Russ Walsh notes that at least five states have decided to allow anyone with a BA to teach–Utah, Alabama, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Kansas, with no professional preparation for the classroom. This is their answer to teacher shortages.
Russ asks: Where’s the outrage?
He wonders, Is this “the business model” to hire unqualified people to fill a position of great responsibility?
What does this development say about the people who call themselves “education reformers”?
The move to get unqualified people into the classroom gives the lie to the real goal of education reformers. On the one hand we hear that “the teacher is the the most important single in-school factor in student achievement.” This is generally followed with breathless treatises on how teachers suck and how we need to improve teacher performance in the classroom, get rid of bad teachers and measure that performance with standardized tests. On the other hand we hear, “Well everybody has been to school, so everybody should be able teach. Let’s pass legislation that makes it easier to get warm bodies in the classroom.”
All of this “who needs qualified teachers” baloney, of course, began with Teach for America, an organization that started out with a laudable goal of filling hard to fill teaching positions with temp teachers and morphed into the employment recruiting arm of the the charter school industry. Placing unqualified temp teachers in front of children, especially poor children, has been a practice of the reform movement from the beginning.
What I would like to know is this: Where is the outrage from education reformers when states continually lower the bar for what it takes to be a teacher? If good teachers are so important, why is there no hue and cry about this most obvious lowering of standards? If education of the poor is the “civil rights issue of our time”, why are reformers comfortable with having poor kids exposed to unqualified temp workers? Why isn’t Campbell Brown tweeting about states allowing people off the street to teach?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Follow the money and you’ll see where the truth is. Three years ago, we couldn’t move to Wisconsin from Texas because my partner with years of teaching experience and a teaching certificate in Texas was not allowed to teach in Wisconsin without an additional year of Master’s course work. [Although 48 other states had reciprocity agreements with Texas.] Anywhere with an hour of Madison, you basically need to have a PhD and know someone. This isn’t about bringing more teachers to the classroom, it’s about paying teachers less.
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ALWAYS FOLLOW the $$$$$. Our kids and teachers are being USED for PROFIT. SICK.
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Wisconsin has historically had very stringent licensing requirements that made it difficult for teachers from some states to relocate to Wisconsin and teach immediately without additional coursework. Emergency licenses are available, but the employing district needs to demonstrate that there were no qualified Wisconsin licensed teachers available. It is certainly the case that there have been some good teachers we have not been able to hire even though they could have been hired 90 minutes south of us in Illinois.
Because of funding reductions, the reductions in teacher rights under ACT 10, and perceptions of a political climate that is unwelcoming to teachers (on top of national trends), Wisconsin has a teacher shortage that we see in actual candidate pools and the enrollment numbers for preparatory programs.
The hiring environment today is different than the hiring environment in 2013, even in the greater Madison region although it still depends on what the subject area and level is.
The legislature’s response in the last year has been to lower requirements. The reality is more complex than only needing a bachelors degree. A bachelors degree is a minimum for certain defined shortage areas. For some technical subjects, not even a bachelors degree is required although this is for a district based teaching permit rather than a portable license. There are many license areas where traditional requirements still apply, at least for now.
http://dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/pathways
This lowering of standards raises a host of problems. From a district perspective, the two most fundamental being are new teachers adequately prepared to teach students if they are provided with appropriate induction support and the more you lower standards for shortage areas the fewer high quality individuals invest in their preparation to teach in these areas. Stepping back, there is the larger question of what kind of education profession will we be left with if this lowering of standards continues.
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Amen! The hypocrisy is astounding!
I also wonder why, if charter freedoms from regulations are so important to their success, aren’t public schools granted the same conditions and freedom from regulations. This is craziness-
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Agreed. Let’s release all public schools from much of the regulation that distracts from actual teaching.
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You know why unqualified teachers mean nothing to reformers. Teach for America filled lower income, inner city schools with unqualified teachers. I call it blinded by the green. The money this industry is scamming the public out of. The green is so blinding even politicians on all levels have jumped on the bandwagon. Money talks and bs reform, well it’s bs.
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For a decade and a half, the corporate ed. reformers have been spouting stuff like …
MICHELLE RHEE: “Students deserve great teachers who inspire, academic classes that challenge, robust art, music, and sports programs, and a fair shot at long-term success.
“The most immediate solution is to ensure that a great teacher is at the front of every Philadelphia classroom. The calm, guiding hand of a great teacher – especially in challenging times – can truly change the course of a child’s life.”
from:
http://www.realdailybuzz.com/rdb.nsf/DocView?Open&UNID=d4725a1d8de8fd3485257be7004ab6ed
Well, it turns out that the spiel about “we’re about all kids having great teachers” was all a lie.
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On the topic of de-professionalizing teaching, and watering down, or downright eliminating any and all requirements to teach, check out the latest in “Sin City” Las Vegas.
At the end of an editorial from the right-wing Las Vegas Review-Journal, it says that when it comes to being qualified to teacher, a credential is “a requirement of dubious need,” and must be eliminated. I presume a Bachelor’s Degree would also fall into that category, based on the same logic.
It’s also a requirement that slows union-busting, charter and voucher school expansion … that the new owners of the paper are tied into… more on that after the Editorial)
http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-new-policy-smartly-addresses-teacher-shortage-should-go-further
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Editorial Board:
“It’s hardly a revelation that Nevada has a shortage of K-12 teachers. The problem dates back to the valley’s boom years. It affects plenty of other states as well.
” .. ”
(then talks about the latest move to allow teachers with out-of-state credentials to teach on an emergency basis, while they obtain a Nevada credential — a process that takes about 2-4 months before that out-of-state teacher could teach… but here’s the kicker)
“This is a good step on the state’s path to education reform. It recognizes that the licensing bureaucracy absolutely shares the blame — and has for more than a decade — for Nevada’s inability to hire teachers.
(not the horrible salaries, lousy benefits, dreadful job conditions, Jack … or the fact that a credentialing requirement leads to higher salaries for teachers, while a removal of that requirement would lead to lower taxes for businesses … even though this would also produce and uneducated, unproductive workforce in Nevada… blah-blah-blah …)
“But the new regulations, while much needed, don’t go nearly far enough. If it’s OK for a teacher to work for one year without having one particular college credit fulfilled, and that instructor performs competently, then why not a two-year window or a four-year window?
