THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 65 lines
Schools won't improve until teachers do. That's a shorthand version of the conclusions reached by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future chaired by North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt.
Many teachers are skilled, dedicated, undercompensated professionals who don't deserve to be turned into political footballs. But this sobering look at how the United States recruits, prepares and retains teachers also shows there are big problems. Its criticisms are made more powerful by the lack of political finger pointing.
The report begins with the common-sense notion that ``what teachers know and do is the most important influence on what students learn.'' And it goes on to demonstrate that poorly trained, inadequately screened and poorly supported teachers occupy far too many classrooms in America.
By and large, the gatekeepers, not the teachers, are to blame for the diminution of a noble and essential profession. Schools of education accept students who have no business contemplating teaching, then train them haphazardly.
The commission criticizes elementary preparation for being weak in subject matter and secondary preparation for being weak in providing knowledge of learners and learning. Roy Nichols, Norfolk schools superintendent, points out that reading is the most-important thing elementary teachers teach, but one can graduate with only a single course in the complicated subject.
The commission also faults a system that provides too little practice teaching too late in the process and separates it from course work. It faults a superficial curriculum that provides only a smattering of information. ``Candidates do not learn deeply about how to understand and handle real problems of practice.''
States and localities compound the problem by not requiring high standards for entering the profession and staying employed. The commission believes teachers need periodic retesting, ongoing education and mentoring. Too often teachers are thrown into a classroom and left to sink or swim.
Furthermore, systems often have no adequate method for weeding out bad teachers and rewarding and retaining good ones.
The commission has recommendations for improving the situation. It calls for:
Requiring teachers to meet National Board Certification standards.
Accreditation for all schools of educaiton.
Licensing of all teachers based on subject-matter knowledge, teaching knowledge and teaching skills.
Mentoring programs for beginning teachers.
Help for low-income districts in paying for qualified teachers in exchange for a commitment to hire only qualified teachers.
Elimination of barriers to teacher mobility, especially portability of pension plans.
The list of what needs to be done suggests how deep the troubles are. The Education Department has promised to give consideration to the commission's recommendations. But states, localities and schools of education are where the heavy lifting has got to take place.
They've got to create high standards for teachers and hold candidates to them. Over the next decade, more than 100,000 new teachers will be recruited. This is not a problem; it's a huge opportunity to improve education in America. It won't happen unless we demand more.
In Germany, for instance, prospective teachers get degrees in two subjects, write a thesis, pass a series of oral and essay exams and then undertake a two-year internship with a mentor teacher. We have a long way to go. by CNB