AN ACT CONCERNING EDUCATOR CERTIFICATION.

Starting July 1, 2012, this bill enhances teacher training and professional development requirements and ties them to teaching standards and student achievement needs determined by the State Board of Education (SBE).

The bill establishes new teaching certificates and permits and creates waivers from Connecticut's teacher testing requirements to allow teachers from other states or those whose qualifications do not coincide with Connecticut's existing teacher training requirements to teach in public schools. It also allows the SBE to expand a program of special temporary permits to allow all priority school districts, not just Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport, to employ graduates of national teacher corps training programs (such as Teach for America) in public and charter schools in those districts.

The bill (1) adds to the crimes requiring automatic revocation or denial of teaching credentials; (2) requires student teachers to undergo the same criminal background checks as other school personnel; (3) requires school districts to notify the education commissioner when they dismiss a person with a teaching credential for cause; and (4) bars anyone whose teaching credential is denied, suspended, or revoked from working in a public school in any capacity while the denial, suspension, or revocation remains in force.

The bill eliminates requirements for dual certification for bilingual education teachers as of July 1, 2010. It also extends for an additional year, until July 1, 2010, the temporary certification requirements that override the dual certification requirements.

The bill gives the education commissioner flexibility to join interstate teacher certification agreements, eliminates his authority to waive a requirement that substitute teachers hold at least a bachelor's degree, and transfers authority to grant extensions of time to complete provisional and professional educator certificate requirements to the commissioner from SBE.

The bill requires the attorney general to report to the Education Committee by January 1, 2010 on recommendations arising from his investigation of behavioral analysis services provided to children with autism spectrum disorder.

Finally, the bill eliminates obsolete language and makes technical and conforming changes.

The bill adds to the training required of candidates seeking certification to teach in Connecticut public schools and who enter teacher preparation programs on or after July 1, 2012. Starting on that date, the bill requires teacher candidates to complete training in the professional teaching standards established by the SBE, including at least:

1. development and characteristics of learners,

2. evidence-based and standards-based instruction,

3. evidenced-based classroom and behavior management, and

4. assessment and professional behavior and responsibilities.

These requirements are in addition to existing statutory requirements that teacher candidates complete training in (1) computer and other information technology skills as applied to student learning and classroom instruction, communications, and data management; (2) as part of a major and concentration, instruction reflecting current research and best practices in (a) literacy skills and processes and (b) second language learning and acquisition; and (3) a 36-hour course in special education. Teacher preparation programs must also encourage candidates to take (1) an intergroup relations program; (2) a health and mental health program; and (3) a program on school violence, bullying and suicide prevention, and conflict resolution.

In addition to the statutory training requirements, the law allows SBE to adopt regulations specifying additional training and qualifications for teaching certificates.

The bill broadens the definition of an alternate route to certification program. These programs allow participants to attain teacher certification without completing a regular teacher preparation program.

Under current law, alternate route programs must be (1) provided under a contract with an institution of higher education that the Department of Higher Education (DHE) designates and (2) approved by the SBE. The bill eliminates the contract requirement and conforms the law to current practice by expanding the types of entities that can offer such programs to include DHE, regional education service centers (RESCs), and private teacher or administrator training organizations. It also eliminates any specific reference to programs provided by higher education institutions, although presumably DHE would provide its programs through arrangements with such institutions, as it currently does. Alternate route programs must still be approved by SBE.

The bill also incorporates the term “alternate route to certification program,” eliminating the current reference to “a program of classroom management and instructional methodology. ”

A professional educator certificate, which is the highest level of teaching certificate the SBE issues, is renewable every five years. Under current law, to renew a professional certificate, a certified educator must complete either a minimum 90 hours of professional development activities (known as continuing education units or CEUs) or a national board certification assessment in the appropriate endorsement area, every five years. (An endorsement shows the specific subjects a certified teacher is authorized to teach. )

Starting with certificates subject to renewal on or after July 1, 2012, this bill increases the five-year educator professional development requirements from the current 90 to 120 CEUs in three steps: (1) for certificates subject to renewal from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2014, 100 CEUs; (2) for certificates renewable from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2016, 110 CEUs; and (3) for certificates renewable on and after July 1, 2016, 120 CEUs.

By law, local and regional boards of education must make available to their certified employees at least 18 hours of professional development activities per year. Boards must determine what activities will be available with the advice and assistance of their teachers, including teachers' union representatives. The statutes also impose specific CEU requirements for educators with certain types of endorsements. Starting July 1, 2012, the bill also requires boards to establish CEU activities according to priorities relating to student outcome needs as determined by SBE.

