It seems that charter school teachers need a special sort of post-graduate degree. The charters respect the credential enough to want their teachers to have one, but they “can’t wait” for the time it takes to get one from a traditional school of education. Besides, the traditional programs waste time on stuff like sociology and cognitive development, and don’t give enough time to teaching test prep.
In New York City alone, there are now two programs to churn out masters’ degrees for charter teachers. One, called Relay, started at Hunter College when David Steiner was dean (Steiner briefly served as state commissioner of education after starting the program at Hunter for KIPP and other charters). The other is a collaboration between Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academies (formerly known as Harlem Success Academies) and Touro College in Manhattan. Both were created specifically for charter teachers and focus more on classroom technique than on theory, history, the foundations of education, cognitive psychology, research, etc. that are typically part of a masters or doctorate in education.
Touro College, Moskowitz’s partner, has a checkered history. Recently the college was criticized for paying its president nearly $5 million a year, more than the presidents of Harvard or Columbia. Five years ago, the college was accused of selling diplomas, taking money to change grades, and being a diploma mill; some admissions officials were indicted. One college official went to jail for accepting bribes.
Whatever. As online programs proliferate, as authorities allow almost anyone with a shingle to manufacture degrees, we may reasonably expect two results: Diplomas will com to mean nothing at all, since they are so easily obtained from ersatz entities; or discerning employers and institutions will recognize that some diplomas mean nothing at all.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Have dipolmas already come to mean nothing? When I meet with teachers who have diplomas but cannot think for themselves, do not understand how to bridge the gap between what they have learned about children’s needs and the demands placed on the profession, I wonder if their dipolma has any meaning relevance? When I meet teachers who only know how to teach so that children pass tests, but don’t know who to educate so that children can think, I wonder if we have exchanged the idea of education for the idea of manufacturing. Should a dipolma represent the ability to think? I have found that a dipolma represents the persons ability to figure out what they are suppose to think, but not their ability to think.
Integrity does not mean much these days. Anyone can teach, and they try. Having well trained educators, with experience and well researched strategies and content knowledge under their belts – means little. The only outrage in a similar event is related to substitute umpires in the NFL. Remember? US Outrage, criticizing their lack of skills and experience. Outrage!! With educators – drive-through degrees, lack of experience, lack of content knowledge – but, enthusiasm, TFA, etc…makes sense to ALL!?
No one is listening! Feels hopeless!
Ah- yes I remember them well. This was especially troubling: “One concern of the Manhattan DA’s office is whether any physician-assistant degrees were sold…”
And the shams continue. Concerned over the lack of certified teachers at charters? No problem! Here, we have lots of “certified” teachers to choose from!
The problem of teachers colleges has come home to roost big time.
Very surprised that Hunter College is part of this. They had one of the best Ed departments. When I went there, ed was a 36-credit minor making it possible for me to get my BA in another area and still get certified. They also had the elementary “Parallel Program” where courses were offered in the morning and we would get to work in a real school during the rest of the day. I appreciated coursework that incorporated reality as well as theory. I saw the Relay video (that was since taken down) and how poorly that program was run. Hunter was always better than that!!
On another note, I read that you will now vote for Obama. I was taken aback since you previously stated otherwise since NYS was not a battleground state. Of course if I lived in battleground state, I too would support Obama, but only as the lesser of 2 evils. I truly believed unions and teachers could have done more to get Obama to make changes to RTTT if we have withheld endorsements. But I know when he is re-elected, Duncan will make additional punitive changes to RTTT, and we will have no recourse. All the blogs and FB pages will be a waste of time. Parent action will be the only hope.
At this point the only power teachers have, but are too afraid to show, is the power over their union leadership. Signs of it are happening in Newark, and I hope they remain strong and vote down that contract. I have seen what voting your pocketbook for givebacks have done to NYC schools and students.
The worst part of all is the training that charters provide. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/some-scary-training-for-teachers/2012/07/25/gJQAzXyJAX_blog.html
It’s no conicidence. It’s part of the strategy to dimantle public education as we know it in the United States. Destroy the schools, run off the qualified teachers, and then cast doubt on the hard work they did to get there. Our degrees are already being devalued and questioned, not least by Sec Duncan, who poo-poos the notion that further study could inform practice. And yet, he turns around and tells students and unemployed adults that the key to a good job is… yep, more education! Funny how it’s good in one context and bad in another.