Posted on 07/14/2018 12:46:06 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Detroit recruiters can hire online teacher training graduates to help fill about 200 classroom vacancies this fall.
Education reporter Koby Levin follows up on her Chalkbeat Detroit preview of the desperation move:
Detroit’s main district is proceeding with a plan to hire teachers who are certified but have received no training in the classroom — adding an element of controversy to efforts to fill hundreds of teacher vacancies by the end of summer.
The board of education on Tuesday approved a hiring plan proposed by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, signaling that the district will lean partly on programs that offer so-called interim teaching certificates.
The move drew blowback from board members and parents, who argued that Detroit children deserve teachers who have been trained in the classroom.
"I don't think the alternative route teachers are nearly as prepared as the traditional route," LaMar Lemmons, a school board member, told Chalkbeat. “It will increase the academic disparity, as you have less qualified and less experienced teachers."
Levin also quotes parent Cynthia Jackson, commenting on Chalkbeat's Facebook page:
"So your first day of teaching will be your first day ever in front of children? You don't think that’s going to be a problem?"
Original article, Tuesday:
A district with about 200 teacher vacancies and too few applicants can't be picky, Detroit's superintendent indicates. The pool of talent, if that's the right word, includes trainees who've never taught a class.
Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Koby Levin sketches the stark reality:
Faced with a daunting shortage of certified teachers, leaders of Detroit’s main district say they may have no choice but to hire educators with minimal classroom training, including some who have been certified by a for-profit online teachers college. . . .
On Tuesday, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti will present a wide-ranging hiring plan to the Detroit school board, sending a message that the district must consider all its options. The plan instructs staff to look high and low for new hires, including from alternate certification programs like Teachers of Tomorrow, an online program that was approved to certify teachers by the state Legislature last year.
Here's what the second-year superintendent tells the local education news site:
"We prefer to hire teachers who have participated in traditional certification programs. However, in the short term, we need certified teachers to fill vacancies and to reduce class size so we will consider hiring teachers from alternative programs. They are certified."
[Update: Chrystal Wilson, the Detroit district's assistant superintendent of communications and marketing, says in an email response to this article:
"I'd like to express how careless you are with your reporting that you would take Chalkbeat’s story and create a misleading headline. . . . The truth of the matter is we have 2,800 certified teachers and we are looking to fill approximately 200 teaching positions with certified teachers."]
Teachers of Tomorrow – a two-year-old firm based in Houston – says it "widens the funnel of qualified candidates for school districts, helping principals and HR professionals fill all open teaching positions on an efficient and consistent basis."
It also pledges to "actively recruit a candidate pool that more closely matches the demographics of student populations." As it happens, all eight management team leaders pictured on its company overview page are white.
♦ Company response: A statement from the firm is at the end of this post.
A graphic on that same page says "87% of principals surveyed in 2016 felt our candidates were prepared for their first year." That data point, an accompanying chart shows, includes principals who felt the trainees were "prepared in most areas" (31%) or "prepared in few areas" (11%).
Enrolees training to apply for Michigan jobs need a bachelor’s degree with at least a 3.0 GPA and must pass a test in the content area they plan to teach. They must watch 30 hours of classroom teaching, either online or in person. The state also requires a federal background check and certification to perform emergency CPR.
Graduates of the Texas-based distance learning business get an interim teaching certificate. After three years in classrooms, more training and a good review from their principal, they become fully certified by Michigan.
Education unions criticize such programs as profit-oriented teacher mills that shortchange pupils. A Michigan Education Association spokesman, David Crim, dubs it "pseudo-certification." He told Jennifer Chambers of The Detroit News last year:
"Reducing the qualifications to become a certified teacher is yet another attempt to deprofessionalize the teaching profession and is certainly not in the best interests of Michigan students or parents."
Detroit has no formal agreement with Teachers of Tomorrow, though Vitti urges the city's 11-member Board of Education to let it be part of a solution to "the challenges of supply and demand" that his district confronts. Levin posts:
Entering the summer with more than 200 teacher vacancies is nothing new for the district. Early in his first year on the job, Vitti promised to fill the gap, but the effort fell far short. This year, he is insisting once again that there will be a certified teacher in every classroom by summer’s end.
While his decision to raise salaries for veteran teachers is expected to fill some of its more than 200 vacant teaching positions by luring teachers from other districts, that won’t be enough to fill every classroom.
Teachers of Tomorrow response
A company executive emails Tuesday afternoon:
I read your article regarding the teacher shortage in Detroit, and I found a few inaccurate statements that I'd like your help correcting. 1. "The pool of talent, if that's the right word, includes trainees who've never taught a class." Have you met these people that you can disparage them as having no talent? Do you know their backgrounds? These are some amazing people who now want to dedicate their lives to teaching in Detroit Public Schools and your first line seeks to insult them? 2. "Teachers of Tomorrow – a two-year-old firm based in Houston . . ." Teachers of Tomorrow was founded in 2005 as Texas Teachers and we have been running successfully ever since. In fact, we've certified more than 45,000 teachers in many high-need areas, and 70% of our teachers are still teaching 5 years after they started – well ahead of the national average for retention. 3. "As it happens, all eight management team leaders pictured on its company overview page are white." alf of our leadership team is composed of women and one of our top executives is Hispanic. But the more important statistic is that 46% of our candidates are diverse, compared to over 80% white enrolled at four-year Michigan educator preparation programs. Is it more important for the teachers to be diverse or the staff?
