Certification

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010

Ever since George Bush II promoted and passed "No Child Left Behind", a new catchy phrase for the classic Elementary and Secondary Education Act first passed under LBJ, school districts must on an annual basis show that the teachers they hire are "Highly Qualified." I am proud that a Texan promoted the first act, and am embarrassed that another Texan defamed that act, but clearly Texas plays a role in national political decision making. I digress. My intent here is to express some outrage about how teachers become HQ and how Texas addresses the whole notion of certification.

The problem is a certificate is a license to teach and is in no way a guarantee that the holder of the license is likely to be successful, much less highly qualified. Texas divides certificates both by grade level and subject. There is a "Generalist" certificate for grades PreK to 4, grades 4-8, and another for PreK to 6. Each of these generalists can teach any subject matter within the grade range. Almost all elementary teachers are generalists, and the vast majority of junior high or middle school teachers are generalists.

However, if you want to get certified to teach a specific subject in the secondary schools, you have to get either a 4-8 or an 8-12 subject specific certificate. To get such a certificate, you have to first major in the subject you want to teach, then take the education courses at the end to become a teacher.

Say what? Yes, you heard that correctly. Let's say you want to be a high school math teacher. OK, you will pursue the 8-12 Math certificate which will qualify you to teach any of the variety of math courses from 8th grade math, to Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, Calculus, etc. First, you must complete a major in mathematics then take education courses and student teach. In other words, it is longer and harder to become a high school math teacher than to simply graduate with a degree in math. Students pursuing a degree in math sit side-by-side with the folks who want to teach math until the end of the 4th year of college when all the math majors graduate and get good paying jobs. Those pursuing a teaching career must spend another year in college taking education courses.

There are several really ridiculous components to this requirement. First, we have a shortage of high school math teachers. Why make it so difficult to become one and increase the shortage? Secondly, none of the math courses taught at the collegiate level is even taught at the high school level. If I am a good math student in high school and enter college, get accepted to the math department, most likely my very first course will be college level calculus. From there I take ever more challenging math classes until I complete my math major. Then I head over to the education department to take education courses and student teach. Of course my math classmates have all graduated, and I'm still paying tuition. When I'm through and get hired, which I will, to teach high school math, I will be probably be asked to teach Algebra I, which I have not had since I was in 8th or 9th grade. But, I am a Highly Qualified Math teacher. You want to really get crazy? If I decide I would really like to teach 6th grade math, I am not qualified or certified because my certificate only covers grades 8-12. I have to take a test or go back to school to teach a math class below 8th grade. This, of course, is totally nuts.

Science is even worse. You can get a certificate to teach biology grades 8-12, or chemistry grades 8-12, or physics grades 8-12, but unlike math, you must get an additional certificate if you want to teach all the sciences grades 8-12. Just like math, even if you get certified to teach all sciences grades 8-12, you must go back and get another certificate to teach 5th grade science. Give me a break! Poppycock, Hogwash and Balderdash! This is lunacy! It is the result of non-educator legislators and bureaucrats making the certification rules for professional educators. In short, they have ensured for generations to come that there will be a shortage of high school teachers, and none of those teachers with subject matter expertise well beyond what they are teaching, will ever teach in the lower grades.

Now to the elementary certificates. Universities are cranking out elementary generalist certificates, especially the PreK-4, like GM cranked out Pontiacs. Why? University departments get funded based on the number of students who major in their department, a.k.a., college. If you want to be a high school teacher, you have to major in the subject you want to teach so the Education department gets nothing for you. But, if the profs in the Education department can talk you into to becoming an elementary teacher, then the Department of Ed gets funding for you! Plus, as a candidate for an elementary certificate, you are an Education Major and take a whole bunch of courses in child development, etc., that are only offered in the Ed. Department and that keeps all those education profs employed. Sadly, it is possible to get an elementary generalist certificate that qualifies you to teach any subject in the grade level, and never have to take any math or any science at all. So, you can focus on language arts, a.k.a. reading, and then get hired by a school district to teach 3rd grade math with no background at all. From my experience, most elementary teachers are really reading teachers, and most want to teach kindergarten to 2nd grade because the state does not administer the dreadful standardized tests for accountability until 3rd grade. As hard as it is to find a high school math or science teacher, people are standing in line waiting to teach in the early elementary grades with no deep background in any subject. Even more amazing, a secondary teacher certified in a specific subject is not "Highly Qualified" to teach that subject at elementary school! Again I say poppycock and balderdash.

How do we fix this? Simple. Eliminate the requirement to complete a major in a given subject to teach that subject at high school. Rather, require the candidate to take the subjects in college they will teach in high school and then take education courses on the methodology to teach the subject. Allow those folks who are certified to teach Calculus the ability to also teach 1st grade math. And, require all elementary candidates to complete a basic program in all the core subjects as well as methodology to teach all the core subjects. Then the certificates will be better balanced in terms of required course work, the Education Department will not be loading up on elementary grads, elementary teachers will be better prepared to teach whatever they are assigned to teach, secondary certified teachers will have a wider array of options, and the glut of elementary teachers and the shortage of secondary teachers will level out.

That's just the certification side. The real question is how do we measure Highly Qualified? I addressed that already in "What's Wrong with Teaching?"

POSTED BY EILEEN GOOD AT 5:29 PM

LABELS: PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2 COMMENTS:



Anonymous said...

Do "candidates in training" receive adaquate and appropriate student teaching? It appears to be a very short amount of time for the expectations. What about alternative certification? What makes an educator "professional"?

JULY 8, 2010 8:42 AM



Eileen Good said...

Thanks for the comment! The adequacy and appropriateness of the student teaching experience is very dependent on the quality of the supervising teacher and the setting. In the best of cases it can be great. More often, supervising teachers view student teachers as their aides and then it can be pretty worthless. And yes, the time alloted to student teaching is very short. A paid internship makes a lot more sense. Alternative certified folks pay an agency for their training while they are employed as a teacher. They literally get on-the-job training, but do not have the constant presence of a supervising teacher. In some cases that works out fine, which is why more and more secondary folks are alternative certified. Please read "What's Wrong with Teaching" post to see my definition of a professional teacher.