Schools Roundup: Who's Teaching Your Children?
Over the holidays, DCPS sent letters to parents notifying them if an “unqualified” teacher was teaching their children, resulting in a series of complaints and bureaucratic messes. For example, parents were asked to log into the DCPS website to get the names of the teachers, but those who logged in found their children’s teachers from the previous academic year. A number of teachers objected, noting that they had been incorrectly listed as “unqualified.” The letters also raised a sticky question: what does “qualified” even mean?
The federal “No Child Left Behind” law mandates “highly qualified” teachers—someone who has a state teacher’s license and bachelor’s degree in the subject in which they teach, and who has passed a subject-area test. Last week, the Post reported that 800 DCPS teachers are currently deemed “unqualified” under NCLB, down from nearly 1200 last year.
But there are a number of caveats. New teachers, like those who enter through the D.C. Teaching Fellows or Teach for America, teach with three-year provisional licenses while simultaneously earning masters degrees in teaching. Staffing shortages can cause teachers to teach courses outside of their subject-areas (for example, a physics teacher teaching geometry). Other teachers are given grace periods during which to earn their certifications.
These factors inflate the number of “unqualified” teachers, raising alarm without giving parents much real information about whether or not their child’s teacher is any good. What’s more, teachers who remain unqualified can be terminated. (Candi Peterson, a board member of the Washington Teachers’ Union, recently blogged in anger over the prospect of 800 teachers being fired for this reason. However, Ms. Peterson’s numbers are a bit exaggerated. Last year, according to the Post, 1,187 teachers were “unqualified” but only around 250 were fired for failing to obtain certification within extended deadlines.)
There is much to be said for a standard credentialing process in teaching (as well as for firing anyone who can’t pass the comically easy Praxis exam in three years), but what’s the point if the “highly qualified” teacher isn’t doing any better a job teaching? Education Sector’s Kevin Carey argues, “the problem with the teaching profession as currently organized is that it puts too much emphasis on the things that matter less (note: I'm not saying they don't matter at all), i.e. knowledge and skills, and not enough emphasis on the things that matter more, i.e. personal qualities like intelligence, work ethic, etc.”
We wonder if it wouldn’t be more useful for D.C. parents to know, say, how a teacher’s previous students scored on the DC-CAS (a District-wide assessment) than if that teacher had majored in English? Or how many years reading growth a teacher’s students gained last year than whether or not the teacher had passed a pedagogy exam? D.C. parents - tell us what you think in the comments.
Schools Notes: DCist commenter Hillrat attempts to enroll “BabyRat” at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary, changes mind… More on the developers and charter schools that hope to acquire closed D.C. school buildings…"The first African-American high school welcoming the first African-American president” - Dunbar High School’s marching band practices for the inaugural parade.