I would hope that we can agree on the importance of being unbiased and accurate and you would correct the article. . . . Thank you for your cooperation.
All the best, Dave Saba Chief Development Officer
Figures.....and we’re not talking math
You can be a substitute teacher in many states with just a high school diploma.
Time to privatize public ed.
NYC for one...
I don’t see the problem here. You could have military guys retiring who have a degree that is totally unrelated to the education field....but they could easily fit into this situation that they are designing.
I looked it up...for Detroit (last year)....starting salary for a rookie teacher is $35,000 a year. In three years, you’d be at roughly $38,000. In ten years, maybe around $45,000. Toss in some pension deal, and it might be attractive to some folks.
But the negative to this is teacher-burnout which they tend to say around the 6th year....it’s near 17-percent of teachers.
Online schools.
Alternative path to teaching is not a new concept and Teachers of Tomorrow aren’t the only kids on the playground. Most states have clear requirements to obtain a teaching certificate through an alternative pathway. First, a person needs to have at least a bachelor degree and a certain CPGA (cumulative grade point average). Second, the prospective teacher candidate must pass the same exams as a regular teacher. Some states this means passing the Praxis 2 exam. If they wanted to teach elementary education then the corresponding Praxis 2 exam must be taken and passed. The very same test someone went through four years of college in an education program would have to pass. Some states have a pedagogy exam in addition to the Content exam. A pedagogy exam again is the same exam covering teaching methods as someone who did four years in college as an education major. Lastly, students coming out of college in an education major have roughly less than 1 month in front of a classroom as the primary teacher. They might have 6 months as a student teacher but this is not what most think. At least with Teachers of Tomorrow there is a mentor with the teacher the entire first year teaching.
Lastly, people used to think the internet was a fantasy land playground. People used to think dating someone online was only for the desparate and to be disparaged. Now people openly join sites like Match.com and eHarmony or some other dating site. Those who have never taken an online course do not realize the rigors involved in taking such a course. These people fall into the first category. I firmly believe these people also see working at home as a godsend. The problem with this is that going to a brick and mortar school is filled with structure and is way more easier to form a routine. However, a online class requires you to have discipline to be resourceful and self motivated. It is no wonder when the world is trying to move into a more mobile and technical world there are bastions of heavy resistance like those who see online degrees as weaker than their counterparts. For those who see the only way to get an education is to go to class, is stuck and will always be stuck in the time before computers. Embrace change because change is imminent. I would hire a person who graduated from a reputable online school over someone who went to a brick and mortar school because they have drive, motivation and self reliance. Most colleges are beginning to go to a blended format.
I think it is likely that the staff of the traditional brick and mortar colleges are looking to protect their turf. It can’t be easy to get teachers into the classroom in Detroit. It seems they are happier seeing the positions go unfilled than to let the online colleges get a nose under the tent.
QFT: “The problem with this is that going to a brick and mortar school is filled with structure and is way more easier to form a routine. However, a online class requires you to have discipline to be resourceful and self motivated.”
Ditto - getting some personal insight to that now with an online Master’s degree program from Western Governors University, a fully accredited institution I would add.
If you're going to allow teachers that only attended online school, why not vid qualified teachers and end the babysitting part of K-12 education. School systems combined across the state of Michigan, own land. Most of it in pretty good locations. Land in a booming economy is worth money. Downsize to the administration buildings only and shoot the vids from there. In a few years, the entire Country will want to homeschool like Michigan.
I agree, but government schools are the modern-day version of the Works Progress Administration. Tough to root out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
They should get combat pay.
at least they are not surgeons!! But i just saw a commercial for online nursing school. How does that work?
This support my thoughts that education will inevitably move online.
There is no reason online education cannot be a good education. It may be necessary to suppliment it with some in person courses.
The reason is simple: online education is extremely efficient. You do not need super expensive brick and mortar schools.
School buildings are some of the most expensive per square foot structures in the United States.
Another advantage is that if moves education away from being a state mandated indoctrination process.
From the wiki page; "It was liquidated on June 30, 1943, as a result of low unemployment due to the worker shortage of World War II. The WPA had provided millions of Americans with jobs for eight years"
It can be done because it has been done. Those who teach, but hate the pay, can go find the pay they seek. Those who push the brooms that clean the schools, can push brooms for private businesses.
The educational cabal is a joke on its own and refuses anything outside its orthodoxy.
My daughter has over ten years of library and bookseller experience, all with children.
She’d like to be a librarian but didn’t want to get the Masters of Library Science, whatever that is degree.
She finally gave up and is starting her classes soon. She has about 70% of the credits needed for a bachelors degree. She found an online school that will look at her varied credits and customize a bachelors degree. The masters programs don’t care what the bachelors is in, as long as you have one.
The online school is only $3500 per year.
The course work is on line.
Then there are rotations at local hospitals for the hands on practical part.
i feel better now!
Could go either way - might be useful that they weren’t as indoctrinated by contact with campus groups....
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