisis. While teaching waivers are not typically
used this way, teaching waivers could be used to allow competent
professionals from outside of education to be hired as part-time instructors to
teach courses such as Advanced Placement chemistry or calculus as long as the
instructor demonstrates content knowledge on a rigorous test. See NCTQ, "Tackling the STEM Crisis: Five steps your state can take to improve the quality and quantity of its K-12 math and science teachers", at: http://www.nctq.org/p/docs/nctq_nmsi_stem_initiative.pdf.
For
the importance of teachers' general academic ability, see R. Ferguson,
"Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money
Matters," Harvard Journal on Legislation,Volume 28, Summer 1991, pp. 465-498.
For
more on math and science content knowledge, see D. Monk, "Subject Area Preparation of Secondary Mathematics and Science Teachers and Student Achievement," Economics of Education Review, Volume 13, No. 2, June 1994, pp. 125-145; R. Murnane, "Understanding the Sources of Teaching Competence: Choices, Skills, and the Limits of Training," Teachers
College Record, Volume 84, No. 3, 1983, pp. 564-569.