Posted on 07/24/2006 10:37:39 AM PDT by JSedreporter
Last Saturday, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings gave the commencement address for the Notre Dame Alliance for Catholic Education Master's Program. Secretary Spellings discussed the importance of Catholic educators in today’s society:
“99 percent of your students will graduate from high school, and 97 percent will go on to college. That's a tremendous accomplishment... and it's a strong reminder that we can't afford to lose any of these schools. Like I said before, Catholic schools are national treasures. At a time when 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs require higher education, we need every school in America to have success rates like yours. And with your help, we're on our way to achieving that goal.”
Secretary Spellings opened her remarks by saying that she was the first mother of school-aged children to serve as Secretary of Education. She then asked, “What took them so long?”
She congratulated the graduates, noting “You're here because you believe that every life has value and dignity, every child has potential, and every student deserves a quality education. And as a parent and a policymaker, I want to say thank you ¯ job well done.”
Secretary Spellings told the graduates about how one of their classmates, Tony and his father, Joe had traveled down to the hurricane-ravaged Mississippi last fall to rebuild a flooded school.
“[Joe] collected thousands of dollars in donations overnight... and then he drove more than 600 miles to join Tony for the cleanup,” Secretary Spellings informed the graduates. She added, “I know you won’t be surprised to hear that Joe Hollowell is a Catholic school principal.”
Secretary Spellings observed that “there's an amazing spirit of optimism and generosity in this community—thanks to talented, hardworking educators like you.” She told the graduates that she knows this, because “I've seen it myself—my oldest daughter Mary got a top-notch education at a Catholic high school, and I'm proud to say that my younger daughter Grace will enroll there this fall.”
“America’s Catholic schools are national treasures¯and thanks to a terrific faculty and staff, ACE is one of the most successful teacher training programs in our country,” Secretary Spellings said in praise “ACE finds the most talented young people in our nation, including teachers of every race and background—as many men as women. It gives them practical advice for the classroom, plus a terrific support system. And as a result, more than 3 out of 4 graduates stay in education beyond your service to ACE.”
Secretary Spellings took the time to express her happiness that the graduates truly loved what they were doing. “You didn’t take this job for fame or fortune. You took it for the love of the kids, and the love of making a difference. Some people are surprised you made that choice. But I’m not, because I see the same thing you do every time I walk into a classroom: your kids inspire you, they look up to you, and thanks to you, they love learning.” She continued, “As teachers, you'll leave a legacy unmatched by any other profession. Over the course of your career, you'll improve the quality of life not just for the children you teach... but for their children, their children’s children, and so on down the line. Over time, you'll touch thousands of lives, and millions of people will benefit from your work. Every single one of us can think back to a teacher who helped us get where we are today.”
Secretary Spellings talked about how many of the best teachers end up at schools for the privileged and how No Child Left Behind aims at making all schools and students better, and it is thanks in part to Catholic educators. “To Catholic educators, aiming high is nothing new. Long before we set our national imperative, you were working for a moral one.”
Secretary Spellings commended the graduates on their commitment to helping their students achieve success. “To keep the system diverse, Catholic schools reach out to low-income, minority, and immigrant communities. To keep academic quality high, they often work longer days and stretch the school year into the summertime. And to keep tuition affordable, they often set tuition rates lower than the actual cost of educating each child.”
Secretary Spellings left the graduating class of the ACE program with these final words, “As you go forward¯as teachers, and in any other task you put your mind to¯know that faith, family, and friends will never fail you. Mother Teresa said, ‘Love begins at home.’ Love your family, and love your neighbor. Treat people well, including yourself. Exercise. Work for a boss you like and admire. Don’t get consumed by your job. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Even when you’re not sure where you’re heading, don't be afraid to take risks... and don't let anything or anyone narrow your dreams for the future. May today be the beginning of a new journey and a great adventure, and may you continue to live well and with purpose.”
Matthew Murphy is an intern with Accuracy in Academia.
Actually ACE volunteers get their Master's in Education paid for for free by ND. That's hardly worth nothing.
I work in American Catholic higher education and I can echo that we're not in it for the money!
I was a product of (an excellent) public school education through high school. Catholic higher education definitely made an important difference in my moral and character development.
The mission where I work is not only to produce quality and valued members of the workforce and life-long learners, but to graduate men and women who value justice and service as well as intellectual and technological efforts.
