It’s hard to count all the ways that reformers dumb down education, but here is a good example of catching them in the act.
State Superintendent Tony Bennett is a celebrated reformer. He won the Thomas B. Fordham award as the “reformiest” reformer of them all.
That means he loves vouchers and charters, he promotes privatization, he loves online learning and merit pay, and he hates collective bargaining, seniority and tenure. And of course, test scores are the most important measure of everything that schools do.
Now the education leaders of the Hoosier state have a brilliant idea to improve education: Lower the standards for becoming a teacher and an administrator.
The Indiana Department of Education wants to make it easier to become a teacher. Under its proposed Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA II) anyone with a bachelor’s degree and at least a 3.0 grade-point average who passes a subject test can become a teacher. New teachers will not need a master’s degree.
A teacher who is licensed in any subject can be certified in special education, music or art by passing a standardized test, with no training for these fields. This is dubious in every subject, but potentially dangerous in special education where training and knowledge are required for teaching children with disabilities.
Maybe someone in the Indiana Department of Education thinks that teachers do nothing but test prep, and that you don’t need a master’s degree or any training or experience to do test prep. They may be right about that–after all, even computers are good at drilling in the right answer to standardized test questions–but they are wrong to assume that getting higher scores is the essence of teaching. That is the essence of robotic behavior, and that seems to be what the Department of Education aims for.
Under REPA II, principals need no master’s degree either. This opens the way to recruit future principals who are business leaders, sports figures, and anyone else who wants to try their hand at running a school. But given that principals are expected to evaluate teachers and to know whether they are good at their job, and given that they should be able to offer support to teachers, every principal should have been a master teacher.
Watch Indiana. Every bad reform idea tried anywhere will eventually land in Indiana, unless it started there. Or more likely, see what ALEC model legislation recommends. ALEC never did understand why educators need high standards.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Making it easier to become a teacher could actually eliminate the whole issue of tenure. If an ill-prepared recruit decides teaching isn’t as easy as it looks, there’s a good chance they will quit before tenure becomes an issue.
Not that the school or its students will suffer. After all the theory is that anybody with minimal prep can be an effective teacher, even if they do their training entirely on the job and leave before they’ve completed that.
It delivers an interesting message to the students, perhaps. Don’t prepare. Don’t study. Don’t dig deep. Try until it is difficult and then bail out.
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New teachers already bail out in large numbers. Typically, between 40-50% of new teachers are gone within five years. With some effort like the one in Indiana, we might get that up to 60-70%.
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Your Educational blog is very nice and useful.. Thank you.
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Hopefully Tony Bennett will be out of office come November. He only won in 2008 by 3% points. I have read that our Dem Candidates are taking money from the reformers that have shaped our current laws, so we will see IF there is a changing of the guard come November if that will really start to turn things around.
Also, there is a group of legislators that are questioning how our DOE has interpreted laws and are holding meetings. I truely don’t think that the meetings will result in anything more than a public scolding and are only an attempt for our lawmakers to distance themselves from the laws they passed that have made all this nonsense possible. I think alot of republicans are scared at the parent and community push back. And it makes me sick to hear teachers support legislators who are now speaking out against the laws that they voted for. Come November, we need to remember what they did, and not what they said in the aftermath.
Also, you should investigate Apangea, a math computer program that was pushed on schools through a state grant after its owner and his family gave generously to Bennett. I was on our adoption committee for my school district for new math supplements. We didn’t go with Apangea, even though there was generous grant money from the state to subsidize it. Our curriculum director was baffled by the states endorsement of a program that didn’t meet standards, wasn’t user friendly, wasn’t engaging to kids and had large parts of it that were not even ready to show us because they weren’t developed yet. The rep didn’t even bother to show up for the presentation to our committee, but did a conference call with us, where he couldn’t show us anything online, didn’t send us anything to look at during the presentation and kept telling us that what we were asking to see was under development.
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I agree with Betty regarding the teachers here that support legislators that voted the “reforms” – I don’t know how they sleep at night. However I am not as optimistic that Tony will be voted out this election. The legislators are distancing themselves a bit, however for the most part they are not out and out calling all this stuff out for the crap that it is to the public. And I believe the public will be fooled into thinking that the next session will be more moderate and also fooled into thinking that vouchers and charters are actually all about helping students by the manipulated press coverage (complete with manipulated data) that the Republicans buy.
