Alternative Teacher Certification is part of the solution

Secretary Arne Duncanhit the one-two punch of teacher preparation this week focusing in on how poorly are teachers are prepared in general and then how they need a greater emphasis on math and science if we are to succeed as a nation.

“By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom”

So very true.

Increased subject matter expertise, more diversity in experience and culture, greater emphasis on recruiting top performers and more field based training - all point to alternative teacher certification like ABCTE as a big part of that solution.

A shift lost in the shock

Wow – some harsh words for TFA from the NEA. It is amazing that after close to 20 years, they are still going after them. Right now the NEA is doing what any union is supposed to do – raise the specter of job losses and fight for member jobs. They have targeted TFA it is getting ugly.

There is support in the RTTBOC (Race to the Bags o’ Cash) otherwise known as Race to the Top for Alternative Teacher Certification. We are formulating our support during the comment period with some minor tweaks as are many of the other groups focused on improving teachers.

But here is what the NEA had to say by way of a critique:
NEA supports alternative routes to licensure, including high quality alternative certification programs. We know of many programs that do require evidence of excellence in the content area taught and have a carefully designed program of required course work in pedagogy and work with a mentor teacher.

In most alternative certification programs, however, the candidates are not fully certified for two years. And in one particular program, Teach for America, candidates are scheduled to leave teaching just as the two years are completed.

We agree that the Race to the Top programs should be focusing on the most challenging schools. And the research is clear that a highly qualified and stable workforce is necessary for true reforms to take hold. Experience, stability, content knowledge, access to induction and mentoring programs, and preparation for teaching diverse learners (cultural, linguistic and students with unique needs) will be key to the most qualified staff in high priority schools. Plans should be designed to attract and retain the best prepared, fire-tested, career individuals who plan to be there for the duration. Alternative certification candidates should be the last ones assigned to schools targeted for real reforms.

What will get lost in the scuffle with TFA is a pretty huge shift in policy for them. This is a pretty big compromise from NEA. In the past they would not allow anyone into teaching who had not gone through the Ed schools and they had to have had student teaching. This was their fight for years. So this statement is a pretty nice move to find common ground.

But that compromise will get lost in the shock to education reformers for their favorite program.

Conference Shut out

Tonight I head to the New Schools Venture Fund conference in Los Angeles where I will hear about great education entrepreneurs and how they can impact today’s students. I do look forward to the networking that will be involved but get tired of hearing about the same few entrepreneurs at every conference – KIPP, TFA, TNTP and New Leaders. Many of these conferences lament the fact that there are not more entrepreneurs in education and yet they can only bring these same people on stage to talk about why. They never seem to realize that they are creating the classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Funders only fund what they hear about and they only hear about the few education entrepreneurs out there because they are the only ones allowed to present.

Unless you somehow missed my subtle rant – I am whining that ABCTE is still left behind in the education space. We have never been deemed worthy enough to make it to the dais of the education world in spite of solid data, the most cost effective and scaleable teacher recruitment model and incredible progress. I guess it is not entrepreneurial enough to take a program to self-sufficiency in the non-profit world.

So we will continue to attend the conferences in the audience and participate as a “funding stalker” at the breaks and use every opportunity to let people know there are other education groups out here making a difference.

You just wouldn’t know it from the conference presenter list.

3 minute interview

Yay Examiner - gave us a nice interview - always helps when the interviewer is a TFA alum!

3 minute interview Dave Saba

Reforming Title II

Ed Sector and Andy Rotherham put for a pretty ambitious plan for the Obama Department of Education. In this chapter, he takes on Title II funding – the $3 Billion in spending each year where “tangible results form these efforts are scant and there is little evidence that these funds are driving the sort of changes that are aligned with broader human capital reform efforts in education.”

For the 2006-7 school year 47 percent of Title II funding went to class size reduction which has not produced great results and 32 percent went to professional development which has in large part become a joke – or in the think tank parlance “compared poorly to the other” professional development for other fields.

