Our
View: Teachers get new standards
In
an amazing move toward educational equality,
new requirements placed upon elementary
and secondary school teachers will mean
higher standards especially in the lower
income neighborhood Title 1 schools.
The
No Child Left Behind Act will require teachers
to be "highly qualified," meaning
that they must have completed at least one
year of post-baccalaureate education, or
they must pass subject matter tests and
be in the progress of completing a credential
program.
This
act has upset the otherwise peaceful lives
of these teachers, causing many to take
lower paying jobs when their temporary permits
run out. But for the scores of children
going to school in California's 5,569 Title
1 schools this act has the potential to
finally create a level playing field.
The
outcry from teachers is understandable,
but strange considering their greatest interest
should be the students. With many low income
neighborhood schools having a majority of
these less qualified teachers, it has the
potential to create vicious cycles early
on where students have trouble learning
on a higher levels.
Also
the standards for a highly qualified teacher
are not so extreme that in the five years
the state gave them emergency permits for
they could not do something to make themselves
more qualified to be teaching. Just in California
last year about 20,000 permits were issued,
those teachers have a responsibility to
become accredited or further their education.
The
reason Title 1 schools are targeted for
the NCLB act is because they receive federal
funds to help support them. The law also
requires that by the 2005-06 school year
that all schools employ only highly qualified
teachers.
If
teaching is what these less qualified teachers
want to do, then they should want it enough
to do it right. We live in a country where
we spend an enormous amount of money on
education and put out test scores like we
are letting monkeys run our schools. Even
in Long Beach there are 270 teachers who
are still on emergency permits because they
have either enrolled in a credential program
or could not pass the entrance tests. These
teachers should not be in a classroom anyway.
On
the other side, the school districts who
employ these teachers are often already
short, and those teachers who are fired
often end up substituting in the classes
while new teachers are found. If the government
is going to set these strict guidelines
for teachers they need to be universal,
otherwise how can teachers be prepared for
what is going to be required of them next.
If they don't know what they need to do
to keep their job and become a "highly
qualified" teacher how can the state
expect have anybody in our classrooms.
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