The bill establishes a new type of temporary certificate for qualified out-of-state teachers. Under the bill, people who meet these standards do not have to complete Connecticut's coursework and subject major requirements. They may also, under certain circumstances, be exempt from Connecticut's teacher testing requirements if they teach successfully for one year.

To receive the new temporary certificate, an out-of-state teacher must (1) have lived in a state other than Connecticut during the year immediately before applying for Connecticut certification, (2) hold a current teaching certificate in the other state, (3) have at least five years teaching experience in the other state in a public school or a private school approved by that state's appropriate state board of education, and (4) be enrolled in a program leading to a master's degree in education or in the subject or endorsement area the teacher will teach in Connecticut.

After one year of employment under the temporary certificate, the bill allows the superintendent of the school district employing the teacher to recommend that SBE waive the required teacher competency and subject matter examinations for the teacher. Although the bill couches the superintendent's recommendation as a request, the bill appears to require SBE to agree once it receives a proper application, to grant the teacher a provisional (second-level) educator certificate.

An existing temporary non-renewable certificate, which the bill leaves unchanged, allows out-of-state teachers, those who graduate from out-of-state teacher preparation programs, and certain newly hired charter school teachers to work for up to one year in a public school. To qualify for the existing certificate, a person must meet all Connecticut's certification requirements except the competency and subject matter testing. The testing requirements are deferred for up to one year (i. e. , until the temporary certificate expires).

§ 11 — Adjunct Instructor Permit For Artists Teaching In Interdistrict Magnet Schools

The bill establishes a three-year, renewable adjunct instructor permit allowing a person with specialized training, experience, or expertise in the arts to teach in an interdistrict magnet school or program for up to 20 hours per week. It requires SBE to issue the permit to qualifying applicants at the request of a local or regional board of education or RESC. SBE must renew the permit every three years, also at the request of the board or RESC.

The permit authorizes a holder to teach art, dance, music, theater, or any other subject related to his or her artistic specialty. To qualify for a permit, an applicant must:

1. hold at least a bachelor's degree from a higher education institution accredited by the Board of Governors of Higher Education or a regional accreditation agency,

2. have a minimum of either (a) three years' work experience in the arts or (b) one year's work experience and two years of specialized schooling in the artistic specialty, and

3. have either (a) 360 hours of classroom observation and apprenticeship with another teacher or (b) at least two years experience as a full-time faculty member at a higher education institution.

The bill also requires SBE to issue a permit without further qualification to anyone who, before July 1, 2009, was employed for at least one year at an interdistrict magnet school program as a teacher of art, music, dance, theater, or any other subject related to his or her artistic specialty.

While employed at an interdistrict magnet school, the bill requires the permit holder to be supervised by the school superintendent or a school principal, administrator, or other supervisor the superintendent designates. The supervisor must regularly observe, guide, and evaluate the permit holder's performance. The board of education or RESC that employs the instructor must provide a program to assist the instructor that includes academic and classroom support. The board or RESC must develop the program in consultation with SDE.

The bill bars an adjunct instructor from displacing a certified teacher who is already employed at the magnet school. It prohibits an adjunct instructor from being a member of the Teachers' Retirement System based solely on the fact that he or she holds an adjunct instructor permit.

The bill establishes a one-year resident teacher certificate allowing a person to teach in Connecticut while enrolled in an alternate route to certification program. It allows the education commissioner, for good cause, to extend the certificate for an additional year at the request of the superintendent of schools of the district that employs the certificate holder.

Under the bill, once the SBE receives a proper application, it must issue a resident teacher certificate in elementary or middle grades education, secondary academic subjects, special subjects or fields, special education, early childhood education, and administration and supervision. To qualify for a certificate, an applicant must:

1. hold at least a bachelor's degree from a higher education institution accredited by the Board of Governors of Higher Education or a regional accreditation agency,

2. have an undergraduate grade point average of at least 3. 0,

3. achieve a qualifying score set by the education commissioner on the appropriate SBE-approved subject area test, and

4. be enrolled in an approved alternate route to certification program that meets “guidelines” established under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. (It is not clear what “guidelines” the bill is citing. Federal NCLB requirements for alternate route to certification programs are established in regulations - see BACKGROUND. )

Under the bill, a resident teacher certificate holder must be the “teacher of record” (a term that the bill does not define) under the supervision of the school superintendent or a school principal, administrator, or other supervisor the superintendent designates. The supervisor must regularly observe, guide, and evaluate the certificate holder's performance.

