Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.
~Helen Caldicott, Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate.
Students need professional teachers with subject degrees if they’re to graduate and gain acceptance to universities or enter the workforce capable of a trade. With teachers leaving due to poor treatment, who’s teaching America’s students?
There has been a concerted effort to push teachers out for years, to end teachers unions, decrease pay, let anyone teach, and replace teachers with screens.
Here are some of what students may face.
Chromebooks
Cyber schools like Rocketship get state funding, despite concerns about how they are run and poor results. Students in public schools may face computer screens with programs like iReady and Amplify for most of their learning, despite a lack of positive solid longitudinal studies.
Some parents homeschool and choose Connections Academy, operated by Pearson Online & Blended Learning K-12. Or they might resort to Stride K12, previously K12 Inc. then K12. Despite poor records, these online programs continue to be state-funded, with money that should go to actual public schools.
In 2018, during the Trump administration, the United States Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement gave Waterford UpStart, a program promising kindergarten readiness, a grant of $14.2 million to launch pilot programs in various states. How many school districts today purchase this online program to sit preschoolers and kindergartners in front of computer screens at home and school?
Online schooling is about student data. Who’s profiting from children’s online information? How are students tracked? As teachers leave, watch more unproven technology take over.
Horizons National
Are nonprofits replacing teachers?
Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona and Dr. Jill Biden have recently cheered Horizons National, which recruits workers from AmeriCorps VISTA, supporters of Teach for America, for summer school. Those working with children likely meant well but were they, real teachers? Teachers used to teach summer school.
Why were they hired by a nonprofit, not the school district’s personnel department? Why didn’t America’s Rescue funds pay for teachers and resources to innovate and address student needs this summer and in the fall instead of a nonprofit?
Will this kind of privatization be the future of schooling in America?
The Military
Instead of working to bring real teachers back to the classroom, on June 9, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that approved military members who haven’t yet earned a college degree to teach.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t trust public education or teachers. So hiring military personnel who haven’t earned a college degree may seem like a solution to him. But how will students learn if teachers lack qualifications?
From the Florida Department of Education:
Effective July 1, 2022, Florida issues a 5-year Temporary Certificate for military veterans who have not yet earned their bachelor’s degrees and meet the following eligibility:
- Minimum of 48 months of active duty military service with an honorable/medical discharge
- Minimum of 60 college credits with a 2.5 grade point average
- Passing score on a Florida subject area examination for bachelor’s level subjects which demonstrate mastery of subject area knowledge
- Employment in a Florida school district, including charter schools
Before applying for this pathway, complete a waiver request for the Military Certification Fees Waiver (MCFW).
Teach Plus
Blogger Steven Singer critiqued Teach Plus. It’s a longtime nonprofit that selects and trains teachers and is unfavorable towards traditional teachers. According to The New York Times, they were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and in 2011 teacher union activists called them an astroturf organization.
Sourcewatch lists Teach Plus leaders and team members called teachers despite coming from groups like Teach for America.
The Obama administration favored Teach Plus, and so does President Biden, who hired the CEO of Teach Plus, Roberto Rodriguez, to lead the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (OPEPD), one of the most important offices in the department. He advises the education secretary on policy development, implementation, and review.
OPEPD is home to the Grants Policy Office, the Office of the Chief Data Officer, the Office of Educational Technology, the Student Privacy Policy Office, and the Office of Budget Service.
Why would they support an organization with a history of not backing professional teachers?
What to Look For in a Teacher
Whether it involves the groups above, tutors, Teach for America, or those from fast-track residency programs, parents shouldn’t have to wonder about the background of their student’s teachers.
Here are four conditions that parents should look for:
- Preparation from a Quality University. Teachers should have several years of study from a reputable university resulting in a bachelor’s and preferably a master’s degree in education. Be cautious of backgrounds listing for-profit universities, nonprofits that train teachers, and other fly-by-night fast-track programs.
- Student Teaching. Every teacher should have practicums and student teaching with reputable teachers in accredited public schools for at least a semester during and after they obtain a bona fide degree.
- In-Field Preparation. Teachers should have university backgrounds and classes in the areas that they teach. For example, special education teachers should have prepared to work with students in the designated disability or gifted areas and have students in the area they will teach. Math teachers should have studied mathematics and be prepared to work with students in that area.
- Alternative Teachers. Teachers from outside the field should have had coursework from a legitimate university to understand child development and psychology and the area where they will teach, teaching methods, and more.
School districts used to enforce teaching regulations involving certification. Corporate school reformers and No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the Every Student Succeeds Act changed this.
Americans must demand that students have qualified teachers. They should do this for the students and the future of our country!
Reference
Dillon, S. (2011, May 21) Behind Grassroots School Advocacy, Bill Gates. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/education/22gates.html?pagewanted=all
Your analysis seems like a no-brainer. I cannot fathom what makes people think that real professional training is not necessary to becoming a teacher. Perhaps the teacher as a low-wage entry level position has gained impetus from the corporate push for standardized, direct instruction guided by a script either in person or online. I have yet to see a canned program that can compete with a well trained teacher.
Wonder how long it will take before folks figure it out. Thanks.
One of the most concerning problems regarding the Chromebook (40+ million) and iPad (7+ million) invasion of the public schools is the degree to which they are undermining the craft of “teaching”..
