Our assignment was to read
by Joel Klien
He brings to light some problems as well as some suggestions to rectify these problems.
PROBLEMS
1. 23 states can't produce a teacher education program that provides math preparation equivalent to high performing nations.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION- I know that countries such as China and Japan give civil service tests to determine the abilities of persons applying for even the lower ranking jobs available. If a national type of test were to be put into place it may be helpful in weeding out the less able. Unfortunately I am not very strong in the math department and I know that I personally need to work on this. Math is not really considered important unless the future teacher is trying to teach math or science. This does seem to be a bit silly since the teacher, regardless of what they teach will have to add up, average, and turn a grade into a percentage and turn percentages into a numerical value as well.
2. Less than 20% of teacher education programs offer basics in Reading. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- This seems almost impossible to me as the majority of classes are based on reading the material to get the information. In my opinion reading should have been pretty much mastered by high school but when hearing some of my peers read aloud, I realize this expectation is grossly exaggerated. My 7 year old son reads better than some I have heard, this scares me because these are the people who may be teaching him in the near future as they are in elementary education. I myself am in secondary education and consider myself to be fairly well-read. Again standardized tests could be given to those who wish to enter education (if I am not mistaken there actually is a test given for reading here) and if the person does poorly on said test additional reading classes should be offered to bring them up to speed.
3. For several decades the U.S. has allowed anyone with a college degree to become a teacher. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- This one is a toughie. We can not fix the past and unfortunately, the way the school system is set up at the moment the longer a teacher has been there, the harder it is to let them go even if they are incompetent. The only relief I see with this is to again put into motion some type of nationalized test that will weed out the competent from the less competent.
4. Rewards are based on seniority. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- Rewards should be based solely on the performance of the teacher. Who cares how long the teacher has been there? If they are incompetent they should NOT be rewarded PERIOD. It can be very frustrating for the educator who does very well to watch the teacher who is terrible get rewarded while the competent teacher gets passed by or laid off because they have only just been hired. I have seen this in action. A young math teacher who was one of the best I have seen in years was literally pushed out of a school system because A. she was young, B. she had just been hired that year, C. got laid off because she was the last one hired even though she had never missed a day and was extremely competent. Needless to say that teacher is no longer there. A very sad state of affairs for the students at that school.
5. Teachers are paid regardless of performance. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- If standardized tests were given every 2-5 years to determine how the teacher is performing I believe that several of these existing problems would disappear. As things are now a teacher in MS has a starting pay rate of around 20,000 a year. The first raise in pay does not occur for 5 years. I know personally that this wage will not even BEGIN to touch my student loan debt let alone pay my bills as well. This is extremely discouraging. I hope in the future this changes because at this pay rate I will never pay off my debt as I am looking at two more years before I graduate.
6. In some states it is impossible to remove a teacher due to the seniority rule. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- This absolutely needs to STOP! If a teacher is incompetent they are incompetent and MUST be removed no matter HOW long they have been there. In fact I feel the school system should be penalized if they allow a teacher to remain working just because of seniority. If you make the schools pay a fine for this quite a few fires would be lit under some non moving butts.
7. High quality experienced teachers end up in middle class communities. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- I do not necessarily see this as a detriment. In fact this is a good thing for our children in public school systems. What DOES need to change is the pay scale for educators. They are one of the lowest payed if not the lowest, yet they are entrusted with our children. Does the saying "you get what you pay for" come to mind? it should.
8. Poor students get inexperienced teachers. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- I feel the reason for this is that private schools are much more selective when choosing teachers. I do not necessarily feel that teachers should be turned away just for inexperience, I mean how is experience supposed to be gained if jobs will not give them a chance. This statement also contradicts what the author has said about seniority... I do not feel that inexperience is the issue it is the issue of competency or incompetency that needs to be studied. The teacher can have 20 plus years of experience under their belt and be the most incompetent teacher in the school.
9. Lay offs affect the teachers who were most recently hired. POSSIBLE SOLUTION- Again, I feel that if a lay-off is necessary than a standardized test should be given to all of the teachers in that school and the less competent should be fired regardless of experience or seniority. As I mentioned earlier A young math teacher was pushed out of a school through the seniority ranking and the lay-off procedures even though she was extremely competent and well liked by the students and parents.
PROFESSIONALIZING = Excellence as a guide line.
This would mean that EVERYTHING would have to change including course work, compensation, education-school admissions, employment rules, and self policing.
These core changes would be beneficial to all parties involved...teachers, students, and the public because the public would be able to have more trust and faith in the public school system.
The late Albert Shanker, one of the most influential teacher's-union leaders of his time was quoted 30 years ago saying "Unless we go beyond collective bargaining to the achievement of true teacher professionalism, we will fail...to preserve education in the U.S. and to improve the status of teachers economically, socially, and politically."
Albert Shanker offered several ideas to create professionalism in teaching:
1. Attract the best students to enter the education programs
2. Demand a "formal set of peer relationships" as well as a "Knowledge base"
3. National teaching examinations testing content knowledge and mastery of pedagogy
4. a 1-3 year supervised internship to evaluate the performance of new, potential teachers
5. Teachers should provide their own board to police the profession
6. Standards should be established and provisions should be made to provide ways to eliminate or remove incompetent teachers
7. Promotions should be based on performance on specialty tests
If these suggestions were followed teachers would be in a better position to master their profession and rely less on college student help in the classrooms
Shanker also had the foresight to realize that public education would not be sustainable if "teachers continue to be treated...as workers in an old-fashioned factory."
I believe it is time to make this visionary man's idea of the future a reality! Not only for the sake of our students but for our educators as well. I too as Dr. Strange mentioned in his blog, do not know how to make this a reality however, it is extremely clear that something needs to change in order for our children and future teachers to achieve the most and best they can. I truly believe that if the schools were penalized and fined for keeping incompetent teachers because of seniority that the whole seniority problem may fly out of the window. I do not see this happening any time soon unfortunately. Also if the pay scale is not revised there will be nothing but incompetent teachers because the competent teachers will find a better way that pays what they deserve, not what the state feels is good enough.
GRAMMAR/SPELLING:4 points
FOLLOW DIRECTIONS: yes 3 points
ADDRESSES ISSUES: 9 issues 9 points
RESPONSES: all 3 areas addressed 9 points
CONCLUSION: excellent 5 points
