Those Who Can't - Teach Teachers - Flunk
Develop Technology Skills of Professors
Early Childhood Development
- Expulsion
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
(ECMHC) Guide Standards,Rationale and Guidance for the State of
Maryland
In Partnership With:
The Maryland State Department of Education
Division of Early Childhood Development
Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services
Lack of support for early childhood education
New Teachers Flunk in Massachusettes
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BOSTON 7/7/98 -- This spring, Massachusetts administered its first
statewide test for candidates hoping to teach in the public
schools. The recent announcement of the results has provoked
astonishment and outrage.
Almost 60 percent of the candidates failed. Thirty percent
failed a basic test in reading and writing, and the failure rate
on subject-matter tests varied from 63 percent in mathematics to
18 percent in physical education.
When the results were published, the reactions were predictable:
approval from those appalled by the decline in the quality of
public schools and howls of complaint from education
professionals, including college professors, deans and college
presidents.
The greatest controversy surrounded the results of the reading and
writing test, since literacy is the essential requirement for the
teaching of any subject.
It should not be thought that this examination was excessively
demanding. In one section of the test, a short paragraph from the
Federalist Papers was slowly read aloud three times as candidates
wrote it down. How could educated people fail to copy accurately
what they had heard? It wasn't easy, but scores of applicants
managed, recording broken sentences and curious new spellings like
"improbally," "corupt," "integraty," "bouth" (meaning both),
"bodyes" and "relif."
The writing test also required the candidates to read two extended
passages. They were asked to write a summary of the first and to
compose responses to the second, which was an essay on a
controversial subject.
The casualties here included grammar, syntax, diction, spelling
and logic. Neo-spellings included "belive," "refere," "bured"
(burned), "survalence," "serching," "decress"(meaning reduce),
"messures" and "invation." (Dan Quayle can relax: he would pass
this test with flying colors.) Some of the sentences would provide
material for Jay Leno: "This method of observation should not be
aloud under any cercumstances." "They felt their right to privacy
was being impared upon." No responsible person would subject
anyone's children, much less his own, to such teachers.
The dismal results have led some to fault the test, claiming it
had not been validated.
In fact, it was validated by the teachers and scholars who
prepared it, all experts in the areas being tested.
Whenever they found a question to be defective, they proposed
alternatives. When important issues or concepts were missing, the
advisers added them.
The exams were validated again by the panels of distinguished
teachers, administrators and college professors who reviewed the
questions for fairness and agreed on minimal passing scores.
For example, to pass the various sections of the reading and
writing test, applicants needed to get 71 to 78 percent of the
answers right, a "C" average.
Some critics have said the tests were racially biased. The
statistics show otherwise: 21 percent of blacks, 23 percent of
Asians, 24 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of whites were
successful in answering 89 percent or more of the items correctly.
These variations are insignificant, and the slightly higher
success rate for whites can more than adequately be explained by
socioeconomic factors.
Others objected that no test can prove that a person will be a
good teacher. True enough. But the failure to pass a test can
prove that one is incompetent to teach. One cannot competently
teach what one does not know. Another objection was that no study
guide was provided. But why should those qualified to become
professional teachers need a guide on how to study for a test in
English or in a basic subject in which they have specialized? The
results were not surprising, because they are similar to those in
other states where comparable tests have been given.
The controversy over the test has obscured the real story, which
is that so many prospective public school teachers failed a test
that a bright 10th grader could pass without difficulty.
This is a telling indictment of higher education in America.
Professors routinely complain about the illiteracy of freshmen.
Many other instructors, however, contribute to the problem by
being overly generous in their grading. Grade inflation has
reached the point where even outstanding students accepted at the
best law schools are often deficient in writing skills and need
remedial courses.
