Posted on 01/15/2005 7:15:35 PM PST by Coleus
Teachers who fail
A survey of certification-test scores yields alarming results 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.
But it is the neediest of children who most often get the least-prepared teachers.
Students in Florida's rural outposts and inner cities, those from housing projects and migrant camps, and those from black and Latino families were far more likely to have a teacher who struggled.
An analysis of the test scores of nearly 100,000 teachers found that children from Florida's poor neighborhoods were 44 percent more likely than their wealthier peers to have a teacher who failed the certification tests.
The findings raise questions about Florida's education reforms, which require students to pass standardized tests to advance, yet allow teachers to fail exams dozens of times and still stand at the front of a classroom.
And they highlight challenges that have dogged public schools across the country for years: How to attract more of the nation's top minds into a profession where salaries are low, and how to steer those teachers into inner-city and rural neighborhoods where children need the most help.
A state education official said Friday a recent study confirms that student learning suffers under teachers who repeatedly fail the tests.
The Department of Education study, the first of its kind, found that students learn less under teachers who had failed more than three times, said DOE spokesman MacKay Jimeson.
Nine percent of teachers failed portions of the tests at least four times, according to the Herald-Tribune study.
The state report, which wasn't released Friday, led DOE officials to reverse statements they had made last spring. The officials said then that they hadn't reviewed teacher scores because the tests have no bearing
2. Does certification guarantee anything? Many elite private and boarding schools don't have state-licensed teachers, years ago, many nuns teaching in Catholic Schools didn't have college educations and we turned out fine.
What? Public school teachers who fail tests? Hypocrisy I tell you! I demand we need to make these tests easier.
/sarcasm
Why is this a surprise. The teachers today are educated by the same failed education system that is used to teach our children.
Our teacher colleges are the pits. Saw in the news yesterday that we are "importing" teachers from other countries such as India & Pakistan. Whatever it takes is okay with me. I know of some real bozos who are teaching kids today and it makes me cringe....
Sadly, today's schools of education and journalism are the equivalent of what we used to snicker about 30 years ago when someone said they were a P.E. major.
Having said that, I would much rather have a teacher who passed a diffcult certification exam with a high score, and had no formal education, than one who had a Master's degree and failed the exam.
Headline writer/editor fail English.
1. A student who rereads a paragraph is demonstrating which of the following skills?
A. paraphrasing.
B. using context clues.
C. confirming.
D. predicting.
2. Mrs. Brown has a culturally diverse group of students. Which consideration is most important when selecting literature for shared reading experiences for these students?
A. assessing student reading levels.
B. providing opportunities for exposure to literature that reflects the students' cultures.
C. designing reading activities and language materials in multiple languages.
D. providing many opportunities for oral reading to improve the students' English.
3. The largest single item in the budgets of most state and local governments combined is
A. administration.
B. defense.
C. public welfare.
D. education.
4. For a student to understand how a witness experienced a historical event, the best resource would be a(an)
A. textbook passage.
B. artifact.
C. primary source.
D. encyclopedia.
5. Which of the following body systems provides body structure and internal organ protection?
A. endocrine.
B. skeletal.
C. muscular.
D. nervous.
6. The most important consideration when creating a developmentally appropriate physical education lesson plan is
A. equipment management.
B. safe and secure environment.
C. activity preferences of students.
D. availability and location of facilities.
7. The parts of the atom located outside the nucleus of the atom are the
A. electrons.
B. quarks.
C. neutrons.
D. protons.
8. Identify the system by which a paper document is converted into electronic form and transmitted to another site.
A. word processor.
B. electronic mail.
C. Internet.
D. facsimile.
9. Select the most appropriate unit for measuring the length of a new pencil.
A. millimeters.
B. centimeters.
C. meters.
D. kilometers.
10. Choose the most appropriate word to complete the sentence.
Although down by 21 points at halftime, the football team ______ and won by a field goal.
A. intervened.
B. persisted.
C. relented.
Their unions a HUGE aside for the moment, let me ask this: why are we continuing to allow school districts -- with their vastly different funding resources, curricula philosophies, underpaid or no-paid elected officials, and so forth -- rather than develop a system much like is provided in other government agencies? In other words, why are teachers employees of the individual, wide-ranging school districts, rather than say, of a state government? Why is there not better oversight, personnel assignment and so forth, so that this inequity cannot exist?
There is much that is broken, but that a child in District A is afforded a public financed education that is inferior to child in District B, well, is this fair? Is it acceptable to treat citizens inequitably?
The students, the taxpayers who fund the education system, the businesses that rely on its graduates for its labor resources, and our society itself, do we not deserve better than the status quo?
Are you serious?
Some of those didn't strike me as being that easy. Also at least a couple depended on one's opinion.
Are you serious? >>
About what?
