Education Professional Standards Board

The Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) approved a measure during its meeting on Oct. 22 to start a working group made up of education stakeholders to analyze and suggest potential areas of reform within Kentucky’s teacher certification structure.

“I just want to make sure that we are creative in the way that we look for people, but that we don’t lower the standards that we have for people entering in the profession,” said Justin Mitchell, chair of the EPSB.

As he has discussions with fellow EPSB members and others in education, Mitchell said, the focus is on trying to bring more highly-qualified people into education in Kentucky.

Todd Davis, division director in the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Office of Educator Licensure and Effectiveness, went over the teacher certification structure as outlined in 16 KAR 2:010. While researching the certification structures in other states, he said he noticed a lot of them have overlapping options for certification, whereas Kentucky does not.

Amanda Ellis, ex-officio member representing the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, said board members have to be open to all ideas, especially from other states.

“This is not novel,” she said. “I think we have to have an innovative thinking group and we should welcome folks to the table who have tried things in other states and have lessons learned.”

During the meeting, board members discussed various challenges within the certification system, including the need to have educators with emergency certifications to fill teacher positions across the state.

Davis said the EPSB has broad legal authority to modify the certification structure as outlined in KRS 161.028 (1)(a).

“I would prefer to find some way to embed all certifications into the new structure so that would be a way to clean things up and make it simpler for not only the staff here (at KDE), but also the districts,” Davis said.

The item board members approved asks KDE staff members to start the process of forming a stakeholder group. A progress report is expected to be shared during the next EPSB meeting in December.