Last week, representatives from the McCain (Lisa Graham Keegan) and Obama (Linda Darling Hammond) campaigns met at Columbia University for a debate on education. Later in the week, in an open letter on The Huffington Post in response to the debate, Stanford University professor Martin Carnoy took issue with several of Senator McCain’s education policies, including his stance on teacher recruitment.
I’m not looking to take sides or to support one candidate’s proposed policies over those of the other. But I do take issue with the fact that Carnoy sells alternative certification programs short in his letter, as he only focuses on Teach for America and expresses his doubts about whether or not “alternatively certified teachers staying an average of two plus years in the classroom are going to make a serious long-term dent in improving education for academically shortchanged kids.”
What Carnoy neglects to mention is that Lisa Graham Keegan also named other alternative certification programs, including the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE), during the same segment of the debate when Teach for America was discussed. Anyone who has taken a close look at ABCTE knows that we’re not looking to plug teachers into the system for the short term as a quick fix (nor do I think that is Teach for America’s goal).
By focusing our efforts at ABCTE on recruiting mid-career professionals, we’re seeing that our teachers have staying power. After three years, 85% of ABCTE’s graduates are still teaching. Our rigorous program takes 8 to 10 months to complete on average and only 40% of ABCTE candidates pass our Professional Teaching Knowledge (PTK) exam the first time. Our candidates must also hold a bachelor’s degree from an approved college or university and pass a subject area exam as well as a background check. We’re not simply giving people “a quick course” and throwing them into the classroom, and I hope Carnoy understands that.
Carnoy also claims in his letter that “there just aren't enough highly skilled, relevantly prepared educators trained to work” in high need schools. I agree completely and that’s why ABCTE introduced the Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program in late 2007.
ABCTE’s Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program recruits, certifies, and supports highly effective new teachers of diverse cultural and professional backgrounds to work in high-need schools, districts, and subject areas. Teach & Inspire is already active in Florida and Mississippi (by the way, the deadline for the program’s current application period is November 15, 2008), and we’re looking to expand it into other states.
There are many phenomenal alternative certification programs out there, Teach for America among them, and Carnoy’s seemingly blanket dismissal of them all—intentional or not—is unfortunate. All programs need to be looked at independently and it very well may be a mix of these alternative certification methods that helps solve our teacher shortage problems over the long haul.
Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Education Debates
Tomorrow night there is an education debate between Lisa Graham-Keegan (McCain) and Linda Darling-Hammond (Obama). There have been a few debates between Lisa and various Obama representatives. The funny thing about these debates it that some of the Obama reps support and believe very different things.
At the October 10th debate at AEI between and Lisa (McCain) and Michael Johnston (Obama) – it was an ed reform love fest. Johnston helped start New Leaders for New Schools (alternative certification) and now runs a charter school in Denver. Can’t get more reform minded than that. He supports most education reforms (vouchers was not mentioned at this debate) and it was hard to tell the difference in education platforms between the two. The only difference seems to be that Johnson would spend more new dollars and Graham-Keegan is advocating smarter spending of current dollars.
But tomorrow night Linda Darling-Hammond will present a different agenda for Obama. She does not support alternative teacher certification and does not seem to support charters. She has been a champion of maintaining the status quo and she is representing Obama tonight.
So which education platform is the real Obama platform? Graham-Keegan scored with that thought at the October 10th debate making it look like he is indecisive on the issue or pandering to the status quo by riding the fence.
We know from his speeches that he is more reform minded on education. But anyone who has worked in the states knows that speeches don’t really count - - - it is who is in charge of doing the actual work that dictates which direction things move and right now we just don’t know what that would mean for an Obama administration.
At the October 10th debate at AEI between and Lisa (McCain) and Michael Johnston (Obama) – it was an ed reform love fest. Johnston helped start New Leaders for New Schools (alternative certification) and now runs a charter school in Denver. Can’t get more reform minded than that. He supports most education reforms (vouchers was not mentioned at this debate) and it was hard to tell the difference in education platforms between the two. The only difference seems to be that Johnson would spend more new dollars and Graham-Keegan is advocating smarter spending of current dollars.
But tomorrow night Linda Darling-Hammond will present a different agenda for Obama. She does not support alternative teacher certification and does not seem to support charters. She has been a champion of maintaining the status quo and she is representing Obama tonight.
So which education platform is the real Obama platform? Graham-Keegan scored with that thought at the October 10th debate making it look like he is indecisive on the issue or pandering to the status quo by riding the fence.
We know from his speeches that he is more reform minded on education. But anyone who has worked in the states knows that speeches don’t really count - - - it is who is in charge of doing the actual work that dictates which direction things move and right now we just don’t know what that would mean for an Obama administration.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
McCain Backs ABCTE
Washington, DC (July 16, 2008) —
If elected president, Arizona Senator John McCain would focus effort and energy toward recruiting talented career changers into the teaching profession. According to a speech today, McCain’s education platform will focus significantly on teacher recruitment, in light of the fact that America’s schools are suffering from a critical teacher shortage.
