A Survey Study of Career Ladder System for School Teachers in Pingtung County Abstract This study began with a literature review of career ladder system designated & performed by school districts in the United States. Then, it analyzed the contents of draft version for career ladder system suggested by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan. At the same time, it made a reference to empirical studies and interviews in our country, in order to establish career ladder certificate system for teachers. This system would not only benefit teachers to promote their professional status or push those who were in-service teachers, but also could sharpen their teaching skills and strengthen the qualification of teachers. The major purpose of this study was to estimate the feasible models of career ladder certificate system for school teachers in Pingtung County. In addition, they would like to conduct a survey towards the different backgrounds of the educational employees concerned, including the employees in the local education authorities, county councilors, PTA members(all were referred as ¡§non-teaching people¡¨), representatives of teachers¡¦ organization, full-time school teachers, full-time teachers with administrative duties, intern teachers, and substitute teachers. Most significantly, the researcher tried to interpret the subjects¡¦ attitude towards the career ladder certificate system and their perspectives towards the approaches to establish the system. The author, after reviewed the related literature, developed the instrument of questionnaire ¡§A Survey of the Opinions towards the System of Career Ladder and Professional Certification for School Teachers¡¨ and mailed to 1455 subjects in total. 925 of them responded. Then, the data were analyzed through methods of t-test, one-way ANOVA, chi-square test, distribution and percentage analysis. The conclusions of this study were as follows: 1.As to the questionnaire, the establishment of career ladder certificate system for teachers could push teachers to study, encourage them to conduct life-long learning, provide career ladder opportunities and reflect on their professional knowledge. 2.The subjects thought that the content of the career ladder certificate system should not be exclusive to one another. Additionally, containing the rules and regulations such as career ladder, terms of service for each ladder , hands-on teaching experiences and the tenure of service in teaching could avoid the system being monopolized by those who were held good relationships. Although the non-teaching people occupied the highest ratio for saying no to the system, they did think that the system was helpful for planning the human resource in schools and for enhancing the quality of teachers. 3.Teachers who worked at a school with a scale of 49~60 classes occupied the highest ratio for supporting the system. 4.On the management of career ladder and certification, the subjects were apt to the way that the central education authorities to develop the codes and regulations for the system and to take on the duties of reviewing and issuing certifications. 5.As for the renewing the tenure of certificates for each ladder, most subjects claimed necessary to have an expiring term to each certificate in order to match the requirements for continuing education and to establish a renewing term system. The renewing term, as the survey showed, ranged from 5 to 10 years. 6.The criteria for promotion among the different ladders and of course their certificates were referred to the followings: the review of applicants¡¦ education and expertise, the credits gained thru in-service education programs, applicant¡¦s creative performance in the design of instructional methods and materials, and the performance of the applicant¡¦s research. 7.When asked about the reviewers in the process of certification, colleague teachers and building principals were the most favored representatives for internal evaluation committee. As for the external evaluation committee, professional education groups and people were trusted the most. 8.Whether or not the career ladder certificate system for school teachers must be established, the subjects chose to set up a hierarchy system for teachers, and three levels of hierarchy were more referred to than the others. 9.As for the reciprocal agreement for career ladder certificate issued by various local education authorities, a high percentage of subjects tended to support that the certificates were universal around the country. 10.In the system of canceling career ladder and certification, it might happen due mainly to three causes: psychological, moral and teaching abilities. Furthermore, it was emphasized that only concrete and substantial evidence should be presented as the basis to make the decisions. 11.As to the difficulties encountered while executing the system of career ladder and certification, the subjects thought that the major doubts were respectively: insufficient support for the career ladder system, the credibility of those who might be responsible for the system, and lack of the codes and regulations concerned. 12.As for the related measures to put the career ladder certificate system into practice, most subjects recommended the establishment of in-service education & training system for teachers, revision of related codes & regulations, modification of teachers¡¦ salary scale, and setting up a task-oriented unit for the system. Based upon the conclusions of this research, the author then proposed suggestions not only to educational authorities, teacher training institution, all levels of schools, but also to the teachers at schools and future researchers. On the other hand, the research also provided a feasible reference for other local education authorities while considering to develop the career ladder certificate system for teachers.