Cynthia Morton wants to teach high school biology. She has 30 years of teaching experience in colleges, holding a Ph.D. in biology, and has taught at Riverview and Deer Lakes for the past year using a one-year temporary permit, a fallback option for schools looking to fill a vacant position. But making the transition to full time is another matter. It will cost more than $10,000 to secure a certificate to teach in public schools.
“Having to invest that much money, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “It’s not possible.”
Morton’s experience illustrates an understated aspect of the Pennsylvania teacher shortage. Educators say the exorbitant cost of teaching certificates has removed qualified and willing teachers from the pool of candidates at public schools.
A February report by PA Needs Teachers, a coalition of Pennsylvania teacher advocates, found that the supply of teachers in the state has decreased by two-thirds over the past decade. A sharp decline in Instructional I Certificates, which are necessary to teach full time in Pennsylvania public schools, is a heavy contributor, the report found. The decline in certifications is twice the national average.
A lack of teachers leads districts to hire underqualified or inexperienced instructors, resulting in high turnover rates. Low-income areas are particularly affected, the PA Needs Teachers report found.
For people such as Morton who are transitioning to a new career, the high cost and lengthy process is a difficult barrier to get past.
Tiffany Ramcharan, a charter school teacher in Philadelphia, has taught middle schoolers and high schoolers for more than a decade, and recently has entered the only alternative teaching certification program in the state: the Point Park University program, alongside the American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence.
Paraprofessionals and nonpublic school teachers who have undergraduate college degrees but don’t have an education degree can get certified through the ABCTE, a nonprofit partnered with Point Park. It is supposed to be a streamlined program, avoiding the length and cost of a more traditional college degree. But it is expensive.
“I haven’t figured out how I’m gonna pay for it yet,” Ramcharan said.
The costs stack on top of each other. First, there’s two American Board exams you have to take: an exam in your content area and a Professional Teaching Knowledge exam. You have to pay $1,900 combined for the two exams, according to the ABCTE website. Once you pass those, you apply to the Point Park program, which entails two eight-week three-credit courses. The total cost of the two courses is $3,534, per the Point Park website.
Ramcharan found out too late that there are no financial aid or student loan programs. Everything must be paid up front, she said, and Point Park charges $75 late fees. Because the program is not accredited, Ramcharan said, she can’t claim it as tuition on federal taxes. She already feels the pressure of looming student loans from her undergraduate degree.
Costs don’t end at the Point Park program, either. Pennsylvania requires prospective certified teachers to go through a 60-day mentoring program, in which they teach full time in a public school under supervision. The process includes two Zoom sessions with supervisors on topics such as lesson plan creation.
The cost of the 60-day program: $4,500 in Allegheny County and $6,000 everywhere else in the state.
Ramcharan already makes lesson plans every day and has for more than 10 years. She deals with multiple grade levels at once, with few breaks during the day, as she fills gaps in a school that struggles to find science teachers. At her current school, she is tasked with improving scores on the Biology Keystone Exam.
Morton, who teaches at the Community College of Allegheny County, doesn’t see the need for high-cost mentoring programs.
“I’ve been doing syllabi and class organization for years,” she said. “I don’t mind taking the exam or a couple of credits, but being charged $12,000 is too much to make a transition in a career.”
The hefty cost of the certification program proved a barrier in New Jersey, too, leading Gov. Phil Murphy to sign a law eliminating the need for prospective teachers to take a costly performance exam.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation last month to establish a “Grow Your Own Educators” program, aimed to provide financial assistance to high-need schools. The bill, which the Senate is mulling over now, would provide grants to members of the community who are heavily involved with local schools to become certified teachers.
“The path forward really is for PA to enact reforms that make the traditional certification route more affordable and accessible to both traditional students and nontraditional students,” Chris Lilienthal, the assistant director of communications with the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said in an email. He suggested enacting scholarship programs and adding stipends for student teachers.
Causes of the teacher shortage in the state, Ramcharan says, are widespread. Young teachers get burned out quickly from entry-level employment in difficult districts, where support from the administration is lacking. Dealing with behavioral and social issues in those districts requires special skills. Ramcharan has had her car stolen, and she takes it upon herself to help students dealing with depression.
Her background in social work — she has a bachelor’s degree in human services — helps her deal with those issues. But without Instructional I certification, her salary is capped.
“Public schools are hungry for teachers, and I’ve had offers for $10k or $15k more than what I make. They will take you with a temporary certification for a year,” she said.
Schools are able to request temporary certificates for noncertified applicants as long as the applicant has a bachelor’s degree. They’re issued by the state Department of Education and are a way of securing long-term substitutes for vacant positions. Ramcharan has used that temporary certification multiple times. But she has also had a thousand dollars removed from her salary for not being certified.
Empowering teachers who are already in the system, and have experience in the field, can serve as protection against turnover, Ramcharan says. Those teachers are proven and dedicated and unlikely to flee.
“They’re trying to find people who aren’t interested and convince them. They put them in a challenging school, and they drop …. We can’t throw them in a pit like that.” she said. “If they’re willing to get up and go to school every day, they have value.”
Those proven teachers are often at charter schools, gaining experience without certification, as did Ramcharan. Others are like Morton, who hopes for a career change. Willing qualified teachers go by the wayside due to the economic barrier of alternative certification.
“You have teachers who are willing to stick it out but don’t have this piece of paper,” Ramcharan said.
Harrison, a rising senior at Denison University, is a Union Progress summer intern. Email him at hhamm@unionprogress.com.