The agenda for the September Regents meeting contains a shocking resolution: the state will allow school districts to hire substitute teachers without a valid teaching certificate. How is this possible? Schools can bypass teachers who have spent years studying and hire anyone to become a teacher? Should we be outraged? What’s going on?
The state is still suffering from ill-advised decisions by former commissioner John King.
There are two ways of creating institutional change: either force the change through and defend or work with stakeholders (“Participation Reduces Resistance”) to develop a level of consensus. Building consensus is time-consuming with many bumps along the road, using the power of an office to change policy can anger and alienate stakeholders as well as result in unintended consequences.
The Obama administration “took on” the education establishment, from state departments of education to teacher unions, an attempt to remake the education landscape. The Race to the Top dangled $4.4 billion in competitive grants if states agreed to create teacher evaluation plans based on growth in student test scores and increase the number of charter schools. Additionally, the administration supported increasing the quality of new teacher candidates. In New York State Commissioner King pushed through the Board of Regents a dramatic change in teacher preparation requirements. Teacher candidates would have to pass four examinations in order to receive a teaching certificate in New York State.
EdTPA, “The edTPA requires a lengthy electronic portfolio that includes written work and videos of candidates interacting with K-12 students. Obtaining parental consent is required for video recording…. All edTPA materials must be submitted to Pearson, Inc. through web-based platforms. Pearson, Inc. scores the edTPA,” Academic Literacy Skills Test (ALST) is a three and a half hour general knowledge test containing both multiple choice and essay questions (see sample questions here) Educating All Students (EAS), a multiple choice and essay test specifically asking questions regarding students with special needs and English language learners, and, a Content Specialty Test (CST), also a three hour test, containing both multiple choice and essay questions specific to the candidates certification area.
The four tests cost about $1,000 plus additional costs for study guides and prep sessions.
The union representing college teachers at the State Universities oppose the tests, as an intrusion on academic freedom.
In reality the tests have turned college teacher preparation programs into test prep mills. Not only are the tests required for teacher certification; college will be “judged” by the state based on candidate pass rates.
The results on the exams have been so catastrophic that the state has created a safety net for candidates.
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has dropped drastically, across New York State enrollment has dropped between 20 of 40 percent. Failure rates on the exams are highest among students of color and students whose native language is other than English; candidates that the state especially wants to attract into teaching.
The unintended result has been that instead of increasing the quality of teacher preparation candidates the state has created a growing teacher shortage across the state necessitating allowing persons without valid teaching certificates to work as substitute teachers. Instead of increasing the quality of teachers the state is allowing completely unprepared teachers into classrooms,
With the departure of King the Regents are moving to remedy the ill-advised policy.
Regent Cashin, the chair of the Higher Education Committee has held hearings across the state, with hundreds of participants from both public and private colleges. Slowly the educational establishment has moved toward a consensus.
Hopefully over the next few months the Regents will reduce the number of examinations and perhaps revise the content of the tests.
Whether the imposition of the tests was even necessary is open to question.
The Council on the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has spent a number of years, with widespread involvement of the national education community developing standards that would apply to all teacher preparation programs including raising the bar for entrants to programs. In fact, with the requirement that teacher preparation programs undergo periodic CAEP reviews why is it necessary for states to impose additional requirements on teacher preparation candidates?
Programs generally agree that the edTPA, embedded within teacher educations programs is a useful tool, the other exams are highly questionable. There is no evidence that grades on the exams have any correlation with success in the classroom.
Teachers, and their unions, have been under unrelenting pressure from the so-called reformers, rather than leading to changes that will improve teaching and learning the “teacher bashing” has chased potential candidates away from the profession, and, maybe, the candidates that you most want to attract.
When Arnie Duncan and John King raced to change the face of teaching; they jumped at untested, ill-advised ideas and, as it turns out, producing counterproductive policies.
Hopefully, in New York State, the Regents will repair the damage done by the previous educational leadership.
Ed In The Apple 
Looks like Humpty Dumpty to me. For a decade now parents have been discouraging their kids from entering the field of education. Often these very parents were/are themselves educators. They have witnessed an unpresidented attack on employees with outrageous tactics used, seen people with no experience placed as Principals and watched with horror as these mostly incompetents have bullied, coerced, and threatened staff and actually changed grades, or granted unearned credits to students. They have seen highly respected colleagues removed from positions and replaced with cheaper, untenured, well meaning but untrained and incompetent young people who try to do this job and fail. “The beatings will continue until morale improves” is the motto. The turnover rate of new staff especially at the high school level is enormous as these newbies have no senior staff to turn to, and are threatened with termination for enforcing discipline, and attempting to create an atmosphere of scholarship. With stalled pay and budget reductions choking resources, and denigrating remarks filling the newspapers and airwaves, an improving economy and private sector work offering better pay and better hours, and with student discipline nonexistent, why would young people take this work?
Who is recommending to young people who matter to them that they enter this maelstrom? VERY FEW!
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I am one of those parents. Told my child a few years ago she couldn’t be a teacher. She’s old enough to know what’s going on and she has even written about it for a few class assignments. Too bad her teachers never responded to her writing.
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Registration for teacher education programs is way, way down.
• the recession is over
• the hoops and hurdles to become a teacher these days is daunting
• the bashing of schools and teachers is demoralizing
• the evaluation schemes and extensions to become tenured is also demoralizing
Back to the seventies…..if they can fog up only one side of the mirror when placed under their noses….hire ’em!
Sad.
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