Understanding PI 34 Law

Confused about the state’s new teacher licensing law? Help is available in a variety of forms.

Many districts already have conducted daylong presentations organized by the Department of Public Instruction with help from WEAC.

Workshops also are scheduled at the WEAC Summer Academy, which is July 27-30 at the Ho-Chunk Resort and Conference Center in Wisconsin Dells. You can find more information and register online.

Cathy Atkinson

OnWEAC also has a resource page devoted to teacher licensing. You will find it in the Teaching & Learning section. This page includes links to online information from the DPI.

In addition, WEAC’s Instruction and Professional Development Committee is nearly done writing a

PI 34 handbook for association leaders, said committee Chair Cathy Atkinson, of Waukesha. The handbook, which deals with association issues as they relate to all three new licensure levels, will be available to download from OnWEAC.

“We look at ways that PI 34 impacts the local associations and members,” Atkinson said. “We talk about the mentor programs and some of the things they should make sure they have in an adequate mentor program. We talk about contract language and what they should make sure they get into the contract for PI 34, and compensation for mentors and review teams, and protection for people as far as confidentiality.”

The law is very vague as to what the mentor program should be, Atkinson said, and “there is no one kind of mentor program.”

Districts use different modes. But the one constant is that mentors must be trained to understand the 10 standards defined in PI 34. “That’s why we put the booklet together.”

“Certainly not everybody has time to do it,” Atkinson said of mentoring, which also can be used as part of a professional development plan (PDP). “That’s why we’re looking at people getting compensation for it...You get a lot out of being a mentor.”

Atkinson also was a member of the DPI-funded work group that focused on the Initial Educator section of the law, and helped compile a separate booklet on the basics and important components of this area, including the support system and mentor.

“It recognizes that when somebody begins the profession, they’ve got some things to learn yet,” Atkinson said. “They (new teachers) are almost like interns.”

This initial educator work group, which was among several devoted to various aspects of PI 34, also designed a two-day mentor training program to show districts how to create such a program to fit their local needs.

“It has really been done well,” Atkinson said. “And, really the key to having PI 34 so well organized was the involvement of WEAC members. We were really the movers and shakers of all the work teams.”

In the next year or two, she said, schools need to get mentors in place with a strong understanding of the 10 teacher standards and how the PDP works. “The key to this is we get involved now in shaping the way our districts implement PI 34. And that ensures us more control over it.”

State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster is expected to request PI 34 funding in 2005-07, Atkinson said, adding there also is professional development money available from the revamped federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Posted June 10, 2003