In the long run, emergency certificates are likely to create more problems than they solve unless more long-term strategies are considered, including compensation reform, career ladders and teacher leadership opportunities. These stopgap measures come at a cost to the quality of education that students receive as well as the reputation of teaching more broadly.
Additionally, students don’t benefit from relying on teachers who have little subject matter knowledge or experience teaching. If states are forced to lower entry requirements for potential teachers to address immediate shortages, they need to do so cautiously. At a minimum, states must aggressively recruit diverse candidates, screen for qualities that matter in the classroom and require novice teachers without licensure to participate in alternative certification programs with a proven track record of success in driving student learning.
The long-term solution to the teacher shortage is systemic change to the teacher pipeline – from improving teacher preparation programs to increasing compensation – so that teaching becomes a more attractive career option. This in turn would help teaching take its rightful place among other challenging, high-status professions. We need more than superhero capes to get, and keep, great teachers in the classroom.