Education majors in Pennsylvania expecting to graduate in 2013 will have to adhere to a new set of requirements designed to better prepare them for teaching diverse students.
The new regulations were recently approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and are expected to take effect in 2009 and 2011.
Faculty from the Penn State College of Education met with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help design the new regulations for education certification.
Changes include a mandatory dual certification for special education students, said Jacqeline Edmondson, associate dean for teacher education and undergraduate programs at the College of Education.
Along with a degree in special education, graduates must also be certified in pre-K through grade 4, grades 4 through 8 or a content area of secondary education. These changes are set to be implemented in the fall of 2009.
Bernard Badiali, associate professor in the College of Education, said not all of his colleagues supported the proposal, and he added that the changes will limit the flexibility of staff educators at every grade.
Currently, students can be certified to teach any grade between kindergarten and sixth grade, Badiali said. The changes will cause special education students to choose between becoming certified to teach either pre-K though grade 4 or grade 4 through grade 8, he said.
"Splitting the certificate makes it a little more difficult," Badiali said. "Teaching candidates will find it harder to choose-. They'll have to make decisions early on without a lot of experience."-
Other changes, which will take effect in 2011, include requiring all education students to take nine additional credits covering adaptations and accommodations for diverse learners, and three additional credits in English language learning to help teach children who speak a language other than English at home.
The guidelines for the changes aren't expected to be completed until spring 2008, said Edmondson, who is currently working on the guidelines.
"We plan our programs based on our best knowledge and the best available research at the time," Edmondson said. "We have a hope students will understand more about child development and adolescent development for the ages they teach, yet still have the appropriate content knowledge necessary to be highly qualified teachers."
Badiali said the new requirements emphasize early childhood development more than the current requirements.
"There's a lot of research to suggest that if we can give very young children a good start, there's a lot of carry through even until, believe it or not, high school graduation," Badiali said.
The process of revamping the certification requirements began in the summer of 2005 when the first draft of regulations was made. The regulations have just been decided upon now following a long review process involving the state education board, the state House and Senate education committees, Edmondson said.
No current teacher or current undergraduate teaching student will be impacted by the changes in requirements, Edmondson said. Only education students graduating in 2013 and later will have to follow the new requirements.
"It will be a long time until we know [if the changes are beneficial] because the first graduating class is in 2013," Edmondson said. "We won't have research until after 2013 on the effect of these changes."
Sara Hylinski (senior-special education) said she thinks the changes may be helpful, but the current required courses are just as beneficial.
She said she is happy she will graduate before the changes take effect, but she is electing to stay an extra semester to get a dual certificate in elementary education.
"I'm graduating in May, but I'm staying an extra semester because I know about these requirements," she said. "I have to do it, so I'm going to now rather than later."