“Or how about this: If that teacher proves completely competent in all aspects of the job, save for a requirement of dubious need, why not waive that requirement completely?
“Granted, teachers can’t just be pulled off the street. There has to be some level of training and vigorous background checks. But the state’s existing licensing structure is only in place to protect current teachers against competition from an influx of perfectly capable educators.
“It’s protectionism, pure and simple.”
“Gov. Sandoval has done well with this measure, and Clark County will immediately be the largest beneficiary, as the change is already in effect.
“But the governor and the Nevada Education Department should push it further. It’s time to take a really comprehensive look at teacher licensing and implement more drastic simplifications across the board.”
—————
Who wrote this crap?
Well, the New Yorker has the answer to that:
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/how-the-las-vegas-review-journal-unmasked-its-owners
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It’s a shame because in smaller districts like mine one of the nice things is you’re familiar with teachers because your older children had them. I know my youngest gets a big kick out of it when a teacher mentions his sister or brothers. They’re not just interchangeable cogs-people live in these places and have histories. I don’t know why the powers that be want to turn everything into a Starbucks. It always seemed to me as a parent that children value continuity. This fetish for “disruption” seems like a very adult-centered priority.
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It’s just another way of saying that Teaching Is Not A Profession …
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And let’s all be eve more historically honest here: Being a career which runs at about 80% female, surely it shouldn’t compete with REAL jobs. 😦
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I’m on a school committee here and we have an economically diverse district. I have to tell you the higher income parents are the worst with this. They’re all convinced teaching is easy and they’d be great at it. They’re convinced because they’re engineers or chemists they’d be great math teachers. It’s really pretty arrogant, when you think about it, this belief that anyone who learned anything would be fabulous at teaching it but it’s REALLY common among our degreed parents.
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Chiara: reminds me of that old saw—
“There’s no fool like an educated fool.”
😎
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As one who started teaching at 39 and who had a wide base of business experience going into teaching I have two comments:
Teaching is the best job I ever had!
Teaching day in and day out was the hardest, both mentally and physically, of any job I had.
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That’s one of the things that make teaching in a district with highly educated parents potentially dangerous. You are more likely to run into a micromanaging parent who is convinced they can tell you how to do your job better. They also tend to have the resources to make your life miserable just by threatening to sue. Most districts will back down when threatened; you know who gets sacrificed.
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Very few of these untrained teachers will have a positive experience. Obviously this is bad for students, it is also a bad thing for the people who take these teaching jobs. Most fast-tracked teachers will fail to make a career of teaching. Most will last only a year or two, many will quit after a few months, leaving students with long-term subs or mid-year replacements.
I’ve heard stories from new teachers fast-tracked into the classroom about sobbing under their desks at the end of the day, being so overworked and tired they slept in their shoes, or losing 14 pounds during the first week of school from stress and having no time to eat. A teacher told me that in her cohort of new, untrained teachers, nearly everyone had been prescribed either anti-anxiety medications or anti-depressants, and several had been told by their doctors that they should leave teaching for the sake of their health.
We hear a lot about TFA-type teachers who fail up, leaving the classroom after one or two years to become consultants, lobbyists, etc. There should be more study into the fast-tracked teachers who quit and can’t find professional work after failing in the classroom. Failing as a teacher is emotionally and professionally very difficult. Some former teachers I know went on to become bartenders and retail clerks. “Taught for 3 months, quit due to inadequate preparation and extreme stress” doesn’t look good on a resume.
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My son had a chemistry teacher, a retired chemist, that got a waiver in order to teach. He knew chemistry, but knew nothing about the craft of teaching, running a lab, or classroom management. The teacher finished out the year, and then he was gone. My son got a great chemistry grade that year, but he learned very little chemistry.
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Ever since choice and “reform” entered the picture, our policymakers have exhibited less interest in schools for the common good. A major goal of “reform” is to devalue public education and traditional training from institutions of higher education. This is an economic, not educational goal. It is all about following the money directly to the oligarchs that want to crush labor, make teaching a low paying temp position. A easy way to accomplish this goal is to create fake schools of education that receive the stamp of approval from the government. Our laws allow any type of “edupreneur” to sell products and services of questionable value to our schools. Evidence based instruction is now an at risk of extinction. Through test and punish and the creation of separate and unequal schools and by morphing public schools into charters that receive favored treatment by the government, goal is to turn public education into a second class for profit corporate run system. This is not about raising standards; it is about lowering them for everyone other than the oligarchs that stand to profit from public money.
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“Our laws allow any type of “edupreneur” to sell products and services of questionable value to our schools.”
As it should be! The controlled capitalist system (controlled by those who benefit the most by said system-the upper upper class oligarchs) under which we toil is partly founded on caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.
The problem is that those entrusted with providing that awareness of products for public education, the adminimals have no clue whatsoever how to perform that function. They are but a bunch of sheep with little to no critical thinking capabilities.
And therein, with the adminimals, lie the problems not with those “edupreneurs”.
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You have an assumption that dropping the requirement of a teaching certificate is “lowering the bar.” Do you have any evidence to support that assumption? Perhaps opening the field of candidates up will actually raise the bar. Is it possible that someone without a certificate might occasionally be a better teacher than another person that has one?
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Those are great questions to pose, Don, particularly to this blogger and to this community, where we are never far from an exhortation to make public schooling just like Sidwell Friends or Lakeside.
Those schools employ significant numbers of classroom teachers — 20-30% of their instructional staff– who have no teaching certificate or graduate degree. Many of these are younger people with bachelor’s degrees (not in education) from highly selective colleges who have no intention of making teaching a life-long career.
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Let’s try replacing teacher with doctor. After all, I’ve been to the doctor many times. I know all about what a doctor’s appointment is like. Let’s say we allow untrained doctors with bachelors degrees to practice medicine. Is it possible that someone without a medical license might occasionally be a better doctor than another person that has one? Would you trust an un-certified doctor to treat your illnesses? If not, why would you trust an untrained teacher to raise student achievement.
