Tag Archive for 'teacher certification'

Anyone Can Teach!

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 13, 2009 in Education News, Teacher Training and Teaching. 11 Comments

Training or experience? Pedagogy or subject matter expertise?  Utah lawmakers are weighing what makes a good teacher as they consider a bill that would allow anyone with a bachelor’s degree to become a licensed teacher by passing competency tests in the subjects they wish to teach or demonstrating skills in those areas. The bill, SB48, was given preliminary approval Thursday, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Now, most people who lack education degrees but want to become teachers must get approval from the districts in which they hope to teach and then pass subject and pedagogy tests. They may also go through an alternate process that requires them to take education classes before becoming fully licensed, among other things.  SB48 would allow individuals to go directly to the state Board of Education to become licensed and would not require pedagogy classes or tests.

“I know a lot of guys who have retired and are absolutely fabulous and would make wonderful teachers because they understand the marketplace,” says the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Chris Buttars said. “This is long past due.”

“This bill really is an insult to education,” counters another Senator. ”Teachers have a skill set that is unique, developed and is nurtured and trained. I think this bill expands the profession of teaching into a hobby of teaching.”

The bill requires a bachelor’s degree and passing a “rigorous” state test to teach elementary school. Anyone wishing to teach basic middle school and high school subjects would also need at least a bachelor’s degree and would either need to pass a state test or demonstrate competency in the subject with a major, graduate degree or coursework.

The Utah Education Association has come out against the bill.

Alternative Certification vs. Traditionally Certified Teachers

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 10, 2009 in Education News and Research and Reports. 6 Comments

A large study comparing the effectiveness of traditional teacher training with alternative certification programs finds no difference in student outcomes.  The Mathematica study examined 2,600 students in six states at 63 schools with at least one alternatively certified (AC) teacher working at the same grade level as a relative novice teacher who graduated from a traditional certification (TC) program.  The major findings include:

  • No statistically significant difference in performance between students of AC teachers and those of TC teachers.
  • No statistically significant differences between the AC and TC teachers in their average scores on college entrance exams, the selectivity of the college that awarded their bachelor’s degree, or their level of educational attainment.
  • No evidence that greater levels of teacher training coursework were associated with the effectiveness of AC teachers in the classroom. 

“This study found no benefit, on average, to student achievement from placing an AC teacher in the classroom when the alternative was a TC teacher, but there was no evidence of harm, either,” the report concludes.  “In addition, the experimental and nonexperimental findings together indicate that although individual teachers appear to have an effect on students’ achievement, we could not identify what it is about a teacher that affects student achievement. Variation in student achievement was not strongly linked to the teachers’ chosen preparation route or to other measured teacher characteristics.”

Teacher Beat’s Stephen Sawchuck points out the Mathematica study is “a big deal” because most alt cert studies have focused on the elite programs like Teach For America. “This looks at a bunch of regular, state-run programs,” he notes.    At the Quick and The Ed, Chad Alderman notes there’s nothing here that will challenge anyone’s preconceived notions or biases about alternative vs. traditional.  That’s probably true, although it’s possible that ed schools may have a little more ’splainin to do about why their graduates aren’t more capable of hitting the ground running than alt cert people.

The more interesting question is beyond the scope of this study: are there long term differences in performance of each group?  Regardless of how you came to the classroom, first year teaching is about the journey from unconscious incompetence (not knowing what you don’t know) to conscious incompetence (knowing what you don’t know).  It’s what you do with that, I think, that makes the difference in effective and ineffective teachers.

Full disclosure:  I came to teaching  through the alt-cert route, via the NYC Teaching Fellows in 2002.

“I’m a Teacher and I’m Tired”

Published by Robert Pondiscio on November 5, 2008 in Opinion. 10 Comments

The edublogs have been brimming with advice for the President-elect in the last few days, but teacher blogger Bill Ferriter’s stands out.  ”I’m a teacher and I’m tired,” he writes.  More than the relentless demands of the job, he’s exhausted by the crisis mentality that attends teaching.  Educating all of our children requires “something more than sounding warning bells and asking teachers to pull up their boot straps time and again,” he writes. 

