Utah teachers become students again during their summer vacations in order to comply with state re-licensing requirements and the federal mandate No Child Left Behind.

In order to keep their teaching licenses, teachers are required to take courses to keep their knowledge current. The state office imposed this requirement in order to classify teachers as "highly qualified."

In 1999, Utah introduced the "Educator Licensing and Professional Practices Act", a major step to reform the preparation, licensing and continuing professional development practices of educators in Utah, according to the Utah State Legislative Report on Teacher Quality for 2004.

This act made teaching a profession. Doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals all have to comply with continuing education programs to keep their licenses current and this act placed the same responsibility on teachers, said Joan Patterson, coordinator of educator licensing at the Utah State Office of Education.

"Prior to that time [1999], once you got a certificate it pretty much stayed," Patterson said. "You had to renew it but there was no requirement for either experience or additional training to renew the license."

The No Child Left Behind act now requires teachers to have 'major' or 'major equivalent' experience in the subject they teach. Previously, Utah teachers operated under an endorsement program that allowed teachers with 'minor' or 'minor equivalent' knowledge to continue their education and still teach.

But with No Child Left Behind, Utah's endorsement program can no longer operate because the act defines only 'major' or 'major equivalent' education as highly qualified.

This summer and next, more teachers will go back to school than in the years past because of these new requirements. But the state has allotted sufficient money to assist teachers in getting qualified.

"There is quite a bit of money in Title 2A which is for professional development," Patterson said. "It's federal funds to improve the qualifications of teachers."

Within a teacher's first five years of teaching they are required to obtain 200 points, Patterson said. Half of the points are obtained by teaching but the other half comes by taking classes, implementing learned material and providing feedback to the state.

"Although No Child Left Behind has been a huge burden on this department in this office as well as testing and evaluation, the actual results of what they're looking for are valid," Patterson said. "They want to know the qualifications of teachers, the student achievement scores and [if] the two have anything to do with each other."

"No Child Left Behind is set up to focus on the qualifications of teachers because of all the parameters that schools can control, teacher qualifications have the greatest impact on student achievement," Patterson said.

Other parameters such as English language ability and poverty, which are beyond the school's control, have greater impact on student achievement, Patterson said. But since schools cannot control these factors, they seek to do the best they can with the most highly qualified teachers available.

BYU hosts many summer workshops for teachers. Up to five classes are offered each week for teacher development and improvement from June 7- July 30.



Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Jun 2004