{"id":32245,"date":"2019-12-23T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32245"},"modified":"2019-12-20T15:17:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T21:17:11","slug":"oklahoma-legislators-file-bills-to-fight-statewide-teacher-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/12\/23\/oklahoma-legislators-file-bills-to-fight-statewide-teacher-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma legislators file bills to fight statewide teacher shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29154\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 411px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-29154\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"411\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/01\/20171215-Tulsa-Preschool_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preschool teacher, Irene Castell, works on counting with a small group of kids.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma lawmakers want to turn the tide on a statewide teacher shortage.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legislators have filed a flurry of bills to take up when they re-convene in February. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently the state has 3,000 emergency certified teachers, educators who are allowed to teach on a temporary basis even though they don\u2019t have all the necessary training. In 2010, there were only 32.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state and school districts have made it a priority to get more qualified educators in the classroom, bumping teacher pay by an average of $7,000 in the last two years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bills filed include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1115, would allow school boards of education to renew an emergency or provisional teaching certificate under certain circumstances. The teacher must have been employed by the school district for at least two years. (Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1125, would allow teachers with out-of-state teaching certificates to also obtain a teaching certificate in Oklahoma. (Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1126, also authored by Pugh, would require that teachers with experience out of state have that experience apply to their pay schedule in Oklahoma school districts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1127, or the Teacher Retention Act of 2020, would provide an annual bonus for teachers who meet certain criteria. That includes being given a district evaluation of \u201csuperior,\u201d possessing a National Board certification or if the teacher is recommended for the bonus by the district\u2019s superintendent. (The bill was authored by Rob Standridge, R-Norman.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 1128, would make it easier for deaf teachers of deaf students to get into the classroom. The measure would waive some requirements if a teacher is deaf and is fluent and able to teach American Sign Language. (Frank Simpson, R-Springer.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heading into 2020, Oklahoma legislators have introduced a number of bills in an effort to fight the state\u2019s teacher shortage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[742,758,933],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32245"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32251,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32245\/revisions\/32251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}