Subtly, the message is being sent that if teachers would work harder, America’s “educational crisis” could be solved. If only all teachers were “highly qualified,” we’d lead the world again. If only all teachers held “advanced degrees in the subjects they were teaching,” we wouldn’t fall behind China, Japan and India in engineers and scientists. If only we could recruit “our best and our brightest” to our nation’s classrooms, no child would be left behind. The responsibility for addressing each of these issues inevitably ends up on the shoulders of teachers. 

While I may not agree with every one of Ferriter’s prescriptions, it’s hard to disagree with his broader theme.  We’re not going to get anywhere as long as teachers are expected to bear the load alone.

Does Certified Equal Qualified?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 23, 2008 in Education Practice and Educational Policy. 8 Comments

Should mid-career switchers, including former military personnel, be able to go directly into teaching without obtaining certification.  John McCain seemed to suggest as much in the last presidential debate. Over at Teacher Magazine, the question is being hotly debated.  Unsurprisingly most find the idea wanting.  Says one:

If military retirees are allowed to go straight into the classrom, then why not allow all college graduates to do the same thing?  As the nation argues for more accountability for teachers, why would we lower the bar for the necessary post-secondary education needed to become a teacher?

At least one teacher, however, is willing to suggest there is a difference between being certified and being qualified. 

Private schools do not require their teachers to be certified, and many have very qualified teachers….I agree that teachers should have extensive training in pedogogical practices before they become teachers, but I’m not sure if taking the Praxis and doing all of that paperwork towards my certification has made me a better teacher. 

Who Is National Certification Worthy?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 1, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Education Practice and Teaching. 0 Comments

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards should consider student-learning gains when deciding which teachers deserve national certification, a team of researchers says in an interesting study reported in Education Week.

Students who are taught by teachers certified by the board outperform students whose teachers lack such certification on standardized tests, according to a study released last month.  Now, researchers from Harvard, Dartmouth and the Los Angeles Unified School District “make a case for combining the current measures with newer, ‘value added’ calculations that take into account the test-score gains that students make in applicants’ classes, or at least lending more weight in the assessment process to the individual tests that link most closely to improved student achievement,” says EdWeek.

For some reason, the teacher-effectiveness debate is broken into two camps, says Thomas J. Kane, a study author and a professor of education and economics at Harvard’s graduate school of education. One side focuses on students’ achievement, and then there’s another side that focuses primarily on measures of teacher practice. We think the reasonable approach is not either, but both.

To its credit, the research was one of 22 research efforts commissioned by NBPTS to gauge the effectiveness of its process. The results are apparently non-binding on NBPTS; they’re not obligated to adopt the value-added recommendation.  But one wonders if the fact that the report is being discussed in EdWeek before it’s release isn’t tantamount to a trial balloon of sorts. 

Weakest Teachers for Most Vulnerable Students?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 5, 2008 in Teacher Training and Teaching. 0 Comments

Education Week9th grade students in Philadelphia high schools are more likely than their upper-grade peers to be taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers according to a new study highlighted by Education Week.

While it’s hard to say what impact such teacher-assignment patterns have on students’ academic growth, the researchers found that, in Philadelphia at least, having a less-qualified teacher may have a detrimental effect on students’ attendance. All things being equal, the study showed, students taking at least two classes taught by novice, uncredentialed teachers miss an average of two more school days a year than peers with more-qualified teachers.

I’m late pointing out this story, but given the recent discussion here and elsewhere about the importance (or lack thereof) of veteran teachers for at-risk students, this study is germane.

Teachers to the Test

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 12, 2008 in Education Practice, Literacy and Teacher Training. 2 Comments

Those who want to be early childhood or elementary school teachers in Connecticut will have to pass a test to prove they know how to teach reading. The State Board of Education added the requirement to Connecticut’s teacher certification requirements last week.

The test will be required for certification for early childhood and elementary school teachers beginning July 1, 2009, according to the Hartford Courant. Massachusetts requires the same test for certification.