Teach Your Teachers Well

ARNE DUNCAN, the secretary of education, recently called for sweeping changes to the way we select and train teachers. He’s right. If we really want good schools, we need to create a critical mass of great teachers. And if we want smart, passionate people to become these great educators, we have to attract them with excellent programs and train them properly in the substance and practice of teaching.

Our best universities have, paradoxically, typically looked down their noses at education, as if it were intellectually inferior. The result is that the strongest students are often in colleges that have no interest in education, while the most inspiring professors aren’t working with students who want to teach. This means that comparatively weaker students in less intellectually rigorous programs are the ones preparing to become teachers.

So the first step is to get the best colleges to throw themselves into the fray. If education was a good enough topic for Plato, John Dewey and William James, it should be good enough for 21st-century college professors.

These new teacher programs should be selective, requiring a 3.5 undergraduate grade point average and an intensive application process. But they should also be free of charge, and admission should include a stipend for the first three years of teaching in a public school.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/opinion/02engel.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

so their jobs are not esteemed.

Schools are designed as daycare for the working class.

We need to change the way we look at education across the entire society.

I am working on my teaching credential.

...with public education. THAT is a false assumption. It is time to recognize that teachers are NOT the problem and stop scapegoating them.

In 2001, under the Bush Administration's Education Secretary, Rod Paige, teachers (unions, specifically) were called terrorist organizations. For the last eight years, NCLB has done nothing but blame public school problems on ineffective teachers (probably because they prefer vouchers). There has been almost NO recognition for eight years of the job teachers do. The general public has NO IDEA what the job entails and our leaders have worked to make that WORSE for eight years. A better start would be a HUGE and LOUD apology to the teachers of this nation who have dedicated their lives to teaching kids. Most with little support, either financial or in respect.

Then, our leaders should ask teachers what they think, and make THAT public. What a difference that would bring! Much of the public and many politicians (who rightfully want to improve public schools) have no real idea of what is wrong with them. So they try 'canned solutions'...like merit pay...most of which are the wrong thing to do. It is time for all of us to work together toward a goal we all share: Improving education for kids. I think ANY workable solution will require input and support from teachers...not just unions...teachers. In all the talk of fixing public education and schools...which I wholeheartedly support...the idea of involving teachers in this process is never brought up by anyone in a position of authority.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, go HERE: http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/2009/09/town-hall-with-teachers-join-the-discussion/ This is Secretary of Education Duncan's own website.

It required that schools be held acountable for low grade scores. Schools that fail are to be closed, converted to Charter Schools or the parents given vouchers. But all the data shows that Charter schools also fail at about the same rate as public schools. In most cases, Charter schools do not have to use union teachers, though their teachers are technically required to meet the same level of quality. Having studied the bill for a class, it seems to have been crafted to convert the public school system to a private system utilizing Charter schools and private schools and to destory the techers unions.

Seven years after NCLB was signed into law, I have heard no real comment that the bill didn't do what it was supposed to. Of course, the bill also mandate certain levels of Natioanl spending on schools and those funds have never been met.

...credential?

I started finishing my English Lit degree just before California put about 24,000 teachers out of work with no end in sight for further cuts to education.

...in this environment. I hope you are watching SDUSD closely. ;) I wish you luck. :)

I am so sick of this assumption that all it takes to improve our schools (and you need to assume they NEED improving) is better teachers.

It's a slap in the face and I am SICK of it. Threads like this shouldn't even be allowed in this forum.

Universities aren't turning up their noses at education. Just about every campus in the country has an education major. The reason why weaker students might be favoring other majors (and the author provide no such evidence) would have more to do with earning potential.




This clown needs to educate himself. Millions of dollars are poured into the continued education of teachers, broadening their experieneces, and deepening their expertise.

This author is an idiot.

Susan Engel is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the teaching program at Williams College.

It is true that universities have turned their noses DOWN at education; I was there, I saw it.

She is dead wrong. She has wrongly identified the source of the problem.

It's a shame her program at Williams sucks. It's not like that everywhere.

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Added upon edit: A quick investigation into Williams College reveals that there is no education department at all. Engel leads the Program in Teaching, but they don't offer a degree. From her limited perspective, and I can see how she might feel that education is undervalued everywhere, but it is not that way everywhere.

Teachers are one of our most important resources and should be paid accordingly.

Wanted to write to her, saying mistake, imo, to require such grade point average. My daughter is studying elem + special edu at large state univ, and she has learning differences. She's inherently a teacher, is doing very well and will be a wonder, but would not have made it if high grade point average had been required, imo.

good teacher. A teacher has to love to teach children and have the patience of a saint. A teacher also has to be more than a teacher, too. In many cases a teacher almost becomes like a surrogate parent. Many of the qualities of a good teacher are not taught in college but are inherent in the person. A good teacher is very special and not everyone can do the job.

studying it now, and likely would have had problems with demanding requirements.

to pay them more than coaches.

