OK School Board Approves Hundreds More Emergency Teaching Certifications

The State School Board approved hundreds more emergency teaching certifications to fill teacher openings, putting Oklahoma on track to potentially top last year's record number.

Friday morning the state board approved 349 emergency certifications. In July, the board OK’d 304 certifications. And then there were a total of 77 in May and June, early certifications, they count those toward this year. So the total so far for the 2016-17 school year is 730.

Last year, there were a total of 1,063 emergency certifications, which more than doubled the year before, but there were just 685 by this time, so we're on pace to beat last year's record.

So, consider that this record pace is occurring, despite the fact that there are an estimated 1,500 fewer teaching positions to fill in the state this year.

This supports what we've been hearing from so many in education--that more and more teachers are either leaving the state for better salaries, or they're just getting out of teaching altogether.