Alternative Teacher Certification Issues
Why are Schools Hiring Non-Credentialed Teachers?
Because many school districts across the United States have been experiencing severe teacher shortages [the U.S. Department of Education projects that up to 2.7 million new teachers will be needed by 2013 (Shepherd, et al., 2003)], many districts have turned to unqualified, non-certified college graduates, to fill in for the dearth of fully-credentialed teachers. This policy puts people with college degrees into jam-packed classrooms, but are they really teachers? Of course not. And, are they able to teach writing, reading, math, science - and give bona fide tests - with the same degree of competence as teachers who have gone through the entire training period and have received their credentials? Certainly not, in most cases, this paper shows.
Surely, it is safe to say that schools that hire non-credentialed individuals and call them "teachers" in order to put warm bodies in the classrooms contribute - wittingly or unwittingly - to the "dumbing down" of America.
The Literature on Alternative Teacher Certification Programs
The issue of schools hiring non-credentialed college graduates as "teachers" is a very red-hot and contentious one.
For example, David G. Imig, who is president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), who is against non-credentialed instructors in the classroom, was verbally attacked last year by the group that is in support of "alternative teacher licensing," the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE). According to the American School Board Journal (ASBJ) (August, 2003), Imig is alleged by the ABCTE of "theft" - that is, stealing a teacher certification test materials that ABCTE was in the process developing, and then "distributing [the test] to colleagues in an attempt to discredit the exam."
But, the question of whether non-credentialed teachers are truly "qualified" is the real issue, not paranoia and pranks....
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15(1), 51-64. Beaudin, B.Q. (1995). Former teachers who return to public schools: Characteristics of those who return to the classroom. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 17(1): 462-475. Guarino, C., SantibaNez, L., Daley, G., & Brewer, D. (2004) a review of the research material on teacher recruitment and retention, Santa Monica, CA: Rand Publishers Nakai, D. & Turley, S. (2003). Going the alternate route: Perceptions from non-credentialed teachers. Education,
Research studies and the insights of accomplished teachers who have helped turn around struggling schools confirm that any effort to recruit and retain accomplished teachers for hard-to-staff schools must be part of a comprehensive plan -- not a separate or stand-alone strategy. Berry 290) The foundational point that Berry makes in this article, stresses that the need for recruitment and retention principles that stress a better overall working environment is key
Teacher Education in Nigeria: A Comparison with the United States There is no nation that can grow beyond the quality of its education (Lawal, 2003). A nation can only develop meaningfully and attain professionalism through a good teacher education program, which begins with the organization of teacher education and the resolving of its problems. The paper concerns itself with teacher education in Nigeria, comparing this nation's program with that of the
There are some papers that are to be released and referred to by her in the above article. In the first of those papers, the belief is that the present result of the aptitude tests of the teachers today is the same as was the case a generation earlier, but the best among them are not likely to become teachers. In the second paper, the result shows that the
Since smaller class size has been shown to positively affect student learning, at least in the early grades, one might also infer that this affects teachers' work positively. Further, researchers have found a positive relationship between collective bargaining and increased preparation time for teachers, which many educators believe is essential for good teaching and collaborative work among colleagues within a school. Collective Bargaining, Unions and Teacher/Educational Quality In a March 1999
"Many of our current challenges are unprecedented," the president explained. "There are no standard remedies, or go-to fixes this time around. That is why we are going to need your help. We'll need young people like you to step up. We need your daring and your enthusiasm and your energy." I will continue to offer my enthusiasm and my energy -- and hopefully I will be daring enough to
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