While they are lofty sounding goals, I like that they can be spoken aloud. Of course the religious heritage means that God can be recognized publicly. While our faculty and students are religiously diverse; respect and tolerence are the norm.
I must say that my kids' (suburban NY) public elementary, middle and high schools were exceptionally tolerant of religious beliefs. They didn't shy away from religious music, clubs, and celebrations. That DOSEN'T seem to be the norm in most public schools, where the mere mention of God can send public school official into fits.
I certainly treasure the separation of church and state (no state-sponsored religion, no encouraging a denomination), particularly in the schools, but applaud the secretary of education's candor in acknowleging the contribution of catholic education.
...candor in acknowleging the contribution of Catholic education.
And her unexpressed thought: And it just bums me out to no end that we government burecrats can't come close to duplicating your success rate. Wish I had a clue.
Hint from me to Secretary Spellings: I'm no expert, but you might start with the NEA.
It's an internship. They pay for their education costs of gaining their master's degree by teaching in a two year program.
As for your assertion that they are less experienced and less qualified.
They do likely have little experience teaching, but that's true of all new teachers to some extent. They are being used in schools that have a shortage of teachers. They are taking volunteers who are willing to exchange working two years for a masters in education. They are getting people who want to teach and want to help.
The program only lasts two years. These teachers aren't unpaid long term replacements.
However, the the real indicator is the fact that they have a good track record. The students are learning. More of them are staying in school. More are graduating. More are going on to college.
Apparently their qualifications are either pretty good, or the program is set up well so that they can rely on the experience of others and do well. and the simple fact is that they have a good track record of producing results.
The way it can be used by some corrupt administrators out there though isn't good.
e.g. a school could just use unpaid interns for all its positions, champion them, and scapegoat problems on non ACE teachers, as there may be incentive for them to do this.
In the public schools teachers have to train under another teacher through student teaching often. Do ACE teachers do this, or do they skip the step?
bump
e.g. a school could just use unpaid interns for all its positions, champion them, and scapegoat problems on non ACE teachers, as there may be incentive for them to do this.
The school administrators are not in charge of the program.
They can't just demand a stream of replacement interns every two years.
Here's a faq with some information on the program. It's geared toward prospective teachers so it may not have the exact details you're looking for by it provides some useful information.
https://ace.nd.edu/ace/faq.cfm
It also mentions that the teachers receive a stipend, usually around $11,000 and live in community housing for which they pay a small rent of about $200 a month.
When I was working on my masters degree in computer engineering, I worked as a graduate teaching assistant for a while and received tuition and $11,800 dollars a year. I didn't get any housing benefit, but it's been almost 10 years so I was probably a little better off than they are.
My point is that the stipend and tuition reimbursement aren't out of line with other opportunities people have for getting their grad school paid for.
For the program to be abused the administrators of private, Christian schools would have to be trying undermining their school and shifting blame to seasoned teachers.
The program administrators who work with the schools and the interns would have to be ignoring what would have to be obvious signs of this happening.
The interns who are to some extent volunteering in the interest of helping students would have to be keeping quiet about the problems during and after their internships for it to continue.
The parents who send their children to such private schools at their own expense would have to be ignoring this.
You also have to realize that these college education departments have strong ties with the schools that these interns would be working in. The permanent teachers they would be displacing would likely in many cases be alumni.
It definitely possible for one or two of those things to happen, even for them to happen without real intent, but simply because life is a process of doing the best you can do with what you have.
However, the system has too much oversight built in for serious abuses to occur and persist.
Not to mention that there is a limited supply of people willing to work for $11k for two years to get a masters in education.
Also how do they calculate the percents?
Catholic Schools have the ability to kick the people out who aren't going to graduate. So do they then exclude these people from the percent and is the percentage they are giving even a number that doesn't get cooked.
They compile the numbers and have incentive to cook the books.
Their parents choose to send their children there.
You keep mentioning conspiracy theories and vague possibilities administrators abusing programs to the detriment of students.
These are not public schools in which the students have no choice of where they go to school.
These are private schools, and the parents have chosen to spend their own money to send their children to these schools.
So if the administrators are abusing programs, or the programs are harmful, or the interns (who have college degrees, but limited teaching experience) are inept, why are parents still sending their children there?
There are definitely some who would blindly send their children to a Catholic school, but those are a minority, and not enough to keep a bad school operating.
The conspiracy theories just don't stand up to common sense.
Conspiracy theories, you mean like the Catholic Church shielding child molesting priests and sending them to other districts?
