TIMMS - mediocrity reigns supreme

I was going to blog on TIMSS and talk about the mediocre performance of our schools in math and science and how we can never be competitive as a nation unless we lead in the area of technological expertise – but most other bloggers already have. So then I thought I could do a great summary of what other bloggers said about the TIMSS results and provide that to our loyal readers – but then I found that Core Knowledge already did that as well.

Based on these results, wouldn’t it be great to test all the teachers in these countries on the math and science content. I would be willing to bet a substantial sum, that the results would pretty much mirror the students. We have now highlighted the problem – now we need to come up with viable solutions and they come down to two core actions as evidenced by the McKinsey study we so often cite.

• Develop a rigorous standards based curriculum
• Be highly selective (like ABCTE) on who gets in front of our students

‘Nuff said – now have a great weekend

Why we do this job!

This is why the people of ABCTE get up excited to come to work in the morning:

Oconee County School District's First ABCTE-Certified Teacher Making 'Positive Impact' at Alma Mater

This time last year, Blake Hedden was working as an instructional aide in the Oconee County school district. Now, he’s teaching General Science at his old high school, getting rave reviews and inspiring others to pursue a teaching career.

Hedden began pursuing his teaching certification last spring through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) via the Oconee County school district’s new “Grow Our Own” program. Hedden passed ABCTE’s rigorous program—which takes most candidates 8 to 10 months and includes both a subject area exam and a professional teaching knowledge exam—in just four months, becoming Oconee County’s first ABCTE-certified teacher.

“The ABCTE program has afforded Blake an opportunity to enter the teaching profession. Blake worked diligently throughout the certification process and is now making a positive impact as a physical science teacher at Walhalla High School, his alma mater,” said Rob Rhodes, Coordinator of Teacher Quality for the School District of Oconee County.

At Walhalla, Hedden is finding the adjustment to his new career to be a smooth one. “Most first time teachers have to deal with getting used to the area in which they end up finding a job and taking the time to establish themselves in the community,” explains Hedden. “In my case, I was born and raised right here, walked the halls of this school, sat in the very classroom I now teach in, and have the opportunity to work as contemporaries with some of my own teachers.”

Hedden cites ABCTE’s certification program as one of the things that has helped set him up for success in the classroom. “Even though I have some previous experience in the classroom as an instructional aide, during these last few months I have found myself using different strategies to maintain and control the atmosphere in my classes, often times drawing from the theory and instruction from ABCTE,” said Hedden.

The classroom is not the only place Hedden is putting his skills to work, according to Rhodes. “We are very proud of Blake. He was an ideal candidate for our district's new 'Grow Our Own' program and is already assisting other candidates as they navigate this pathway to certification. Blake recently spoke at one of our District School Board meetings, communicating the merits of this program. He discussed how ABCTE afforded him the chance to give back to his students, school and community and realize his dream of becoming a teacher.”

More than anything else, Hedden is in his new job because he seeks to make a positive impact on the lives of students. “I try to make a point every day to go a little further than simply teaching the material of the day,” he explains. “I try to speak positive words into the lives of my students and give out good advice that will most likely serve them better than knowing the definition of an isotope or ion. These are the things I remember from my favorite teachers coming through and my hope is that I will be able to impact my students in the same way.”

About ABCTE
The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded via a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. ABCTE is dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting dedicated professionals to improve student achievement through quality teaching. For more information on ABCTE, please visit www.abcte.org or call 877-669-2228.

Math and Science Problems

Great article about the shortage of math and science teachers affecting even suburban schools now. These are schools that normally have a waiting list for jobs and now they cant find math and science teachers. Why is that?

Salary is definitely a factor. But the article points out that just 1% of the degrees in this country were in math and science. Our K-12 schools are turning out less students with a passion and expertise in math and science and that is affecting the number of people who go into the field. And they won’t get the passion unless they have great math and science teachers to inspire them.

There is hope. I always say that it is not one thing, it is everything that eventually solves a problem. First, we need serious cross training of great teachers through summer institutes in math and science. After the completion of this training, these teachers should get a significant bump in pay to teach science. The training would be ongoing to ensure that they continue to enhance their skills. Many areas have a surplus of elementary teachers – find those with desire and help them help us.

Second, we need more professionals in the field to transition into teaching. There are many out there who cannot wait to teach but will not go through the traditional hours of course work. We continue to get large numbers of career changers into the classroom through the ABCTE program but we could do more if states and districts work with us.

Third, we cannot ignore the basic economics of supply and demand. When there is a shortage of a resource, the price goes up. We need differentiated pay to attract more math and science experts into our schools.

Fourth, we need new math and science models for teaching. Part time teaching from the semi-retired, sharing physics teachers among 3-4 high schools and using an online science master teaching hundreds of students while in class teaching aides work with groups of students all need to be used to stretch limited resources.

This current math/science teaching shortage is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. We need action now.

Disconnected

We are from Washington and we are here to help - that line always gets a chuckle out in the various state leaders I visit. The chuckle comes from a belief that people in Washington couldn't possibly know what is needed in their state.

Yet their I sit confronted by the people who approve certification programs and they are totally disconnected from the reality of what is going on in the classrooms. In Nevada last week, they are trying to uphold the absolute highest standards of teacher certification by keeping things the same. And just a few miles away, Clark County was SHORT 1,163 teachers in June and had to bring over 50 teachers from the Philippines and were still woefully short.

They are keeping out people like Martin Jones, 51, who just completed our program in rural Idaho and is now qualified to teach General Science, Biology and Physics. He is teaching at a public high school that graduated 19 last year - without him, these students don't have a high school science teacher. His knowledge and experience in the sciences have created an amazing classroom experience for his students.

They are keeping out Randolph Messineo of Alabama, 52, an Air Force veteran who is going to retire from the military and teach elementary school. He is going to move to a state that accepts ABCTE because the program worked best for him as he was getting out of the military. Alabama just lost a great male teacher - something very rare in today's elementary schools.

If you don't have enough teachers applying for jobs - the quality you are willing to accept to have a person teaching that class drops significantly.

The rules and regulations designed to raise quality are keeping people like Martin and Randolph out of most classrooms and replace them with teachers from other countries and long term substitutes.

Rome in burning - put down the fiddle and find a plan that works.

Subject Matter Matters

I have been in 4 different states meeting with 4 different state education chiefs and all of them expressed the same concern - there is a serious lack of subject matter knowledge in their math teachers. Therefore it was with great pleasure that I read the Title II draft and saw the emphasis on STEM professional development for teachers. It is with great sadness that I read that all the money had to go to institutions of higher ed (hopefully this will change).

In my state meetings, there is deep concern about this issue. All teachers must know the craft of teaching, but if the students know more than the algebra teacher, problems will continue in our high schools. We have all got to work together to fix this - and it will not happen overnight based upon the SATs of our current group of teachers.

The ABCTE founders created this program to address this dearth of subject matter expertise in our schools and we continue that charge today. America's schools are in a downward spiral where they produce students with weak math and science skills who are now becoming our next math and science teachers contributing to the death spiral.

We have go to stop the madness and get teachers into our schools who have the math and science knowledge, have the passion for the subjects AND know how to teach.

I can tell you that we are working harder than ever to meet with those states that working hard to reverse this trend.