Posted on 08/29/2014 8:31:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
For the past half-century, and particularly since the 1983 "Nation at Risk" report, Americans have been heaving great sacks of money at schools. Federal spending alone has tripled since the 1970s. The New York Times calculates that the federal government now spends $107.6 billion on education yearly, which is layered over an estimated $524.7 billion spent by states and localities (source: National Center for Education Statistics).
Reformers have urged -- depending upon where they stand ideologically -- smaller class sizes, more accountability, merit pay for teachers and educational choice. Each year seems to bring a new fad: child-centered learning, new math, cooperative learning and so forth. The No Child Left Behind reform focused on testing. There have been proposals to repeal teacher tenure and to provide every child with a laptop. And always there are fights over curriculum -- the Common Core being the controversy du jour.
But perhaps the most promising thinking about education arises from the discovery from economist Eric Hanushek that the most important factor in student performance is the quality of the teacher. Not class size. Not spending per pupil. Not even curriculum.
Our system produces some great teachers, but only by luck. Each year, 400,000 new teachers enter American classrooms, many knowing little about the nuts and bolts of teaching. As Elizabeth Green argues in her new book, "Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach it to Everyone)," our education schools do not teach the mechanics of teaching: how to control a classroom, how to engage students' imaginations, how to check for understanding. They've been sidetracked by educational psychology and fads at the expense of teaching how to teach.
Green cites "education entrepreneurs" including Doug Lemov, author of "Teach Like a Champion," and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, now dean of the University of Michigan's school of education, who focus on helping ordinary teachers to become great.
Lemov, an education reformer and consultant, was struck by something he found by poring over statistics from the state of New York. While the correlation between zip codes and educational success was notable, there were always outliers: schools or classrooms in which even kids from impoverished backgrounds were doing well. Lemov zeroed in on those schools and those particular teachers.
The result is found in the subtitle of "Teach Like a Champion": "49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College." Some of the techniques are inspired; others are quotidian but still important (like how not to waste time pleading for responses). The point is that teaching is a performance every day, which is not easy. Teachers must engage the interest and attention of their students (who bring all kinds of troubles from home), encourage the weak ones along with the strong, maintain discipline, and build a sense of team spirit. Lemov doesn't believe that anyone can be a great teacher, but he does think that with coaching and mentoring, good teachers can become great.
Some of Lemov's proven techniques will not surprise educational traditionalists. He believes in drill, though he calls it "muscle memory." A great teacher will drill arithmetic skills, for example, until they are second nature, so that students needn't stumble over the easy stuff when they get to algebra and geometry. (Education schools had disdained this as "drill and kill.") Another technique Lemov suggests is "cold calls" -- that is, having the teacher choose students randomly rather than just those who raise their hands. Each child, knowing he might be called upon, must be ready. (It works in law schools). A companion technique is "no opt out." If the child says he doesn't know, the teacher asks a related question to another student to narrow down the possible right answer and returns to the first child for a second chance.
There are broad suggestions about classroom management and more subtle and difficult challenges like maintaining "emotional constancy," that is refraining from showing anger when a child gets the wrong answer. Anger will teach a child to try to hide his ignorance rather than accept it as a normal part of the learning enterprise.
Teaching is a craft. It may be among the hardest to master. Renewed attention to teaching teaching seems long overdue.
The certification is essentially a teaching degree. This is not a small task and with the price of college, not a minor expense.
**Perhaps we should investigate how private schools hire new teachers.
What qualifications do they look for?**
Religious values and virtues plus the knowledge of how to discipline correctly.
Sorry, I forgot the answer that. In my private school experience (a blue-ribbon school, by the way), there was a new teacher orientation for one day. But there was no further training. You just started teaching from day one.
I was observed weekly by the principal. If I were incompetent, I would have been fired as soon as that became obvious.
And that's actually a poor process, because if I ere incompetent, I would have wasted a month or more of my students' time. The one advantage of public schools is that they require certification, and that involves student teaching somewhere. So some bad teachers get weeded out, just not enough of them.
And of course, knowing your subject matter.
When I taught fifth grade, I loved teaching American History — because I loved the study of American History. Still do.
Right you are. But it need not be that way. To get a good grasp of, say, chemistry, you really do need four years of study.
But to get a good grasp on how to teach, one semester should do it. That's it. During my first year of teaching I relied on a little 20-page booklet called "Teaching Effectively". No jargon there, no fads. Just tips on how to manage student behavior, how to make each lesson interesting, and how to question effectively. It was really all I needed.
First, create a system under which an AVERAGE teachers can adequately function at their jobs. Such a system would include vital concepts such as student discipline, accountability, and placement of teachers based upon their abilities, rather than based on some union seniority rules (so that newer teachers don’t get stuck working in the worst locations).
