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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Michael
J. Herzing |
State Rep. Dan Surra |
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Surra reintroduces conditional teacher certificate measure
HARRISBURG, March 12 – State Rep. Dan Surra, D-Elk/Clearfield, has reintroduced legislation that would allow people in Pennsylvania with bachelor’s or graduate degrees in education to obtain conditional teaching certificates if they have passed their subject-related teacher assessment tests.
Surra, a former teacher in the DuBois Area School District, said the measure would assist many education graduates in Pennsylvania who have not been able to get teaching jobs because they failed to score high enough in non-subject-related areas of the state teacher assessment, also known as the Praxis test.
“Pennsylvania ends up losing many of these people to other professions because they get frustrated at the repeated expense and hassle of trying to pass parts of the Praxis test not related to the subject they will be teaching,” Surra said. “Our schools are missing out on potentially talented and motivated young teachers because they aren’t being given a chance to prove themselves in the classroom.”
Under Surra’s bill (H.B. 634), education graduates who pass the subject-related portions of their Praxis test would be permitted to apply for conditional teacher certification in Pennsylvania. The conditional certification would allow them to apply for and obtain a teaching position for up to two years while being closely supervised and evaluated by school administrators.
After two years, conditional teachers could be granted full certification by the state at the recommendation of the school district they are working for.
Surra said teachers with conditional certificates would have to meet the same background-check and other eligibility requirements as fully certified teachers in Pennsylvania, and their time as a conditional teacher would not count toward tenure. Education graduates could only apply for conditional certification once.
“I’m concerned that many quality education graduates are being kept out of Pennsylvania classrooms by a few test points in subject matter they don’t need to know to teach effectively,” Surra said. “Conditional certificates would allow our schools to determine if these graduates will make good teachers based on their ability, not on a subjective and non-relevant test.”
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