To: Those interested in getting Geography Licensure (certification as it used to be called) back in Massachusetts.

Our statement to the Commissioner

Dr. David Driscoll,

Commissioner of Education,

Massachusetts Department of Education,

350 Main Street, Malden  MA 02148

re: Geography Licensure needed

To: Commissioner Driscoll

We are a group of teachers with extensive classroom experience and we are especially concerned about the absence of geography teacher licensure in Massachusetts. We are requesting that the Geography Teacher Licensure be re-activated particularly in light of the greater amount of geography required in the present History & Social Science Curriculum framework.

Re-activating the geography licensure is needed because of some clearly very strong practical and pedagogic reasons:

·         In an increasingly globalized world, knowledge and understanding of place differences is a essential to being citizens of our country and of the world. Geography is the only subject that examines the contemporary world in a systematic manner. 

·         The most recent version of the curriculum framework includes geography concepts at all grade levels, K though 12.

·         Over the last ten years, the NAEP exam has demonstrated an increase in student's proficiency in geography. Our concern - now that teachers are no longer able to receive geography licensure - is that students will not only slip back to the 1994 level, but will decline even further.

·         Geography and Ancient Civilization are required testing areas in grade 7.

·         Giving renewed validity to geography through licensure would be in line with the requirements of the "No Child Left Behind" act where geography is listed as one of the core subjects.

·         In NCLB, teachers have to be competent in the areas taught.  In grades 4 and 6 or 7 this is in geography. Teachers who hold a geography certification will be better prepared to teach the subject.

·         Teachers can best achieve "highly qualified" status by being state certified in geography.

·         It is possible for a teacher in a geography classroom in grades 4, 6, or 7 to be certified without ever having taken a geography course.

·         The state of Massachusetts did have a certification in geography and it should be a relatively easy process to have it re-activated.

·         We fail to see why Political Science is a certified subject area while geography is not. Political Science is an elective in most schools, while geography is mandated in our state curriculum framework.

           We hope that the notion of a revived licensure in geography will receive serious consideration by your department. Members of our organization would be willing to meet with your office to further discuss this issue. We look forward to hearing from you.