Also Bennett (with Daniel’s pulling the puppet strings) has built up a tremendously powerful machine fueled with lots of money. Sadly what also comes into play is that there seem to be two tiers of Republicans in our state- one being the power-hungry and now powerful such as Daniels, Bennett, Pence, and most all of the Republicans in the state senate and house, and the second tier being the religious right/ tea party contingent that have been hoodwinked into believing that “free-market” principles are good for public education and other public services by the first tier.
The Republicans have done a stellar job of pitting the public workers against the working class private workers and struggling small business owners by painting teachers as greedy and money grubbing and lazy and the unions as obstructionist. They also play up their support of social issues that the tea party/religious right hold near and dear and they play up that the Democrats, in contrast, are a bunch of socialists out to take their freedoms and their “hard-earned” dollars away from them. The politicians are leading the masses so effectively that even while I cringe at such comparisons, it’s getting harder and harding not to see the parallels to a fascist state.
As I said, I don’t see much hope for Indiana at this point. It’s too hard to stop this powerful machine and the people do not seem to understand the importance of the preservation of a TRULY public school system in preserving their own individual freedoms. I think the only thing that could reverse it is a truly charismatic and dynamic group of leaders from the Democratic party. But I don’t see those leaders emerging in Indiana.
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Cindi has described our sad situation here in Indiana accurately. We have a great fear that Mike Pence will be elected governor, the man who has voted against anything and everything about education as a member of congress. We can only work hard to promote the Democrat candidate running against Tony Bennett.
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“every principal should have been a master teacher.”
With the caveat being that a “master teacher” have at least 10 years teaching experience and not just a masters degree in education. Unfortunately we are seeing way too many administrators, although credentialed, having less than 5 years teaching experience.
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I was educated in Indiana, and was told I was too smart to become a teacher! I had an 3.6 GPA and a myriad of business and education classes, in addition to theology. I went back to obtain a second degree at my alma matter, and was told I was way too intelligent to become a teacher. I was not the only one, there was a young Hispanic who was told he was not able to obtain a teacher’s license. Funny, he became a doctor. And, I became a consultant. Before, I consulted I work for a nonprofit organization, teaching and tutoring, and I substitute taught. And, yes? Teaching was the EASIEST job, hands down. I had solid instructional materials, a solid plan of action for each of my students and a solid relationship with the majority of my cherubs. The results was a raised test scores (pre-to-post and ISTEP) of 50%. The poor, struggling students would flourish under my instruction, and I loved it, and they loved me. As a sub. I could out teach the majority of the faculty, except in the content areas of physics and trig, and I don’t have a degree. The key isn’t so much as a degree, but its the passion, relationship building and love for students. And, I have seen many certified teachers without those keys. And, several noncertified teachers (think theology teachers in Catholic schools, can’t get a certification by the state) who do process those qualities.
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I would say that there are exceptions to every rule. I am new to the classroom, less than five years, and I am over 40. I obtained my degree and my license back in the early 90’s, but didn’t go into the classroom right away and pursued other fields closely tied to education. I have to say, that in my experience, teaching is the hardest, most consuming job that I have ever experienced. My day starts at 7:00, and I am usually not home until 5:30 or 6:00, and I bring home work every night – papers to grade, parents to call, lessons to plan and prepare for. Before school at least 3 days a week, we have meetings that go right until the bell when students arrive, and after school, it is pretty much mandatory that you tutor and/or run some sort of club or activity or attend some sort of curriculum or team meeting (that you aren’t compensated for). I can speak from experience, my other jobs were easier, less demanding, better compensated, and more respected in the community. And I was good at my other job too. My work had been recognized many times through state and national awards.
The main reason I left my last job was because I saw, as I was getting older, as a woman, my opportunities were becoming less and less. Because Indiana is an at will state, you can pretty much be treated any way by your employer and it is ok and you can be fired for just about any reason too. When I started, and even when I left, I did take advantage of my employer’s favoring of young and pretty ‘girs’, as he liked to call us. I really wanted out of that work environment and to work somewhere that a union could protect me from being objectified, just being honest here. There may be laws that are suppose to protect you, but in Indiana, good luck trying to fight that in court. All the laws are written to protect the employer, not the employee, and without unions – private or public – things for EVERYONE working in our state are only going to get worse.
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I completely agree with you, Betty. I, too, had another career prior to dusting off my teaching degree to enter the classroom,. I have found that this is the hardest work at the lowest pay with the highest stakes and least respect. While I love working with my students and the subject matter I teach, I am looking into changing careers. What I cannot understand is how higher education in Indiana is dealing with this. The new regulations don’t require any higher education credits for license renewal, effectively removing thousands of teachers from university classes each year. How can I sell a university education to my students when the state of Indiana is saying it’s not even important for teachers to continue their educations?
