The House Education Committee, which focuses K-12 education, heard House Bill 2654 focusing on preparing teachers for a career in teaching during its hearing on Wednesday. Teacher preparation is one of many areas in which higher education intersects with K-12.

House Bill 2654 defines an Elementary Math Specialist as an elementary teacher with a specialty endorsement in elementary mathematics and directs the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) to adopt a specialty endorsement for Specialists, based on standards that include enhanced mathematics content knowledge for grades K-6 and instructional strategies.

The Evergreen State College testified in support of HB 2654 and offered two major suggestions for improving the bill. First, Evergreen believes that the current terminology in the bill, “widely accessible to elementary teachers across the state,” should be broadly interpreted to mean more than online coursework. A critical element of coursework in math education is that teachers learn math from teachers who model good pedagogy. Without this modeling the ability to learn effective teaching methods is limited.

Second, we encouraged legislators to push for more than the “minimum of additional coursework” required in the bill. If the state truly wants to scale up teachers in the mathematical and pedagogical preparation it is critical that teachers receive substantive opportunities to learn.