Under current law, to qualify for an initial teacher certificate, an applicant must (1) (a) graduate from an SBE-approved four-year baccalaureate teacher preparation program, (b) graduate from another accredited four-year baccalaureate program and take SBE-required equivalent teacher training courses, or (c) complete an approved alternate route to certification program and teach successfully under a 90-day temporary certificate and (2) complete an SBE-defined subject area major.

Starting July 1, 2009, the bill requires SBE to issue an initial educator certificate to anyone who:

1. successfully completes an alternate route to certification program as described above,

2. taught successfully as the teacher of record as a resident teacher certificate holder, and

3. successfully completes regular teacher competency and subject matter testing requirements for certification.

Starting July 1, 2010, the bill requires the SBE to allow a person seeking certification to teach in a subject shortage area to substitute an “excellent” score on the appropriate subject area test for regular subject area certification requirements (i. e. , coursework requirements and a college major in the subject or a closely related one). The education commissioner must establish the excellent score. The waiver applies to applicants for teaching certificates and to those holding certificates who seek an endorsement in a shortage subject (see BACKGROUND).

The bill exempts from the teacher competency test requirement any person who (1) is applying for a certificate in a school administrator endorsement area and (2) has three years of experience in the 10 years before applying for the administrator certificate. (The bill does not specify what type of experience is required. )

Before being admitted to an SBE-teacher preparation program or receiving a teaching certificate, teacher candidates must either pass a state reading, writing, and math competency test or qualify for a waiver. Under current law, a candidate receives a waiver from the test if he or she has a combined score of at least 1100 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or an equivalent test designated by SBE. If the SAT or equivalent test was not in English, the candidate must also demonstrate English proficiency on an SBE-designated test. This bill eliminates the statutory requirement that a candidate achieve a specific SAT score and pass an English competency test to qualify for a waiver. Instead, it requires SBE to establish waiver criteria. It also eliminates a requirement that the competency test be conducted at least twice a year.

The bill expands to all priority districts the districts where qualified graduates of a national teacher corps training program (such as Teach for America) may work under special durational shortage area permits (DSAPs) issued by SBE.

Under current law, the special DSAPs for teacher corps graduates allow them to work at the elementary or secondary level in public and charter schools in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. The bill allows them to work in any priority district. Under both current law and the bill, when issuing the special DSAPs, the SBE must first meet the needs of schools run by the districts' boards of education and second, those of charter schools in those districts.

A DSAP is a temporary public school teaching credential issued by the SBE at the request of a local board of education. It allows an uncertified person to teach in a particular position for which no suitable certified teacher is available. The special DSAPs are valid for one year and can be renewed once.

§§ 2 & 5 — DENYING, SUSPENDING, REVOKING, ISSUING, AND REISSUING EDUCATOR CREDENTIALS

By law, when a person who holds an SBE-issued certificate, authorization, or permit is convicted of specified crimes, his or her educator credential is considered to be automatically revoked. In addition, the SBE is barred from issuing or re-issuing a certificate, permit, or authorization to anyone who has been convicted of any of the same crimes, unless he or she completed the sentence for the crime more than five years before applying for the credential.

This bill extends these restrictions to those convicted of two additional crimes: (1) criminal attempt to commit a crime (CGS § 53a-49) and (2) enticing a minor under age 16, through an interactive computer service, to engage in prostitution or sexual activity for which the actor may be charged with a crime (CGS § 53a-90a).

By law, a person whose SBE-issued credential is automatically revoked because of a criminal conviction may ask the SBE to reconsider the revocation. This bill allows SBE to issue or reissue a credential to someone convicted of the specified crimes, if the conviction led to an automatic revocation and the education commissioner reconsiders and overturns the automatic revocation.

By law, the SBE can deny an application for a certificate, authorization, or permit because (1) the application is based on fraud or misrepresents a material fact, (2) the applicant has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or other crime that might impair the standing of SBE-issued credentials, or (3) other due and sufficient cause. Applicants must receive written notice of the reasons for a denial.

Under current law, an applicant denied a certificate, authorization, or permit may ask the SBE to review the denial. The bill restricts these requests only to those denied a certificate and makes decisions to deny a permit or authorization final. In this way, the bill makes the statute match SBE's regulations, which already restrict denial appeals only to certificate holders (Regs. of Conn. State Agencies, § 10-145d-611 (b)). The bill also requires an applicant to wait at least three years after receiving a denial notice before reapplying.

