Posted on 01/20/2015 10:05:12 AM PST by reaganaut1
New York recently administered a test to 11,371 people who want to become public school teachers, a new requirement mandated by the State Board of Regents. Keep in mind that these are college graduates who have been through education schools. Surely they all possess enough knowledge of English to pass the basic Academic Literacy Skills test – right?
Not even close. Only 68 percent achieved the passing score of 520 points out of 600. Graduates of colleges in New York City did even worse. At many schools, the pass rate was under 50 percent and at one, not a single student managed to pass. (More details can be found in this New York Post story by Carl Campanile.)
People familiar with education schools are not at all surprised because they’re noted for admitting some of the academically weakest undergraduates, then immersing them in “progressive” theories such as that good teaching is mainly about encouraging students to feel good about themselves. Thus we get the blind leading the blind.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
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Keep in mind this.
1. The teachers of the 1900-1960 period were mostly people who’d done one single year at some teacher’s junior-level college, gotten a certificate, actively read the classics, and structured the classes to fit their way of teaching. In the late 1960s as I attended, they still had a couple of teachers without any bachelor degrees.
2. If a person had a deep background in physics, and wanted to take five years off from their professional side to be a regular science teacher...most states would make it a hard and difficult experience getting the stupid certificate. Unless you attend their special teacher classes....you won’t move up into the ‘special group’.
3. The twelve-group system is now regarded mostly as a professional kid-sitting service, where most kids could pass a test in the tenth grade and just graduate at that point....moving on. We waste time, resources, and funding....keeping the current system going, and providing major leagues sports some potential help in training future athletes.
its because of a lack of funding
just ask them
Have they all lied to me?
” its because of a lack of funding
just ask them”
We needs moor money!
My final years in high school, 1972, was the first year of integration in Tampa and I had my first ever black teacher. I was appalled by his blacklish. He “taught” science, but he didn’t really TEACH anything. He was there. He kept the black male students under control and that was about it.
This was the year where the WWII generation was retiring at an increasing rate and the hippie kids were cutting their teeth on their first teaching gigs. What a huge difference that was. The WWII generation stressed patriotism. The hippies were saying that Western civilization sucked and we all needed to chill and eat only vegetables.
They are the most educated and least intelligent group. At least in Illinois they have to get a graduate degree through very easy classes which are made for by the state. In the end they have the most class time and are among the least bright of all graduates.
I am sure that if that test has any math in it, most teachers will fail it.
I never ‘get’ this argument. For a lot of reasons... but mainly because it’s like saying ‘I could really be a better teacher if you gave me more money.’
It’s sort of an individual breach of agreement with your employer ... ‘I am much better at this than I am demonstrating and I am withholding effort and resources JUST to convince you that I am not being compensated enough’!!
Is THAT ethical? Were they hired with the understanding that they’d deliver 50% of effort and would work at their optimum capabilities LATER once they are given raises?
It is an argument that has worked for close to a century. That is why it is used. Try that argument with a private sector employer and see how quick you end up on the unemployment lines.
When I entered university in 1959, several of my friends were enrolled with me in Medical Technology courses. Now-a-days it would be called Clinical Laboratory Technology.
Already after the first semester, half of my friends had changed majors and went into either education or psychology. By the end of the first year only two of us survived out of about 8.
It should be that if you've demonstrated competence teaching community college science/math, then you should be considered qualified to teach high school science/math. The problem is, it would devalue the "credentials" of the existing teachers and administrators, and they are the ones who affect hiring and retention.
I think the argument is that higher salaries would attract better candidates into the field. The thing is, they assume higher salaries should include them...while they’re basically admitting that they’re not the brightest.
Teachers are, of course, very important. I know a number of them (friends/family), all good people, but few have any idea what private industry is really like. I hear them complain all the time. Yet they get “snow days”, the entire summer, along with many other holidays. Their benefits are very good. They assume the workload is “really tough” without having anything to compare against. By the time it is all weighed up, their salaries are actually very good.
One of them, not that bright, is now considering getting a “masters” degree. If “successful” I’ll lose all faith in standards.
I respect their importance and most are very passionate about teaching, it’s just that the respect is often not mutual. The number of times I’ve had a teacher talk down to me (as “just” a parent)...very annoying.
Not to sound arrogant or anything, because I know many fine, intelligent teachers, but when I was in college it was kind of a joke that if you couldn’t make it in any other degree program you got an educator degree.
“I am sure that if that test has any math in it, most teachers will fail it.”
That is so true.
When I was in H/S years ago I had a real problem with math. I had a teacher who was so afraid of the “students” he would just let us do whatever we wanted. When he had a breakdown we got a sub teacher who was using his vacation time to teach. He was a Airline Pilot And Vet from the Korean War, no nonsense, totally impressive from the minute he entered the classroom you knew he was not someone you wanted to mess with. Within those two weeks I learned more about math than I had in the previous two years. What a great teacher he was. Problem today is he would not be allowed to teach because he did not have a “Teaching Certificate”
I can thank my dad, who had an 8th grade education, (probably equivalent to 12th grade now) for telling me the importance of math.
I’m not a math genius, but I have a degree in accountancy, information systems and finance and I can tell you math is important.
More like the stupid indoctrinating the innocents.
In college, the kids in College of Education were NOTORIOUSLY the dumbest!
I could say more but you get it.
Also, it was no point getting your degree in Education if you were not ‘connected’ in the school system. You wouldn’t get hired unless you left the area.
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