Florida to Let Veterans, Spouses Teach Without Bachelor’s Degree

By Roger Riddell and Kara Arundel

This article originally appeared on K-12 Dive.

In an effort to combat teacher shortages, the Florida Department of Education is enlisting military personnel, veterans and their spouses to teach in the state’s classrooms without a bachelor’s degree requirement.

Requirements for the five-year temporary teaching certificates for veterans include:

• At least 48 months of military service with an honorable or medical discharge.
• At least 60 college credits with a 2.5 grade point average.
• Passage of a Florida subject area exam for bachelor’s level subjects. For temporary certificates, these exams are available in more than 30 subject areas.
• Employment in a Florida school district, which can include charter schools.

ISTE 2019: CTOs Return to “Bootcamp,” Advocating for Tech and More

By Roger Riddell and Naaz Modan

Credit: Roger Riddell/Education Dive

The following is an excerpt from an article originally published in Education Dive and is reprinted with permission. The article summarizes the 2019 annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in June. 

Prepping new student teachers for digital learning

In a Monday morning session, ISTE Standards Senior Director Carolyn Sykora, ISTE Higher Education Recognition Program Lead Reviewer Sarah McPherson and the Fairfield University Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions’ Joshua Elliott detailed how ISTE is working with teacher preparation programs to recognize their quality and provide a simpler path to the ISTE Certification for Educators.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education cited by Sykora, 146,000 graduate degrees in education were awarded in 2016, and there were 451,000 pre-service educators in 2014. The department also made a higher ed policy addendum to its National Education Technology Plan, to which Sykora noted there’s a lot of alignment between recommendations and the ISTE Standards for Educators and Students.

That’s noteworthy, given that a number of states—including Wisconsin, Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, Texas, Washington, Delaware, Iowa, Utah, New York, Wyoming and Arkansas—and individual districts are adopting the standards.