Tiered Licensure discussion in American Falls
Robin Nettinga, executive director of the Idaho Educators Association, said she is hearing a lot of the same concerns from teachers all over the state when it comes to tiered licensure.
Tiered licensure, also called tiered certification, is the new rule being proposed by Gov. Butch Otter’s task force for measuring a teacher’s ability to be effective in the classroom. Teachers all over have expressed concern bout these guidelines being tied to their re-certification each year, what kind of certificate they qualify for under these new rules and what this means for their pay.
Nettinga said the IEA supports tiered certification, but she said this current plan has left many educators feeling it’s been very rushed. She also heard new concerns Tuesday afternoon from teachers about military concerns. One teacher brought up a concern that if a spouse were to be sent to active military and their family had to live on base, that spouse may not be able to teach on the base because their certificate didn’t allow it.
Nettinga said that was a very valid point to bring up during the upcoming State Board of Education hearings in October. But there were many other concerns from other teachers as well.
“I am very concerned with using an evaluation to determine how people will reimbursed for their service,” said Jeff Brauler, a third grade teacher at Hillcrest Elementary. “The evaluation should be a piece where they’re helping you to becoming that master teacher you’re striving to be.”
Brauler said the new rule makes it feel impossible to fail even once, because in those one or two snapshots of a teacher’s classroom, if you’re not up to the standards of the two administrators doing the evaluation, your career could almost be over.
He said while the details still haven’t been worked out, there is fear that losing a master certification and going down a level could result in a major pay cut. That fear was just one of manyNettinga said should be addressed by teachers in upcoming public comment hearings in October.
The dates for those hearings are:Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Salmon River Room of the Idaho State University Student Union Building in Pocatello;Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7:00 p.m. in Meriwether Lewis Hall, Room 100 on the Lewis and Clark State College campus in Lewiston; andTuesday, Oct. 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the Nampa Micron Center for PTE, Classrooms 1710 A/B in Nampa.
Nettinga said these hearings will likely allow folks to talk for three minutes with no questions. She said there will only be two hours for comments, which need to be written, and she hopes enough people turn out to fill that time. Nettinga said a major concern she’s heard all over the state is in regards to who is creating this policy.
“The concern is that people who don’t necessarily understand the profession that well are making decisions without hearing the voice of the very practitioners who have to implement those decisions,” she said.
Nettinga said there are 19 people serving on Gov. Otter’s task for to create this rule, and only one of them is currently a teacher. While others have been administrators or are retired educators, she said less than half of the people creating this rule are actually educators. But she said it’s always been politics that have decided education.
“We have always said every decision made at the school level,” she said, “regardless of what the decision is, it is a political decision.”
Nettinga said the best thing anyone can do is become educated about what this is and what it means for Idaho. She directed the teachers there to the Idaho Education Association’s website, at idahoea.org/tiered-certification.
