STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses: Nebraska
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Nebraska's policies
Pathway for STEM Professionals to Teach Part-Time: Nebraska offers the Career Education Permit. The Career Education Teaching Permit is available for individuals who do not meet the Nebraska requirements for a regular certificate. This certificate is valid in only the district requesting the permit and in the endorsed career area only.
Employment with this permit is not restricted to teaching part-time, and it applies only to career education subjects. This certificate is valid for three years.
Subject-Matter Test: Nebraska requires candidates to show proficiency in the subject matter through a course of study, an apprenticeship, five years of work experience, or an exam.
Induction Support and Evaluation Systems: Nebraska does not explicitly require individuals with a Career Education Permit to have access to induction support or evaluation systems.
Other Licensure Requirements: Nebraska requires candidates for the Career Education Permit to complete fingerprinting.
Recommendations for Nebraska
Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time
instructors.
It is unclear whether the Career Education Certificate and the Professional Commitment Certificate serve as vehicles for
individuals with deep subject-area knowledge to teach a limited number of
courses without fulfilling a complete set of certification requirements. It
appears that this may be the intent of the license; however, state policy does
not describe the conditions of employment, whether it is for part-time or
full-time teaching or the requirements that candidates must fulfill.
Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
Although these certificates may be designed to enable distinguished individuals to teach, Nebraska should still require a subject-matter test. While documentation
provided by the applicant may show evidence of expertise in a particular field,
only a subject-matter test ensures Career Education Certificate and Professional Commitment Certificate teachers know the
specific content they will need to teach.
State response to our analysis
Nebraska asserted that the Dual Credit and Career Education certificates (soon to be called permits) authorize individuals with deep content knowledge to teach on a part-time basis without meeting regular preparation requirements and are also excluded from some of the other statutory requirements.
Revisions to these certificates are awaiting formal approval, which is expected this Fall/Winter.
Updated: December 2017
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Nebraska
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General Teacher Preparation
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- Student Teaching/Clinical Practice
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Elementary Teacher Preparation
Secondary Teacher Preparation
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- Secondary Licensure Deficiencies
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Hiring
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Retaining Effective Teachers
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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.