Agreed. Most are dumbed down liberal koolaid drinkers.
Headline should have been, "Newpaper editor cannot speak english at 3rd grade level."
I'm in Ireland, but I will say one thing...being educated by the nuns had it's drawbacks, but those women KNEW their stuff.
A friend of mine is a University graduate with a double major Music and Maths - and a H.Dip in Education. So he's a qualified secondary school/high school teacher.
However, he only does relief work (he's very busy as with gigging as a pianist, has a choir, etc) in schools - but does some relief work in schools. He particularly fills in for teachers on maternity leave. But, it's not always a music and maths teacher that's out. So he can find himself teaching music and perhaps English.
NO offence to my friend, who is a great guy. But he has terrible English. Can't spell for nuts. Uses badly constructed sentences. And yet, he'd be employed to teach English lit. at exam grade for High School.
When he told me this (and he admits that while he's a good teacher - his knowledge of ALL subjects is limited), I lost faith in the education system. And Ireland's education system is pretty good.
But at least when the nuns were teaching us Latin, Science, Maths, English, French etc. you were SURE that they (tough taskmasters that they were) were teaching you.
That student teachers are not required to be proficient in the subjects they teach only in the mechanics of the act of teaching?
You got me on that one.
The headline on the actual news site is different and grammatically correct.
So apparently this headline was supplied by the Freeper posting the article. I'm sure it's just a typo....
importing" teachers from other countries such as India & Pakistan.
Yes if they can't indoctrinate our American youth with home grown commi-liberalism by hook or crook shove
anti-christian islamo muslimumbo jumbo down their throats.
I see many preparing teachers in the college where I work spending most of their time taking learning how to teach classes and struggling to get through even the most rudimentary science classes. These graduates will in all likelihood be teaching our kids science.
No wonder our nation lags behind in education.
But at least when the nuns were teaching us Latin, Science, Maths, English, French etc. you were SURE that they (tough taskmasters that they were) were teaching you. >>
They drilled it into you using the rote method. It's too bad many American Teachers don't use that teaching arithmetic any more.
I see. Yes, of course, a typo.
Oddly enough, I'll take my chances with the imported brainiac teachers over the homegrown variety. It's a fact that they value education, and I mean subject matter (math & science especially).
I know a brother of the Christian Brothers catholic religious order with 3 Ph.D's from Fordham U. who can not teach in a public school.
I thought about teaching high school but discovered it would take two years to get certified. Just not worth the trouble.
You miss the point of teacher certification. By the time you are certified, your opinion has been fixed by the instructors in your "educational" courses.
You are correct. I suspect some of the questions are there to make sure your opinion is the same as the education establishment.
Right. Anytime you have to deal with the education system (from the inside) you have to put on your "PC" hat or they will think you are not "one of them".
Students in Florida's rural outposts and inner cities, those from housing projects and migrant camps, and those from black and Latino families were far more likely to have a teacher who struggled.
That is a true statement. But they don't tell you why. These schools are so bad that they can't get good teachers. The teachers leave just as soon as they can. Clean up the schools and put discipline back in and then the teachers that know what they are doing will come back.
If a major is listed with the certificate it means a certain number of courses were taken in that major. 12 units of college math for a math minor, and 16 units for a science major. (In my case -- CA school certificate)
As far as basic skills tests, they are being implemented to weed out teachers who got in when the district needed warm bodies. Frequently a foreign born teacher has weak language skills and fails the test. Many teachers got through math by guess and by gosh, and really need more math before they be allowed to teach it.
Without good skills, a teacher had a big chance of creating a "turn off experience" for a student. The kid thinks "Gee, I have to teach myself this stuff, the teacher does not know it, or is unable to address my questions, this stuff can't be very important or I would not be led by someone who does not know what they are doing."
There are plenty of great teachers who don't pass the test for one reason or another, but these basic tests are not that hard, and most districts allow unlimited retakes. So the teacher who wants to keep the job will find a way to learn the material necessary to pass.
As for the psyc stuff in the teacher credential, most of it is a waste. Teacher certification also covers things like legal liability and how to avoid being sued. Good things IMO for a teacher to know these days.
Does this really surprise anyone?
Tja. Classic Patton mistake.
Gonna love this one. First too much money is spent bussing students all over the countryside not on teachers and facilities. Students spend literally hours each day riding and at times making a 12 hour school day down to and including first grade resulting in exhausted students with little quality time for homework.
Teachers with special considerations were pushed thru collage to meet quotas and turned loose on an educational system so desperate it fill positions that they didn't care who they got or how good they were as long as the paperwork was acceptable.
It inconceivable to me that persons who can't pass a simple test in their teaching subject are allowed to continue teaching, worse even after repeated failures they're still there.
