STEM (Part-Time) Teaching Licenses:
Pennsylvania
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Pennsylvania's policies
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: Pennsylvania offers a Resource Specialist Permit issued at the request of a public school entity for a competent but noncertified individual to provide supplemental instruction in his or her profession or area of expertise. Individuals must provide supplemental instruction under the direct supervision of a certified teacher as a part-time service not to exceed 400 clock hours during a school year.
Employment with this license is not restricted to teaching only STEM subjects. This temporary permit is valid for three calendar years and is not transferable to another public school entity.
Subject-Matter Test: Pennsylvania does not require candidates to pass a subject-matter exam.
Induction support and evaluation systems: Pennsylvania does not explicitly require individuals with a Resource Specialist Permit to have access to induction support or evaluation systems.
Other licensure requirements: Pennsylvania does not set any other requirements for candidates for the Resource Specialist Permit.
Recommendations for Pennsylvania
Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time instructors.
Pennsylvania's Resource Specialist Permit Class only allows individuals to provide supplemental instruction in their profession or expertise under direct supervision of a certified teacher. The state should expand on this idea and offer a license that permits all 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
Pennsylvania recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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.