STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses: Nevada
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Nevada's policies
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: Nevada offers the Special Qualifications license which allows individuals to teach academic subjects in grades 7-12. This "licensure is based upon a combination of college coursework and work experience in lieu of traditional educator preparation." The state requires applicants to have a bachelor's degree or higher in the field of student in which the applicant will be teaching. Nevada requires applicants to have two years of related postsecondary teaching experience and at least three years of related work experience or five years of related work experience.
Employment with this certificate is not restricted to teaching part-time, nor is it restricted to teaching only STEM subjects.
Subject-matter test: Nevada requires candidates for the Special Qualifications license to pass the appropriate Praxis Content Area Test and the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test. The state allows candidates to waive the subject matter test requirement with a valid license issued by a professional licensing board that is related to the subject area the applicant will be teaching.
Induction support and evaluation systems: Nevada does not explicitly require individuals with the Special Qualifications License to have access to induction support or evaluation systems.
Other licensure requirements: Nevada requires candidates for this license to complete three semester credit hours in a course of study regarding parental involvement and family engagement.
Recommendations for Nevada
Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time
instructors.
Nevada should permit individuals with deep subject-area knowledge to teach a
limited number of courses without fulfilling a complete set of certification
requirements. The state should verify content knowledge through a
rigorous test and conduct background checks as appropriate, while waiving all
other licensure requirements. Such a license would increase districts'
flexibility to staff certain subjects, including many STEM areas, that are
frequently hard to staff or may not have high enough enrollment to necessitate
a full-time position.
State response to our analysis
Updated: December 2017
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Nevada
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General Teacher Preparation
- Program Entry
- Teacher Shortages and Surpluses
- Program Performance Measures
- Program Reporting Requirements
- Student Teaching/Clinical Practice
- Teaching Methods
Elementary Teacher Preparation
Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Middle School Content Knowledge
- Middle School Licensure Deficiencies
- Adolescent Literacy
- Secondary Content Knowledge
- Secondary Licensure Deficiencies
Special Education Teacher Preparation
Alternate Routes
Hiring
- Requirements for Out-of-State Teachers
- Provisional and Emergency Licensure
- Licensure for Substitute Teachers
- Supporting New Teachers
Teacher and Principal Evaluation
Teacher Compensation
Retaining Effective Teachers
Early Childhood Preparation
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.