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TCTA provided testimony on two different issues before the State Board for Educator Certification.
We urged the elimination of the Temporary Teacher Certificate (TTC) in SBEC rules because we do not believe that these school district-authorized certificates meet the NCLB standards for Highly Qualified Educators, and because the TTC has only been used in one instance statewide, which seems to highlight the lack of need for this mechanism. TCTA opposed the TTC when it was first adopted by SBEC in Spring 2004 because it was a mechanism to circumvent state educator certification and preparation requirements by allowing a person with a bachelor’s degree to teach for two years without completing or even being enrolled in an educator preparation program. This item was for discussion rather than action, so the decision on whether to eliminate these certificates will be made at a subsequent meeting.
SBEC also adopted proposed rules that will change the process and standards that govern the disciplinary process. TCTA testified that although teachers understand and agree with the need for SBEC to take definitive action with regard to serious offenses, the rules, as drafted, did not allow the board sufficient discretion in many cases, and were drafted too broadly. There were two primary issues identified by TCTA in testimony and comment:
One of the rule changes requires permanent certificate revocation for any educator found to have solicited a romantic relationship with a student. TCTA’s concern regarding this rule is that the criteria for determining whether a “romantic relationship” occurred could be interpreted to include a broad range of conduct that may justify imposition of a lesser sanction or that may easily be misinterpreted, such as a student approaching an educator to confidentially discuss concerns about the student’s sexual orientation. We asked SBEC to change the mandatory “shall” language to permissive “may” language to allow leeway in situations such as the one described above, but a motion by SBEC member Janie Baszile to this effect did not pass.
The language providing for mandatory, permanent certificate revocation in the event of the possession of controlled substances was also overbroad, in that the definition of controlled substances includes such prescription medications as Vicodin, Tylenol with codeine, and Xanax. We were successful in persuading the board to add language to the rule providing for revocation only upon possession of non-prescribed controlled substances, thus eliminating the risk for educators who have medications that were prescribed for them in their possession.
SBEC rules must be approved by the State Board of Education (SBOE) to become effective, so we will be raising our remaining concerns with SBOE members in anticipation of the rules reaching them for approval.
Web posted: 11/02/07