The bill eliminates a statutory timetable and procedure for appealing a denial of a provisional or professional educator certificate, thus requiring such requests to follow the appeal procedure established by SBE regulations. The regulatory appeal procedure is a more detailed version of the repealed statutory procedure except that, under the regulations, the applicant's request for reconsideration is first reviewed by a panel of at least three qualified State Department of Education (SDE) employees. Under the regulations, the applicant must request the panel's review within 20 days of receiving notice of denial. The panel must make a decision within 60 days and notify the applicant.

If the panel upholds the decision to deny the certificate, the regulations allow the applicant to appeal to the SBE for reconsideration within 30 days after being notified of the panel's decision. Both the regulations and the current law require SBE to hold a hearing within 60 days if one is requested, and issue a written decision within 30 days (Regs. of Conn. State Agencies, § 10-145d-611). The bill eliminates the applicant's express authority to appeal SBE's decision according to the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (UAPA), although the UAPA itself still allows such an appeal.

The bill requires student teachers working in public schools to undergo the same criminal background checks already required for school employees and certain other people working in public schools. By law, in addition to school board employees, people placed in public schools under public assistance employment programs and supplemental service providers under the No Child Left Behind Act must submit to state and national criminal history records checks within 30 days after starting work, if their work involves direct student contact.

The bill also requires a local or regional board of education to notify SBE if it receives notice that a student teacher has been convicted of a crime. Under current law, the requirement for boards to notify SBE covers people who hold SBE-issued certificates, permits, or authorizations or who are employed by an NCLB supplemental services provider. (The NCLB requires the SDE to approve providers of federally required supplemental services, such as tutoring, for low-income children attending schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress in student achievement as required by the federal law. )

The bill requires a school board or approved private special education facility to report to the education commissioner when it dismisses an employee who holds an SBE credential for cause, as defined in the teacher employment law or in an applicable collective bargaining agreement. By law, a teacher may be dismissed for (1) inefficiency or incompetence, (2) insubordination against a board of education's reasonable rules, (3) moral misconduct, (4) disability shown by competent medical evidence, (5) elimination of the teacher's position with no other suitable position for the teacher open, or (6) other due and sufficient cause (CGS § 10-151).

The bill bars a person whose application for a teaching credential is denied or whose credential is suspended or revoked from being employed in a public school in any capacity during the suspension, revocation, or denial period.

As of July 1, 2010, the bill eliminates requirements that (1) bilingual education teachers hold dual certification in both bilingual education and either elementary education, if they wish to teach at the elementary level, or a subject area if they wish to teach a subject at the secondary level and (2) bilingual education teachers holding provisional certificates meet special coursework requirements in order to obtain a professional certificate. These requirements are that bilingual education teachers holding provisional certificates take 15 credit hours in bilingual education and (1) 15 hours in language arts, reading, and math if they teach at the elementary level or (2) 15 hours in the subject they teach if they teach on the middle or secondary level.

The foregoing requirements have not been implemented because temporary certification requirements for bilingual education teachers are in place. The bill extends these temporary certification requirements for an additional year, until July 1 2010. The temporary requirements have been in effect since July 1, 2005 and are currently scheduled to expire on July 1, 2009. The extension affects both the subject and language competency requirements for such teachers.

Under the temporary certification requirements, bilingual education teachers are not required to hold a dual certification as described above. Instead, they must either (1) be certified in bilingual education and pass the SBE-approved elementary education or subject area assessment, as appropriate or (2) be certified in elementary education or the subject they will teach and complete six hours of SBE-approved coursework in English as a second language. Elementary bilingual education certification is valid for grades K-8 and secondary, subject-specific certification is valid for grades 9-12.

Both the temporary and permanent bilingual education certification qualifications require a teacher to demonstrate competence in English and the other language. But under the temporary regulations, bilingual education teachers must demonstrate English competency by passing both an oral English proficiency test and an SBE-approved essential skills test, instead of only by passing the SBE-approved essential skills test.

The bill repeals the statutory Interstate Agreement on Qualification of Educational Personnel adopted in 1969. The agreement authorizes the education commissioner to enter into renewable contracts lasting up to five years with other states having comparable educator certification criteria to allow Connecticut to accept the qualifications of educators from other states to teach here. It requires parties to facilitate and strengthen cooperation in interstate educator certification and establishes a contract committee of officials from the party states to monitor the contracts. The bill eliminates the education commissioner's designation as the state's agent for concluding contracts under the agreement and requirements that (1) the commissioner keep contracts concluded under it on file in the commissioner's and the secretary of the state's office and (2) the SBE publish the contracts in a convenient form.