+ 1

The problem isn't with the universities and colleges except insofar the professors don't tell prospective teachers the truth about what really goes on in public education.

Once prospective teachers and the public know about widespread corruption and workplace abuse of teachers, nobody in his or her right mind would go into the field.

Until students vote with their feet and REJECT careers in public education, school districts will treat teachers like shit because they can.

The problem is treating people like crap once they become teachers. Whenever anyone brings up the huge attrition rate—what is it these days, 50% leaving the profession before their 5th year?—everyone always starts squawking about mentoring programs and how the old goats need to help the young kids. No one ever says, "Hey, you must be treating 'em like crap for people to be leaving the profession in droves that way. Maybe we should look into how our society views and treats its teachers."

Until someone starts looking into that, all the rest of these so-called quick fixes to education will continue to come and go, none of 'em ever working, leaving "experts" scratching their heads and wondering why.

are "leaving" not on their own but because they are pushed out by unscrupulous principals who want the save the district on the bottom line.

Note it takes five years for a teacher to become vested in public employee retirement (considered the best in the economy). "Coincidentally," many teachers are being cheated out of the right to a kangaroo hearing ("tenure") before that time.

...is out there in the news or in advertising, kids pick up on it and it makes the classroom climate more difficult.

Example: A local news station here had a campaign called 'Teach the Teachers' for a while. The result at school was kids acting out at school WORSENED, because they perceived teachers needed to be taught (ie. they weren't that smart). Things like that come up ALL the time. It makes the job that much more difficult...and it it totally unnecessary. The general public has NO IDEA what teachers are dealing with on a daily basis.

He's not qualified, not being any kind of educator.

While I don't disagree with teaching prospective teachers "well," I think this article ignores some realities.

We need many teachers. If the nation doesn't radically change the way teachers are viewed and treated, you aren't going to get enough applicants to be that selective.

Free tuition and stipend for 3 years of internship? Good idea. Groups of 7? Not a bad idea, but assuming that new teachers leave the profession because they are "bored, inept, isolated or marginalized" is a mistake. Treat teachers differently. Reform the system to give teachers more professional control, and you might retain more.

Who are those "best universities?" Without naming them, this smells of elitism to me.

I believe the public school school system in this country is just about too far gone to be saved, tragically. The trashing of teachers and subverting of tenure have worked to a spectacular degree. But as long as the colleges con young people and second career people to get into this snake pit, schools will continue to treat teachers like crap.

In my case, the negligent principal branded me as a "liar" and "dishonest," all the while committing perjury four times at my hearing and other administrators committing all sorts of criminal acts for her to cover up for her negligence. Naturally the "objective" arbitrator upheld my dismissal. So I am branded as a liar by these CROOKS, and, worse yet, I am named in a civil action brought by a parent which was filed about a month after the hearing. It is a frivolous lawsuit, but the parent's attorney can simply get hold of my personnel files and trash me publicly. So, to make a long story short, I declined to help the district's outside law firm, and because I gave the plaintiff's attorney the same letters I wrote to the district's law firm, the latter has withdrawn to represent me in the case.

I couldn't give a shit less what happens in that case and how much money the district's insurance company has to fork out on a fraudulent lawsuit. The district destroyed my career and my life, and they can go to hell.

...that they may destroy your career, but they can't destroy your life. Build a life of which they would be envious. ;) Don't permit them to hurt you ONE BIT MORE than they already have. My experience was similar...and believe me, they just aren't worth it. :hug:

I am almost 55 years old, with absolutely NO job prospects. Since I was fired, other employers can contact the district or the previous, corrupt principal, and they would badmouth me.

I am going to have to resort to the legal system, with all of its bias towards school districts, to resolve this, provided I can find an attorney willing to take my case on contingency. They RUINED me, and because of that civil action, put me in a horrible position by falsely painting me as a liar and dishonest simply because the human resources assistant superintendent wanted to get at my retirement.

...because it would have prolonged the pain. I HAD to get past it.

If you have a way, JMHO, try to find a support group...that helped me a LOT. That, and finding out I wasn't the only one experiencing this. It was SAD to know that, but it helped me understand better what it going on.

People are getting away with committing crimes that would cause people on the outside to be jailed for them, yet these people walk around like they care about kids. They don't.

I am going to be damned if those people are not going to be held accountable for their actions. The problem is it takes many, many years, as you know, to go the legal route because school districts have the unlimited amount of money to drag it out for years on end, trying to starve you into a settlement.

I am going to at least try, though. If not, I am going public. I think the media will be interested because my being a defendant in that frivolous civil action.

...way, and I completely understand your choice. My health would not have withstood that choice. I want to recommend a book...I accidentally ran into this book :) while wandering a bookstore looking for answers in the midst of my situation.Don't be put off by the title...it's called 'Dealing With Difficult Teachers,' by Todd Whitaker. He writes a set of books for principals' staff development, and this is the one I read which helped me:

http://www.amazon.com/Dealing-Difficult-Teachers-Second-Whitaker/dp/1930556454

It helped me because he offers up steps for principals to follow to get teachers to quit. That is what was done to me. What's awful is that principals are being taught to do this. That was eye-opening for me...whether my former principal read it or not. That is the direction education is going.

