STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses: Oklahoma
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Oklahoma's policies
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: Oklahoma offers an adjunct license that allows content experts to teach in Oklahoma classrooms. In new legislation, Oklahoma added additional requirements for the adjunct license, now called the alternative placement teaching certificate, including a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution with at least a 2.5 GPA. The state requires at least two years of related work experience for this certificate, unless candidates have education in the subject beyond a bachelor's degree. Individuals who apply for this certificate must agree to earn certification through an alternative preparation program within three years.
Employment with this certificate is not restricted to teaching part-time, nor is it restricted to teaching only STEM subjects. This certificate is valid for three years.
Subject-matter test: Oklahoma requires candidates for the alternative placement teaching certificate to pass the subject area and the general education portions of the state's competency exam.
Induction support and evaluation systems: Oklahoma requires individuals certified with this permit to participate in the Oklahoma Residency Program.
Other licensure requirements: Oklahoma does not set any other requirements for candidates for these permits.
Recommendations for Oklahoma
Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
Oklahoma 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 distinguished
individuals to teach, Oklahoma 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 that individuals granted
this license know the specific content they will need to teach.
State response to our analysis
Oklahoma had no comment on this goal.
Updated: December 2017
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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.