Career switching: New plan would make it easier to become a teacher

Some Iowans dream about quitting jobs to teach. Now, it's about to get easier.

Shortcuts to a teaching license are planned at the three state universities and a few Iowa private colleges.

The goal is to retrain educated workers who want to teach middle school and high school without forcing them to go to college full time for two years.

"It really is designed for people whose options are limited," said Melissa Heston, the University of Northern Iowa's interim director of teacher education.

Iowa has allowed colleges since 2005 to develop alternative licensing programs that call for a year of part-time classes followed by a year of teaching with an "intern license."

Only Kaplan University, a private college in Davenport, offers one.

Skyrocketing demand has pushed other colleges to follow.

Iowa professionals have pushed for an easier way to transition to teaching, college officials said. State officials said alternative licensing programs produced a third of the nation's new teachers.

"I really believe there is a market," said George Maurer, director of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, which oversees teacher licensing. "A number of states have gone into this area."

At the same time, Iowa faces a statewide teacher shortage in some subjects.

Hundreds of veteran teachers are eligible for retirement while Iowa is producing fewer new teachers. Iowa colleges and universities turned out 18 percent fewer student teachers between the 2002-03 and 2007-08 school years, state records show.

"The state has become particularly anxious about how are we going to provide math, science, foreign language instruction at the secondary level if we don't have some manageable way for people who are interested to move into those areas," Heston said.

Mother switches from business to teaching

Georgiann Andersen, a Minden mother of three, said Kaplan University's online classes were the only way she could transition from a job in software development to one in the classroom.

Andersen, 48, taught high school business and computers last fall and spring as an intern for the Tri-Center school district in western Iowa. This fall, her teaching job will be permanent.

"It was a big change going from the business world to a classroom environment," she said. "I think the kids enjoyed the fact that I could relate some of the real-world experiences that I had when I was out there."

Heston said UNI, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University will offer a mix of classes on campus, online and over the Iowa Communications Network, the state's fiber-optic system.

The three universities, along with Morningside College, Simpson College and Maharishi University of Management drew up teacher intern license plans with money from a $300,000 state grant.

Some of those plans will go the state Board of Education for approval next month.

Iowa licenses carry high standards

The scramble for alternative licensing marks a shift in Iowa, where older efforts stalled amid worries that convenience would undermine high standards.

Iowa's rules for teacher "intern licenses" address those concerns, said Mary Jane Cobb, director of the Iowa State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.

"The fact that they are requiring 24 hours of instruction in education methodology, we think is a step in the right direction," Cobb said. "They're not just saying, 'Anybody who has a college degree, come teach.' "

Steven Stocks, 60, of Grimes sees it from a different perspective.

The former federal government worker said the transition to teaching was a "nightmare" before Kaplan's intern license program came along.

"Everybody I've ever talked to says Iowa's the toughest state to get a license in," said Stocks, who will teach math this fall at Ankeny Christian Academy.