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Illinois School Board Journal
March-April 1999
Teachers are the key
Set aside the national and state uproar over testing.
Forget, for the moment, the politically charged issues of vouchers and choice.
Shut out the clamor of whole language vs. phonics and creationism vs. science.
What is the key to student achievement?
If you said high-quality teachers, you're in tune with nine out of ten Americans who in a recent survey said that the most important way to improve student achievement is to make sure there is a well-qualified teacher in every classroom. Teachers won out over standards, tests, vouchers, privatization, and school uniforms in a nationwide poll sponsored by Recruiting New Teachers Inc. (RNT) and pollster Louis Harris. For the first time, the public rated teachers over doctors in terms of their impact on quality of life.
The survey results aren't surprising. Almost everyone understands the key role of the classroom teacher. When we remember our own school years, among the outstanding memories are the extraordinary teachers who inspired and encouraged us - as well as the occasional duds who made school a misery.
Now, school reformers are taking aim at teachers. Scandalous failure rates on teacher competency tests in Massachusetts made headlines all over the country, followed by reports of widespread failures in other states. The notorious difficulty of firing a tenured teacher adds fuel to the flame.
Tales of widespread teacher incompetence may be an "urban legend," one of those stories that is passed along until everyone assumes it is true. A few highly-publicized instances can go a long way toward creating an urban legend - and, in this case, overshadowing the good work being done, quietly and without fanfare, by thousands of teachers around the nation.
Yet, there is evidence that many teachers feel overwhelmed and unprepared to meet the demands of today's diverse, technological classrooms. According to a report from the U.S. Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, less than half of U.S. teachers feel "very well prepared" to take on the challenges of teaching in a modern classroom. At a time when 78 percent of public schools have access to the Internet, only 20 percent of the teachers reported feeling very well prepared to integrate educational technology into classroom instruction. Similarly, only about 20 percent said they felt very well prepared to meet the needs of students with limited English-speaking ability and special needs students.
Of the teachers surveyed, 28 percent said they felt very well prepared to use student performance assessment techniques; 41 percent felt very well prepared to implement new teaching methods; and 36 percent said they were very well prepared to implement state or district curriculum and performance standards. The amount of experience teachers had did not seem to affect how well prepared they felt to do their jobs.
Booming student enrollments, along with a new call for reduced class size and retirements of veteran teachers, bring teacher quality issues into high focus. The nation will need two million more teachers over the next ten years, according to U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley. Faced with an urgent need for teachers, some school districts may be tempted to lower, rather than raise, their hiring standards.
Riley, in January, called for voluntary national certification standards.
The Illinois State Board of Education will begin in July to phase in a three-tiered teacher licensing system, implementing a law enacted in 1997, that in many regards anticipates the national standards proposed by Riley.
Under the new law, teachers will earn:
The final details are being worked out and the new system should be ready to go by July 1, said Robert Sampson, division administrator, division of professional certification for the Illinois State Board of Education.
To ensure that schools of education graduate candidates can meet the standards, the State Board is proposing a process calling for teacher education institutions to meet rules incorporating standards and procedures developed by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The schools would have to comply with the new standards by July 1, 2003. (For comments from three Illinois teacher education programs, see "Educating Educators.")
Secretary Riley, in his January speech, outlined several U.S. Department of Education initiatives to strengthen the teaching force. They include a national job bank and clearinghouse for teacher recruitment, a national conference on teacher quality, a national study focusing on preparing and recruiting mathematics and science teachers, and a study by the Natural Academy of Sciences to analyze the current state of teacher testing and recommend improvements.
In addition to these efforts, Riley called for stronger accountability measures, an end to social promotion, turning around failing schools, and phasing out emergency teacher certification.
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