How to Make a Public Comment on the Academic Pathway to Teaching (APT) Rule

Attention teachers and community members, this is your call to action. The Academic Pathway to Teaching will become a rule on August 30th unless the board hears enough compelling comments from the public on why this is a rule will negatively affect education in our state. You can read the rule in its entirety here.

There is so much more to teaching and the idea  that anyone who can pass a content test can teach completely minimizes the training teachers received in their teacher prep program. Those who are pro APT teachers argue that principals and district hiring teams will still ultimately have the say on who they hire, and can chose not to hire  Academic Pathway to Teaching teachers. However, I fear that the incredible damage to current teacher morale will be irreparable. The message will have been sent that teaching is easy, training isn’t needed, and there is no need to focus on educational pedagogy. With already low enrollment in Utah’s 10 current teacher prep programs, I worry that college students will stop choosing education as a college major altogether. You can read my full thoughts here.

Teachers- your voice can be heard and can make a difference. If you are like me, you may not have made very many public comments, but I promise it is easy. Simply submit your comments to rule.comments@schools.utah.gov

Cheers!

Tabitha