Unintended Consequences: Ohio's Required Retake of the Teacher Licensure Exam for Teachers in Low-Performing Schools

Abstract

We address Ohio's newly enacted House Bill 153, which requires teachers in low-performing schools to retake the teaching licensure exam. Although we believe that the state legislature was well intended in passing the law, we also believe that the law is dangerous–-it should not be enacted in any further states, and it should be repealed in Ohio. We articulate the classical hallmarks of vocational disciplines that qualify to use the term “profession.” Furthermore, we advocate that Ohio's requiring experienced licensed teachers to retake the certification test affronts education's claim to possess status in belonging to a profession, thereby putting it in danger of being downgraded to the status of a “craft.”

School Accountability At The Intersection Of Race, Povertyand Teacher Quality

“…Although the positive impacts of teacher certification on student achievement are clear, some scholars have noted that strict licensure requirements intended to keep unskilled and ineffective teachers out of the classroom, often have unintended negative impacts on the students who need high quality teachers the most (Firmin, Markham, & Gruber, 2015;Goldhaber, 2007;Goldhaber, Lavery, & Theobald, 2015). Goldhaber (2007) suggests that there are consequences when standards (specifically increased test score cut offs) are implemented without consideration to the effective teachers who might be excluded and the ineffective ones who might be allowed to teach because of their test scores.…”