Jennifer Allen has wanted to be a teacher since high school. She admired her social studies and English teachers especially. After four years studying elementary education at Delta State University and a full-time teaching position in a local district her senior year, she felt she had cleared all the important hurdles to becoming a certified teacher in Mississippi.

But then came PRAXIS, a series of tests that nearly every teacher in Mississippi must take to become a certified teacher.

“It made me second guess a career that I fell in love with,” she said. “Much of what I learned over the four years of college is not in the practice material.”

She’s not alone. In roughly half of public and private universities with education programs, do not pass at least one section of the PRAXIS exam on their first try.

Some students even opted for more classes at school to bypass having to take the test, which would mean an additional $1,200 for Allen.

Nearly a quarter of the 1,892 Mississippi test takers walked away after flunking on the first attempt of the most commonly taken PRAXIS Elementary Education exam , leaving fewer teachers to fill a growing list of teacher vacancies in critical shortage areas.

The Board of Education implemented a waiver during the pandemic to allow students to be certified without taking the PRAXIS, but that waiver ended in December 2021. Students graduating as late as December 2023 took advantage of the waiver.

Now university education departments, school district officials and teachers are struggling to re-adjust to a more rigid path to teacher licensure.

“It’s outrageous that effective educators are dismissed by the profession for not passing PRAXIS,” said Clayton Barksdale, a former public school principal in Greenville and executive director of the West Mississippi Education Consortium. “Many prove their impact while on emergency licenses, only to be fired then immediately rehired as a long-term substitute – doing the same work for a fraction of the pay, with no benefits or retirement.”

“We must do better.”

Shortage areas

Didriquez Smith has taken the PRAXIS content test three times and spent nearly a thousand dollars. He coaches football at Clarksdale High School and teaches physical education on an emergency license.

He failed just one of the three tests in his past two attempts: Foundations of Reading, which covers reading comprehension and teaching reading.

The Praxis exam has several parts. The content knowledge test covers the subject aspiring teachers want to teach, like biology or elementary English. The Principles of Learning test covers how teachers should prepare lesson plans and approach classroom instruction for different subjects. Students who don’t have at least a 3.0 GPA must also take an Academic Skills for Educators test, which is also called PRAXIS Core.

Per try, the elementary education exam costs $209, and the PRAXIS core test $90. Some of the content tests such as art instruction cost $130.

Smith had to travel nearly 300 miles to Birmingham to take his third attempt at the test because the test wasn’t offered closer at the end of the school year. He is currently saving up enough money to take it again.

He loves his job, particularly informing his community about the importance of healthy habits.

He hopes he can continue to keep students healthy and active at school. In the Mississippi Delta, .

However, if he can’t pass each required PRAXIS test in the next year, he may be out of a job. As much as his boss in the principal’s office may want to keep him in his role, state regulations penalize schools in their annual accountability scores if they have faculty teaching without a license. Schools can also lose accreditation.

Since childhood, Skylar Ball had planned on becoming a kindergarten teacher. She followed her mother into education, even attending the same alma mater of Blue Mountain Christian University.

“Teaching elementary school is like Disney World,” she said. “Elementary students, you can do so much with them. You can make an early impact.”

However, one and a half years after graduation, she remains an assistant teacher, making several thousand less a month than she budgeted for while she saves enough money to take the PRAXIS exam for the third time.

She was two questions shy of passing on her latest attempt.

“I was so blessed to educate 20 amazing kindergartners last school year under an emergency license … I am currently a paraprofessional in an amazing district, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t upset about not being able to lead a classroom of my own,” Ball said.

She struggled with the Elementary Education exam, a PRAXIS test with in the state. Although she was aiming to become a kindergarten English teacher, her test covered kindergarten through sixth grade instruction as well as science, math, art, English, and social studies, among other subjects.

, the nonprofit found that Mississippi’s Elementary Education content test has a subpar job measuring whether would-be teachers have the knowledge and skills needed for a career in their classrooms.