Rotherham then does the unthinkable in Washington – he proposes fully leveraging existing high performing programs like ABCTE, Teach for America and The New Teacher Project in order to help solve the human capital issues facing our schools.

This is nothing short of outstanding. In a city where “the new always” is a better solution than “what is working”, I applaud Rotherham’s thoughts and efforts and thank him for a thoughtful look at the problem. It appears that he is creating his dream job in the Obama Department of Education and right about now, I would really support that. And as a former Navy guy would love to see Powell for Sec Ed.

Please read more here.

Bringing Ed Reform to Scale

Yet another data point on the selectivity model for improving education. By selecting teachers from top universities, charter schools in Boston are getting better results for their students. This is pointed out in an editorial over at Gadfly today by Steven Wilson from Ascend Charter schools.

There are 7 charter schools that are realizing significantly higher student learning gains on the state’s MCAS tests. Over 50% of the teachers in those schools are from elite universities compared to 19% at public schools.

But then Steven does something that most education reformers refuse to think about. Can you bring that model to scale. Can we slowly replace all 2.6 million teachers with teacher from elite schools (note I used a little thing called math to pull out the 19% already from elite schools). He thinks not.

From his editorial:“Each year, about 142,000 students graduate from highly selective postsecondary institutions (Barron's top two ranks). Even if one in every ten of their graduates entered teaching for two years (the average tenure at many no-excuses schools) before moving onto other careers, they would provide for only six percent of the 438,914 teachers currently working in the 66 member districts of the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS). Simply put, we might have enough of these teachers to staff a few hundred more No Excuses schools, but not a few thousand more, and certainly not enough to reach every disadvantaged child in America.”

This is the same problem with KIPP and TFA which are highly touted as the solution for education woes. While they are great programs we need to simultaneously invest in programs like ABCTE that can be brought to scale efficiently and effectively.

The Battles Rage On

Interesting discussion in Education Next on Teach for America. I am amazed that after 19 years there is still discussion on whether it is good for schools. Somehow the education establishment, in this case appropriately represented by Art Wise, always wants the change agent to show why the program is good.

But can anyone show me after 19 years the adverse affects of TFA on students. They have had an impact on close to 500,000 students - but I don't see a huge outcry from those students against TFA. Is it better to use a long term sub who does not have any training? The arguments used against TFA in the article say that the TFA teachers wouldn’t be hired if there wasn’t a shortage. In one instance, Art makes the point for TFA over other programs since they at least have had some preparation in teaching in an urban setting.

Seriously – that is the argument against TFA???

If there wasn’t a shortage, TFA, TNTP and ABCTE would not have been formed. If the Ed schools could meet the need and all of our K-12 schools, especially our rural and urban schools had great teachers, then we would all probably go out of business.

But they cannot address the need because college students today are not choosing to go into an ed school. NECES stats show that in 1972, 23% of all bachelor’s degrees were in education and today it is down to 7%.

We are in a different world today and K-12 schools have to adapt with new programs to help meet that need.

If I were Art Wise I would be more concerned with the fact that according to the latest 990 over at Guidestar, TFA has over $50M in assets and a budget of $55M each year to add 2,100 new teachers to the pipeline. That’s $26,000 per teacher which is not cheap.

Perhaps there are more cost effective ways to recruit and certify teachers (note: shameless plug)

Charter Schools: help is on the way

The Issue:
• Teachers have the greatest influence on student achievement
• There are not enough great teachers
• School districts have TFA and TNTP to help them
• Charter schools need to start demonstrating that they are really increasing student achievement
• Charter schools are not getting the staffing they need

The Solution:
• Hold ABCTE recruitment events just for Charter and Private Schools

So that is what we are doing next week. In Arizona we will hold two teacher recruitmentevents just for public charter schools. Those career-changers that are ready to get into teaching will complete our preparation program to ensure they are ready to go and be ready to teach by the fall.

“Human Capital” is the new buzz word in education. It is just a fancy way of saying we have a severe shortage of great teachers. If we don’t all start working together to get more great people into the classroom, we can never truly impact student achievement and improve our schools.