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Here is one research study that finds a benefit for certification.
Citation: Darling-Hammond, L., Holtzman, D. J., Gatlin, S. J., & Heilig, J. V. (2005). Does
teacher preparation matter? Evidence about teacher certification, Teach for America, and
teacher effectiveness. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13(42). Retrieved [date] from
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v13n42/.
Here is another: http://www.teachingquality.org/sites/default/files/11_doescertificationmatter.pdf
The second piece is a rebuttal to a research study by Goldhaber and Brewer that found that certification did not necessarily lead to improved performance. You can find that report here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP1025.html
So, empirical evidence of the impact of teacher certification is mixed. Failure to require certification is still “lowering the bar” in the sense that attracting bright and capable people to pursue a career in education through a certification program is the best possible response to teacher quality and also helps ensure that those who enter the profession stay in the profession and continue to grow professionally.
Certification is no guarantee of quality, of course. But it does set a professional baseline for assessing quality and measuring commitment.
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Don’t want to upset the data anayltics-sters too much, but let’s do a little “thought” experiment with rheephorm “thought” leaders and flip the numbers.
If they are in any way accurate, howzabout rheephormsters proposing to Lakeside School and Sidwell Friends and the rest that they replace that 70—80% with TFAs?
That would be decently consistent and marvelously realistic and gratifyingly innovative and creatively disruptive and blahblahblah…
😏
Sorry, the howls of derision and shrieks of laughter from Bill Gates and his peers make it impossible to hear any response.
😎
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I’m not sure if there’s been a study on this or not (there should be), but at least anecdotally, the teachers coming in on emergency certifications, with little or no teacher training, have been awful. They have often only lasted one year (if that), and have NO idea of classroom management, so the students learn very little. The last thing schools need is a revolving door of teachers, particularly in high need schools or worse, in special education. My school has had several emergency placement in special education, and it’s been a disaster. As a general education teacher who has many kids with disabilities mainstreamed into my class, I see the problems that the lack of good special educators has caused.
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Thank you, Russ, for having the studies. We must have been posting at the same time.
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My husband has an MBA from Wharton, and he is very bright. He would have been a flop in a classroom. The students would have eaten him alive. He does not know how to take difficult concepts and distill them into something discernible by those without the “math gene.” He tutored our daughter in statistics, but floundered in how to organize his presentation. He also didn’t understand the notion of guided practice. I know a limited bit about understanding statistics. Once I understood the concept, I was able to suggest ways, that our math phobic could understand the concepts and process. She passed the course with a B. My husband may have been able to be a teacher with training and opportunity to practice the craft. His superior IQ sometimes hindered his explanations as he glossed over steps. Training produces better teachers!
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Occasionally be better? Yeah, let’s open it up to anyone and maybe we’ll find an occasional diamond in the rough.
I really don’t understand why anyone thinks this is okay. Unless, of course, you’re of the persuasion that anyone can teach.
Private schools are horrible examples of non-certified teachers “being good.” First, a recent book noted that private schools do less with more. And, secondly, when it comes to the kids who attend places like Lakeside and Sidwell Friends, content knowledge is important because they don’t deal with the day-to-day drama of a regular old public school.
Lastly, none of these people will become career teachers. The push here is for STEM especially. But why would anyone who was truly skilled at math or science settle for a teacher’s salary? This is the part that people like Don and Tim seem to gloss over. Such a person would take teaching as a job of last resort. Then, the moment they got the job they were REALLY seeking, put in two weeks notice and be out the door.
The alternative certification route is simply because they know the shortage is coming. And it isn’t just in STEM fields. Teachers have received such a public flogging over the last 6-8 years that college students see it as dead end and unappealing. They need someone in front of kids so why not anyone at all? But legislatures have to propose it like it’s good for kids because they’ve dismantled the interest in it.
Don’t be fooled. This isn’t about finding that occasional better teacher. It’s about filling a classroom need. A recent Detroit News editorial extolled the virtues of non-certified possibilities. Then snuck in a one sentence paragraph about the looming shortage of educators. Because even a Tea Party publication like the News knows what it’s about. Just pretend it’s somehow advantageous.
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Steve K: well put.
And given how the rheephormsters time and again harp on their mathematical prowess and expertise in numbers crunching and analyzing hard data points and the like—
What are the ODDS that the “occasionally best” teacher will solve the much larger and more complex problems you touch on?
They will retort: “studies show” and “whatever we’re doing, we need to double down” and we must continue to fight the “bigotry of low expectations” blahblahblah. In a rheeally loud and insistent way.
As one of their sources of ideological inspiration might put it: they have a 98% “Satisfactory” [thank you, Mr. Bill Gates!] chance of being clueless.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
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Don,
You write as if alternate routes to teacher certification do not exist.
Unless of course you would prefer to throw darts at a phone book pages.
These programs are for NYC alone:
New York City Teaching Fellows
One of the country’s largest and most recognized urban alternative certification programs, New York City Teaching Fellows prepares career-changers and recent college graduates to teach subjects in high demand. More than one-fifth of the city’s math, science and special education teachers are New York City Teaching Fellows.
New York City Teaching Collaborative
The New York City Teaching Collaborative prepares talented career-changers and recent graduates to teach in high-need schools. Teachers in Residence begin training in January. Their preparation is classroom-based (grades 7-12), as they work alongside experienced mentor teachers and receive intensive coaching before teaching in the fall.
Teach For America
Teach For America recruits recent college graduates and professionals with diverse academic and career interests to teach for at least two years in public schools.
New Visions for Public Schools
The Hunter College Urban Teacher Residency and the Math and Science Teacher Residency are two-year programs where aspiring teachers apprentice for one year with an experienced teacher, earn a master’s degree in education and receive ongoing professional development.
Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TR@TC2)
Through this 18-month program, participants select a focus area—Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Science Education – Biology, or Secondary Inclusive Education—and earn New York State teacher certification along with a master’s degree.
