Finding innovative approaches to Oklahoma’s teacher shortage while improving teacher quality was the focus of an interim study held Monday before the House Common Education Committee. The study’s host, Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon. Baker, chairs the committee.

“Oklahoma, like most of the nation, faces an acute teacher shortage,” Baker said. “I first wanted to examine our certification process compared to some of our regional neighbors. I also wanted to look at how we incentivize people to go into education and get them excited to stay, including rewarding our highly effective teachers.”

Cody Allen, a policy analyst and committee liaison for the Southern Legislative Conference, said some states allow college degrees in a subject area to replace passing a content exam. Others allow work experience. Some states allow initial licensure and only require additional certification exams be passed after a teacher has gained several years of classroom experience. He also explained alternative pathways to achieving teacher certification.

Allen said all approaches are needed in hard-to-fill subject areas such as math, science, special education and elementary education. He also explained a barrier to recruiting new teachers is high student loan debt combined with the additional cost of certification exams.

Allen said more than 21% of Oklahoma educators are age 55 or older and many of those will retire in the near future. The cost to educate and train replacements will be in the millions, so it’s imperative to find solutions.

Some legislative recommendations are to address elementary licensure tests, set test scores to the industry standard and update content knowledge requirements, among others.

Baker, a former English teacher, said it’s important to balance the fairness of ending unnecessary requirements with still ensuring knowledgeable and qualified professionals are teaching students.

McVay with El Reno Public Schools gave a presentation that showed how paraprofessionals can transform to certified teachers to help address the teacher shortage.

Tatum suggested that instead of a teacher shortage program, Oklahoma perhaps has a pipeline problem. He explained that many of the 11,437 paraprofessionals in Oklahoma classrooms today who are working alongside teachers and have been for many years make less than teachers, but they love students equally.

These professionals are working every day, he said. Many have families of their own, and they can’t afford to quit their jobs and go through a teacher preparation program.

Tatum and McVay told a success story of a paraprofessional in the El Reno School District that went through El Reno’s “grow-your-own” teacher certification program and now is ready to enter the classroom as a certified teacher.