[oldenuff2no]

This isn't about the students, or their education. This is about holding teachers accountable for their performance, or lack of.
My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test. This is the test that Ca uses to make sure that all of their new teachers are, "Highly Qualified." This test is a monster with an extremely high failure rate. If you were awarded your teaching credentials after 2002, you must take and pass this test to get a job, or to keep your job.
OK, that's fine.
I strongly suggest that every teacher in this state should have to take and pass this test to continue teaching!!!!!
The problem is that we would have very few teachers left to teach, most would never be able to pass this test!!!
This is a fact based on the pass failure rate of those students who have just finished 6 years of college and are a lot closer to geometry and advanced algebra than those who haven seen a college text book in 10 or 15 years.
These teachers are running scared. They have failed to bring the level of student knowledge up to standards and are now scared shitless that they might be tested to see where their level of knowledge might be.
If these teachers were so worried about the students then they would have figured out a way to teach them what they need to know.
There are many adds out in the Ca media claiming that the schools were given less money for education this year than last. It sounds good, but it is a bold faced lie.
More money was spent on education this year than last year.
If the teachers union can't manage to tell the truth about simple well documented facts, what good are they?

[Serenissima Venezia]

"My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test. "This is the test that Ca uses to make sure that all of their new teachers are, "Highly Qualified." This test is a monster with an extremely high failure rate."

Your wife will do just fine - it's actually a very easy test. I think it's designed for education majors - who have one of the lowest SAT scores of any major! That's why there's a high failure rate, I imagine. The test has been dumbed down over the years to match our schools (I took it several years ago and studied with a book printed in the early '80's - the test I took wasn't even close in the difficulty level.)

And I heartily agree that all teachers should have to be retested regularly - maybe not the CSET, which I read was at a 10th or 11th grade level, but the subject competency tests for sure!

And as far as the $500 dues teachers pay the union - soon to be $560 - anyone can get the liability insurance from another source for about $100/year. So I have to assume that the extra profit the union gets goes into political contributions and/or someone's pocket!

[bigsigh]

Your wife can have the union deduct that portion of her dues that go toward union political activity. They won't tell her that, but it's federal law, since I think the Beck decision. My wife did that with the correctional officer's union in Cal.

[ReagansShinyHair]

My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test.

I passed all required tests to get my CA teaching credential in 2002. I found them all to be laughably easy. The high failure rate is a result of the low intelligence level of the average wannabee-teacher.

I'm now pursuing a law degree at night, and going from one hated profession into another.