(Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
May 21, 2026, is the day I became a certified biology teacher in Missouri, and I love my job.
I wish others would join me.
Sadly, the pathway to teacher licensure is a frustrating waste of time and money that is a barrier to talented people, especially career switchers. My alternative certification process cost over $20,000, the value of my wasted time more than $20,000 and barely any of the required certification classes helped me as a teacher.
I am hoping my story can spur desperately needed change to ease our teacher shortage.
I have two master’s degree in biology (with high GPAs), have conducted and published research, and spent 18 years teaching medical ethics to physicians and nurses. The pandemic decimated my medical ethics teaching business, and I had to re-invent myself. Teaching high school biology seemed like a natural fit with my background.
Missouri allows people to be employed as full-time teachers (with full salary and benefits) while completing certification classes and studying to pass a content test in their area (biology, math, etc). I learned that the content tests were a barrier – many people struggled to pass the test.
I decided to attempt the content test before accepting any teaching job.
The prep packet from state was an outline of a high school biology text book. Worse, the practice questions showed that the test delved into the minutia. Yes, I have two master’s degree in biology, but like any STEM graduate I was specialized and would have to re-memorize a lot of content in a hurry.
Fortunately, I was working part-time from home, my wife had a good job, and I could dedicate large chunks of the work day to studying for the test and passed on the first attempt. Few people studying for the test have my circumstances. Nonetheless, why did I have pay testing fees and spend time proving to education bureaucrats that I knew biology? Weren’t my two master’s degrees and the wealth of professional experience enough? Who benefits from this barrier? Answer: testing companies.
The certification classes were a whole another level of frustration. After teaching kids at school, I had to spend evenings, weekends, and summers completing licensure courses that were literally pointless.
Too many classes were taught by professors who had not led a K-12 classroom in decades. For example, I was required to take an “educational technology” class that was taught by an instructor who last darkened a high school classroom in 2005 – long before smartphones and school-issued laptops were ubiquitous. The final requirement was two student teaching courses (just like a senior in college) even though I had already been teaching high school biology on a temporary license for 2.5 years. The cost of the student teaching classes alone was $11K.
I dabbled with the idea of becoming a teacher since I was in high school back in the 1980s. Even then, I remember my teachers exclaiming that certification classes were a waste of time. It’s the same song today: Almost every educator I work with agrees licensure classes only benefit the universities that charge tuition.
During the last few years I have met mid-career professionals, including a laid-off university professor, who would make wonderful high school teachers. Yet, the red tape and expense of the licensure pathway was a non-starter.
I am not suggesting that we relax background checks for teachers. Also, new teachers do need practical guidance. However, the licensure process must change, especially because we need more mid-career professionals like myself to ease the teacher shortage.
Content tests should be waived if candidates graduated with a certain GPA. If, for example, a would-be teacher earned above a 3.0 GPA or higher in biology, math, etc from an accredited university that should be good enough. No test needed. If, however, a person graduated below a 3.0 GPA, he or she should be required to prove their knowledge via a test.
Professional experience should count, too. I would love to teach the required high school financial classes (in addition to biology), and I have the background to do it. I have created and operated numerous LLCs, invested heavily in the market, owned real estate (rental and personal), established my mother’s trust, and even navigated a divorce. Yet, to teach financial literacy I have to pass another content test.
Licensure classes should be condensed to one to two courses focused on the essentials of classroom management and the balance of the certification process should be completed under the watchful eye of mentor teachers. I learned all my teaching strategies and tricks from my mentors, and I would much rather see the bulk of the $20K I spent on tuition be given to mentor teachers.
Universities and testing companies will howl, but we need more teachers, especially mid-career professionals. Let’s remove the barriers.
This article was originally published by Missouri Independent and is republished by MetroSTL under a Creative Commons license. The reporting is the outlet’s; please support them.