See you have too much faith in people not being corrupt.
Catholic Church has been corrupt for a long time.
I am not saying trying to say that all Catholic schools are bad or that people shouldn't have a choice or that the ACE program doesn't have some merits.
What I am saying is that there should be some type of objective assessment of it.
Generally in a lot of things in life there are no shortcuts without messing up, and I am not sure if the program takes a shortcut by having the teachers skip student teaching.
Also you have to factor in that the students have to apply to the school to some of the private schools to get in in the first place and that their parents in many cases may have to afford it on top of property taxes, so the schools should perform better.
You are right that choice is good and it is good to have multiple types of schools.
However I the ACE worker seems kind of like a glorified scab.
If used as an internship it could be successful.
However with turnover and cost cutting it could be used wrong.
I think we actually agree on some things here, that it shouldn't be used corruptly for example.
The teacher gave out some Ds and Fs and was blackmailed into resigning on the night of Parent Teacher Conferences with the threat made that if the teacher didn't resign the principal would "Find something to write up on him so that he would never be able to get a teaching job again".
The 8th grade Algebra students didn't even know how to add and subtract and multiply and divide fractions.
No objective assessment was there, all self praise and sweep any problems under the rug.
Tell the parents what they want to hear and keep them happy and stupid. That seemed to be the attitude.< P> What check do you think there is on a corrupt Superintendent and corrupt Principal?
Priests who don't even discipline child molesters in their midst, is that your check.
Do you really think these priests will really contain and get rid of corrupt Principals and Superintendents?
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and the Superintendents and Principals are given absolute power.
Streets of some cities with religous schools are littered with former teachers who have been put out in the street for offending a donor.
It is all about telling the parents what they want to hear and keeping them happy.
This however doesn't necessarily mean that the academics are superior there.
They want to send their kids to a school that they view as safer often.
You will see things on the public schools on the news too because there is accountability.
Private schools are better at hiding things and keeping things out of the news to try to protect their reputations.
Granted there probably are less fights and violence at the private schools in general.
What I am saying though is I think you have a little too much faith in the integrity of the administrators and the academics at some of these schools.
So all Fs got magically turned into As.
Conspiracy theory, no not at all, sorry to say this is the truth.
Oh Brother... (eyes rolling)
Not sure what percent of the funding comes from tuition as opposed to contributions and the estate planners washing the money from dead people into the school and the church. There are clearly other factors than just academic integrity.
Reports out of some of these schools are that even who starts on the sports team is determined by whose parent buys the uniforms for the team.
Not by who plays best.
It can be all about how much money the parents have and who the parents are, not how much the student knows or how good the student is.
Some are very bad. Even good administrators have faults, and they also have to administer things in an imperfect world.
There will always be some people who think a particular administrator is bad. However, administrators can and do get fired. There are checks on administrators. But it can be hard to tell at times if the administrators are really bad, or if they are doing a reasonable or even good job at dealing with the situations they have to deal with.
For a really bad administrator to remain in control, they have to retain substatnial support from a wide variety of groups such as parents, those working under them, students, and those to whom they answer.
Conspiracy theories, you mean like the Catholic Church shielding child molesting priests and sending them to other districts?
Conspiracy theories are are based on accusations and fears rather than evidence. Or more specifically the take pieces of information and jump to conclusions based on fears and accusations rather than evidence.
There is evidence that at least in some diocese Bishops did shield Priests who had molested children, and even move them to other locations without oversight and effectively allowed them to use the credibility of the Prieshood to find more victims.
It's a very disturbing example of how evil can be protected through blind loyalty and warped good intentions (forgiveness of the Priest).
However, there's some very obvious differences that allowed such corruption to happen that are missing in the case of administering the ACE program.
Those harmed had a strong and compelling reason to keep quiet. The other teachers at he school may fear for their jobs and not speak out directly, but they could still do so indirectly. The parents and the children have ample opportunity to complain. The NEA is constantly looking for reasons to criticize private and especially Catholic schools. There are lots of ways for those opposing these programs to get their voices heard if there is a problem.
Unlike with the Bishops hiding the actions of Priests, these programs are done in the public view with a broad group of people able to see what is going on. There isn't the closed environment and secrecy required to support a conspiracy.
See you have too much faith in people not being corrupt.
Not at all. I've seen more than enough corruption and incompetence. I'm not blind to it. I've also worked in schools, nonprofit organizations, and businesses long enough to understand how oversight and openness can and do limit the effect of corruption and incompetence.
