Educator Preparation and Licensing Changes

by David DeGuire, Director, Teacher Education, Professional Development & Licensing Team, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

After more than a year's work, the rewritten chapter of the Wisconsin Administrative Code that covers educator preparation and licensing, PI 34, went into effect on August 1, 2018. Overall, the changes should provide additional flexibilities for school and district leaders in staffing their schools, as well as allowing preparation programs options in preparing new educators.

Among the most significant factors driving the changes were:

districts reporting significantly fewer applicants for vacant positions

a 35% decrease in preparation program enrollments from 2010-2016

a 150% increase in the number of emergency licenses issued from 2013-2014 to 2016-2017

a recognition that standardized basic skills and content knowledge tests were keeping individuals who would be good teachers out of the field for financial, linguistic, and cultural reasons

As a former middle school principal, I think the changes to licensing that are most important for you to know are:

The easiest pathway for most licensed teachers to add another subject area is by passing a content test. One of the changes that recently went into effect allows elementary teachers to add a world language or English as a Second Language license by just passing the appropriate content test, but there are options for teachers at every level. For more information see https://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/pathways/content-test.

There are many new pathways to educators to receive a one-year license with stipulations (previously known as an emergency license or permit). They include options for individuals who:

a) Completed a comparable college or university preparation program outside of Wisconsin but have not passed Wisconsin tests

b) Hold a Speech and Language Pathology license from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Standards

c) Completed a bachelor’s degree and all coursework at a Wisconsin approved preparation program but have not met all testing requirements for licensure

d) Hold a bachelor’s degree or higher and a district requests a license because no acceptable fully licensed candidate can be found

There is a district-sponsored pathway for cases where a district has a teacher who has been with the district for at least a year, the district believes the teacher to be really good, and the district and teacher agree in trying a new subject and/or developmental level. The teacher receives a three-year license with stipulations, and the District provides appropriate training, professional development, and supervision for teacher to become proficient in the preparation program content guidelines for the new license area. At the end of the three years, the educator can submit evidence of proficiency to DPI or an approved preparation program for endorsement for a regular license.

There are also changes coming to how educators will be prepared in the future. It is vital to understand that the following changes will only affect future graduates. No existing licenses will be changed to conform with these new grade levels and subject areas. Over the next few years, preparation programs will be transitioning over to new grade bands that will replace the developmental levels that have been in use since 2004. The new grade bands will be:

Birth to Grade 3 (Early Childhood Regular and Special Education)
Grades K-9 (Elementary Regular Education)
Grades 4-12 (Middle & High School Subjects)
Grades PK-12 (Arts, CTE, PE, World Languages, etc., and Special Education)

We will also be collapsing the following subject areas to have a single license, like we have had for Mathematics for many years:

English Language Arts
Music
Science
Social Studies

We appreciate the patience of educators who hold a Provisional license and already have six semesters of successful experience in Wisconsin classrooms. They can now apply for their Lifetime license, and information about this process can be found at https://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/application-lifetime-license-now-available-provisional-license-holders. They will need to submit an experience verification form with their application, so they may be asking you to sign a PI-1613 form (see https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/forms/pdf/f1613.pdf). The way the law on Lifetime licenses was originally worded made it sound like school boards would need to verify the experience; however, the law was changed in April, and principals can sign off if their district office allows them to.

With the decreasing supply of new educators coming out of preparation programs, it is more important than ever that we look at ways to retain the great educators we have. You will likely hear more this year from our Educator Development and Support Team (formerly Educator Effectiveness) on strategies that are working in schools. A survey of over 11,000 educators we conducted a year ago indicated educators would be more likely to stay in the field if they received more support in creating a work/life balance, more effective leadership, more respect, better control of student behavior, and better school climate. We at DPI are eager partners in this work, so please do not hesitate to contact different teams at DPI to assist with that work.

Two final ideas for you. The best way to keep up-to-date with licensing news and changes is to follow our blog at https://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/news. Each entry is narrowly focused so you can send your staff links directly to the answers to their questions. Second, when staff have questions about their licenses, the most efficient way for them to get an answer from my team is to submit their question through the form at https://dpi.wi.gov/support/contact-us. The more information educators provide on the form, the easier it is for us to provide the correct options for each educator.

Best wishes for the new school year!