What It Means To Be Professional

Quality tutoring begins with quality teaching. Skooli is very explicit about what makes a quality teacher. We require teacher licensure for all of our tutors, and there are reasons why we associate licensure with professional and quality skills.

That’s because teacher licensure is a specific, extensive process that ensures something important to a successful education – unity. Licensure is valuable because it guarantees that educators are all on the same page about what skills and material students need to learn and how to help them learn those skills.

The National Education Association believes that teachers should be “profession-ready” on the very first day of the job. From the very start, teachers are expected to be able to assist with student learning with experience and confidence, and licensure is a unified way of getting teachers prepared for that challenge.

When a teacher gets licensed, this achievement promises the students, the parents, the schools, and perhaps most importantly, the teachers themselves that they have met the teaching standards set by schools and education departments. Teachers are more than just smart people, or even knowledgeable in their subject area. In order to be called a teacher, professional educators have to be able to improve student learning.

Teachers earn a license by observing, reflecting on, and actually practicing the teaching profession in preparation for entering the classroom. This is most traditionally achieved by completing a 4-year degree in education. However, some teachers have a background in more specific subject areas and minor in education, believing that specialized knowledge enables them to give more expert education in their area of study.

Typically, we expect our English and literature teachers to know a little more about Shakespeare than the average person, and similarly, we prefer that our chemistry teachers’ knowledge of science goes beyond the periodic table of elements. However, teacher licensure is all about the assessment of readiness. In order to keep the unified and uniform assessment of teachers’ ability and readiness to teach, tests are required.

The Praxis is probably the best-known of required teacher licensure tests. This test provides the Board of Education with a way to hold potential educators to a standard, a uniform standard that has to be met before entering the classroom.

The NEA has recognized that the Praxis creates barriers for some people, and in response to this, there are certain alternatives that can be met in place of taking the test. But the idea is that the same set of criteria be met. Teachers have to be proficient in a set of skills before becoming teachers, and they have to be able to exhibit those skills in a way that can be evaluated by the Board of Education.

The result of all this assessment is a prepared, skilled professional who is able to meet the demands of the job. But more than that, they are prepared to enter a community.

This community of teachers relies on that unity, that common understanding of what their job demands and how to meet those demands in a way that not only assists in learning but improves student learning throughout their education.

Teachers who have obtained licensure have a unified understanding that they can share with students and each other. This is why professional teachers are so important to Skooli, because we’re all in this together.

Skooli is the only tutoring company attached to a teacher licensure and recruitment platform, ensuring access to the best online tutors 24/7. Learn more about our professionals and how we can help you and your students.