You wouldn't hire a limo driver that can't pass a driving test, a carpenter that can't hit a nail, a deep sea diver that can't swim. they can't teach either but hire them anyway.
We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.
The short answer is "Local Control". It is assumed that those who live in a community will actually care more about the kids in their community than some bureaucrat in an office far, far away.
I have lived in communities in both extremes. There are some communities who demand the schools be given the best of everything, then there are some communities that see schools as a necessary evil.
However, in my very limited teaching experience (several years as a substitute teacher and one year of teaching full-time K-12), I've rarely seen a student fail who had parents that were interested in his education. In almost every case, when I had a student who was uninterested in getting an education (and who was unwilling to put in the effort to get an education), I found a parent who wasn't interested in their child getting an education.
I was raised in a farming community in West Texas. The schools were horrendous! As mentioned by a previous poster, we had several teachers who did not know the subject matter and we (the students) had to teach ourselves. The only reason I got a decent education is because of my mother.
Now, take a look at the statistics. The worst schools are frequently the best funded schools. DC pays over $11,000 per student per year. Yet, they are consistently ranked as the worst schools in the nation.
While looking for that statistic, I came across this article in which Kentucky's 20% increase in per-pupil spending is analyzed. The net result was that more money did not result in better schools. "In fact, for students evaluated using the federal National Assessment of Education Progress reading test, scores for Kentucky students declined."
My Mom and I were discussing this tonight. If we want our schools to improve, we need to get good teachers into the schools and, IMNSHO most importantly, give the parents an incentive to be certain their student behaves and works towards getting the best education he is capable of obtaining.
Again, IMNSHO, the first step is to eliminate compulsory education. If a parent wants his kid to go through life ignorant, then they should have that right. It's not "fair" to the kid, but neither is it fair for a bored kid to ruin the education of those who want to learn.
Second, expel the little brats who will not obey their instructor. If the parents want someone to look after their kids for eight or ten hours per day, put the onus on the parents to make their child behave. If the parent won't motivate their spawn, then dump the kid back on the parent.
Third, vouchers, and vouchers. That's two types of vouchers. A) Vouchers for parents to help send their child to whatever school they choose and B) vouchers for the taxpayer to send the tax money the state mandates they spend on education to any educational institution (public, private, primary, secondary, whatever). Do not lock any person (user or payer) into one school district just because of geography.
That's my 2¢.
You're being very insensitive here 328i!! Give them a raise. That'll help. More money usually fixes things. And no doubt, it's not the teachers, it's the students. It's also the test taking procedures. It's in Florida and they must have those little chads to punch out for their answers. Expect recount lawsuits any day now.
H-O-M-E-S-C-H-O-O-L!!!
I see many preparing teachers in the college where I work spending most of their time taking learning how to teach classes and struggling to get through even the most rudimentary science classes. These graduates will in all likelihood be teaching our kids science.
No wonder our nation lags behind in education.
It really is no wonder!
I agree with you on the certificate. As well, I'm more and more drawing the conclusion that college degrees are getting more and more worthless unless they're very specialized. I own several businesses and I'm tellin' ya, I'd rather have someone who's bright, filled with common sense, and street smart and eager to learn than a recent college grad in liberal arts for just about anything that I do.
My advice to anyone planning on going to college, get a techical degree in engineering or some form of science or math, a 2-year degree. Then go get a business or specialized degree if you desire to enter a certain field actually requiring a specialized education and training.
Most of the non-business crap I learned in college as part of my curriculum I don't even remember what we studied let alone does it have zero value to me. Nada! Waste of my time and money. All the business stuff can be learned via seminars or by taking 8-12 credit hours a semester for three or four semesters. They can learn to read and write in H.S. and develop it on their own after that which I did.
They also need to start making entrepreneurial coursework part of H.S. and Gen Ed curriculums. Naturally that doesn't fit into their mold of self-servingism however. LOL
I agree on the subject of entrepreneurial coursework. In fact, I am thinking that unemployment can better be sen as an entrepreneurial deficit than just a lack of jobs.
These questions would seem to be easily answered by most 6th to 8th grade students, with the exception of #2. My answer would be A, but I would love to know what the "correct" answer is according to the NEA.
Page 2 of the article cited says, as an apparent excuse, that many teachers don't know their scores in these tests. I'm sure, however, that they know if they've failed several times. I've seen too many teachers and would be saviors of our children through the years that are not teachers and not leaders. They have good intentions and no talent at the vocation but are led to believe that they can(and most times do)hang on to their dream by following the NEA party line, and Darwin help them if they cause waves.
Agree completely.
My son was doing terrible at his last school and the observation I made of his teacher was she managed her class in this way:
The results? Dramatically increased reading and comprehension ability, better math, dramatic improvement in handwriting. Best and most importantly, our child is more confident, happier about school, and WANTS to do well in school.
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