“Does this test tell districts if they are prepared to lead an elementary school classroom in this content area? It does not,” said Hannah Putman, managing director of research at the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The university’s role

Universities in Mississippi play an important role in filling teacher vacancies with fresh talent. Pass rates on PRAXIS exams vary among universities with Alcorn State University posting the lowest first-time pass rates, according to the most recent data from 2022-2023 school year. Mississippi Valley State University posted that none of its students took two of the three main PRAXIS exams for the same year.

has a smaller sample size of teachers as a majority gained licensure under the  COVID waiver.

Mississippi College posted the best results with over 93% of students passing the pedagogy section test and 100% of students passing both the content test and the Foundations of Reading test. Over 90% of University of Southern Mississippi students passed their three PRAXIS exams.

Timolin Howard, a Mississippi Valley State graduate, doesn’t regret enrolling in the school’s masters in teaching program. She believes instructors have given her the tools to succeed in the classroom.

After finding out her test scores were insufficient for licensure, she had a stroke. She also says she received mixed messaging from the state licensure board regarding cut-off scores.

“I found that, while I was well-prepared for real-world teaching, I wasn’t fully prepared for the demands of the certification exams,” she said.

She said she can manage students, build lesson plans and come up with classroom activities that help students master common core competencies. But Howard realized she had gaps in her foundational knowledge when it came to studying for the PRAXIS exams. She reached out to her school for help.

The university cancelled a workshop taught on campus, which was preparing students for the Foundations of Reading exam. It wasn’t the first a PRAXIS preparation workshop was cancelled, Howard said.

“It left me feeling overwhelmed as I tried to catch up, and it significantly impacted my confidence, academic performance and health,” she said.

This year, her Delta school district released her from her contract because she lacked the right licensure.

Mississippi Valley State University’s education department did not respond to comment despite repeated attempts to reach representatives.

Grow Your Own

For eight years, Adrienne Hudson has led the nonprofit organization RISE, which helps recruit and retain new teachers in Mississippi Delta school districts.

Hudson had already been informally mentoring and tutoring teachers who struggled with the PRAXIS exam and other technical aspects of licensure in her Clarksdale school. She founded RISE to help more.

Hudson takes pride in the start of performance-based licensure in her district. Letting teachers become certified teachers through improving test scores in state-tested subjects will help schools retain talented teachers, said Hudson of the new path to teacher certification.

“Some of the responsibilities are on the university and some are the systems that require the test to be the measuring stick for becoming a teacher,” she said. “We have students getting dean’s list, who can’t pass the test.”

More would-be teachers are going back to school later in life than ever before. Fewer teachers are entering the traditional route, which involves majoring in education as an undergraduate as opposed to the alternate route through a masters. In the , 27% of students getting an education degree went the alternate route in , 45% did.

Tony Latiker, dean of Jackson State University’s school of education, saw a similar trend. He theorizes the reason so many students are going the alternative route is because of the many requirements that await undergraduates at the end of their four years. Alternative route students have fewer testing requirements to meet.

One solution he has found is to have traditional route students take exams closer to when they finish coursework that corresponds. For example, he encourages students to take the Foundations of Reading exam after they complete their early literacy courses, which are offered in some form at all Mississippi universities with an education program.

Jackson State also offers an elective that prepares students for the PRAXIS tests and other technical requirements of licensure. Professors and visiting instructors also host workshops on campus.

“We really should be questioning the exams,” Latiker told Mississippi Today. “I’m not against the exams and testing, but I’m against them being the high stakes tests they are. It should be a part of a more holistic process, incorporating district personnel and university faculty input in classrooms, assessing pre-service teachers and interns at the end of lessons, to see if they’re actually effective.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

About are unfilled or occupied by someone who is not fully certified. The numbers are starker in Texas, where were unlicensed. This isn’t just a staffing issue; it’s an educational emergency that demands a fundamental shift in how America regards teaching as a profession.

Unlike other career paths, such as medicine, law or engineering, teaching has never been fully professionalized. It is possible for an individual to walk into a classroom with minimal training and be called a teacher. 

True professionalization of teaching would require significant changes to the system, which features a hodgepodge of quick certification programs and temporary credentials across different states. Instead, every teacher should be required to complete comprehensive preparation that includes professional practice with expert feedback. This preparation period would be both rigorous and standardized — similar to medical residencies or legal clerkships — ensuring that all new teachers enter classrooms with proven skills to go along with their good intentions.

