NCTQ: Yearbook: Licensure Reciprocity: Florida

Analysis of Florida's policies

Regrettably, Florida grants a waiver for its licensing tests to any out-of-state teacher with a comparable standard certificate.

Teachers with comparable out-of-state certificates are eligible for Florida's professional certificate. There is no state-mandated recency requirement; however, transcripts are required for all applicants. It is not clear whether the state analyzes these transcripts to determine whether a teacher was prepared through a traditional or alternate route or whether additional coursework will be required.

Based on statutory language, it also appears that Florida will issue a comparable license to an out-of-state teacher who was prepared under an alternate route.

Florida is also a participant in the NASDTEC Interstate Agreement; however, the latest iteration of this agreement no longer purports to be a reciprocity agreement among states and thus is no longer included in this analysis.

Citation

Recommendations for Florida

To uphold standards, require that teachers coming from other states meet testing requirements.
Florida takes considerable risk by granting a waiver for its licensing tests to any out-of-state teacher with a standard certificate. The state should not provide any waivers of its teacher tests unless an applicant can provide evidence of a passing score under its own standards. The negative impact on student learning stemming from a teacher's inadequate subject-matter knowledge is not mitigated by the teacher's having a certificate from another state.

Accord the same license to out-of-state alternate route teachers as would be accorded to traditionally prepared teachers.
Florida should consider discontinuing its requirement for the submission of transcripts. Transcript analysis is likely to result in additional coursework requirements, even for traditionally prepared teachers; alternate route teachers, on the other hand, may have to virtually begin anew, repeating some, most or all of a teacher preparation program in Florida. Regardless of whether a teacher was prepared through a traditional or alternate route, all certified out-of-state teachers should receive equal treatment.

State response to our analysis

Florida asserted that it has established full reciprocity with all states, and that a valid standard certificate from another state is verification that the applicant has met all Florida requirements for the professional certificate, including mastery of general knowledge, professional education competence and subject content. Florida further contended that all states require a subject-knowledge test for their professional license, and the state does not accept provisional/emergency certificates for reciprocity purposes.

Florida added that it does not conduct transcript analysis for certification via reciprocity. Transcripts are required to document that the applicant has earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution or the equivalent, which is required by law for all applicants regardless of certification pathway.

Last word

Not all states have adopted subject-matter testing as a condition of licensure, and some states have considerably lower testing standards than Florida has. Therefore, Florida is urged to require all out-of-state teacher candidates to meet its minimum testing requirements.

In addition, the submission of transcripts should be unnecessary for certified out-of-state teachers, unless the state has some reason to suspect that the certifying state routinely licenses teachers who do not have a degree.

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Research rationale

Many professions have gone further than teaching in encouraging interstate mobility. The requirements for attorneys, for example, are complicated, but often offer certain kinds of flexibility, such as allowing them to answer a small set of additional questions. See the Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admissions Requirements 2007, published by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the American Bar Association, available at:
http://www.ncbex.org/ .

On the similarity in effectiveness between graduates of traditional and alternative programs, see J. Constantine, D. Player, T. Silva, K. Hallgren, M. Grider, and J. Deke, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, Final Report. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Services, U.S. Department of Education (2009), D. Boyd, et al. "How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement." Education Finance and Policy, (2006). T. Kane, J. Rockoff, and D. Staiger. "What Does Certification Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness? Evidence from New York City." National Bureau of Economic Research. (2006), G. Henry and C. Thompson, "Impacts of Teacher Preparation on Student Test Scores in North Carolina." Teacher Portals. University of North Carolina (2010). Z.Xu, J. Hannaway and C. Taylor, "Making a Difference? The Effects of Teach for America in High School." The Urban Institute/Calder. (2009), D. Boyd et al "Recruiting Effective Math Teachers, How Do Math Immersion Teachers Compare? Evidence from New York City." Calder Institute (2009); as well as "How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement," by Donald Boyd, Pamela Grossman, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff, National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2005; and "The Effects of Teach For America on Students: Findings from a National Evaluation," (Mathematica Policy Research Inc., 2004).

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Licensure Reciprocity: Florida