Stop the Madness

Birmingham, Alabama took a very strange step last week. They decided to continue to hire teachers from the Philippines even though Baldwin County used this same route a few years ago and it didn’t work out so hot. And they are recruiting overseas in spite of the fact that so many people in this country have lost their jobs.

People wonder why we education reformers get so irate. But here we have an excellent example of maintaining the status quo just because that is what you have done in the past in spite of evidence telling you not to go down this path again. Baldwin County hired 12 teachers from the Philippines through Avenida International Consultants in 2007, and only three of those teachers remain today. That's a stunning 25 percent retention rate, yet Birmingham is ready to hire teachers through that same recruitment agency.

In the nine states where ABCTE operates, we have a teacher retention rate of 85 percent after three years. Additionally, 95 percent of principals rated American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence teachers to be as effective, or more effective, than their peers.

It seems insane that Alabama schools would go down a path that already failed them once when there are more viable options that can help them fill their math and science positions with people here in the United States that need jobs today. But maybe the administrators just like going on junkets to the Philippines with education dollars instead of dedicating them to the students.

COME ON!!!

If you are not annoyed you are not paying attention. This should be the new bumper sticker of all in education – especially all of us who work in teaching.

A report by ETS that is just stunning to me - - the percentage of 8th grade math students on free and reduced lunch whose teachers left before the end of the school is year is 67%.

Breaking it down by race the percentage of white students whose 8th grade math teacher left before the end of the year is 28%. But for black students it is 52% and for Hispanic students it is 44%.

We are not going to affect the achievement gap if we can't get teachers to even finish out the year.

Now how in the world can you be college ready if two thirds of our students can’t even get an 8th grade math teacher to finish the school year. I know that some people have problems with ABCTE teachers who are alternatively certified but 85% of our teachers are still teaching AFTER THREE YEARS!!

Come on!! Get annoyed out there – this is ridiculous

Oklahoma is the 9th ABCTE State!

Last night Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma signed SB582 into law allowing ABCTE teachers to teach in Oklahoma. This is the 9th state that now accepts ABCTE teachers and the unanimous passage of this bill in the Oklahoma House says some pretty great things about our program.
1. The content we have added to the program makes it easier for states to accept our teachers
2. The data we have gathered is compelling evidence that our teachers are doing well in the classroom
3. Alternative certification just isn’t so radical anymore
None of the education groups opposed the bill. This leads to the conclusion that, with the changes we have made, our program is a common sense solution to math/science teacher shortages. Left to make a decision on their own, all of the House members in Oklahoma decided that common sense should prevail.

Also note that the changes we have made to the program were due to the input from education groups. So the result is that by listening to them, we can improve the program yet remain true to our goals. A pretty good feeling.

Nice coverage from Steve Sawchuk on the Edweek blog here. Now on to the 10th state…..

ABCTE Teachers

I would urge you to go to the Meet our Teachers section of our website. It is really quite incredible and the reason we exist. Here you will learn about Angela Moore who worked in the military and other careers before finding teaching as her calling. With her spouse in the military, it was tough for her to complete any teacher preparation program that did not have an independent study option. With ABCTE sh was able to teach. With our scholarship program, she could do it now.

Mississippi has a very difficult time finding teachers. The fact that we were able to recruit people like Angela to teach in Mississippi high schools is incredibly rewarding and the reason we all work so hard to get other states to accept our teachers.

Part 2: What is happening to teaching jobs

Guest Blog by Jessica Morris, ABCTE Teacher Preparation Manager

I have the honor of moderating ABCTE’s forums [link], where I get to hear the personal stories from our driven and dedicated teachers from all over the world. In contrast to the negative economic news from the media, the forums are a fascinating look at what is happening in districts and schools. Many new teachers are scared that there will be no jobs in September and backup their posts with stories of district layoffs. Yet, others post that nearby districts are in fact growing or that, thanks to ABCTE, they have been hired full time as a fully certified teacher after working first on a temporary certificate.

There is a “ying/yang” that occurs on our forums. Someone will post good news to counter the bad news and there is always a post of hope or support to balance the messages of economic uncertainty. While everyone knows that times are tougher in some places, the forums contain real life stories showing that it may be better than the streams of bad news indicate. Some people are still finding opportunities out there and no one yet knows how the federal stimulus money will affect job openings and new leadership roles for teachers.

