Elsie Arntzen Newest Recommended Change? Axing Accreditation Standards for out-of-state teachers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 25, 2022
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press@montanademocrats.org
Elsie Arntzen Newest Recommended Change? Axing Accreditation Standards for out-of-state teachers
Plan will “sacrifice quality for quantity” and hurt our schools
Helena, MT – Yesterday, the Board of Public Education held a public hearing to review Elsie Arntzen’s recommended changes to Chapter 57– which sets standards for teacher licensing. Arntzen, the Superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction (OPI), has recommended a dramatic overhaul of the teacher licensing process, including weakening the standards for out-of-state teachers by removing the requirement that they have graduated from an accredited program. Arntzen’s recommended change would also unfairly hold out-of-state educators to lower standards and requirements than Montana-educated teachers.
The recommended changes would shift the standards for out-of-state teachers from graduating from an accredited program to completing any program “approved” by any state agency. The Public Hearing drew lots of comments – nearly all opposed to the Superintendent’s proposal. Stevie Schmitz, chair of the Montana Council of Deans of Education, warned the board that adopting her recommendations would “sacrifice quality for quantity.”
This newest recommendation from Elsie Arntzen’s OPI follows months of pressure from school administrators and superintendents, who wrote a letter of “no confidence” to Arntzen late last year. The turnover rate under Arntzen’s leadership at the OPI is as high as 90%, and is particularly detrimental to chapter revision processes, like the one happening now for teacher licensing. Education experts at the OPI are leaving at such a fast rate that not a single employee who has previously worked on a chapter revision process in the past is still around.
“Montana’s schools are facing a retention and recruitment crisis– but the solution is not watering down quality standards. It is providing our Montana teachers with investments in pay, classroom support, health care, and housing,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Elsie Arntzen is leading the OPI as if she has no respect for Montana’s teachers.”
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