Tweak In Test Could Ease Teacher Shortage

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says a slight change to the qualifying score on initial certification exams could add over 550 teachers a year to the classroom. During Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting, Assistant Commissioner, Paul Katnik, asked the board to allow the department to grant teaching certificates to test takers who did not pass by a few wrong answers. The board voted in favor of the recommendation.

Katnik says these newly-available teachers would be filling positions that have gone unfilled or will be replacing substitutes who have, for the most part, been prepared to replace a certified teacher for a day or two, not a school year.