Under a proposal outlined by Senator McCain, additional funding would be set aside to help recruit career changers into the teaching profession.
In remarks at the 99th annual NAACP convention in Cincinnati today, McCain outlined a bold education reform agenda which includes an expansion of school choice and additional funding for alternative teacher recruitment programs. “Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification prevents them from getting that chance.”
“If I am elected president, school choice for all who want it, an expansion of Opportunity Scholarships, and alternative certification for teachers will all be part of a serious agenda of education reform,” McCain said. “I will target funding to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class, or who participate in an alternative teacher recruitment program such as Teach for America, the American Board for [Certification of] Teacher Excellence, and the New Teacher Project.”
ABCTE hailed McCain’s focus on innovative teacher recruitment and called on Senator Barack Obama, McCain’s opponent, to echo the same message.
Dave Saba, President of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence(ABCTE) stated: “We applaud and thank Senator McCain for highlighting the needs of America’s students in his speech before the NAACP today. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. We can only ensure a quality education when every child has a great teacher. Alternative teacher certification programs like the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence are bringing critical expertise into the classroom.”
ABCTE’s goal is to recruit talented professionals to change jobs and become teachers. Eight U.S. states currently use ABCTE to recruit and certify teachers, and the organization has recruited more than 6,000 talented career changers to enter the teaching profession.
ABCTE has made great strides this year in improving education. In May, Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri signed legislation creating an alternate route to teaching using the ABCTE program. In June Traci Brown, a scholarship recipient, earned the 1,000th certification issued by ABCTE. Most recently, Mathematica Policy Research released a survey showing that 85 percent of ABCTE teachers were still teaching three years after they were certified.
“It is great to see the candidates talking about this issue and recognizing programs like ABCTE that are having a positive impact on education,” said Saba. “ABCTE is not a partisan program; it is a way forward for all of America’s public, private and public charter schools suffering the effects of a critical teacher shortage. All candidates should embrace this effective alternative.”
About ABCTEThe American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is a non-profit organization, dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting dedicated professionals to improve student achievement through quality teaching. ABCTE is an innovative teacher preparation and certification program for highly knowledgeable individuals who want to change careers and become teachers. For more information about ABCTE, please visit www.abcte.org.
If elected president, Arizona Senator John McCain would focus effort and energy toward recruiting talented career changers into the teaching profession. According to a speech today, McCain’s education platform will focus significantly on teacher recruitment, in light of the fact that America’s schools are suffering from a critical teacher shortage.
Under a proposal outlined by Senator McCain, additional funding would be set aside to help recruit career changers into the teaching profession.
In remarks at the 99th annual NAACP convention in Cincinnati today, McCain outlined a bold education reform agenda which includes an expansion of school choice and additional funding for alternative teacher recruitment programs. “Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification prevents them from getting that chance.”
“If I am elected president, school choice for all who want it, an expansion of Opportunity Scholarships, and alternative certification for teachers will all be part of a serious agenda of education reform,” McCain said. “I will target funding to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class, or who participate in an alternative teacher recruitment program such as Teach for America, the American Board for [Certification of] Teacher Excellence, and the New Teacher Project.”
ABCTE hailed McCain’s focus on innovative teacher recruitment and called on Senator Barack Obama, McCain’s opponent, to echo the same message.
Dave Saba, President of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence(ABCTE) stated: “We applaud and thank Senator McCain for highlighting the needs of America’s students in his speech before the NAACP today. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. We can only ensure a quality education when every child has a great teacher. Alternative teacher certification programs like the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence are bringing critical expertise into the classroom.”
ABCTE’s goal is to recruit talented professionals to change jobs and become teachers. Eight U.S. states currently use ABCTE to recruit and certify teachers, and the organization has recruited more than 6,000 talented career changers to enter the teaching profession.
ABCTE has made great strides this year in improving education. In May, Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri signed legislation creating an alternate route to teaching using the ABCTE program. In June Traci Brown, a scholarship recipient, earned the 1,000th certification issued by ABCTE. Most recently, Mathematica Policy Research released a survey showing that 85 percent of ABCTE teachers were still teaching three years after they were certified.
“It is great to see the candidates talking about this issue and recognizing programs like ABCTE that are having a positive impact on education,” said Saba. “ABCTE is not a partisan program; it is a way forward for all of America’s public, private and public charter schools suffering the effects of a critical teacher shortage. All candidates should embrace this effective alternative.”
About ABCTEThe American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is a non-profit organization, dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting dedicated professionals to improve student achievement through quality teaching. ABCTE is an innovative teacher preparation and certification program for highly knowledgeable individuals who want to change careers and become teachers. For more information about ABCTE, please visit www.abcte.org.
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