Education Colleges Must Produce Better Teachers
It is hardly necessary to decry the test results of our California students. Numbers do not lie.
The solution is obviously to improve schools, but the question is: How?
Improvement is not possible now because the public has a cognitive disconnection between public schools in general and their school in particular.
Like attorneys and politicians, people hate schools in general but love their own. " All (politicians-lawyers-schools-HMOs) are rotten, but my (politician-lawyer-school-HMO) is excellent."
I served in the administration and spent 6,000 hours in the classroom of National University teaching Computer Science. I sat one afternoon while the president of the university read to the administration the recently recorded grades from the school of education. The recitation went something like this: "Class A, 36 students, 36 A grades; Class B, 44 students, 44 A's; Class C, 27 students, 27 A's ..." The litany continued fir several minutes.
I was not surprised. I had been taking graduate courses in the school of education for my second master's degree. I was constantly in the dean's office complaining that the curriculum was not sufficiently rigorous and that all our classes were being dismissed early.
To the credit of the administration, they fought mightily to increase standards and keep students in the classroom for a full period. It was a losing battle, because if they actually required difficult course work and longer seat time, the education students would go to another university with even less standards. Colleges and universities compete to obtain and retain all students.
In response to the recitation of only "A" grades being awarded, the dean of the school of education told me, "All parents want their children taught by teachers who were straight-A teachers in college."
Teachers are extremely important contributors to our society. Good teachers produce well-educated students, and there are many good teachers. The rate of remedial education required at the college level for our high school graduates, our state's competitive position vis a vis other states and our national competition against other industrialized nations indicating that our teaching staffs in general are not up to the task.
It is a fact that schools of education attract students with SAT scores substantially below those of other schools. We must recruit and retain better quality teachers before we can produce better quality graduates.
Many teachers are excellent, but there is a huge subculture of teachers who should not be permitted to teach.
Massachusetts had a huge debate when the scores of their public school teachers were made public. The state threatened to close some schools of education because the teachers' scores were so bad. California teachers have opposed any testing of teachers.
This is still a race between reform and revolution, and when the public finally gets over feeling good about public education, there will be a revolution.
It is overdue.
The solution is obviously to improve schools, but the question is: How?
Improvement is not possible now because the public has a cognitive disconnection between public schools in general and their school in particular.
Like attorneys and politicians, people hate schools in general but love their own. " All (politicians-lawyers-schools-HMOs) are rotten, but my (politician-lawyer-school-HMO) is excellent."
I served in the administration and spent 6,000 hours in the classroom of National University teaching Computer Science. I sat one afternoon while the president of the university read to the administration the recently recorded grades from the school of education. The recitation went something like this: "Class A, 36 students, 36 A grades; Class B, 44 students, 44 A's; Class C, 27 students, 27 A's ..." The litany continued fir several minutes.
I was not surprised. I had been taking graduate courses in the school of education for my second master's degree. I was constantly in the dean's office complaining that the curriculum was not sufficiently rigorous and that all our classes were being dismissed early.
To the credit of the administration, they fought mightily to increase standards and keep students in the classroom for a full period. It was a losing battle, because if they actually required difficult course work and longer seat time, the education students would go to another university with even less standards. Colleges and universities compete to obtain and retain all students.
In response to the recitation of only "A" grades being awarded, the dean of the school of education told me, "All parents want their children taught by teachers who were straight-A teachers in college."
Teachers are extremely important contributors to our society. Good teachers produce well-educated students, and there are many good teachers. The rate of remedial education required at the college level for our high school graduates, our state's competitive position vis a vis other states and our national competition against other industrialized nations indicating that our teaching staffs in general are not up to the task.
It is a fact that schools of education attract students with SAT scores substantially below those of other schools. We must recruit and retain better quality teachers before we can produce better quality graduates.
Many teachers are excellent, but there is a huge subculture of teachers who should not be permitted to teach.
Massachusetts had a huge debate when the scores of their public school teachers were made public. The state threatened to close some schools of education because the teachers' scores were so bad. California teachers have opposed any testing of teachers.
This is still a race between reform and revolution, and when the public finally gets over feeling good about public education, there will be a revolution.
It is overdue.
posted by Kimo | 8:34 AM
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