Math for America Fellowship Program
In this five-year program, participants earn a one-year master’s in education and then become secondary math teachers, receiving ongoing professional development during their first four years of teaching.
Peace Corps Fellows Program
Returned Peace Corps volunteer educators can begin a long-term career in New York City public schools while also completing a degree-related internship in an underserved community.
American Museum of Natural History: Master of Arts in Teaching Urban Residency Program
This 15-month program combines coursework at a world-class museum, one-on-one mentoring, and ongoing professional development to prepare and place qualified earth science teachers where they’re needed most.
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Tim
The skill set required to manage and teach children of the uber wealthy is simply not that demanding. Students who have lead privileged lives filled with enriching experiences and are highly motivated, even “programmed” to succeed, make any teacher look like a genius.
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Don, sure it’s possible that someone without a certificate might occasionally be a better teacher than another person that has one but it’s a relatively low probability. Teacher preparation programs provide a valuable foundation in methods, child psychology, and practicum/student teaching experiences. There can be other undergraduate or private sector experiences that are valuable to teaching, but that foundation is there for a reason.
Putting on my “adminimal” hat (copyright Duane Swacker), let’s posit we have one source of candidates (the traditional pathway) where 70% of candidates can move into the classroom and be successful with a standard level of mentoring and initial support. Let’s posit we have another source of candidates (BA/BS only) where 5% of candidates can move into the classroom and be successful with a standard level of mentoring and initial support. I would need a very large influx of non-traditional candidates to offset even a modest decline in the stream of candidates from the traditional pathway.
One of the problems with the non-traditional pathways is there is a point where too much access or too little in the way of requirements in the non-traditional pathways deters well qualified individuals from choosing the traditional pathway. The net result is fewer overall good candidates for teaching vacancies. Too often reformers assume things happen in isolation when we are actually dealing with systems.
For Tim, I graduated from a highly selective college with a bachelor’s degree (not in education) and the year of traditional pathway training I received in my Masters program at Teachers College was indispensable in preparing me for the classroom. Thank you Michael Whelan and Steve Thornton. As was my student teaching experience and cooperating teacher. Thank you Pat Walter.
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Tim, whenever you make that “20-30% of private school teachers are uncertified and uncredentialed” claim, I reflexively employ my elementary math skills and respond…
Well that means 70-80% of them ARE certified and credentialed. I would call that a pretty big endorsement. Wouldn’t you?
Indeed, if credentialing and certification are as meaningless and unrelated to quality as you claim, why isn’t that number be closer to 0%?
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There is no outrage because the reformsters have ‘proven’ that teaching is a low skill technician job as evidenced by TFA, Jeb! Bush, Relay and all the others
The benefits are obvious: low pay, no benefits, no retirement, no unions.
WalMart style employment while computers do the ‘real’ teaching and the grifters take in the taxpayer money in buckets.
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Several years ago, Alabama required teachers to be “highly qualified” meaning one either had to have a masters degree or enough professional eduction hours to qualify as such. It appears we’re going backwards, but I’m not surprised. Our Republican legislature has been gunning for teachers ever since they took over. One year we couldn’t accept gifts over a certain dollar amount. Don’t give your teacher a ham for Christmas! I think that has changed. All of this coming from the same legislature which just lost their leader. Yes, the man who said that he was the new sheriff in town and who did much to hurt Alabama teachers is now going to prison.
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That’s what I call justice!
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Utah’s legislature doesn’t want to pay one cent more for education than it has to. Teachers and the state office of education have been pleading for years for some help. The legislature gives us a 2% increase and crows about “how much they give to education,” but the student population is growing so rapidly that students get less and less every year. This year, Utah is spending $6500 per student. Last year, it was $6600. Utah’s population is growing so fast, in fact, that it’s expected that Utah’s population will double by 2030.
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A good analogy for what’s happening is a multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme. Sadly, for our children and for our society, the scheme is vicious and unsustainable. Success Academies is already discovering this with its problems in hiring and retention (and public relations).
For the untrained teacher, often young and naive and possibly facing a mountain of college debt, the promise of “education reformers” is rapid rise in an organization and a shot at running one’s own school. When New Orleans charters were all starting up a decade ago, you could see the promise intimated if not explicitly stated on the “we’re hiring” pages of websites.
Like all MLM schemes, charter schools can pull this off only with fast growth. Otherwise the reality sinks in and the hype and promise disappears. As long as they can sustain their growth, they can play off the the same “winner takes all” mentality of professional sports, wall street, politics. There’s probably no better illustration than these two articles in the NY Times, one about Amazon.com and the other about Success Academy:
The parallel between Amazon and the charter network is uncanny. In both cases, the employees *choose* to work for a cut-throat organization, with the hope of getting ahead. But in one case children are involved, young, innocent, captive—and brutalized.
Question: why in the world would anyone who calls him/herself a “teacher” work at a place like Success Academy?
Answer: A teacher at a charter chain who goes on to open a school or become a principal (the preferred term now is CEO or executive director) can expect a salary of upwards of $200K a few years after first setting foot in a classroom. What amazing career advancement! Then the cycle repeats itself, just like a multi-level marketing scheme. The person who opens/runs a school can hire new teachers below him/her, who desire to open their own schools, and so on. But this approach obviously can’t continue. We’re seeing evidence already that the bottom is falling out of many charter chains that have relied on the MLM model, taken right from the pages of a company selling nutritional supplements!
As with any other pyramid scheme, when the bottom falls out, the worst practices get magnified. The number of top executive positions will always be small, and competition among a couple dozen teachers at a school will be fierce. Motivation shifts from service and professional growth (as teachers!) to personal advancement. It’s no wonder that the emphasis falls on corporate dictates instead of educating students, or that organizations would become cult-like, as many former TFAers have commented on these pages. All that matters are test scores (or enrollment numbers for online schools), which is the charter equivalent of trading in stocks and bonds or selling phony products. It’s also no wonder that ethics collapse in an environment like this: you can be nicely rewarded for fleecing the buyer.