It’s really no different, and probably worse, than the old form of malpractice of teaching by “packet”.
I agree. There has been little if any unbiased research to indicate screens are better than teachers. Thanks, Rick.
Prior to 2009, the RI Department of Education was very pleased with the teaching staff at the RI School for the Deaf. We were considered Highly Qualified–Why? We had trained as teachers of the deaf and most of us had Masters degrees as well as many, many years of teaching experience at the school. Those of us in the high school had been meeting with personnel at RIDE regarding high school graduation requirements. We were just starting to get through to them that deaf students generally should not be held to the same scores on a standardized test to assess college readiness as students without handicapping conditions. In 2009 RI got a new Commissioner of Education–Deborah Gist, Broad Superintendents’ Academy alum, and darling of Chiefs for Change. At about the same time, the teaching staff were perplexed to discover that we were no longer held in high esteem by the RIDE. Why? Highly Qualified did not translate to Highly Effective. What would qualify teachers as Highly Effective? High scores of their students on the mass administered standardized test, of course. No consideration was given to the fact that RI has a Deaf Students’ Bill of Rights, which states in part: “All assessments shall be delivered in the student’s primary communication mode, style, or language as determined by a language assessment consistent with the requirements of § 16-25.2-2, shall have been validated for the specific purposes for which they are used, and shall be appropriately normed.” In prior years, we had administered the Stanford Achievements Tests, which had been normed on deaf and hard of hearing students. It was typical for a deaf student in the 8th grade to be reading at a 3rd grade level on this kind of assessment. This did not mean that the curriculum content should be at the 3rd grade level, but did mean that the nature of a standardized test cannot provide an adequate assessment of a deaf student’s academic needs and strengths. Similarly, performance at the 5th or 6th grade level on a standardized test in high school would be sufficient for the students to attend post-secondary institutions that have specialized programs for the deaf, and for them to successfully graduate from college. All of this was Greek to RIDE once Deborah Gist came on the scene. The bottom line was that the school was labelled a Persistently Lowest Achieving School, and the teachers were humiliated, and traumatized that the school might therefore be closed. Fortunately, that draconian action did not happen. As to after-school tutoring–no, we, who were experienced with the students and knew how to engage them, were not to be hired for tutors. Only outside providers would be considered. (That’s what I was told, but I decided to retire rather than confront the irrational pressures that would come in the following school year.)
How sad they lost you and likely other teachers due to their callousness. Thank you for sharing what happened in your situation, Sheila. I remember the Gist situation in R.I. It was ugly and unnecessary. And I believe she had real teaching credentials! Broad and Chiefs for Change had a plan that continues.
What a sad state of affairs for education! What is behind this hatred of education? All I can think of is that some foreign power is somehow manipulating our system in order to significantly weaken the country. Everyone needs to vote for pro public education candidates this November!
That’s an interesting idea, Cathryn.
I agree about voting. Thank you.
I just can’t imagine what those ‘teachers’ will do when they get into the real job of education….lesson plans, useless PD, recess duty, staff meetings that could have been emails, committees, evaluations, teaching to the test, lost planning time, no materials supplied…etc. They will leave for the same reason others are leaving…there is no actual teaching in the job.
Excellent points. There’s little autonomy in teaching anymore. Thank you, Mary.
As far as ideas that I would/could share—
James Moffet had a different, loving vision of public schools where teachers jobs would change significantly, shifting and growing more into the counseling aspects they already provide. From time to time great ideas come along but, not at the “right” time, it would seem.
Is it time now?
Some point to Yong Zhao and “Learners Without Borders” as a current day visionary. And, I must not forget to mention Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen’s new book, “The Future of Smart.” Have you read it yet?
#theuniversalschoolhouse
No offense, Sheryl, I appreciate your comment, but I get nervous when I hear about visionaries today, though Zhao and Moffet have done good work. I think many visionaries are taking us down the road to tech-only schools.
I’m a traditionalist who believes schools have always had difficulties, but they did well in the 80s and 90s when we worked on integrating schools, especially when they were well-funded. Schools still do well in wealthier suburban areas.
If this country’s leaders would FUND poor schools, SUPPORT teachers, and get big business to quit trying to profit on schools, I think we’d do well.
Also worried about transforming schools to social-emotional learning which is connected to behavioral data collection and tracking.
Hansen seems negative about public schools in general, seems connected to nonprofits and I think she’s a lawyer not a teacher. I have too many books to read and I think I’ll pass on hers. But thank you.
I would love to know your opinion on INOCAL and aurora institute, virtual Virginia- I live in chesterfield county that is a foundational partner with a global company- and they are “disciplining” them by simply removing them from brick and mortar into – virtual from home, or “another learning environment” – we have 46 math classes being taught by remote instruction- a few from Jamaica- parents have no clue- I’m THAT MOM here and I get all the intel from teachers- I’m a conservative and am going after Youngkin and Guidera full steam ahead because their “North Star” for education excellence is to recruit and retain businesses and make our children labor pool. You will find how alarming this video is. DQC FOUNDER SEC ED! https://youtu.be/7F6Ps0HAya0
Anne, I appreciate the video, and I share your concerns about INOCAL. Thank you!