It has also proposed that applicants to teacher-training programs in the state be required to pass a basic-skills examination as a prerequisite for admission.
The recommendations, the first such proposed changes in the state’s certification procedures in more than 35 years, were made by an advisory panel of educators and lay citizens brought together by the state’s education department.
Under the panel’s proposals, the state’s system of granting lifetime teaching certificates to teachers with three years of experience and a master’s degree would be replaced by a requirement that each teacher earn recertification every five years, according to Anne Patterson, director of teacher education and certification in the state.
Each teacher would have to take six to 12 semester hours of college course work or an equivalent amount of inservice training sponsored by the school system in order to be eligible for recertification.
Ms. Patterson said prospective education students would be required to meet state-imposed cutoff scores on a nationally normed basic-skills examination for admission to the state’s education programs.
The proposals have been sent for consideration to the Indiana Commission on
Teacher Training and Licensing, a six-member subcommittee of the state’s board of education that is responsible for licensing teachers in the state. The commission is scheduled to hold public hearings on the proposals in November and December.
