9486 in the collection
Texas Approves Plan to Let Any Joe Blow Teach Middle and High Schoolers
Ohanian Comment: I hope someone keeps track how long these new teachers last with 7th and 8th graders.
This idea is such a crock! Under NCLB CURRENT temporary teachers are being threatened with the loss of their jobs. CURRENT tenured teachers could
lose their classes if they are teaching out of their college major area (even if they've done it for twenty years successfully). This is such a
giant contradiction, the Texas teachers ought to sue for flagart violation
of NCLB.
I think the lawmakers in texas have been watching too much Boston Public.
Nancy Barth
California teacher
Those daydream believers who've never taught public school are once again trying to improve education with simplistic, cheap fixes.
The latest plan, approved Friday by the state Board for Educator Certification, would permit school districts to employ men and women who have no teacher training to instruct middle and high school students.
The would-be teachers could get two-year, temporary certificates if their college degrees were related to the courses they would teach and if they passed the examination all teachers must pass.
The proposal must be approved by the state Board of Education, but approval is automatic if the board does not consider it within 90 days. Since the board is not scheduled to meet within the next 90 days, prospects for approval look good. If the proposal is not killed, the state Board for Educator Certification could give the plan final approval next spring.
The proposal is opposed by most teachers and is supported by administrator and business groups, including the Texas Association of School Boards, Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of Business.
Supporters of the policy evidently make three assumptions:
(1) The teacher shortage can be corrected, with no loss of education quality, simply by lowering certification standards.
(2) Lowering teacher standards is better than correcting the real problems that drive teachers to other professions -- low pay, poor benefits and bad working conditions -- because more effective options would cost money.
(3) Anyone who has ever "met a payroll" or delivered a good speech can teach effectively.
In fact, teaching is extraordinarily hard work. Many teachers instruct their students all day and then grade papers for most of the evening.
Teachers are counselors, who help their students grapple with all sorts of personal and academic problems; police officers, who look for signs of drug and alcohol abuse; and social workers, who look for indications of child abuse.
Teachers must cope with students who have no inclination to learn, who suffer a variety of learning disabilities, who cannot resist disrupting classes and who can be violent.
They must deal with parents who believe their children can do no wrong and are the brightest kids on Earth, and with parents who won't support teacher efforts to make their children work, think and behave.
Most individuals who would give the proposed certification alternative a shot have no clue what a classroom is like.
Many of those would-be teachers who sign long-term contracts will become disillusioned and will break their contracts, leaving schools in a bind, or they will stick it out, saddling their pupils with two years of poor instruction.
Many would-be teachers who have coordinated successful half-day workshops are going to be shocked to learn how hard it is simply to fill eight hours a day with meaningful instruction while dealing with an avalanche of paperwork.
Some would-be teachers will count on school districts to train them as they go, but who is supposed to pay for the mentoring, professional development and training that districts would be required to provide?
Many cash-strapped districts already are firing teachers and aides, increasing class sizes and charging students to participate in extracurricular activities. They don't have the cash for mentoring, professional development and training.
The proposal is bad for Texas schoolchildren because it could mean some are taught by unqualified teachers.
The proposal is one more insult to certified teachers who have worked hard and paid a good deal of money to achieve professional certification.
Teachers are told to dress professionally, to speak and behave professionally and to teach professionally. Now they could be asked to work with colleagues who do not have to meet the same professional standards.
If teachers were valued as they should be, the daydream believers would stop creating more bad policies to compensate for the inadequate funding and lack of support that have created the teacher shortage.
Education will be improved through better teacher pay, benefits and working conditions. Only daydreamers believe in cheap fixes.
Ryan teaches journalism in the School of Communication at the University of Houston. He can be reached at mryan@uh.edu.
— Michael Ryan
Daydream believers are at it again in Texas
Houston Chronicle
2003-11-12
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/outlook/2216462
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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