I'm also not blindly idealistic. I don't expect the world to be perfect. This program is needed because there aren't enough teachers that want to work in those schools. There are problems there that are making it so that they cannot hire or retain teachers there.
There is little doubt that at least in some cases the administration has faults that contribute to that. There is also little doubt that our society as a whole and the society in those particular areas plays a huge role as well.
These schools have a serious challenge of how to get motivated people to into the schools to try and educate and motivate these students to succeed in life.
Experienced and knowledgeable teachers have a huge amount to offer students. They are the foundation of any solid education system. However, it's very hard for human beings to maintain optimism and energy over a decade or more of a bad situation, and these schools are constantly faced with that is unquestionably a bad situation.
There is a lot to be said for the fire and motivation of idealistic youth in such a situation, and when combined with a solid foundation of experienced teachers, it can make for a very good team where both the optimistic but inexperienced and the seasoned and knowledgeable work better together than the would without the other being there.
Catholic Church has been corrupt for a long time.
Human beings and their institutions always end up with some level of corruption either by the intent of some or by their failings.
God is perfect, humans are not, and while a Church may strive to do God's perfect will, the human being comprising that Church inevitably fail to implement God's will perfectly.
I am not saying trying to say that all Catholic schools are bad or that people shouldn't have a choice or that the ACE program doesn't have some merits.
What I am saying is that there should be some type of objective assessment of it.
I completely agree with you! The administration of these schools and this program should be constantly being assessed by administrations, teachers, students, parents, the Church leadership... by pretty much everyone involved.
What I'm saying is that the structure is there to provide that continuous assessment so that problems and things that can be considered minor abuses are not allowed to grow into major ones. For the problems to grow larger it requires a much broader group of parents, administrators, and teachers to fail in their duty to look after the interests of the students. If that happens, the school will either eventually fail because parents won't continue to pay to send their children there.
If the problems seem obvious and broad, either the parents disagree with that assessment, or they are evaluating it by different criteria than you are using, or they simply believe it to be a better choice than the alternatives they have available. I'm not sure what to say if that would happen to be the case. They are their children, and they should have awfully broad discretion over their education.
Generally in a lot of things in life there are no shortcuts without messing up, and I am not sure if the program takes a shortcut by having the teachers skip student teaching.
They get eight weeks of intensive training geared specifically to the school in which they will be teaching. That's far more than I received as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and I ended up getting very good evaluations by my students.
I wasn't simply tossed into a room with students and told to teach them. I was given a curriculum. The structure of the class, the material I would cover, and even the projects I assigned were provided for me when I started, though I did make some changes in subsequent quarters after I understood the material and how to present it even better, and also better understood how much I could expect the students to know when they started the class, and how much I could expect them to do and to learn during the class.
I was also observed teaching a few times by a full time professor, and as we all know students talk about those teaching them, so I was far from unsupervised.
I'm sure these interns are not unsupervised either. I would suspect that there is a more formal process of supervision with formal reporting like is done with student teachers.
There is also the informal reporting of students to their parents and other teachers.
Also you have to factor in that the students have to apply to the school to some of the private schools to get in in the first place and that their parents in many cases may have to afford it on top of property taxes, so the schools should perform better.
Most Catholic schools, especially the ones that are in these areas where they have trouble getting teachers to teach, do not have much in the way of minimum academic standards.
They also get a lot of students who simply haven't performed well in public schools. They also often take on students that have been expelled from public schools for disciplinary issues.
There are some academically elite private schools. Believe it or not, there are even academically elite public schools to which students must apply to be admitted.
Those schools don't tend to have any problems getting and retaining teachers and aren't the target schools for these programs.
You are right that choice is good and it is good to have multiple types of schools.
I'm glad to hear we agree on this point.
However I the ACE worker seems kind of like a glorified scab.
If used as an internship it could be successful.
However with turnover and cost cutting it could be used wrong.
I think we actually agree on some things here, that it shouldn't be used corruptly for example.
I think we actually agree on much more than we disagree upon.
You have some concerns about how the program might be abused.
I agree that such abuse would be harmful, but believe that the system provides reasonable oversite to prevent such abuses in most all cases, and expose them so that they can be dealt with in the few that aren't prevented.
However, that oversite does require a reasonable level of openness by the administration and vigilance by the parents. But that is true of all education programs for children.
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