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In those states we will see the turnover rate skyrocket. The K-12 classroom can be tough war zone for unprepared beginners that have no idea that they are walking into a buzz saw. The more training, prep and support a beginning teacher has, the better chance they have to survive the first five years. With no training, the odds of failure soar.
Weak teachers will be crushed by the kids.
For instance, when I was still teaching, one year we had a first year teacher that came from an exclusive private school where she had taught for 14 years.
The only reason she moved was to earn more money and work less hours. She didn’t make it through her first week, quit and returned to the private school where the students were cherry picked and came from more affluent, colelge educated families.
The high school where I taught had a 92% minority student population with a child poverty rate above 70% in a community dominated by violent multi generational street gangs.
My training took place in the same school district through a full time, year long residency program where I was placed with a master teacher. I survived and thrived in those schools for thirty years.
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Add Michigan to the list. Well, Detroit specifically. Last year, Detroit emergency certified well over 100 teachers just to fill classrooms. Now, the legislature says Detroit doesn’t need certifications for teachers. Of course. Not because they think they need better teachers. Rather, because they just plain need an adult in a room.
So let’s see, I have a degree in Computer Programming. I could teach math and coding in an urban public school, in an impoverished and possibly dangerous area for $30,000. Or I could work IT pretty much anywhere make 60%+ more in a nice building in a cozy downtown. Wonder which one I would take?
Wait, I’m still thinking….
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Steve,
No more thinking for you. How about you connect with someone at General Motors and make over 100% more than that salary. This won’t include your annual performance bonus. 😎
Other perks: flex time, good vacation time (for corporate), oh! And you can go to the bathroom when you want!
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In all of those states listed above, the corporate reform organization STUDENTS FIRST, (founded by Michelle Rhee), put countless millions behind the successful election of right-wing, anti-public-education candidates. These are the same politicians who now have brought about this elimination of requirements for what one needs to teach in the classroom.
So if you are public school parents in one of these states, and your kids’ teachers — the one’s most recently hired, that is — are uneducated, untrained, unqualified, and incompetent Jeff Spicoli-ish (late Boomer reference) boneheads, you know whom you can thank for that .. Michelle Rhee, and her allies, which sadly includes Oprah.
Given that, it seems a good time to re-visit Ms. Rhee’s announcement of the founding of STUDENTS FIRST on “The Oprah Winfrey Show’ in Fall 2010.
Pursuant to that end, here’s a good drinking game:
Line up a dozen shots of your favorite hard liquor (vodka, tequila, etc.), then every time you hear a bell go DING!— a DING! for every time that “The Great Oprah” throws out phrases “great teachers” or “really good teachers” or “I love teachers” — you have to down a shot. You’ll be under the table within the first minute or so.
Contrast that with the latest developments noted in this article.
( 02:55 – )
( 02:55 – )
OPRAH: “It’s because of the failing school systems, and I know a big part of that are teachers who do not work. Now I know … Now, y’all know I love teachers (DING!). I consider myself to be one, with this platform every day. I love great teachers (DING!)… so great teachers (DING!), really good teachers (DING!) also want really good teachers (DING!), and we all know that the best chance for success for your child comes from having great teachers.(DING!)
“Right?
“So we’re not talking about great teachers (DING!), so don’t wast your time writin’ me if you’re a great teacher (DING!), and if you’re a bad one, I don’t wanna hear from ya.
“Right?”
RHEE: “That’s right. I mean, there was… there was a study recently that showed that, in this country, if we removed the bottom six-to-ten percent of … of teachers, and then replace them just with average teachers, we could propel ourselves from the bottom to the top globally of where we’re performing, so that shows you the power- ”
(NOTE: that stupid, stupid, STUPID study has been debunked over and over and over and over… yet we still hear about it.)
OPRAH: “That’s just taking the bottom six-to-ten percent – ”
RHEE: “That’s just the bottom six-to-ten percent … ”
OPRAH: “- and replacing them with JUST AVERAGE teachers. We’re not even talking about GREAT teachers.”
RHEE: “So that means that most teachers are doing a great job, but we have to do something about removing the one’s who aren’t.”
OPRAH: “The bottom line is … is … that you don’t want to fix ONE school system. You want to fix THE WHOLE THING.”
RHEE: “That’s right.”
OPRAH: “Oh My God. Oh My God. That’s an OMG-er!”
RHEE: “Yes, but that’s what it’s gonna take. I mean, you know, if we try to do this one city, or one state at a time, then ‘The Blob’ is gonna come in and try target that next mayor or governor who try on take on ‘The Blob.”
(NOTE: “The Blob”, I supposed is code for “teachers unions.”)
OPRAH: “This is a GARGANTUAN thing you’re taking on, and God bless you for this. This is really the Lord’s work that you’re takin’ on. And so you’ve started an organization called …
” ‘Students First.’
“I LOVE that title I think that in all the conversations we have about education, what has been forgotten are the children that everybody’s here to serve, so it’s called ‘Students First.’ ”
RHEE: “It’s called ‘Students First,’ so that whenever anybody hears about us, they know EXACTLY what we’re about.”
OPRAH: “So one of your FIRST goals is to get a million members.
” … ”
“So I sign up if I want WHAT?
RHEE: “If you want to see the change in this country that we need,
“If you know that TEACHERS MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE, AND THAT WE NEED A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEACHER IN EVERY CLASSROOM.” (CAPS are mine, Jack)
“If you know that all parents deserve to have options, excellent options for where to send their children to school.”
” … ” (pitch for folks to join STUDENTS FIRST)
OPRAH: ” … and you wanna raise a BILLION DOLLARS.”
RHEE: “Yes, we’re gonna raise a BILLION DOLLARS to do this.”
OPRAH: “A that billion dollars will be distributed to school districts.”
RHEE: “Yes … and we’ll put the money where it matters the most, which is in the classroom.”
(First off, she did NOT raise anywhere near a billion dollars.
Secondly of the millions which she DID raise, NOT ONE FREAKIN’ PENNY WENT —- in Rhee’s words to Oprah — NOT ONE PENNY “where it matters the most, which is in the classroom.”
