H.T. Sánchez
Lisa Graham Keegan
A quarter of Arizona’s teachers will be eligible to retire in the next four years, and current teacher shortages tell us our school system is not prepared for this. Now is the time to think out of the box to ensure we have teachers to lead our classrooms.
As superintendent of the Tucson Unified School District and executive director of A for Arizona, we support SB 1208, which would eliminate unnecessary barriers to recruiting high-quality teachers.
One key part of the bill would make it easier to hire certified teachers who come to Arizona from other states. Empowering our highest-performing schools to hire the best candidates, whether traditionally certified or qualified another way, can open the door to individuals with experiences and career paths that have uniquely prepared them to positively influence students.
Every teacher plays a precious role in the life of a child. Great teachers can mean the difference between a student achieving in academics and in life or taking a different path.
Countless studies show the benefits of quality teachers to individual student success in the classroom and beyond, as well as the indirect effects teachers have on communities and the broader economy.
This makes Arizona’s growing teacher shortage and retention challenge all the more concerning. We must use every tool available to keep the best teachers in front of Arizona students. To be clear, professional certification is something we care about deeply. We support teacher credentials and believe they should mean something.
We also believe that great schools are the best professional development institutions we have, and no teacher with a proven record of student achievement should be denied a professional credential simply because their routes to excellence were untraditional.
Successful school leaders know exactly what attributes make a great teacher. In our highest-performing schools, leaders devote considerable time and energy to finding, interviewing and selecting the best candidate for each position. Sometimes those individuals come with state certification and sometimes they don’t. Additionally, state certification requirements sometimes reflect an old way of doing things that doesn’t play out in real-life classrooms anymore.
Lastly, our state regulations burden teachers with requirements that are not relevant to subjects individual teachers teach. Some of these burdens keep teachers from coming to Arizona.
Leaders at A for Arizona schools and principals throughout TUSD have proven their ability to educate students and prepare teachers. In addition to knowing what a good teacher looks like, leaders at our schools know where their teachers can be most effective.
Currently, a certification may restrict teachers to one subject or a specific grade, but we trust that our leaders know best where to apply their teachers’ unique strengths and content expertise to be most effective.
School leaders’ judgment, based on what they know works, is more valuable than anything a state regulation can only assume. That’s why SB 1208 is important. It honors the way our highest-performing school leaders attract the best candidates .
We greatly appreciate the leadership in the Arizona House and Senate education committees on both sides of the aisle in listening attentively to the needs and recommendations of Arizona’s highest-performing schools while crafting policy solutions. Arizona is making great educational gains, with our low-income “A” schools leading the way and showing us what is possible. We must continue to do all we can to enable them to attract and retain the highest-quality teachers.
