February 7, 2008
Nearly Half of D.C. Teachers Unqualified
Next up on Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s agenda to make D.C. Schools more accountable? Getting “highly qualified” teachers into the classrooms. Under the controversial law “No Child Left Behind,” all teachers must demonstrate that they are qualified to teach their subjects, usually by completing graduate coursework or passing certification tests like the Praxis series.
Last year, nearly half of all core subject classes taught in DC schools were taught by unqualified teachers. The worst-staffed subjects?
- Geography — 32.9 percent qualified
- History — 33.8 percent qualified
- Chemistry — 47.3 percent qualified
Editor's note: Due to an error, we incorrectly listed the figures above as being the percent of teachers that were unqualified. Please note the corrected figures above.
We mentioned it briefly in this morning's news roundup, but the Examiner reports this morning that Rhee is out to make sure teachers without “highly qualified status” are taking steps to get themselves qualified, or they’ll lose their jobs. Rhee is also trying to implement more rigorous standards for teacher qualification into the ongoing contract negotiations with the Washington Teachers’ Union.
Despite all of the talk about accountability, there are still some realities to be dealt with. Veteran teachers who remain uncertified often argue that their experience counts more than a test score, and it’s hard to foresee DCPS and the local public charters decreasing their dependence on alternative certification programs like Teach for America or the DC Teaching Fellows, which routinely hire uncertified teachers under provisional licenses. Teach for America, for example, currently has about 240 corps members teaching in the D.C. metro area. Those teachers earn certification by taking courses at local universities while teaching, yet a significant percentage leave the classroom by the time their temporary licenses expire, or right before they would have earned certification.
While getting rid of unqualified teachers is a necessary step, if the District also increased focus on teacher support and retention, we might also see less turnover and consequently less need to fill positions with new, unqualified staff.
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Will the school closings help this at all? Allowing the city to get rid of some under qualified teachers and shuffle around the more qualified ones? Or are the closings not going to reduce the total number of teachers in the school system?
See, this is where Councilman Barry could really help out the schools: he got his degree in Organic Chemistry.
"Up with hope! Down with dope!"
only half are unqualified? progress on the march!
well, this does not bode well for DC's entry in the national geographic bee
DUH ... yo!
I hate it when words with actual meanings get co-opted into the legalism required for legislation. The fact of the matter is there's no way of telling how many of these teachers are actually "unqualified" in the sense that they lack the skills required to perform their jobs effectively. For that matter, high scores on Praxis tests (not much harder than the SAT) and credentials from continuing ed classes don't in any way prove that a person DOES have those skills.
I know there's a lot of dead wood in the system, but to tell someone who's been teaching first grade for 15 or 20 years that she's "unqualified" because she hasn't successfully passed a multiple-choice exam based on ed school textbook learning is flat out ridiculous.
New doesn't necessarily mean unqualified. And neither does being uncertified or provisionally certified.
There is little correlation between earning a teaching certificate (or a Master's) and better student achievement scores. I think that says more about our teacher preparation programs then it does about our teachers.
Strong content knowledge (which can be measured by the exams required to earn HQ status), strong communication skills and yes, some experience, matter far more. But if you are a veteran teacher that has taught a subject for 10 years but you can't pass a test to demonstrate your knowledge of the subject, I say you shouldn't be teaching it.
If your "subject" is second grade, do you think that the Praxis test is actually focused on content knowledge? No, it's all ed school material about learning styles, classroom management techniques, the history of pedagogy, and stuff like that. I think there were general reading comprehension and basic math problems on there, but it definitely wasn't testing how much you knew about the material you would actually be teaching. I'd say you're basically right when it comes to the content knowledge exams, although there are some people who just CAN'T perform on multiple choice exams. Elementary, non-subject teachers are somewhat of a different story, in my opinion.
@voteprime - I don't think the closings will affect teachers. I recall reading one teacher was pleased their school was closing because of its poor conditions.
I think Rachel has a good point about retention - a lot of people talk about bad teachers, but I'd bet there are many good teachers, including those in the programs mentioned in the post, that regularly leave the system. Biden, Dodd and Edwards had good education plans in that they would have given salary incentives for teachers to teach at the same school for five-years (in poverty-level schools in Edwards' case).
There are multiple Praxis exams. I totally agree the subject area tests are likely more important for middle and high school, subject-specific teachers. But elementary teachers are rightfully required to take a basic math, reading and writing skills test, a general pedogogy exam, a literacy exam and an assessment of subject-specific teaching techniques and assessment creation across all of the elementary subjects.
While I think the basic skills test is way too easy and there other ways to demonstrate you have a basic level of skill and knowledge, there are still a ton of teachers who end up getting waivers to teach even though they can't demonstrate reading, writing and math skills on an 8th-10th grade level. That's sad.
I do think MUCH more of an emphasis needs to be placed on developing struggling teachers, getting the best teachers to work in some of our neediest schools, identifying and developing strong adminstrators, making teacher prep programs more rigorous and relevant and overhauling the teacher evaluation system, all of which will impact retention. But there needs to be an equal focus on teachers coming into the system as well as those that are already there.
Maybe this is common knowledge, but the wiki link provided by monkey notes that there actually is a fruit known as the marionberry---it is a kind of blackberry (no, I am not joking).
Maybe this is common knowledge, but the wiki link provided by monkey notes that there actually is a fruit known as the marionberry---it is a kind of blackberry (no, I am not joking).
"it’s hard to foresee DCPS and the local public charters decreasing their dependence on alternative certification programs like Teach for America or the DC Teaching Fellows, which routinely hire uncertified teachers under provisional licenses."
FYI -
The alternative route provisional license was created to provide a way for alternatively certified teachers to avoid the "Highly Qualified" requirements during their first three years, but with the ultimate goal of them becoming HQ. To get an alternative route provisional license, you still have to pass both Praxis I and II and be enrolled in a DC approved certification program. If you do not get certified in the three-year window, ONLY then you are deemed unqualified and under Rhee's proposal, out of a job.
Further, on a bit of a common sense tip, do you really think that Rhee (TFA alum and founder of the New Teacher Project which later gave birth to DCTF) would create an item on her agenda that would in any way hurt alternative routes?
I agree with the point on retention, particularly when it comes to TFA, but I think getting rid of unqualified teachers starts to address this issue. When you look internationally (and yes I know this is a stretch) it is prestige and not money that get folks into and staying in the classroom. As a former classroom teacher, it was very hard to respect my own profession when my next door colleague graduated with a 2.2 GPA, majoring in Recreation Administration, and is now teaching 11th grade History (true story except for the 2.2 GPA thing, though I woulnd't be surprised).