Hiring Policy
Pathway for STEM professionals to teach part-time: South Carolina offers the Adjunct License as a pathway for content experts to teach part-time in South Carolina classrooms. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree or
higher from an accredited college. Candidates must also have five years of occupational experience in a related field. The state requires that the applicant's teaching position be less than a 0.5 full-time equivalent position and not exceed two-credit-bearing courses in an academic year. Employment under this license must not displace a certified teacher already employed.
Employment with this certificate is not restricted to teaching only STEM subjects. This certificate is valid for three years.
Subject-matter test: South Carolina requires applicants to demonstrate subject-matter expertise through either a major in the intended teaching field or a passing score on a subject-matter
exam.
Induction support and evaluation systems: South Carolina requires the applicant to be "assigned a state-certificated mentor in the same general area" as they are being granted a certificate. The state also requires that individuals with this certificate are evaluated annually.
Other licensure requirements: South Carolina requires candidates for the Adjunct Certificate to pass a background check and complete 20 contact hours of professional development over the three years their certificate is valid.
Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
South Carolina is commended for offering a license that increases districts'
flexibility to staff certain subjects, including many STEM areas, that are
frequently hard to staff or may not have high enough enrollment to necessitate
a full-time position. Although this license is designed to enable individuals
who have significant content knowledge to teach, South Carolina should still
require a subject-matter test of all candidates, including those with a major
in the intended teaching field. While the state does require relevant
work experience and a content degree, only a subject-matter test ensures that
teachers on the Adjunct License know the specific content they will need to
teach.
South Carolina recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state also commented that it is considering expansion of the adjunct certificate to include Career and Technology Education and fine arts/performing arts.
Part-time licenses
can help alleviate severe shortages, especially in STEM subjects.
Some of the subject areas in which states face the greatest
teacher shortages are also areas that require the deepest subject-matter
expertise. Staffing shortages are
further exacerbated because schools or districts may not have high enough
enrollments to necessitate full-time positions.
Part-time licenses can be a creative mechanism to get content experts to
teach a limited number of courses. Of
course, a fully licensed teacher is best, but when that isn't an option, a
part-time license allows students to benefit from content experts—individuals
who are not interested in a full-time teaching position and are thus unlikely to
pursue traditional or alternative certification. States should limit requirements for part-time licenses to
those that verify subject-matter knowledge and address public safety, such as
background checks.
Part-Time Teaching Licenses: Supporting Research
The origin of this goal is the effort to find
creative solutions to the STEM crisis. While teaching waivers are not typically
used this way, teaching waivers could be used to allow competent
professionals from outside of education to be hired as part-time instructors to
teach courses such as Advanced Placement chemistry or calculus as long as the
instructor demonstrates content knowledge on a rigorous test. See NCTQ, "Tackling the STEM Crisis: Five steps your state can take to improve the quality and quantity of its K-12 math and science teachers", at: http://www.nctq.org/p/docs/nctq_nmsi_stem_initiative.pdf.
For
the importance of teachers' general academic ability, see R. Ferguson,
"Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money
Matters," Harvard Journal on Legislation,Volume 28, Summer 1991, pp. 465-498.
For
more on math and science content knowledge, see D. Monk, "Subject Area Preparation of Secondary Mathematics and Science Teachers and Student Achievement," Economics of Education Review, Volume 13, No. 2, June 1994, pp. 125-145; R. Murnane, "Understanding the Sources of Teaching Competence: Choices, Skills, and the Limits of Training," Teachers
College Record, Volume 84, No. 3, 1983, pp. 564-569.