Part Time Teaching Licenses: Montana

Analysis of Montana's policies

Montana offers a license with minimal requirements that allows content experts to teach part time, although the use of such license is restricted.

Montana offers the Class 8 Dual Credit-only Postsecondary Faculty license. Applicants must be current faculty members at an approved college/university to qualify. The Class 8 license permits candidates to teach only dual credit courses in their identified field, essentially high school courses taken for college credits.

Class 8 candidates must provide a recommendation from an accredited professional educator preparation program stating the applicant's degree/major and verifying competency as it relates to instruction.

Citation

http://www.opi.mt.gov/pdf/cert/Class8App.pdf Montana Administrative Code 10.57.437

Recommendations for Montana

Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time instructors.
Montana's Class 8 license only serves to allow college faculty to teach dual credit courses to high school students. 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

Montana declined to respond to NCTQ's analyses.