Teaching is a field that needs more credibility. Some functions that help give credibility are licensure/certification processes, a code of ethics, and methods based on empirical/objective data.
The fields of medicine, law, social work, and business all benefitted from these functions. For teachers to be respected in our fields we need these functions as well. We've recently had some teachers (about 250, according to some news articles) terminated for various reasons. One of those reasons is that some teachers reportedly don't have proper certification.
I keep hearing about teachers who care about their students and are doing an effective job in the classroom, but have not passed Praxis.
Nurses who don't pass their exams don't get to be nurses anyway just because of their kindness. An engineer without a license would. Here's a quote from engineeringblog.com:
Long story short, your four-year degree might teach you what you need to work as an engineer, but until you pass these rather rigorous exams, no one is going to hire you for a good job. You might get some beginner-level jobs, which could help you build up experience, or an employer might even put you in an internship program that will lead to your getting the PE license on their dime, but until you get those essential pieces of paper, your career isn't going anywhere.
We teachers need to upgrade the way we think about our profession.
On a similar note:
I am currently researching the lack of a substantial code of ethics for the teaching profession. I will blog more on that later. However, I'll put in a little piece for now. The AFT and AAE both have Codes of Ethics but unlike some other professions, such as the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) and medical professionals and lawyers, those codes cannot be used to hold someone accountable. Also, teachers don't refer to their code of ethics (if they even know that it exists), and furthermore, teachers are not required to get regular yearly or biannual trainings on ethics like social worker, attorneys, and medical personnel are.
WTU Peterson Slate: Not a 1 Woman Dictatorship
7 years ago
I'm certified in a number of subjects. I had to pay for, take and pass the Praxis II in those areas. Needless to say, when I began my career, I had to pay for, take and pass Praxis I, as we all did. Maybe I'm a bi#$%, but I don't think so, but I have little sympathy for people who just can't pass Praxis I. It's not that hard. It's not the LSAT or the GRE. Many universities now won't let you into their programs without a passing Praxis I at the begininng. Which means a HS grad entering a teacher ed program should be albe to pass it, which indicates to me the low level it's on.
ReplyDeleteAs a former teacher on both the East and West Coasts, I knew several teachers who were certified in one state, but not in another. A colleague of mine taught in DC (certified) but moved to Maryland (immediately becoming uncertified). He attempted to get his certification transferred to MD for years, but DCPS had lost his file. Last I heard, he still wasn't certified in MD (and was teaching in a private school).
ReplyDeleteI agree with "A Teacher" that Praxis I is a pretty easy exam. However, don't forget about teachers who are "uncertified" simply because they have moved to a new state...and haven't completed all the red tape needed to transfer their credential.
I don't think that the public outcry for Rhee's firings has much to do with her firing uncertified teachers. People are upset that teachers were fired who received meets or exceeds expectations on their evaluations or who were critical of principals or were otherwise outspoken.
ReplyDelete"A Teacher"...You cannot be too critical of those with Praxis I struggles, especially considering that you need to have right-brained (writing) and left-brained (math) abilities to do well. Usually people get tripped up in one or two areas, especially considering they might have learned the content years ago.
ReplyDeleteI am the husband of a talented and passionate young teaching fellow who was riffed today after more than two years of dedicated service to her students.
ReplyDeleteHer urgent dedication to helping raise the achievement of high need and disadvantaged students has been a theme of her career. In rural Nepal, aged just 18, she creatively led a class of primary students through an uninspiring national curriculum (often protecting them from the headmaster's cane). In east London, she worked patiently to improve the employment prospects and English language skills of impoverished Bangladeshi immigrants. In Sudan, she developed a practical curriculum to improve the spoken language skills and cultural awareness of thousands of primary school children and hundreds of university students. On arriving in the district, she worked to train teachers for placements overseas before being accepted into the DC Fellows program, where, for the last couple of years she has worked tirelessly to raise the achievement levels of DC's young men and women.
I am so angry about the turn of events that led to her dismissal and so totally exhausted by the lack of support and appreciation by the successive administrations of her school that my faith in the DC school system and its leadership is all but gone. I question both the competence and strategy of its leadership at both a district and school level, but most of all I cannot understand the turn of events that led to her being evaluated as teacher that should be dismissed under any circumstances.
I am the fortunate position to have witnessed her inspirational teaching and her tireless dedication to her students. I include myself amongst the many teachers she has trained, and was impressed and inspired when I taught alongside her in Sudan. She was observed for no more the five minutes by her current administration.
The DC public school system is truly in a sorry, sorry state. Today, in my humble opinion, DC students lost one of their most caring and committed advocates. They cannot afford to loose many more.
I agree we need much more rigorous demands. But we can probably only have such a thing happen when we are willing to pay teachers more. Why? Because people aren't willing to jump through the hoops to get paid poor salaries. If potential teachers are capable of getting different types of certifications, many will choose to get the ones that will provide them with good careers.
ReplyDeleteBut you have to start somewhere. So I'd say start requiring higher standards for new teachers (which Rhee is doing to some extent), and start upping the standards for existing teachers. Then thin the herd.