Instead STUDENTS FIRST funds went to elect right-wing political candidates whose goals were and are the privatization of schools, the elimination of democratic governance of schools via elected school boards, and the de-professionalization of teaching with the lowering of the quality of the teachers that are now entering the classroom … THE EXACT OPPOSITE of her claim that she believes that “teachers make a huge difference, and that we need a highly effective teacher in every classroom.”
In all the states listed where they’ve shredded the requirements for teachers, STUDENTS FIRST elected candidates that worked to achieve this end.)
” … ”
OPRAH: (to Rhee, hysterical) “Somebody needs to FIX IT!
“YOU CAN DO IT!
“I AM BEHIND YOU!
“-WE- ARE BEHIND YOU!
“So today, I am using my show as a platform! This is an urgent call to action! This is really, America. This is a seminal moment where, as a country, as the citizens of this country, we choose to be an educated people or not. .. “
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Michelle Rhee and Oprah Winfrey talking about what is wrong with education in America?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I’d sooner listen to two dolphins at the aquarium.
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I’d rather listen to any one of these:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/13065/11-worst-sounds-world
Or even this:
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Oprah is the McDonald Trump of talk.
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Here is a quite egregious story of what has happened at a Boston elementary school which was placed into receivership by the MA DESE:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/06/20/can-state-receivership-save-failing-boston-school/kTrOSrEsvoDiTBDECRP76M/story.html#comments
All the pitfalls of handing off the responsibility of educating our most vulnerable students are here:
The entity charged with the turnaround had NEVER lead a school previously.
They’ve churned through 5 principals in two years – the present principal has her Boston rent paid for and the network has been flying her back and forth from her Florida home. She was chosen because of her experience in Denver (???!!!).
All teachers and staff had to reapply for their jobs, with new (uncompensated) responsibilities including a longer day – of 47 teachers, only 2 returned under the new regime – as a charter managed operation, they can and have hired non-certified “teachers”. According to state date, only 12 of the 50 teachers are older than 40, indicating few long term experienced staff.
The children who attend this zoned public school, run by a charter management organization, are some of our city’s poorest, coming from homes of generational poverty. 56% do not speak English at home. 18% have IEP’s. Nearly all are black or brown. The state labels 86.7% of them as high needs.
Teachers lack basic supplies, yet:
“Blueprint bought 650 Chromebooks, at a cost of $176,000, but teachers say the school’s network keeps crashing. Meanwhile, teachers say the school is running short on basic supplies, prompting them to raise hundreds of dollars on the Web to buy boxes of paper.”
Those readers who remember the kindergarten suspension debacle at the Holland UP Academy, in which 68 of 117 kindergarteners were suspended last school year, will not be surprised to find out that this is the same outfit.
And Roland “Two-Tier” Fryer is involved:
“Blueprint’s philosophy is based on five principles that Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. identified in researching New York charter school success: excellence in leadership and instruction; daily tutoring; increased instructional time; setting high expectations; and using data to improve instruction.
Fryer served as Blueprint’s president for a short time when it was founded in 2010, and last year Governor Charlie Baker appointed him to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
Read this article in the context of the pro-charter reporter James Vaznis of the pro-charter Boston Globe, who constantly criticize the hard work teachers do every day to gain some insight into how bad things must really be. Read this article and weep for the most vulnerable children our public schools serve. Read and understand that the one opportunity these young vibrant children have at being educated by dedicated, knowledgable professional teachers and leadership invested in the community has been squandered by a political agenda. Read it and rage.
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Why rush to hire uncertified, unqualified teachers?
It’s simple, really.
Why would folks teach when the starting salary is in the ’30’s with no step increases (with bachelor’s AND master’s degrees)? Don’t forget about the outrageous cost of benefits you are responsible for. That’s even less money in your pocket on an already low salary.
What happens when enough folks quit teaching and there isn’t enough supply for the demand? There is a shortage. In order to get people in the classroom, without raising salaries or incentives, you have to lower entry requirements to teach since the folks who are qualified aren’t teaching (or are in a sustainable teaching role in a good district). How do you attract qualified people to do hard work? Pay them! Provide benefits!
How do you get qualified people in positions who want to do the work? Offer good and truly competitive salaries and benefits and you’ll have people lining up at the door for a job.
Many of my friends and colleagues, and myself, who taught mathematics and science quit teaching to take industry jobs. These jobs paid 1.5x to 2x our teaching salary, starting. Don’t forget about our inexpensive benefits and annual bonuses.
I can personally tell you that my colleagues and I would all love to be in the classroom again (we were quality, hardworking, passionate, and qualified teachers)! Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to live and raise a family (let alone ourselves). Oh, and we were tired of losing money every year from cuts and working in this harsh “education” test-and-punish environment where students are not put first.
Additionally, some of us did our best to teach authentic material in ways that best served the kiddos, but were chastised for not teaching to the test.
Take care of your people and the rest will fall in place!
BTW: we taught in the Detroit Metro area (Detroit Public Schools and other local low-income districts).
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Former Teacher: this resonates with me a bit more, perhaps, than with some others because Detroit is my hometown.
Heartfelt thanks to you and your colleagues.
😎
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“All of this “who needs qualified teachers” baloney, of course, began with Teach for America, an organization that started out with a laudable goal of filling hard to fill teaching positions with temp teachers and morphed into the employment recruiting arm of the the charter school industry.”
Where is the evidence that TFA started out with that goal and where is the evidence that it was laudable or even needed?
TFA was started by someone (Wendy kopp) who had a “I’m going to save the world with my superior Ivy league intellect” and who was totally clueless about teaching and particularly about teaching in urban and rural areas. It seems to have actually gone downhill from there.
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SomeDam Poet,
I am with you, but I think there was a certain sense to the original plan (although as you point out, it was certainly an elitist view) and I think some joined on out of a sense of duty. The big problem with TFA is that it became an anti-teacher, anti-union, pro-privatization arm of the education reformers very quickly. When I write, I like to set up contrasts between purposes and realities. I think TFA is a case in point. I also think the “laudable” was overstated. Thanks for keeping me on my intellectual toes.
