Impending Teacher Shortage? I Don’t Believe It
by Carl SlaughterLink to article
Going back to college for a teaching certificate takes nearly 2 years and college tuition has skyrocketed, alternative certification programs require a certain grade point average no matter how long ago you graduated from college, transferrable skills are considered irrelevant because you can teach only the subject you majored in. Even teaching experience outside the public school system means nothing.
Alternative certification requirements are confusing, websites are not user friendly, information about certification was written by bureaucrats instead of recruiters, alternative certification programs that are billed as personalized and fast track are neither. Meanwhile, certification tests are very difficult to pass and are no reflection on skills, aptitude, or attitude.
Because of similar nonsense, I couldn’t even break into the teaching profession as a tutor, substitute teacher, teaching assistant, or even curriculum developer.
But organizations like Recruiting New Teachers and Teach for America keep cranking out those slick TV ads and slick brochures. Those ads and those brochures don’t mention the dirty little secrets of the teacher recruitment movement.
Those who make it through the gauntlet of certification and licensing face low pay, regulations, paperwork, and dubious evaluation procedures. They also have to make everybody happy – all 3 branches of federal, state, and local government, unions, parents.
They also have to answer to consultants, researchers, activists, journalists. Beginning in the 90’s, they started answering to CEOs. In my home state, the legislature even dispatched Gestapo-like agents with the authority to fire everyone from the superintendent down – with no stated justification, no due process, and no appeal.
How others deal with all this, I don’t know. I finally fled overseas, where my college degree was enough to get me into the classroom.
Teach English Abroad Yahoo
Tags: public-school-system, Recruiting-New-Teachers, Teach-for-America, teaching_certificate
May 26th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Your flight to employment overseas is our loss as a country and (your) previous community.
I can tell you are a person of passion that wants to teach not JUST for the pay (in Japan, teachers are paid as much as engineers and esteemed just as highly) but for the legacy you will leave behind in the children you will affect.
I hope that bottom-line obsessions are not the only criterion for teacher performance in the US. And I agree, CEOs should not have that kind of impact in the classroom with “Gestapo-like” firing tactics!
July 19th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Dejavue! I’ve just spent the last 2 years being jacked around by teachers colleges. They finally had to refuse me entry into the college because I had taken all the classes they offered. No reason given. (I guess they had sucked all the money they wanted out of me.) I have a BSEE (from that university) a Masters in Management, an associates in CS and 30 years experience in everything from agriculture to aerospace. No Teach For Me! Not Mine!
July 29th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I want to hear about teaching outside the U.S. I was never able to get a response from any website except those who want teachers to go to places like South Korea or Japan; I have no desire to go there.
I have an undergraduate degree in computer stuff and I started working on an MA in history. I chose the MA because it was a more flexible option: I can teach or I can work in a museum or library. Before I was done with the MA I was told that at my age (55 at the time) my best course of action was to volunteer in the inner city so that I “might be hired once they got to know me.” As I worked on all this, the education people at the local college told me I was a perfect candidate for teaching. They lied.