I met today with the physics professor at the local university who has been aggressively lobbying the state legislature to make it much easier for people with Masters and Doctoral degrees in the sciences to teach high school in this state. He was inspired to begin the fight when one of his former doctoral students decided to teach high school but faced the same ridiculous barriers I have found myself up against (despite the fact the former student had 20 years of experience teaching at the college level!).
What I didn't know (and what the college of education and the local school districts apparently don't even know) is that the efforts of this superhero physics professor have finally been successful, despite vicious opposition from the teachers' union; my state very recently passed a new law that takes effect this July 1st that allows people with postgraduate degrees in the math or sciences to get a teaching license without having to take 18 to 24 months worth of full time study of "pedagogy" courses. I will be the first person in the state to test this new law by getting my teaching license without taking a single pedagogy course (the former student who was the inspiration for the law unfortunately has already taken a bunch of pedagogy courses over the past couple of years towards getting a teaching license...hundreds of hours of his life he isn't going to get back). The superhero physics professor says he will be watching my application for licensure closely every step of the way (as will a state senator apparently) to ensure that the new law is properly enforced.
This means I can skip the whole process of applying to the teaching programme at the local university and just take the Praxis exams and get my teaching license. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. Finally, some sanity in the whole teaching licensure process for people who are, in every respect, highly qualified to be teaching.
If you have a higher degree in math, physics, biology or chemistry and your state doesn't have such a law (which would be pretty much all of them except for Indiana), write an editorial for the newspaper in the capitol city of your state posing the question "Who do you want teaching science to your kids? Someone with extensive science experience at the postgraduate level, or someone with only a couple of science courses but an extensive record of taking courses like Exploring teaching as a career, or The history and philosophy of education?" (no joke, those are the names of a couple of core courses I would be forced to take if this law hadn't passed..the course descriptions did not instill in me a sense that they were going to add anything to my ability to teach high school math/physics).
Also, write your state representative and/or state senator to ask why your state can't pass a similar law. Talk to your local school superintendent to see if you can drum up support from there (school superintendents overwhelmingly supported the new Indiana law because it is very difficult for them to fill science/math teaching positions with qualified people). Talk to math/science professors at universities in your state, particularly physics professors who do outreach to high schools and ask them to write letters to your legislative representatives. The contact information for my local superhero physics professor is in the first link above; I am sure he would be very happy to give lots of advice to anyone lobbying their state to pass a similar law.
