STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses: Ohio
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Ohio's policies
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: Ohio offers two teaching permits that allow content experts
to teach part time: the 12-hour permit and the 40-hour STEM permit. Nonlicensed individuals with a 12-hour permit can teach any subject area for no more than 12 hours a week. Nonlicensed individuals with a 40-hour STEM permit must not exceed 40 hours of
instruction a week in a STEM school, which is a school that focuses on STEM subjects. Individuals must have a bachelor's, a master's, or a doctoral
degree, or significant work experience in the intended teaching field.
For the 12-hour permit, employment is not restricted to teaching only STEM subjects. Both permits are valid for one year.
Subject-matter test: Ohio does not require candidates to pass a subject-matter exam.
Induction support and evaluation systems: Ohio requires individuals certified with these permits to be supervised by a licensed teacher until the superintendent of the school district is "satisfied that the nonlicensed individual has sufficient understanding of, and experience in, effective teaching methods." Ohio requires individuals who are licensed under these permits to be provided an initial orientation and provided with assistance in acquiring knowledge of the school curriculum and the improvement of instructional skills and classroom management.
Other licensure requirements: Ohio does not set any other requirements for candidates for these permits.
Recommendations for Ohio
Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
Ohio is commended for offering a license that increases 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. Although this license is designed to enable individuals who have
significant content knowledge to teach, Ohio should still require a
subject-matter test. While the state does require a degree or significant
experience, only a subject-matter test ensures that teachers on the 12-hour permit or
40-hour STEM permit know the specific content they will need to teach.
State response to our analysis
Ohio 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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- Provisional and Emergency Licensure
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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.