Our prospective teachers on the forums have demonstrated that in order to get hired you have to go the extra mile. For those that are currently teaching and find themselves surrounded by shrinking or consolidating school districts, now is the time to boost their teaching portfolios and skill sets to show that they are vital to their students’ and schools’ success [some recent evidence of this here from a Florida teacher http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/14/95610/6865]. Yes, teachers already have too much to do and too little time. But by finding even just an hour or two in their schedules, teachers can find new opportunities for increased efficiency and growth. The first rule in a recession is to make yourself incredibly valuable to any organization.

As a starting point, below are a few suggestions of some free professional development resources:
• Annenberg Media’s Learner.org http://www.learner.org/index.html
Offers free professional development workshops and courses which consist of video, print, and Web components that can be used for study groups or independent study.
• Electronic Field Trips from Ball State University http://www.bsu.edu/eft/home/31digest.php
This site is a result of partnerships between Ball State University and museums, national parks, and historic sites across the country. Teachers can become technology leaders by using electronic resources to expose their students to faraway locations for a more rich and active learning environment.
• MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
MIT has made a variety of its courseware, including lecture notes, videos, and syllabi, available for free. There are even suggestions for how to incorporate this content into the high school classrooms: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm
• Teacher Development from Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development
This site features videos and articles related to teacher development and its connection to interactive learning environments and overall best practices.
• Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook from EdWeek.org http://www.teachersourcebook.org/tsb/index.html An interactive directory of K-12 products and services for professional development organized into categories. EdWeek also keeps an archive of its ongoing free webinars: http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/webinars/webinars.html#archived .

Whether you are new to the profession or a veteran, using internet resources, books, peer learning groups and other materials, you can build on your credentials and show your administrators that you are invaluable staff members that are able and willing adapt to the evolving knowledge, skills and demands of the K-12 classroom.

Series on What is Happening with Teaching Jobs
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Great Schools

Spent the last few days in Arizona and got to visit the Basis School in Scottsdale to see how a charter school can be the top ranked High School in the Nation. Taking a tour and meeting the directors, you can see why. They push and they push hard. The middle school students were doing advanced algebra (as a former engineer I really got into solving two variables and didn’t want to leave). They integrate the curriculum across subjects moving aspects from one subject to another to maximize time and effectiveness in class. The charter school at it's best.

They thoroughly address one of my pet peeves – they teach middle school students how to study. They let them know that studying for a test is not just reading a worksheet once. The one former TFA teacher worked with his Geography students to make sure they understood where they were weak and how to strengthen skills to ensure they were ready for the test. THIS IS HUGE! I spent way too much time working with my middle schoolers because no one taught them to study – it was left to parents. I always thought that it was one great way to ensure we continued the achievement gap since public schools don't teach kids how to study. In fact if kids come to Basis later in middle school they have to do some study skill boot camp in the afternoons so that these kids can keep up.

They have pass rate percentages on AP exams in the 90’s. These kids are motivated and because the curriculum is so demanding from middle school on, they are ready for college level courses at a very early age.

Could this be replicated through all schools? Probably not. But if we had thousands of these schools, we would really move forward as a competitive nation. It was amazing and I look forward to having some great ABCTE teachers there in the future.

Mentoring - still searching

For true alternative teacher certification programs, mentoring is a critical component to ensure that career changers are brought up to speed as fast as possible. In an independent study of ABCTE teachers, we were very presently surprised to see that 83% of our first year teachers had a mentor and received about 45 minutes per week with that mentor. So our school districts are helping new teachers.

But how effective is that mentoring? Mathematica Policy Research just came out with a randomized study of the mentoring program that was the gold standard – The New Teacher Center’s program. This program can cost school districts around $5,000 per teacher so with that kind of investment, you want a good pay off.

Some quick thoughts from the study -

1. 17 districts and several hundred teachers were involved. The majority of students in each district were low-income
2. Control group received normal mentoring and the treatment group got either the New Teacher Center or the ETS program
3. Plan is for 7 districts to keep up with the study during a second year of mentoring
   
4. Major finding is that if you give teachers a more intensive mentoring program, they report receiving more mentoring
5. Study did NOT find any impacts on student achievement or teacher observation scores or retention

We all continue to look for the one thing that might help all teachers and students perform at a higher level. It appears that these mentoring programs are not it and that we need to keep looking.