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Meanwhile, if you are a traditionally trained education major, in New Jersey, you have to be certified, licensed, and have the HIGHLY QUALIFIED designation by federal (?) law. I know kids who were jumping through hoops to just get interviews – meanwhile, if you were/are TFA affiliated, no hoops for you. Isn’t this hypocrisy? Its one of the things that drives me absolutely crazy.
If the federal and/or state government requires ed majors to be certified, licensed, and highly qualified, why are doors being opened for alternate route and/or TFA scabs?
The government can’t have it both ways.
Meanwhile, didn’t Evil Moskowitless get a great “get” recently in that her scabs have 3 years within which to get certified? Disgusting.
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The biggest player in making teacher preparation an “anything goes” job is our US Congress with the passage of ESSA.
TITLE II—PREPARING, TRAINING, AND RECRUITING HIGH-QUALITY TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS, OR OTHER SCHOOL LEADERS is not just a bad joke for a title. It is cynically misleading.
ESSA marginalizes higher education’s role in teacher preparation. Scholarship is not required to prepare teachers or to be a teachers, or principal, or other school leader. All you need to do is be a producer of test scores as measures of “academic” achievement. All you have to do is let our governors expand the charter industry to teacher education by setting up an “authorizing entity” to approve “teacher preparation academies” for prospective Teachers, Principals, and other School Leaders.
Here are a couple of sections of ESSA that show the perverse incentives for awarding a master’s degree in a chartered
TEACHER , PRINCIPAL , OR OTHER SCHOOL LEADER PREPARATION ACADEMY .—The term ‘teacher, principal, or other school leader preparation academy’ means a public or other nonprofit entity, which may be an institution of higher education or an organization affiliated with an institution of higher education, that establishes an academy that will prepare teachers, principals, or other school leaders to serve in highneeds schools (not defined) and that—
‘‘
(A) enters into an agreement with a State authorizer that specifies the goals expected of the academy, including—
‘‘(i) a requirement that prospective teachers, principals, or other school leaders who are enrolled in the academy receive a significant part of their training through clinical preparation that partners the prospective candidate with an effective teacher, principal, or other school leader, as determined by the State, respectively, with a demonstrated record of increasing student academic achievement, including for the subgroups of students…, while also receiving concurrent instruction from the academy in the content area (or areas) in which the prospective teacher, principal, or other school leader will become certified or licensed that links to the clinical preparation experience; ‘‘
(ii) the number of effective teachers, principals, or other school leaders, respectively, who will demonstrate success in increasing student academic achievement that the academy will prepare; and ‘‘
(iii) a requirement that the academy will award a certificate of completion (or degree, if the academy is affiliated with, an institution of higher education) to a teacher only after the teacher demonstrates that the teacher is an effective teacher, as determined by the State, with a demonstrated record of increasing student academic achievement either as a student teacher or teacher-of-record on an alternative certificate, license, or credential; ‘‘
(iv) a requirement that the academy will award a certificate of completion (or degree, if the academy is affiliated with an institution of higher education) to a principal or other school leader only after the principal or other school leader demonstrates a record of success in improving student performance; and
(v) timelines for producing cohorts of graduates and conferring certificates of completion (or degrees, if the academy is affiliated with, an institution of higher education) from the academy; ‘‘
(B) does not have unnecessary restrictions on the methods the academy will use to train prospective teacher, principal, or other school leader candidates, including—
‘‘(i) obligating (or prohibiting) the academy’s faculty to hold advanced degrees or conduct academic research;
‘‘(ii) restrictions related to the academy’s physical infrastructure;
‘‘(iii) restrictions related to the number of course credits required as part of the program of study;
‘‘(iv) restrictions related to the undergraduate coursework completed by teachers teaching or working on alternative certificates, licenses, or credentials, as long as such teachers have successfully passed all relevant State-approved content area examinations; or
‘‘(v) restrictions related to obtaining accreditation from an accrediting body for purposes of becoming an academy; ‘‘
(C) limits admission to its program to prospective teacher, principal, or other school leader candidates who demonstrate strong potential to improve student academic achievement, based on a rigorous selection process that reviews a candidate’s prior academic achievement or record of professional accomplishment; and
‘
(D) results in a certificate of completion or degree that the State may, after reviewing the academy’s results in producing effective teachers, or principals, or other school leaders, respectively (as determined by the State) recognize as at least the equivalent of a master’s degree in education for the purposes of hiring, retention, compensation, and promotion in the State.”
These specification appear to come from the training models offered by the recently formed “Coalition” of charter teacher prep academies and programs well-funded by foundations. These programs have token or no ties to higher education. Charter residency programs are operated primarily to offer a “pipeline of talent” for charter schools. The new “Coalition” is a functioning as a lobby to keep students’ academic test scores as the measure of effective teaching and teacher preparation programs funded by ESSA. The Coalition includes Urban Teachers, Aspire Public Schools, Blue Engine, Boston Teacher Residency, Match Teacher Residency, National Center for Teacher Residencies, Relay Graduate School of Education (a darling of Bill Gates), Teach for America, and TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project).
In ESSA, Congress has expressed absolute contempt for professional preparation of teachers. They approved a law that insists on… “no restrictions” on faculty academic qualifications, “no restrictions” on where academies exist, “no restrictions” on course credits (including undergraduate and academy programs), and freedom to operate with no accreditation “as long as such teachers have successfully passed all relevant State-approved content area examinations.”
The law is conspicuously tilted to support high scores on academic tests as the measure of “effectiveness.” Effectiveness is not formally defined but in ESSA it is used 150 times
(5) “TEACHER RESIDENCY PROGRAM —The term ‘teacher residency program’ means a school-based teacher preparation program in which a prospective teacher— ‘‘
(A) for not less than 1 academic year, teaches alongside an effective teacher, as determined by the State or local educational agency, who is the teacher of record for the classroom;
‘‘(B) receives concurrent instruction during the residency year
‘‘(i) through courses that may be taught by local educational agency personnel or by faculty of the teacher preparation program; and
‘‘(ii) in the teaching of the content area in which the teacher will become certified or licensed; and
(C) acquires effective teaching skills, as demonstrated through completion of a residency program, or other measure determined by the State, which may include a teacher performance assessment.
