| TO: | Members, Indiana Professional Standards Board |
| FROM: |
|
| DATE: | March 15, 2000 |
| SUBJECT: | Substitute Pilot Report |
The Substitute Pilot process adopted by the Board in May 1996, requires each school corporation to submit an annual review of its plan for licensing its substitute teachers to the Division of Induction and Continuing Education. The 1996-97 report was presented to the Board in November 1997, and a copy was mailed to the superintendent of each Indiana school corporation.
The 1997-98 survey was revised to include two new categories suggested by the Board at the November 1997 meeting: 1) the rate of substitute pay; and 2) the number of licensed teachers employed as substitutes in the 1997-98 school year. An optional item requesting information about the teaching areas on the licenses of those teachers was added as well. In addition, the question concerning criminal background checks was deleted. The 1997-98 report was presented to the Board in November 1998. Because of a 92% return rate in November, the report was updated with a 100% return rate in January. This January 1999 report was mailed to the Board and to the superintendent of each Indiana school corporation.
The 1998-99 survey was mailed to each superintendent in September 1999, with a due date of October 15. After several planned direct contacts with non-respondents, 100% of the school corporations returned the survey. The results are presented in the attached report. For comparison purposes, the percentages of responses from the 1997-98 and 1996-97 surveys are presented, when applicable. In addition, changes from the earliest available response to the current survey are given. The results of this survey also will be mailed to Indiana superintendents.
A few observations of trends in responses to the survey over the years are noted below. The reader may find additional trends of interest as well.
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- I.
Indicate below the number of individuals recommended for a substitute certificate from your corporation for each level:
From 1996-97 to 1998-99, the number of substitutes with lower credentials (a high school diploma or fewer than 60 semester hours of college), has increased from 20.3% to 33.0% (+12.7%).
| II. | Rate of Substitute pay per day: |
The daily average of substitute pay has decreased slightly from 1997-98 to 1998-99. The average dropped from $50 to $46 (-$4). The lowest pay increased from $30 to $35 (+$5). The highest pay increased from $75 to $94 (+$19). (One corporation reported a daily rate of $255 for licensed teachers, but the next highest rate of $94 is much more in line with the amount reported by most other corporations.)
| III. | Reciprocity: |
The vast majority of school corporations accept substitute certificates from other corporations. The percentage has increased slightly from 1996-97 to 1998-99, moving from 90.8% to 94.1% (+3.3%). About one quarter of the corporations do this through a formal agreement. This percentage dropped slightly from 1997-98 to 1998-99, going from 25.7% to 22.9% (-2.8%)
| IV. | Based upon the experiences of your district during the past three years, please indicate if your substitute plan has resulted in: |
With the exception of item #1 below, whether corporations believe their plans resulted in various improvements has fluctuated over the past three years. For items #2 through #6, affirmative responses dipped from 1996-97 to 1997-98, and then rebounded from 1997-98 to 1998-99
1. |
a larger pool of available substitutes |
The percentage of corporations who believe their plan has created a larger pool of available substitutes has steadily decreased over the past three years from 55.4% to 36.7% (-18.7%). Because corporations could be comparing each year's response to the previous school year, these results do not necessarily mean the total number of available substitutes is decreasing. A refinement of this item would be necessary to more clearly determine the meaning of this trend.
2. |
a sufficient number of subs in vocational areas |
An affirmative response to this question currently is at its highest level, increasing from 22.0% in 1996-97 to 23.1% in 1998-99 (+1.1%).
3. |
more flexibility in hiring |
Most corporations believe their plans give them more flexibility in hiring substitutes. The percentage of corporations that hold such a belief has increased from 65.4% in 1996-97 to 74.9% in 1998-99 (+9.5%).
4. |
a more effective assessment process |
Most corporations believe their substitute assessment process has improved. The percentage of corporations holding this belief has increased from 52.9% in 1996-97 to 58.9% in 1998-99 (+6.0%).
5. |
improvement in substitute performance |
Not surprisingly, as their substitute assessment processes have improved, corporations believe their substitute performance has improved, although lagging behind the assessment processes somewhat. Corporations that saw improvements in substitute performance increased from 39.4% in 1996-97 to 55.9% in 1998-99 (+16.5%).
6. |
improvement in pre-service orientation for subs |
This item was changed for the current survey from "more focus" to "improvement" in pre-service orientation. Either way, most corporations believe their plans produced positive results. The percentage of affirmative responses dropped slightly from 60.2% in 1996-97 to 57.4% in 1998-99 (-2.8%).
| V. | Do you anticipate making changes in your substitute licensing plan for next year? |
Almost nine out of ten corporations do not plan to make changes to their substitute licensing plans for the current school year. About the same percentage last year and twice as many the year before planned to make changes. Those corporations planning to make changes dropped from 20.7% in 1996-97 to 15.2% in 1998-99. The largest number of reported changes were by corporations planning to weaken academic requirements (semester hours & degrees) (9.0%). Only one corporation reported plans to strengthen academic requirements (0.3%). The next largest type of change planned was related to a modification of the in-service orientation (8.7%). In order of frequency, corporations also planned to make changes to the minimum age requirement (5.8%), the substitute assessment process (4.9%), the screening process (4.5%), or the work experience with children requirement (1.6%).
| VI. | Other Questions: | |
| 1. | Please estimate the number and percentage of substitutes that were licensed teachers in your corporation, 1998-99. | |
| 2. | Please estimate the number and percentage of substitute days that were staffed by licensed teachers in your corporation, 1998-99. |
These items were modified from the previous survey because of difficulties determining whether the responses represented totals or percents. That difficulty did not occur this year. From the first item, it appears that only about one-quarter of the corporations' substitutes were licensed teachers (28% unweighted, 23% weighted *).
From the second item, corporations report that of the days covered by substitutes, 34% (unweighted) were staffed by licensed teachers. However, when the total number of substitute days reported by all corporations is considered as a whole, only 17% of substitute days in the state of Indiana were covered by licensed teachers. The drop from an unweighted value of 34% to a weighted value of 17% reflects the tendency for corporations with higher numbers of substitute days to staff a lower percentage of those days with licensed teachers.
* "Unweighted" percents of teachers & teacher days are based on the total number of school corporations reporting percents (licensed teachers: 279 corporations, licensed teacher days: 256 corporations). "Weighted" percents are based on the total number of licensed teacher substitutes (7,032) or licensed teacher substitute days (172,606) reported.
3. |
What is the major criterion for assigning licensed teachers to classrooms as substitutes? |
Given the choice of assigning licensed teachers as substitutes based on availability, area of teaching expertise, or both, 68.1% of the corporations chose both. This was up from 17.9% (+50.2%) in 1997-98. The format of this item was changed slightly to clarify that "both" was an acceptable response. This format change is the most reasonable explanation for the large change in the response. However, these responses still support the notion that availability (26.2%) still takes precedence over area of teaching expertise (1.3%) when assigning licensed teachers as substitutes.
4. |
How often do you access license information (grade level, subject areas, etc.) for the licensed teachers employed as substitutes in your corporation? |
The vast majority of corporations access license information about teachers, and the trend is increasing (from 92.1% in 1997-98 to 96.0% in 1998-99). Most corporations (57.7%) access the information often or always.
| VII. | Additional Comments: |
Sixty-nine corporations offered additional comments in their responses. These comments are included verbatim in this section. The comments clarify responses, offer suggestions, and express opinions about the substitute pilot program.
cc: Indiana Superintendents
Attachment: Evaluation of 1998-99 Corporation Substitute Licensure Plan