I will warn you, if you decide to read it, it is painful to read in your/our situation. It is anti-teacher and it defines the disrespect teachers deemed 'difficult' are subjected to...BY DESIGN. I never thought I'd see this. Never.

Good luck!

read that book and memorized it. He probably read the Blase's book, "Breaking the Silence," which is about principal mistreatment of teachers, because there were things in that book which he actually implemented.

He harassed me the bulk of the school year because I refused to violate federal law for him when he approached me, which was itself was a violation of federal civil rights law, to put all of my life skills students on alternate testing. Only two qualified; however, he wanted me to do it so the schoolwide test scores would not be pulled down. In other words, he wanted me to cheat. When I refused, he proceeded to harass me off and on the rest of the year and tried to get me to quit or transfer. He wrote me up on a petty field trip violation and pumped up his phony complaint with supposed bad language I used about him and not reading his emails; in short, he wanted me out because I wouldn't kiss his ass. I demanded to get out of there, and what does the union and his boss do? Instead of my being allowed to pick my school, they switched me with an administrator's wife who was having problems with staff at that particular school. So I was in effect being set up for a fall. The minute I screwed up, they were going to get me out. Never mind the new principal didn't implement his admonition, which she was supposed to do by Nevada law and the principle of progressive discipline. This woman, who never disciplined anybody and had been a principal for five or six years, shitcanned me over an FMLA form I submitted by mistake because I misread the three week rule. She called me a liar and dishonest in her dismissal even though my illness was never disputed and because it was bi-phasal, I missed a series of days a second time. I wasn't allowed to amend my FMLA form or submit another one to cover the absences. My illness was NEVER disputed by the school district, and they didn't ask for a second opinion, either.

She never would have fired me if she hadn't been put under extreme pressure by the human resources assistance superintendent, who has all the morals of a mafia don. He put a hit out on me, using this principal as his Fredo. When he and the district's general counsel found out the truth that not only I didn't fake my illness, but that the principal didn't do one damned thing she was supposed to do by Nevada law, they proceeded to cover up for her by committing those criminal acts.

The violations were so egregious, but the arbitrator didn't care. After all, he lives in Del Mar, California, and needs to keep up with his lifestyle, and ruling in favor of a teacher would have put a dent in it. He wouldn't be called back, of course. I was told by a prominent attorney that people almost never win arbitrations; they are merely rubber stamps for the district's wrongdoing.

...thing about the futility of arbitration. I'm hesitant to discuss details of my situation here, in a public forum, but I was basically told there was a target list and I was on it. Both the HR and Supt. were on their way out...and my 'association'...not union...said everything was due to the exiting Supt. who was pressuring principals to get people out. I now believe it was about both age (defined benefits) and student test scores.

there WAS a list, and I am sure every single teacher who had been written up was on some kind of database. I am also sure the H.R. crook knew how much retirement vesting I had. I had just received my five years vesting in February 2008, and I was canned that April. The FMLA deal was just a fake cover, as was the admonition by the previous principal, hence their need to cover up for age discrimination and the desire to cheat me out of my full retirement.

I will have only about a fourth of what I would have had had I retired at 65. The district owes me big time. That's why I have to try and go the legal route if possible.

...are expensive for districts, and for states like California. The earlier they can get you to leave, the more money they save...and (according to that book) they first pressure the ones they think will just go quietly. That was me. :(

It's totally age discrimination for $$$ saved. Why else would they push out a highly qualified teacher, former master teacher, mentor teacher and schoolwide teacher of the year (twice)? :shrug:

She's rebroadcast tonight at 10 pm CST, if anyone's interested in hearing her and the callers:

http://www.wpr.org/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?Code=dun

Interesting. Though since I got a 3.3 in undergrad, under that system I would not be able to teach. A comprehensive system where an admissions alliance (like the LSAC but for colleges of education) observes an applicant in field trials would be better than a 3.5 GPA cutoff - otherwise you could have potentially great teachers locked out of the profession. Not to mention the fact that there is the CSET for demonstrating subject matter competency (at least in CA and OR) - which at least for mathematics is quite difficult and requires extensive knowledge of upper college-level post differential equations material. Furthermore, GPAs mean different things depending on what your major was. I majored in math at UC Davis - to get a 3.3 in that program requires very solid mathematical ability and understanding - an understanding that for me was sufficient to pass all three subtests of the CSET-Mathematics in one go.

I agree with the general gist of the article though. Especially the part about where you continue to learn the subject you want to teach. I would love to take more upper division math courses if I had the time. In fact, I plan to begin work on either my masters or doctorate a few years after I begin teaching. Also, no argument from me on the free tuition and stipend argument. :)

Anyway, see you at Metro on Nov 30.