As I read Part 5, the teacher residency program is ambiguous. A teacher residency is typically a paid full-time co-teacher position, with the novice having full responsibility for classes well before the end of the school year, including securing proofs of their ability to increase the academic achievement (test scores) of their students. Meanwhile most residencies also require job-specific coursework (in addition to the full-time residency) that will justify earning a master’s degree. However, Part C seems to permit a direct path into teaching by taking a state approved performance assessment such as edPTA.
I can vouch for one thing about ESSA. It is a patched together law which deserves and F for clarity, wisdom, and sound investment of tax dollars.
Title II of ESSA calls for a four-year appropriation totaling $11,079,417,150. That is a huge investment, given the estimated demand per year for about 160,000 new teachers to take the place of teachers who will retire in the next for years.
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It sounds like these regulations were written by the charter lobby, and our greedy, idiotic policymakers rubber stamped them.
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NC public schools do not hire teachers who are not certified.
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Do NC charter schools and voucher schools hire uncertified teachers?
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I don’t know.
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but isn’t it good if they do as far as making a case that public schools are better?
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In Savannah, GA the school district is expected to hire as many as 450 uncertified candidates through an alternative cert provision in state DOE regs
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I’m a master degree teacher with 20 plus years experience. I moved from VA to NC 6 years ago. I’ve applied twice to the NC school system. Many of the teaching positions I applied for are still open. I received one interview. The questions during the interview lacked questions reguarding educational knowledge and strategies. More about getting along with administrators and fellow teachers. I left the interview wondering what the focus was. I still work in VA and now intend to stay in VA. I commute 148 miles a day 5 days a week. This article leads me to believe I wasn’t called because NC doesn’t want to pay qualified teachers. I have the scores and the references. My question is what are they paying these unqualified persons to be a warm body in a classroom? Cheap unqualified labor. If the mass are not educated people are not able to fill job positions. People have basic needs. Those needs will be met one way are another. More welfare and/or higher crime rates. Building more prisions. Or just simply educate properly so people qualify for the jobs that are available. This equals better employees, less crime and less welfare. So yes qualified teachers are an extremely important resource.
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Teacher play a major role to build up a strong base of a country by educating people. You can not expect a well qualified and educated citizen by a Teacher who himself is uncertified and unqualified. The teachers should be properly trained and carefully chosen by the schools.
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either one of two things will happen:
(1) This type of teacher induction will work… because of the nearly 40 assessments students are required to complete each year (beginning in Kindergarten)…. schools only require babysitters anyway, so there is no need for training.
or
(2) People with Bachelor degrees will discover that even babysitting is a miserable, gut wrenching job because classrooms full of hooligans who have no respect for other humans are just too much to handle on a daily basis, and the high IQ bachelor degree content expert who couldn’t find work and decided to try teaching absolutely freaks out at the intensity of being harassed by administrative paperwork, unruly children and parents, and the meager 30,000 dollar salary (Most school districts in every state no longer pay teachers with masters or PhDs…)
…and they quit, go to Walmart with their content knowledge and manage a bunch of students they may have had, and make 70K a year. As a result of many people with no teacher training entering and leaving the profession, this will increase the teacher shortages, and districts will finally give in and PAY teachers with OUTSTANDING training and eliminate all those assessments!
Conclusion: perhaps this issue may lead to a new teacher training utopia.
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Harrison,
After changing careers from public school teacher to Walmart supervisor, those former educators will now have to start their day a little differently.
Instead of say, “Good morning, class. Could you please open your textbooks to page … ?”
… they’ll experience the joy of leading one of Walmart’s universal start-of-the-day rituals:
( “WE – ARE! WE – ARE …. WAL-MART! … “You’ll get to be a cashier some day.” Freddy Mercury’s twirling in his grave…)
or perhaps they’ll be required to bring down the house this way:
(NOTE the gorilla-like roaring & chest-pounding at 00:31)
God save us all! Seriously … GOD – SAVE – US – ALL !!!!
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I suspect that with more school systems jumping on the 1:1 digital initiative bandwagon, the qualifications for teachers will continue to lower. If “personalized/blended learning” is the new way to educate — where software becomes the educator, assessor, coach and guide — then what use is there for actual and qualified teachers?
Babysitters, perhaps?
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I started my first teaching job the day after spring break in a high school chemistry class that had an unqualified sub since Thanksgiving. The kids were graded on completion only and they all had As or Bs but couldn’t tell me where an electron is in an atom. I wasn’t an education major, but I know chemistry from my science degree. Is it difficult doing a job and being held accountable by 150 teenagers and a dozen APs and deans? Definitely. Is it stressful? Absolutely. Is it better for the kids to learn nothing with a sub who is unqualified in the subject matter, or is it better for the kids and teacher to learn together?
There are professional development and staff development trainings out the wazoo every single week to learn about the “latest and greatest” methods. I will tell you though, I have heard some pretty terrible stories from my students about their teachers (who were education majors). (Some) Veteran teachers start to not see their students as human anymore… (some) veteran teachers simply stop caring about the students and are just as ready to leave for the day as the kids. (Some) veteran teachers lost sight of why teachers become teachers.
Just because someone like me took advantage of the alternative certification pathway doesn’t make them unqualified. Having an education degree doesn’t make that teacher a good teacher, either. In the end it comes down to virtue and motive.
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This is an interesting article, I have a different viewpoint.
I recently moved to Texas, from Scotland where we have a different system. To teach at elementary level you, generally, need to have a teaching degree.
High school is different. To teach at high school level, first and foremost you are required to have a thorough and in depth knowledge of the subject you wish to teach, this is acquired through a bachelor degree. Then you must learn to teach, this is achieved through post graduate education (full time this will take a year to complete) and a year of probationary training.
This system works well and the Scottish education system is highly regarded.
I was shocked to find out that in Texas I could train through an alternate certification plan and be teaching in as little as 12 weeks.
Perhaps the issue is not the absence of an education degree but the quality of the alternate certification programmes.
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