The state board of education in Louisiana, the Board f Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is beyond parody.
Just when you think they have hit bottom, they come up with another outrageous idea.
BESE Is now talking about abolishing certification for teachers. They want to go back to the good old days when anyone could teach without any professional preparation.
A local school board president, Clarence (Sonny) Savoie said that BESE has no respect for teachers and no understanding of their work. He could not understand why other professions would need a certification process, but not teachers.
“I guess it never ceases to amaze me what comes out of BESE. We can certify doctors and public accountants and a lot of other professions, but we can’t certify public educators,” Savoie said. “I’m just wondering if anyone on BESE needs a brain surgeon because I’ve got an uncertified doctor I can send them to.”
Lest we forget: a lot of out-of-state millionaires and billionaires put up the money to elect these people to the state board. Is this what they wanted? Can a state with low achievement improve achievement by eliminating standards for teachers?
As long as Louisiana Believes it can work, it will work. John White has magic powers. He’s like the education Leprechaun, spreading his lucky charms across the land for all to enjoy.
You are right, and they will keep doing it as long as that pot of gold is at the end of their rainbow. Why don’t we put the pay for White et. al on a contingency basis on their performance. Let’s give them a value added score. With a negative score they pay society back before they quit. I know, it’ll never happen, but we can dream. Funny, the people that believe in this crap so much are not willing to be subjected to it themselves.
The Louisiana Legislature has already eliminated the need for certification to teach in our public charter schools. All one needs is a batchlor’s degree in any field to teach any subject or grade in any charter school.
I am not surprised that some people don’t think teachers need certification. i once had a conversation with a TFA teacher from a charter school that has since gone the way of the Dodo. We were discussing medical school training vs teacher training. This woman, a graduate of Cornell said to me with no hint that she was kidding, “It’s different. Doctors have to learn real skills”
That seems to be the thinking of many.
I suppose this Cornell grad is content being a test prep drone in the militaristic land of the charter chain gangs especially since she will pursue her real career in a year or two. It is not that difficult when mimicking the seal training techniques in Lemov’s teach like a robot manual.
I think you hit it, LInda. How much skill is actually needed for test prep and that’s as high as the expectation goe? I would agree with the TFAer (shudder)….there’s not much skill needed for ‘drill and kill.’
And that may expalin why her school is no more.
Don’t get me started on TFA; I won’t run down for hours, maybe days.
Someone has spiked their water again.
It’s backflow from the BP oil spill. That’s the only explanation.
And highly rated by Rhee. That’s all you need to know. She is the kiss of death. What a joker!
Does anyone know what TFAers get $10,000 for? Is it to pay for grad school?
DId anyone else see the network interview last evening with NOLA mayor claiming that the changes post-Katrina have made them the best schools in the country?
But you have to have a license to be a florist in Louisiana…
http://www.ldaf.louisiana.gov/portal/Offices/AgriculturalEnvironmentalSciences/HorticultureQuarantinePrograms/HorticultureNurseryApiaryLicensesPermits/tabid/414/Default.aspx
But this is the next logical step in the privatization of American education. We were on a fast track to the elimination of licenses in Indiana before Tony Bennett lost to Glenda Ritz. I think she can slow it down but doubt she can stop it.
I honestly think it’s time for teachers to fight fire with fire. Let’s get our unions to provide seed money and initial planning grants to start our own charter/voucher schools. We can get them up and running by the time this thinking from the back bayous spreads to the entire nation via ALEC-driven legislation. When the “choices” parents are faced with begin to look increasingly bleak, we can market our schools as “traditional-style schools” and parents will knock down the doors to get back in.
I’m getting certified as part of my Bachelor’s degree in Houston, and the majority of my books are published by Pearson. The books and the professors are in favor of favor of high-stakes testing.
If this is what teacher training is like in most universities, I would say a degree in psychology or liberal arts would be better than teacher certification.
Benjamin,
I’d ask for my money back if I were you. You are being cheated. Now name names for us, what school? Your professors are obviously ignorant to the inherent problem associated with high stakes testing, but hell it pays their bills.
For a starter read Raymond Callahan’s “Education and the Cult of Efficiency”. A classic!!
And in order to counteract the extreme ideology or is that idiotology that are educational standards and standardized testing and “grading” students I would advise you to read Noel Wilsons 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 . A little easier read is his “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” found at: http://www.edrev.info/essays/v10n5index.html
or
Those should help you on your way to learning just how much crap you are being sold (yeah, you’re paying for it-suckaaaaaaaah!!!).
Duane
Whoa…is all I can say. How sad. Follow the money. It IS about the $$$$$.
Benjamin raises an interesting point. A lot of people complain about the quality of Teacher Ed programs, but at least part of the reason the content is what it is is that large for-profit stake holders have influenced the curriculum. I’m not saying they bribed people, or anything like that –although I bet they buy lunch for a lot of people–, but Pearson is so intertwined with public education that teacher education programs are bound to use their materials.
The for profit sector has infiltrated way too many sectors of what should be public education.
Louisiana the same place where governor Bobby Jindal wants to cut all state funding for hospice care of the terminally ill !
Their new state anthem should be “dueling banjos”
Hey now, don’t go dissin one of my all time favorite bluegrass songs-ranks right up there with Tennessee Stud, Jerusalem Ridge. Will the Circle be Unbroken, Move it on Over and many many others.
From Wiki: “Dueling Banjos” is an instrumental composition by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith. The song was composed in 1955 by Smith as a banjo instrumental he called “Feudin’ Banjos”, which contained riffs from “Yankee Doodle”. Smith recorded it playing a four-string plectrum banjo and accompanied by five-string bluegrass banjo player Don Reno.
