Official Apples

On July 7, 2010 myself and a guest teacher colleague made our way to the Oregon Education Association offices in Portland, Oregon for a meeting of the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. The reason for our trek to that particular meeting was to question a proposed change in the teacher licensing process. The proposal switches from a minimum number of days worked over the life of the license to a professional development requirement for all teacher license (nothing is changing for those holding a Substitute Teacher License) renewals in the state. At present only a contracted teacher must fulfill continuing professional development to renew their license. Before you start voicing your assertions that a good teacher should seek CPD let me stress that professional development is NOT a bad thing.

No, not a bad thing except that upon first hearing about this proposed change for guest teachers seeking to renew their teaching license what came to mind was logistics - purely logistics. How in the world would the 400 or so guest teachers I represent be able to fulfill a proposed twenty-five (25) professional development units in each year of the life of their license? We guest teachers don't have a guaranteed source of income so paying for professional development seminars and workshops is out of reach for most of us. There are free continuing professional development opportunities available to teachers so I breathed a sigh of relief only to suck it back in when I realized that every guest and unemployed teacher in the state would be seeking low and no cost PDU's -- all at the same time! Locally, we have a fantastic resource for PDU's through the parent association. They have done a wonderfully complete job of meeting the many and varied needs of their teachers' when it comes to CPD but to add 400 guest teachers to the number of professional educators taking advantage of the classes they provide would, undoubtedly, cause strain on the program. The Eugene Education Association likely would not be able to meet the added demand.

And, what kind of paperwork nightmare would this change in the renewal requirement lead to for the already over worked TSPC offices in Salem? Not my problem but that thought led me to hope this proposal would lose it's appeal when the commission gives it enough consideration and scrutiny to realize the burden it would place on their office staff. Since contracted teachers have their CPD 'passed on' by their administrators (in this district) nothing but the PEER form with the appropriate box checked is necessary for license renewal. Guest teachers have no administrator to 'sign off' on their PDU's so how will the 'proof' of completion be verified? Well, TSPC plans to audit 10 percent of the guest and unemployed teachers claims statewide. I guess two thousand (give or take) is less a burden than more than twenty plus thousand audits of PDU requirements met but still a burden.

Long story short, the meeting on July 7th put my mind at rest, a bit. The Commissioners seemed amenable to allowing at least some of the days worked in the classroom to count as professional development -- as it should. The kind of classroom experience guest teachers get by going from school to school, classroom to classroom, grade level to grade level is invaluable. As I pointed out to the Commission, that classroom experience is so rich that every contracted classroom teacher should have to spend at least a few days in the same capacity as a guest teacher; called at 6 AM and dispatched to an unfamiliar school, classroom and grade level. That isn't going to happen but I felt my statement had some positive (for the guest teacher's argument) impact on at least a few of the commissioners. We also found out that the definition of professional development is very broad and includes many opportunities for guest and unemployed teachers to fulfill the seventy-five to one hundred twenty-five PDU's required in the license renewal proposal. That being the case I feel certain all guest teachers who want to keep their teacher license -- and not opt for the Substitute Teacher License thus avoiding the PDU requirement -- will be able to with only the expense of time. Definitely doable for most of us.