It’s budget season in Ohio, and that means plenty of debates about school funding and other education policy issues. Buried deep in the legislative language is a short provision about teacher licensure that’s garnering a whole lot of pushback—as it should. Here’s the legislative language: “Beginning September 1, 2018, the state board of education’s rules for the renewal of educator licenses shall require each applicant for renewal of a license to complete an on-site work experience with a local business or chamber of commerce as a condition of renewal.”
In Ohio, teacher licenses are renewed every five years. Although the requirements vary depending on the license, renewal typically involves six semester hours of coursework related to classroom teaching or the area of a teacher’s licensure and 18 continuing education units. If this proposal becomes law, completing an externship at a local business will become part of the process.
The intentions behind this requirement are good: Governor Kasich is trying to actuate a recommendation made by his executive workforce board, which wants to “help business connect with schools, and to help teachers connect with strategies to prepare their students for careers.” This is a worthy goal to be sure—all of us, no matter our profession, benefit from wider perspectives—but requiring all teachers to complete an externship won’t ensure that they’re able to advise students on their myriad career opportunities. Here are a few reasons why this provision shouldn’t become law.
- Externships are too infrequent. Ohio teachers renew their licenses every five years, which means that if this provision becomes law, teachers will only complete an externship once every five years. When talking to the Plain Dealer about the requirement, Kasich’s Office of Workforce Transformation Director Ryan Burgess specifically mentioned how quickly the workforce and in-demand jobs change. If this is true, then it begs the question how a single externship once every five years could possibly keep teachers up to date on the newest pathways available to students—especially in areas like technology and health care, where innovation is the name of the game. To be clear, I’m not arguing that teachers should be required to complete an externship every year. I’m just pointing out that if we need to end the disconnect between businesses, educators, and schools, an externship once every five years isn’t going to do it.
- Externships won’t help teachers talk to all their students about careers. I taught high school English, and I had plenty of conversations with students about careers. Some of these conversations were based on my personal experiences and knowledge, and some of them involved working with students to research options. Very few of these conversations would have improved had I been required to complete an externship. This is because my students had such a wide range of interests: An externship at a local steel plant might have helped me talk to my kids about careers in the steel industry, but if none of my students were interested in working in the steel industry, my time would have been wasted and their questions wouldn’t have been answered.
- Elementary and some middle school teachers won’t benefit the way high school teachers may. The conversations I had with my students about careers were most likely not the same conversations that elementary and middle school teachers have with their students, and rightfully so—students need different things at different ages. Teacher licensure requirements should reflect what teachers need to know to teach specific subjects at specific grade levels. A one-size-fits-all provision that requires all teachers to complete an externship won’t benefit the majority of teachers, or more importantly, students.
- It will probably become a check-box compliance item. Teachers already bear important responsibilities, such as preparing lessons, grading students’ work, communicating with parents, leading extracurricular activities, handling sensitive disciplinary matters, keeping current with research on effective pedagogical practices, and mentoring teachers new to the profession. Given these priorities, it’s a bit naive to think that classroom teachers will immerse themselves in another profession. Instead, it’ll probably become another go-through-the-motions compliance item that teachers do every five years.
This provision is a response to a very real disconnect between schools and the workplace. But there are ways to address that disconnect other than adding to the already full plates of educators. For instance, the provision could be amended to make externships an option—but not a requirement—for teachers to earn continuing education credits. The state could also invest in bringing businesses into schools rather than sending teachers out—a sort of career day on steroids. This would give students and teachers a chance to interact with business leaders and entrepreneurs firsthand and would showcase a broader menu of potential career pathways than teacher externships ever could.
State lawmakers should definitely consider ways to connect schools and businesses, but requiring externships for all of Ohio’s teachers is over the top. A lot of positive things are already happening across Ohio to help young people understand their career opportunities, and policy makers would do well to build on those types of initiatives instead.
