The Utah State Board of Education has opened the door to the teaching profession in order to alleviate a severe teacher shortage in the state according to the Deseret News. Utah has seen a significant decline in prospective teachers coming out of colleges of education. In 2012 they had 2,586 graduates dropping last year to only 2,364 – an 8.5% decline in just three years.
According to the article, they don’t even think they have hit bottom yet. And they continue to see significantly higher first year retention problems then other states.
So the State Board of Education adopted a new rule on Friday, June 10, 2016 to allow more subject matter experts into the classroom:
“To qualify, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or higher, submit college transcripts to education administrators, pass the Utah test required for teacher certification, complete an educator ethics review and pass a background check.
Once they enter a school, the prospective instructor must gain at least three years of supervision and mentoring from a “master teacher” designated by the school before they receive the level of licensure held by most teachers.”
Coincidentally, this is very similar to our alternative teacher certification route so it looks like we need a visit to Utah.