Nowhere are standards lower than in schools of education. In
1997, the average combined S.A.T. score for all students was
1,016. But those hoping to become teachers scored only 964, 5.1
percent below the national average
. By raising, over 20 years, the average score of entering
education freshmen to 1,227 -- 20 percent above the national
average -- Boston University was forced to reduce the freshman
class from 400 to 100 and forfeited about $35 million in lost
tuition. Few colleges and universities are willing to pay so steep
a price to uphold standards.
One way to compensate for low scores among prospective teachers is
to offer extensive remedial work and impose rigorous standards.
But that rigor is rarely found in schools of education. On the
contrary, most have standards so low that they repel the highly
qualified students who are desperately needed in our schools.
Few intelligent people are so dedicated to teaching that they
will endure the mindless courses and textbooks in schools of
education.
Grading there is typically easy, and many graduates of these
programs are ill prepared for the profession of their choice.
America became a literate country before there were any schools of
education. We would be justified in demanding that schools of
education either raise their standards or shut their doors.
TEACHERS WHO FAIL
TEACHERS WHO FAIL
12/12/04
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041212/NEWS/41212
0357/1060>
More than half a million Florida students sat in classrooms last
year in front of teachers who failed the state's basic skills
tests for teachers.
Many of those students got teachers who struggled to solve high
school math problems or whose English skills were so poor, they
flunked reading tests designed to measure the very same skills
students must master before they can graduate.
These aren't isolated instances of a few teachers whose
test-taking skills don't match their expertise and training. A
Herald-Tribune investigation has found that fully a third of
teachers, teachers' aides and substitutes failed their
certification tests at least once.
The Herald-Tribune found teachers who had failed in nearly every
school in each of the state's 67 counties. <snip>
PARAEDUCATORS
PREPARING HIGHLY QUALIFIED PARAEDUCATORS
There are approximately 750,000 paraeducators working in public
schools across the country assisting with general instruction,
helping teachers manage the classroom, and working with students
with disabilities. The role of paraeducators is critical to
improving teachers working conditions and allowing teachers to pay
greater personal attention to students -- especially in
overcrowded, high-need urban schools where up to
75 percent of paraeducators represent ethnically and
linguistically diverse groups. Paraeducators are often credited
with helping to strengthen communication with students and
families, particularly in schools with large non-English-speaking
populations. Paraeducators area
also a rich source of potential teachers. But for all their
contributions to school communities, paraeducators are often both
undervalued and underprepared for their jobs, and concerns persist
that low salaries will discourage paraeducators from seeking
further education to stay in the profession. While some
paraeducators are willing to take a test approved by their
district, others are unwilling to take a test or unable to obtain
a passing score. With the average paraeducator earning just
$14,000, districts face a challenge in convincing them to seek
further education to keep their jobs.
A new policy brief from Recruiting New Teachers, Inc.
, tracks state and district efforts to comply with the recently
extended No Child Left Behind deadline for paraeducators. The
report finds that while many education officials worried they
might lose or be prevented from hiring instructional support staff
unable to comply with the law, confidence appears to be growing.
- Teachers are Idiots
- Bad Teachers
- Cheating Administrators and Education Industry
- Statistics about Teachers who are under qualified
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 law demands that states prove by June 30th 2006 that all teachers in core subjects -- such as math, science, English, social studies, foreign language, and history have mastered their topics, or risk losing federal education money. Teachers are deemed highly qualified if they pass the state teaching license exam and demonstrate competency in the subjects they teach. They can show competency in several ways -- by passing a content test, participating in teacher training programs, or earning a college degree in the subjects they teach. [ source ]
NATIONAL BOARD TEACHERS NO BETTER THAN REGULAR TEACHERS, STUDY FINDS The privately organized NBPTS national board had been "sitting on" the results because they were not favorable. Students of teachers who hold certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards achieve, on average, no greater academic progress than students of teachers without the special status, a long-awaited study using North Carolina data concludes. Bess Keller reports that the study found that there was basically no difference in the achievement levels of students whose teachers earned the prestigious NBPTS credential, those who tried but failed to earn it, those who never tried to get the certification, or those who earned it after the student test-score data was collected.