Kasich’s Budget Proposal Requires Externships for Ohio Teachers.

A new requirement for Ohio teachers can be found in the proposed Ohio 2018-2019 budget bill. Ohio Governor John Kasich’s two-year budget proposal plans to start Sept. 1, 2018, requiring teachers to job shadow in order to have their teaching licenses renewed. A part of House Bill 49 reads:

“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. Work experience obtained pursuant to this section shall count toward any required continuing education. Each local professional development committee established under section 3319.22 of the Revised Code shall work with its teachers to identify local work experience opportunities that meet the requirements of this section.”

Requiring externships for license renewal was a recommendation made in late 2016 by Kasich and his Executive Workforce Board.

The proposal will apply to all teachers.

Kasich’s Office of Workforce Transformation Director Ryan Burgess said Gov. Kasich challenged the board in coming up with ways to prepare and continuously retrain Ohioans for jobs today and tomorrow.

Burgess said that knowing how quickly the workforce and jobs are changing because of technology and automation, they want to develop a workforce system and an education system that can keep up with the speed of change.

The board sat with business owners, teachers, superintendents and non-profits in local communities to identify the workforce challenges that are out there. Burgess says that of all 40 recommendations made by the board, half of them became budget language that appears in the Governor’s executive budget.

A group of teachers in Barberton, a suburb of Akron, have been touring local businesses to see what jobs exist and what skills are entailed with those jobs.

“Business owners say the people they hire don’t have the skills that they need to build their businesses,” said Burgess. “A lot of the budget concepts on how do we better align the education system with the business community.”

 

In the past week, the proposal has been criticized by many, inlcuding teachers.

 

Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said, “We are opposed to externships being a requirement. However, having said, we think they could be a good option for some teachers’ license renewal. For example, if you’re a career tech teacher, it makes sense to do an externship that relates to the field you are teaching.”

For example, an English teacher who teaches a journalism class: “If they want to do an externship with a newspaper or the media, they should have the option to do that. It should not be a requirement.”

The length of time for an externship is still undetermined.

“Are we talking about an hour every day after school for a week, or a summer externship? We just don’t know,” says Cropper.

Teachers are required to have their teaching licenses renewed every 5 years. In addition, they are to prove a certain amount of continuing education credit.

Cropper said the Executive Workforce Board does not have any educators on it, “so it’s a very one-sided list of recommendations.”

The externship provision would require teachers to gain “on-site work experience” with a business or chamber of commerce before renewing their license, typically every five years. It would count toward continued education required for license renewal.

According to Cropper, there are not enough quality externships available to all teachers who would need to get a license. Especially in rural areas.

Cropper questioned whether an externship would be beneficial, “Will they hold a teacher’s licenser if that can’t find an externship?” and “If they do find a place that will take them, will it really be something that connects to what they teach?”

One of the big strategic work force challenges that the board faces is the need to better align business and education. “This is just one way to better facilitate that communication,” said Burgess.

Burgess said once there is more communication between teachers and business owners, owners will gain a greater appreciation for what teachers do on a daily basis. If teachers spend time with local businesses, they’ll have a better sense of the type of jobs that exist in their local communities.

Daniel Cappelucci, a math teacher at Cardinal Middle School in Middlefield, Ohio, said it doesn’t make sense for “externships” to be mandatory for all teachers. “I can understand the value for certain teachers, depending on the subject and grade that they teach, but to make it mandatory for every teacher, no matter their subject or grade level, is senseless.”

Cappelucci said he does not have a problem if the externships are an optional step for teachers to use when renewing their license.

“If it’s mandatory for all teachers though, it just shows how little our leaders actually know and understand about our schools,” said Cappelucci.

According to Cropper, the business world needs to have more experience with what goes on in a classroom and she would encourage them to spend more time in a classroom to see what the experience is like.

“I believe firmly that it won’t go anywhere. Legislatures will realize that this isn’t practical.”