Report at Odds with President's Teacher Certification Policy

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 5, 1999

WASHINGTON -- A new study has found that high school students whose teachers have emergency teaching certificates perform about as well in mathematics and science as students whose teachers hold regular teaching credentials, according to a story in The Washington Post. However, the study also notes the importance of teachers specializing in the subjects they teach.

The findings regarding emergency teaching certificates, based on the test scores of a national sample of high school seniors and sophomores, runs contrary to the assumptions of a Clinton administration proposal to require states to stop issuing emergency teaching certificates as a condition for receiving federal education aid. The emergency teaching certificates are usually issued by states to meet shortages of classroom instructors. After President Bill Clinton called for such a ban in his State of the Union address this year, the administration proposed giving states four years to dramatically scale back emergency certification of teachers.

"Contrary to conventional wisdom, mathematics and science students who have teachers with emergency credentials do no worse than students whose teachers have standard teaching credentials, all else being equal," Dan D. Goldhaber, a labor economist who serves on the Alexandria, Va., school board concluded in the report.

Released last month by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Better Teachers, Better Schools also concluded that students whose teachers have college degrees in math or have been specifically certified to teach math score significantly higher on standardized tests than students whose teachers did not specialize.