The notion that the problems in our school can be solved by elevating the performance of most teachers to some exceptional level is ludicrous. Focusing on that unachievable goal is just a way of ignoring everything else that is wrong in our schools.
Yep, no argument there. Interestingly, many high school science teachers are teaching outside of their area of study... In my case, I have more mathematics and computer modeling (applied mathematics) background than any 4 year degree and it comes in the areas of chemical thermodynamics and reaction engineering. My point is that the certification reigns supreme and the actual knowledge of science is secondary.
My first take is that this is little more than the teacher protection syndicate with union interest using the regulatory muscle to prevent highly qualified individuals from participating.
...nothing new there...this has been the education model for the past forty years, since unions prevailed thanks to quiescent state legislatures...
If a teacher's goal is to indoctrinate, they will fail their students.
All you need to be successful is experience, tenacity, and a POSITIVE attitude.
...unfortunately, the best teachers are only as good as their most indolent students allow them to be...the nature of the beast...
Very well said
computers make excellent teachers for repetitive fact teaching. Even reading compression.
You know I am really tired of this. Not everyone is qualified to home teach, and not everyone can afford to send their kids to private schools *rme*
>>...unfortunately, the best teachers are only as good as their most indolent students allow them to be...the nature of the beast...
The funny thing about that is that you either allow the indolence or you don’t as a teacher. I don’t. If a student wants to waste time, he can do it outside my classroom door.
Thank you for posting these articles.
My pleasure
Teacher #1: "I treat all students equally. Being human, I may like some of them less than others, but I know myself to be fair. That's being a professional. Now about the black students in my classes....
I have been told that "you don't belong here, you white" at one school by a charming little black girl. I have been struck in the head on several occasions by objects thrown by black male students. I have been spit on by black students. I have had Skittles thrown in my face by black students. I saw a black girl try to vandalize my backpack. Another black girl tried to physically push me out of the classroom and lock the door. I've had a black boy remove a DVD from a DVD player while I was showing it to the class and run off with it--cos "he didn't want to watch no DVD, he wanted to watch television." And of course, I am regularly invited to suck the d___ks of black students and threatened all the time that they will "find me after school and jump my a@@", "kill me with a knife", or commit some similar act of violence upon my person.
Oh, and let's not forget any sort of classroom discipline request ("Please put away your phone", "Please sit down", etc.) or finding that they failed a test being attributed to, "You failed me because I was black!", "You only told me to put my phone away 'cos I'm black!" and other ridiculous statements.
Teacher #2: "I also teach in a school that is dominated by black students and I have encountered the same issues that you have. I have had students come into the room and make up obscene raps about how I suck their d---k mad hard every night, that I am a "white 'ho" and a "white skank". I have had students follow me down the stairs daring each other to "push that white b---- down the stairs and f--- her up". I have been told to "get you white a$$ in a white school" and that I "have a dried up white p---y". I have had Axe deodorant sprayed in my eyes. I have had students help themselves to me personal belongings (yes - going right into me desk/cabinets) and when I tell them to respect my things, the race card immediately gets pulled out - "It's 'cause I'm BLACK!!!" I have has students come up behind me and pretend to hump me in the behind while I am writing on the board. A boy beat me seriously enough to send me to the hospital because I told him to sit at a different table. And my administration's response has been to do NOTHING, yes, NOTHING, and tell me that I am not "culturally relevant" to the students (hmmmm, what does THAT mean?) and suggested that I buy them pizza to make them like me."
This has NOTHING to do with the union, the government, or anything else except POOR PARENTING and the failure of the school administration to adequately address school discipline. This is what it's actually like to be a NYC teacher in far too many cases.
I was going to post a similar comment, but you have covered it.
I just want to add that many parents, at all socio-economic levels, have failed to properly educate their children at home in terms of showing respect for authority figures and for adults, in general. This trend in poor parent work seems to have started with my generation, Boomers.
It is very sad for me that I am pleasantly surprised these days when I encounter a child with good manners, whereas about 40 years ago the rude kids were the exception.
I thank God that I still have very good health, very good balance, and body strength because there have been times when a person my age could have been knocked down or injured by children pushing past one or stepping on one’s feet.
Of course, they don’t want you in their schools; you will show just how dumb those teachers are.
If you really have a passion to teach, may I suggest that you shop around for a private school that shares you values. Some private schools require a college degree but not the credentials from a school of education.
IMO, all teacher training should require a real major in a discipline with the education courses thrown in as add-ons. Very little of what is taught in those education classes is of practical value.
These so-called 'students' do not belong in an academic institution.
They belong in prison.
Some of them belong in the morgue.
Not kidding.
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