And although the most popular is the guitar and banjo version, here is a link to the original by Smith and Reno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmMk9tsCjsc Man does that one cook!!!
And if you’re into bluegrass check out this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1cc5JKIlAU
Weisberg and Paxton
And check out this melange of versions with an interesting French version of “Laurel and Hardy” dueling.
If you want total control and a slave population it make sense doesn’t it?
My fear is that the certification increases the standardization and total control by homogenizing pre-service teachers.
Seems to be Peason’s goal, that way they can make a ton of money off of it. Ask B. Madeloni what happens when one goes against Pearson’s power.
She’s been in this neck of the woods before. Listen to her!!
You are going to have to do a lot of self educating. This blog is a fantastic place to broaden your education. I would hate to admit how much time I spend following links and trading ideas on this blog. this site is not the only place on the web either. Good luck.
Public education in Loser-iana = the Twilight Zone taking place in the Bermuda Triangle. And yes, as noted above, they got top marks from Rhee-ject. It really is the test case for using the destruction of the truth itself as the most expeditious way to leapfrog any opposition. Things were never great there to start with and with Katrina paving the way it became the ideal place for the vivisection of an educational system that served people with no political/financial defenses. It never occurred to them that it would become a runaway train. Who/what will they blame when it reaches the end of the tracks?
“Public education in Loser-iana = the Twilight Zone taking place in the Bermuda Triangle. And yes, as noted above, they got top marks from Rhee-ject.”
To paraphrase Lewis Black “That’s why I took acid when I was younger so that I would be able to understand times like now”.
To all,
If you have time please read and watch the video posted at the end:
From Daily Censored posted on January 29, 2013
By Steve Zeltzer with Kathleen Carroll
CA State Whistleblower’s Lawsuit Exposes Web of Corruption and Deceit At The Commission On Teacher Credentialing (CTC)
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/suit-alleges-teachers-forced-to-work-at-non-union-charter-schools-in-california/
Read this, too..closing and link:
The California Teachers Association CTA/NEA and the California Federation of Teachers CFT/AFT must be aware of these financial conflicts of interests, the corporate connections and the legal violations against teachers but have to this date refused either to educate their members about these connections or engage in a political education campaign to expose those who are demolishing the public education system. They are also silent about any demand that the State Attorney Kamala Harris investigate and prosecute these systemic financial conflicts of interests. Is it because the unions have taken money from Gates and other privatizers? The fact that the leadership of the NEA and AFT have taken millions from these billionaire funded foundations and even advertise for their locals to apply for money from these operations raise serious question even about conflicts of interests by the top union officials of these education unions.
A growing number of teachers and education workers are asking where their unions have been as this wrecking operation has escalated? Is Gates using the divide and conquer method to cause dissent within the union by tempting union officials with big bucks? According to Dr. Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death and Life of The Great American School System, Gates has given money to NEA. The rank and file of education unions around the country are beginning to connect the dots of the attack on education and draw the lessons that these attacks are not only coming from the profiteers but are taking place with the complicity and silence of their union leadership.
http://www.dailycensored.com/ca-state-whistleblowers-lawsuit-exposes-web-of-corruption-and-deceit-at-the-commission-on-teacher-credentialing-ctc/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Dailycensored+%28Daily+Censored%29
That is potentially a blockbuster.
We’ll have to wait for it to wend its way through the courts, which only means we’ll find out the result in about 5-6 years.
So much for swift justice. Talk about a system that needs reforming, how about the courts?
My state continues to embarrass me. Perhaps our teachers in the future will not need certification because the state of Louisiana will no longer provide real education. All we will need are facilitators to make sure kids enter the room and sit in front of computers. Getting rid of teacher certifications means Louisiana is getting rid of real teaching and learning. Piyush Jindal and company will not stop until they’ve totally destroyed education in this state. Will the rest of Louisiana let them?
I know you are fighting hard. It must seem like every time you feel like you have made an impact, Jindal or one of his surrogates comes up with another asinine idea. Does it sound like a game plan? How do we fight when we are racing around plugging new holes in the dyke? There has got to be a way to divide up the dyke and assign sections for different people/groups to police. When the hole is too big, then, just like the fire department, other departments respond. I am getting lost in my analogies; I am just trying to figure out how to fight smart, so we don’t exhaust ourselves.
In Louisiana you have to undergo state-mandated training to obtain a license to drive a garbage truck, but anyone with a college degree can teach at a charter school.
Certainly you dont need a certification to read a Bible since they dont need to be teaching Science. By the way, where is my state certified Barber, I need a haircut !
And the licensed dog groomer!
Some very talented self-taught teachers were displaced with the advent of certification but overall teaching quality increased tremendously. Just like dentistry and medical practice, some self-taught doctors didn’t make the cut with licensing but overall quality improved. Educationally, BESE wants to turn back the clock to a time when tapeworm tablets were sold as a weight loss miracle cure.
Where indeed, are our unions? Chicago seems to have to the last vestiges of union representation.
In Louisiana you have to have certification as a florist. I guess children aren’t as important as flowers.
Based on all that I’ve read about Common Core, the Federal Department of Education and… Communism… I surmise that they will replace all of the certified teachers with Teach For American teachers, who are indoctrinated to indoctrinate. They can’t control “regular” teachers the way they can control Teach For America teachers.
I do hope that any teacher who believes in the Constitution, and American Exceptionalism… takes a long, hard look at what is happening, and join together to fight.
Don’t wait for proof of what you suspect is happening… trust your gut. In this bizarre political environment, your gut is the ONLY thing you can trust.
Sorry, I forgot to thank the author of this blog… your efforts are greatly appreciated.