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JScott, I sincerely hope you didn’t teach English. “The results was a raised test scores….” ?????? Really? I wouldn’t want you teaching my children.
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Bravo, Scott.
All certifications and degrees are useless if there is no passion or and positive relationship with students.
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This is true in a limited sense. A person may have a medical degree yet lack passion and a positive relationship with his patients.
A person may have a medical degree yet be a very poor doctor.
But it does not follow that we should allow people to practice medicine without medical degrees.
Diane
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I was a successful engineer for 13 years before becoming a teacher. I now have 9 years of experience teaching (physics and math mostly) and am not certified. (I think certification is not worth my time and effort.) I have received awards and recognition in both vocations. And I can say, hands down, teaching is the most difficult job I have ever had. Teaching, yes that’s right teaching, is the single most complex, multi-variabled problem I’ve ever met. Teaching can be made much easier, however, if you are simply a textbook-and-worksheet teacher.
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teaching degree nor teaching certification
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What is a difference between a p.e. teacher who turned athletic director turned principal and a business leader who turned youth nonprofit director turned principal? I don’t see much, except from the former business leader knowing the resources in his/her community to obtain funding for books, computers and other classroom items. As a former sub., I stayed away from nearly all the schools that had former p.e. teachers as principals, because they didn’t know a thing about reading or testing, or generally classroom discipline. However, one of the best teachers and instructors, who would have made one hell of a principal and an academic leader was the executive director at the Boys and Girls Club.
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Jscott, You have not provided any information that indicates you know anything about teaching reading, classroom management, or testing. Obviously, the usage and mechanics of grammar are not a strong point. You seem to fit the mold of what the repubs want-someone without teaching background or knowledge who can fit their mold of a “robot” like test preparation person. Teaching? I think not.
Reading about what’s going on in Indiana frightens me, as I am in a state whose dentist running the show in education is quite fond of Indiana (and Florida).
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As a Hoosier parent very engaged in educational issues, I am stunned at just how many teachers in our town are registered, voting, supporting Republicans. Talk about voting against your own self interest, not to mention the interests of your students.
Sadly, I suspect things are going to get whole lot worse before they get better here in Indiana. Mike Pence will make our current governor look moderate and Tony Bennett is a shoe in for state Superintendent. Funding will continue to get cut by our Republican-led legislature. Privitization will continue on. Little will change until Democrats learn to frame their message and abandon the”reform” movement, one led by our own President who has let teachers, students and progressives down time after time.
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Obviously, someone graduating from MIT with only a 2.8 is a worthless slacker and need not apply.
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Indiana teachers don’t feel very hopeful for change either. Teaching is being replaced with teaching to the test (ISTEP / IREAD) and other scripted “interventions”. The reason why training and experience isn’t valued is because it’s a threat. It’s much easier to brainwash someone fresh off the street – the only requirement is to be able to read the script as fast as you can! There may be some useful scripted tools out there but without a trained experienced teacher behind it to make adjustments based on a student’s need then you might as well just set them in front of a TV. Until the powers of be understand the importance of building a strong foundation and then expanding from there while taking into account each student’s individual developmental pace – students will continue believing they are failures and teachers will be berated as failures (but kept on staff until they can be replaced with a lesser failure).
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@JScott. And which politician wished to “process” your consulting services?
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@JScott: your comments would be more credible if your command of English were not so weak. And you know, I don’t assume that a teacher whose students score well on tests in necessarily a good teacher. It’s not hard to improve test scores if you read the correct answers to students just prior to the test (Yes, this really happened.) Teaching to the test may look good in the short-term, but students don’t retain the information, synthesize it, or use it creatively.
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As a foreign language teacher, I’m used to administrators not understanding anything about what I’m doing, and making really bone-headed decisions. We need better-trained administrators, not clueless business leaders. 10 years teaching experience in at least two areas should be required. Meanwhile, please know that most special ed parents are ready to sue at the drop of a hat, so it’ll be interesting to see how long untrained spec ed teachers last–and how districts handle the costs of settling law suits.
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I agree with you that high test scores shouldn’t be the overall goal of teachers. In fact, I’d wager to say that it isn’t the main priority for GOOD teachers.
That said, the attaining of high test scores is possible. Students just need to master “testing”. You can do this through physical wellness and traits like discipline. I realize this is a bit off-topic, but I really think parents and students should be aware that test-taking is a skill, and one that they need to develop,
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