The bill instead allows the education commissioner or the commissioner's designee to establish or join interstate agreements to foster certification of qualified candidates from other states. It requires any such out-of-state candidates to hold a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university, meet Connecticut's assessment requirements, and meet any conditions required by the interstate agreement. These requirements conform to current practice (see BACKGROUND).

The bill eliminates the education commissioner's authority to grant waivers from the requirement that substitute teachers have at least a bachelor's degree. Under current law, the commissioner can grant a waiver for good cause at the request of a school superintendent.

The bill transfers authority for approving time extensions for provisional or professional certificate holders to meet the requirements for obtaining or maintaining a professional certificate from the SBE to the education commissioner. By law, a provisional certificate holder who is unable to meet the requirements for a professional certificate within the required time (eight years) or a professional certificate holder who cannot meet the requirements for maintaining his or her certificate within the required time (five years) may apply for an extension. The SBE, under current law, or the commissioner, under the bill, may approve a single extension for good cause (1) if the person has a hardship or (2) because of an emergency shortage of certified teachers in the district where the person is employed. Extensions can be granted only to teachers with satisfactory teaching records.

The bill limits the duration of an extension to 24 months from the date the provisional or professional certificate expired. Under current law, SBE can approve an extension for any amount of time it considers reasonable. As under current law, a teacher can receive only one extension.

The bill requires the attorney general, in consultation with the education and higher education commissioners, to report to the Education Committee by January 1, 2010 on any investigation performed in Connecticut regarding behavior analysis services for children with autism spectrum disorder. The report must include findings based on the investigation and recommend statutory changes and an appropriate in-state certifying entity for behavioral analysis services.

The bill eliminates two obsolete provisions that no longer apply to holders of temporary nonrenewable certificates. One allows a person hired by a charter school after July 1 of any school year to receive the certificate if he or she can reasonably be expected to complete an alternate route to certification program by the beginning of the following school year. The other requires boards of education that employ teachers who hold temporary nonrenewable certificates and who have not passed the teacher competency test by January 15 of the school year for which the certificate was issued to offer them, and requires the teachers to participate in, a special assistance program.

The bill eliminates an obsolete law allowing anyone employed by a local or regional board of education before July 1, 1977 as an occupational instructor and who held an occupational certificate as of that date to be granted a standard certificate. Occupational and standard certificates are obsolete and are no longer issued.

U. S. Department of Education regulations state that a teacher can be considered a “highly qualified teacher” under the NCLB if he or she has met state licensing and certification requirements or is participating in an alternative route to certification program that:

1. provides high-quality professional development that is sustained, intensive, and classroom-focused to have a positive and lasting effect on classroom instruction before and while teaching;

2. provides intensive supervision consisting of structured guidance and regular ongoing support for teachers or a teacher mentoring program;

3. permits participating teachers to assume teaching functions for no more than three years; and

4. requires teachers to demonstrate satisfactory progress toward full state certification (34 CFR 200. 56 (a)(2)(ii)).

The law requires the education commissioner to designate teaching shortage areas by December 1 every year. The certification shortage areas and grades for the school year 2008-09 are:

1. bilingual education (PK-12),

2. comprehensive special education (1-12),

3. English (7-12),

4. intermediate administrator,

5. library media specialist,

6. mathematics (7-12),

7. science (7-12),

8. speech and language pathology,

9. technology education (PK-12), and

10. world languages (7-12).

Connecticut does not have currently reciprocity for certification with any state, but it does participate with 38 other states in the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification's (NASDTEC) interstate contract on the qualifications of educational personnel. Under that agreement, an applicant may qualify for certification in Connecticut if he or she:

1. has completed an approved teacher preparation program in, and holds a teaching certificate issued by, the other state or

2. holds at least a level II certificate from a participating state and has at least 27 months of appropriate successful school experience in the past seven years in a participating state.

In addition, all out-of-state applicants must currently pass Connecticut's teacher competency and subject area assessment tests.

sHB 6373, favorably reported by the Government Administration and Elections Committee, also repeals the statute relating to pre-July 1, 1977 occupational certificates.

Yea

Nay

(04/01/2009)