Professional teachers should also engage in continuous learning throughout their careers, which means regularly updating their skills and knowledge as new research emerges about effective educational methods. Schools should also offer clearer pathways for career advancement, making it easier for excellent teachers to take on leadership roles or mentor newcomers.

Outstanding classroom teaching requires sophisticated leadership and communication skills that take years to develop. The relative lack of ongoing training and career development for teachers once they’ve entered the classroom has created a vicious cycle where underprepared educators struggle in classrooms and leave the profession quickly. This creates more vacancies to be filled by people who also haven’t been sufficiently trained. 

Texas’ , signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4 and taking effect in the fall, attempts to break this cycle by setting specific limits on how many uncertified teachers districts can employ. Starting in the 2026-27 school year, no more than 20% of a district’s teachers would be allowed to work without proper certification in core subjects. That percentage would drop each year until it reached just 5% by 2029-30. The law is a serious step toward treating teaching like the skilled profession it is.

It was critically important that the bill be passed and signed, because the consequences of the current system are devastating for students. 

In Texas, having an unprepared teacher is equivalent to missing over one-third of the school year: research shows that Texas students taught by new, uncertified teachers . Meanwhile, students taught by teachers who recently completed ’s rigorous preparation program . This is equivalent to gaining more than half a school year’s worth of learning in both subjects.

States facing similar shortages of qualified teachers in their classrooms should pay attention to Texas’ experiment and consider their own approaches to professionalizing teaching. The stakes are too high to continue with quick fixes and emergency measures.

Transforming teaching into a true profession would require a coordinated effort from multiple stakeholders. State governments must set and enforce rigorous certification standards while funding comprehensive preparation programs. School districts need to create supportive working environments that treat teachers as valuable professionals rather than interchangeable workers. Universities must redesign teacher preparation to emphasize practical skills and classroom experience. 

And the profession itself must embrace higher standards and accountability. Students deserve teachers who have been thoroughly prepared for the complex and important work of delivering a great education. 

The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would allow school districts to hire part-time teachers – without the need for a State Board of Education credential.

would allow teachers working fewer than 30 hours a week who pass a criminal background check to be hired and teach without the credential. But the bill would prohibit teachers whose New Hampshire education credential has been revoked from teaching under the new category. And it would require them to adhere to the state code of conduct and code of ethics for teachers.

Supporters say the bill would address persistent teacher shortages in the state and allow for school administrators to find more innovative solutions.

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“This goes back to whether or not you trust your local school board to hire and retain people who work in that system and (are) able to provide a service to the school,” said Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, speaking at a Senate Education Committee meeting earlier this month. “Who may not be a certified teacher but teaches a great business accounting class … or an art teacher, or a P.E. teacher – bringing in a football coach to teach P.E.”

Rep. Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican and chairman of the House Education Committee, said the bill could allow professors at community colleges to also teach high school classes without running into certification barriers. Invoking his experience as a former school principal, Ladd said the bill would add welcome flexibility for school superintendents.

“If this bill came forward to me, I would be very pleased, because I would be able to put people in in these teacher shortage areas,” he said.

But educators, teachers unions, and Democrats have spoken against the bill, arguing that a reduction in certification would lead to a decline in teaching quality and student achievement.

“If they’re not certified, they’re not real teachers,” said Rep. Corinne Cascadden, a Berlin Democrat and former school superintendent, testifying against the bill in the Senate Education Committee in April. “…You wouldn’t go to your dentist and expect someone who just wants to do your root canal. You want them to be trained.”

The National Education Association of New Hampshire, the state’s largest teachers union, offered Texas as a cautionary tale: After the state passed a law in 2015 allowing schools to become “innovation districts” and drop teacher licensing requirements, researchers say the state has seen a stark rise in unlicensed teachers. This year, more than half of Texas educators are not certified, according to research by Minda Lopez and James P. Van Overschelde of Texas State University.

And the New Hampshire NEA cited a 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Education that suggests that teachers without certifications are less likely to stay in the profession. A department survey of educators who began teaching in 2007 found that 85.4 percent of licensed teachers were still teaching in 2011, but only 69.8 percent of unlicensed teachers.