I teach math. In order to be considered "Highly Qualified," you had to pass two Praxis II tests. I was sort of astonished that that wasn't required just to be able to teach.
On a related know, I would like to also ask, "Are teachers utilized as real professionals?" Because I take a lot of issues with our management systems. The teachers are not assigned as effectively as they could be. So they're talents are wasted teaching subjects that are not their strengths. And material sharing is basically non-existent. I don't understand how every teacher needs to create all of their own worksheets/materials. It must be one of the greatest wastes of man hours imaginable.
If we were being utilized as professionals, we wouldn't be used to inefficiently. Any business organized this way would fail. Some of the problem is that we don't have the data we need to assign people well. Maybe that's what we need, data - tests/reviews that show how effectively people a certain subject. Then we need much better software to handle that data so it can be used properly when setting up schedules.
I'm trying to get in touch with the person behind this blog. If you could email me, I'm at hmurphy@npr.org. NPR is doing a series on teacher qualifications and looking for different perspectives. I'd love to talk to you for some background in reference to what you've written here. Thanks! Heather
ReplyDeleteThe teacher credentialing process in the United States is a sham. Unlike the rigorous preparation lawyers, engineers, and health care providers must undergo before they are allowed to ply their trades, teacher credentialing programs are insipid wastes of time which are of, by, and for people whose shoe sizes are greater than their IQs.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of my teaching career, I went through a credentialing program at a "prestigious" university here in California. Without a doubt, the program was the most sophomoric endeavor of my life. While the public would like to think that teacher credentialing programs are about preparing educators to build young minds and cultivate good character in students, the credentialing program I went through was a re-education in "social justice." The professors (who were little more than P.C. hacks with inferiority complexes) wasted our time and tuition money by extolling the virtues of "culturally responsive pedagogy" and having us research the history of race and gender oppression in the United States. After going through the credentialing program, it was no longer a mystery to me why America's public schools are the laughing stock of the industrialized world. Our teachers are being trained in politically correct excuse-making, not the rigorous academic instruction of young minds.
After receiving my credential and teaching for a couple of years in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), I was hired at a private school. The LAUSD public school where I taught had a drop-out rate of over fifty percent. On the other hand, the private school where I was hired (and currently teach) graduates all of its incoming freshmen and sends them to universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Caltech, MIT, Cambridge, and the like. While the cultures at the public school where I taught and the private school where I teach are diametrically different, only a handful of these differences can be attributed to the socio-economic backgrounds of the students. The biggest difference between the schools where I’ve taught is the quality of academic instruction which takes place in them, and this can be attributed directly to the caliber of the teachers in the schools.
While my public school colleagues were well-intentioned, they were not subject-matter experts. Few of the upper-level math and science teachers with whom I worked understood their subjects at more than a superficial level, and in the English Department, the grammar of the teachers was almost as bad as the grammar of the students. Nevertheless, what my public school colleagues lacked in actual education, they more than made up for in politically correct edu-speak and excuse-making. Clearly, the lessons from their credentialing programs had not been lost.
On the other hand, my private school colleagues are intimately familiar with the subjects they teach. Most of them have advanced degrees, but more importantly, LESS THAN ONE PERCENT of them have teaching credentials.
If a teaching credential is a pre-requisite for being a great educator, why is the private school where I teach sending kids to Stanford while public schools are sending kids to the gutter? Phillips Exeter, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, Choate, Harvard-Westlake, Westminster, St. Paul’s, and all of the other top-ranked private schools in the U.S. eschew teacher credentialing requirements for a reason: they know that these programs don't enlighten educators in the instruction of young minds.
Being a great teacher is about subject-matter expertise, discretion, patience, firmness, and a genuine love of young people. Teacher credentialing programs do not impart or nurture any of the aforementioned qualities. Instead, they attempt to indoctrinate aspiring educators with a P.C. guilt-complex.
As for teacher certifications- the sad reality is that the cert tests themselves are so low level that if you can't pass them (Praxis I and II- multiple specialty tests) then you SHOULD NOT BE TEACHING. I hold numerous teaching certifications including reading specialist, elementary ed, special ed, middle school LA, Middle school math, supervision and admin.. and I could pass the social studies HS with no problem. The tests are incredibly easy and a person with a moderate degree of literacy skills and a high degree of liberal studies courses in college should be able to pass these tests. I don't think many teachers out there realize that the test rigors and pass scores for the praxis exams are intentionally manipulated to ensure that X% of all candidates PASS. I hope the AMA doesn't do the same for surgeons. Far too many of today's teachers (AND school administrators) cannot spell, read fluently nor write a concise and logical paragrah using correct grammar. This is not a rash criticism. It is the truth- and it is appalling. As for the wonderful (apparently noncertified) teacher from Nepal and the Sudan. I don't doubt that this individual is in all liklihood better educated than her former collegues. However the truth is simply this.. This is the United STates, not Nepal and certainly not the Sudan. When in Rome.....
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