Will Iowa Have Math and Science Teachers Without Education Degrees?

By Lynn Campbell
IowaPolitics.com

As Iowa struggles to find and hire teachers in math and science, a controversial solution has surfaced again and is picking up steam in the Iowa Legislature.

In a largely party-line vote, the House voted, 61-36, Tuesday for House File 2385, which would allow people with at least three years of work experience in math, science or engineering — but no formal training in teaching — to teach in those shortage areas in high school. The bill now moves to the Senate for further debate.

The proposal has been applauded for drawing on a well of untapped professionals to fill teaching vacancies, but attacked for degrading the licensure and quality of teaching.
 
State Rep. Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, division chairman for agriculture and industrial technology at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, said the legislation will allow people with a lot of experience in the working world to give back to their communities.
 
“I think this is a great tool we can put in the toolbox to help fill that pipeline of STEM teachers,” said Byrnes, using the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
 
Gov. Terry Branstad, former president of Des Moines University, said he sees merit to bringing engineers and other people with technical skills into the classroom.
 
“I think it makes a lot of sense,” Branstad said. “One thing that really inspires kids, if they can interact with somebody that’s really done it in the real world — that’s been an engineer, that’s done some interesting, innovative things in the areas of science and math, that can spark an interest in more kids wanting to go into those fields.”
 
But state Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, who taught for 33 years in the Iowa City schools including as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Weber Elementary School, called the proposed alternative licensure system “misguided.”
 
“To say that people are born teachers, I just don’t believe that,” Mascher said. “There’s this attitude that anybody can teach, and that is just not true. We have all kinds of examples of people who know content but don’t know how to teach.”
 
Iowa already has an alternative pathway called the “teacher intern license,” for people who did not go through teacher-preparation programs.
 
But while this program requires some classes in pedagogy, or how to teach, the new one doesn’t. All that’s required under the new program would be a bachelor’s degree in math or science, three years of work experience in the shortage areas, a one semester-hour methodology class and passage of the Praxis II, which in this case will test a person’s knowledge of math or science.
 
“Just because you know something, doesn’t mean you know the mechanics of how to teach it,” said Mary Jane Cobb, executive director of the Iowa State Education Association, which represents more than 34,000 educators. “I wouldn’t want a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant who wasn’t prepared to do their job, operating on me, doing my taxes or representing me in court.”
 
The idea of allowing people with no pedagogical training to teach high school in shortage areas like math and science was brought forward in the fall by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, which handles teacher licensure.
 
George Maurer, the board's executive director, said that in a perfect world, he wouldn’t be proposing this. But the reality is Iowa has been trying to deal with these shortage areas for multiple years, and the situation isn’t improving. He estimated that five to 10 people a year would qualify to teach under the proposed legislation.
 
Burlington schools Superintendent Jane Evans earlier told IowaPolitics.com that her district struggled this past summer to find two math teachers for Burlington High School. The teachers were hired the first week of August; school started Aug. 18. She said she would be interested in seeing what could be done to get qualified business people trained, so they can be high school teachers.
 
But the idea was tabled in October after it came under harsh criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who said it would lower standards. The board decided that the issue should be decided by lawmakers.
 
Byrnes, who had worked as a high school teacher for 8 ½ years, said educators shouldn’t view this legislation as a threat.
 
“This is not an attack on the teaching profession,” he said. “This is not an attempt to try to shut down our educational institutions that are teaching folks how to teach.”
 
Cobb denied that opposition by the union is a way of teachers protecting their turf.
 
“The research shows that students do better in classrooms with teachers who are fully prepared when they walk into the classroom,” she said. “My bias on this is all about kids. The kids learn better from teachers who know how to teach.”