The bill comes as concern about teacher shortages has persisted. In November, a yearlong legislative study committee produced a pair of reports that noted dwindling enrollment in educator preparation programs in the state, and pointed to low pay – the average teacher salary is $40,478 – and burnout as two factors. The number of educator credential renewals has hit record highs in recent years, according to data from the Department of Education, but teachers unions say those numbers are inflated by the fact that many educators hold multiple certifications.

New Hampshire currently allows some teaching without a credential, with limits. The state administrative rules for schools allow an educator “with sufficient content knowledge as determined by the school principal” to teach in a program area without being certified. The rules state that the work must be less than 50 percent of the educator’s weekly work time.

The Senate’s bill is broader than the version passed by the House in March. The House’s version limited the part-time designation to teachers working up to 20 hours a week. And it required that part-time teachers have a bachelor’s degree or higher in a field related to the subject they are going to teach and at least five years of occupational experience.

The Senate amended the bill to remove those requirements. Senate Republicans argued that doing so would allow for artists, musicians, and other professionals to work as part-time teachers without needing degrees.

Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, a Lebanon Democrat, said she wasn’t opposed to specialty members of the community who have backgrounds in local arts and culture being brought into the school system. But Prentiss said the bill’s language allowing teachers to work up to 30 hours per week would mean part-time teachers could be doing nearly a whole job. That, Prentiss argued, should require certification.

“It seems to me that we have gone just too far,” Prentiss said on the floor. “It’s one thing to bring in a specialty educator from the community. It’s another thing to be creating almost what I see as a secondary system that could start to break apart the fundamental profession of teaching in the state of New Hampshire.”

The amended bill will go back to the House on May 30, which will vote to approve or reject the changes or send the bill to a “committee of conference” with the Senate to resolve differences.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on and .

An Alabama state representative has filed a bill that would reduce the requirements for alternative teacher certification programs.

, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, would limit the State Board of Education to be limited to four areas:: successful operation in at least five states, without being on probation; evidence of certifying at least 10,000 teachers and successful operation for at least ten years and requirement that the applicant pass an exam aligned with Alabama standards of pedagogy and/ or subject area.

Programs can also be eligible if approved by the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation.

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“Ideally, we would love to get all of our teachers from our four year colleges here in the state, but they just are not producing enough teachers,” she said.

alternative teacher preparation programs need to have documentation of successful program operation and operation in at least five states. The programs also need to meet one of the following: accreditation by CAEP or successfully complete the Alabama State Department of Education’s review process.

Traditional teacher certification takes several steps, including obtaining a degree from a state-approved teacher preparation program and passing the relevant exams. beginning with a college or university.

the state board voted that faculty at teacher preparation four-year programs need to be CAEP approved and dropped previous requirements.

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill allowing for-profit teacher certification groups in Alabama and reducing the amount of time that it takes to get a teacher certification.

due to concerns by higher education deans that alternative teacher certification programs need to meet the same standards they do on the programs.

DuBose said this bill should increase the amount of alternative teacher certification programs that qualify. She said the current rules barely allow any programs.

“The qualifications that we had that this really the State Department of Education originally came up with were so restrictive nobody qualified, or maybe just one provider qualified,” she said. “So, we wanted to have a more expansive qualification.”

Messages seeking comment on the bill were left with the Alabama State Department of Education and the Alabama Education Association.

Alabama, like many other states, is facing a teacher shortage. State Superintendent Eric Mackey

According to information from the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services, there has been a 54% decline in initial math certificates produced by Alabama colleges of education since 2015.

Last year, the State Board of Education made a number of changes to teacher certification. Mackey said that those changes were working.

DuBose said that she hopes that those changes will help get more teachers in the classroom faster. She said that a traditional four-year program is still preferable and there are conversations about encouraging students to go that route.

She referenced the , which provides further pay for qualified teachers in math and science. She also said that she thinks they should publicize the benefits of being a teacher.

“I don’t know what the solution is to why fewer students are graduating from four-year college with education degrees,” she said. “Because I just think it’s a wonderful field and between the salary increases that we have given and the benefit package that you get, and the insurance that you get. I mean to have a fully funded retirement fund is unheard of now.”

DuBose said they plan to bring a floor amendment that would also require a year of mentorship.

The bill is waiting for a vote in the Alabama House of Representatives.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com. Follow Alabama Reflector on and .