Extended Emergency Licenses: Louisiana

Analysis of Louisiana's policies

Louisiana allows teachers who have not met licensure requirements to teach for one year on a Temporary Authority to Teach (TAT) certificate. This certificate may be issued for one year and is nonrenewable. Teachers must meet the requirements for a Practitioner license at the end of the year in order to continue teaching.  The Practitioner license requires passage of a basic skills exam and content assessments where applicable.

The state also offers a one-year Temporary Employment Permit (TEP), which allows individuals who have not passed required state tests to teach if their aggregate score on all of their exams is equal to or higher than the total required on all the tests. This permit may be renewed for up to three years if the candidate demonstrates that the test was retaken during the past year.

Citation

Louisiana Bulletin 746 Sections 313, 323 and 326 Types of Teaching Authorizations and Certification https://www.teachlouisiana.net/pdf/licensurestructure.pdf

Recommendations for Louisiana

Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
All students are entitled to teachers who know the subject matter they are teaching. Permitting individuals who have not yet passed state licensing tests to teach neglects the needs of students, instead extending personal consideration to adults who may not be able to meet minimal state standards. Louisiana should ensure that all teachers have passed their licensing tests—an important minimum benchmark for entering the profession—prior to entering the classroom. As described in several other goals, the state's cut-scores on at least some tests are already set at a point that makes assurance of content knowledge questionable; granting a conditional license to individuals unable to meet these low bars puts adult interest before student need.

Limit exceptions to one year.
There might be limited and exceptional circumstances under which conditional or emergency licenses need to be granted. In these instances, it is reasonable for a state to give teachers up to one year to pass required licensure tests. However, Louisiana's current policy puts students at risk by allowing teachers who have not passed required subject-matter tests to teach for up to three years on the TEP certificate.

State response to our analysis

Louisiana reiterated that the Temporary Employment Permit (TEP or EP) may be issued up to three years, while the Temporary Authority to Teach (TAT) is only valid for one year. According to the state, only 38 individuals have been issued a TEP since 2004, and all Louisiana universities and non-IHE alternate providers require successful completion of Praxis exams before graduation or completion of courses.

The state further reiterated that the TEP is issued to an individual who meets all certification requirements with the exception of passing one of the components of the NTE/Praxis examination(s) but who has an aggregate score equal to or above the total required on all NTE/Praxis exams for the area of certification. Louisiana added that an individual can be reissued a temporary permit two times only if evidence is presented that the required exam has been retaken twice within one year from the date the permit was last issued. According to the state, nine TEPs were issued to teachers for the 2014-2015 school year who met the criteria in policy as stated above.