|
Teacher
Standards Held For Higher Scores
Gongwer News Service, August 9, 2005
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org.
With ever
increasing standards for K-12 students, the State Board of
Education decided Tuesday that proposed standards for new
teachers were not increasing at the same rate. The board held
off action on proposed revisions to the state's professional
standards for teachers to allow another look at the scores new
teachers should achieve on those standards.
The board also officially cut off new applications for new
teacher training institutions to give Department of Education
staff more time to work both with those that have already
applied and those that have already been certified.
Department officials had hoped to have the new teacher
professional standards approved Tuesday, but board members
argued that the scores expected in the standards, while
appropriate for college juniors, were not appropriate for
teachers in their first three years in the classroom.
Under the standards, teachers and potential teachers would be
ranked on a four-point scale. Many of the standards required
that teachers only earn a 2.0 to be considered sufficient.
"I really can't accept anything below a three for anybody who's
in service," said board member Elizabeth Bauer (D-Birmingham).
"We have Education Week which consistently rates us below C on
teacher preparation," said board member Eileen Weiser (R-Ann
Arbor). "There may be education schools doing only what we ask
of them. If we only ask for ones and twos as they leave
education school, are we putting the burdens on schools that
they cannot bring them up to threes and fours?"
"Our expectations are not as high for teachers as they are for
our students," said Sue Carnell, education advisor for Governor
Jennifer Granholm. "To think that our teachers can't meet a high
bar is little disconcerting."
Board members were also concerned that the proposed standards
did not cover all of the skills a teacher should have.
"We have to push toward what should be, not just what is now,"
said board member Nancy Danhof (R-East Lansing). For instance,
the standards require that teachers be able to conduct
parent/teacher conference, but do not require that student
teachers be in the classroom during conference periods. She
argued that the standards should be designed to require that
experience.
"If this document forces our teacher institutions to make
(student teaching) a full year because that's what students
need, then good for us," Ms. Danhof said.
The board also took issue with some proposals for evaluating the
teacher preparation institutions themselves. The plan called for
grading the institutions on a four-point scale, with a score of
2.2 considered satisfactory.
"Is a score of 2.2 really satisfactory for what we want? I would
think we want 3.0 at least," said board President Kathleen
Straus (D-Bloomfield Township). "Colleges of education are held
in very low esteem. If we say a 2.2 is satisfactory, then we're
feeding that."
Ms. Danhof also questioned what efforts would be required for
schools with unsatisfactory scores to improve.
But members agreed that the items to be measured were valid.
"The kind of things that we're measuring here are the right
things to measure," said board Vice President John Austin (D-Ann
Arbor). "Just reporting this data and providing it to the public
will help them get better."
The board approved the measurement criteria with staff expected
to bring back either a new proposal for final scoring or with
support for the initial proposal to the September meeting.
Board members also agreed that, at least for the next few years,
there are sufficient teacher training schools in the state.
The colleges and universities that have already applied to train
new teachers can continue work toward certification, but the
Department of Education will not be taking any new applications
until 2008 under action Tuesday by the State Board of Education.
Officials said the moratorium on new applications would provide
department staff more time to work with the schools already
certified to train teachers to ensure they are meeting state
needs and requirements. And some board members questioned
whether there are not already too many teacher schools in the
state.
"We now have 32, soon to be 33," Ms. Straus said. "That seems
like a lot to me."
She and others also noted that a significant percentage of those
new teachers are leaving the state for work.
"For every student who goes through a public university, we're
subsidizing them," said Superintendent of Public Instruction
Mike Flanagan. "We need to align supply and demand."
Ms. Jenkins said the rate of teacher preparation needed to be
maintained to prepare for coming retirements. "We know at some
point there's going to be a large exodus of teachers out of the
system," she said.
But she said eliminating the need to review new applications
would free the department to work more with the institutions
already in place. "We as a staff are not quite as full as we
should be," Ms. Jenkins said. "If we could get the ones in the
pipeline now and do a thorough job ...you would be better
served."
Ms. Jenkins said the department is also hoping to develop
administrative rules that would provide the institutions
incentives to fill some of the current gaps in teacher
preparation, especially math, science and special education.
Ms. Danhof said the department also should play a role in trying
to recruit inner city students to the teaching field. "People,
when they complete their teacher training, want to go back
home," she said, leaving a shortage of teachers in the larger
cities.
Some of the effort needs to be educating high school students
about the teaching profession, Mr. Flanagan said. "Teachers are
paid pretty well now," he said. "I don't think the image in the
state is reality."
While the average pay is about $40,000, he noted teachers can
earn more than twice that in certain specialty areas with a
master's degree and some experience.
But board members also argued the need to change the state
appropriations process for schools to ensure that schools have
the funds in the spring to offer jobs to new graduates. Several
members noted that teachers are being drawn out of the state,
and to the wealthier districts, through the sheer force of being
offered work beginning after their graduation rather than having
to wait until the fall.
Board members also argued for at least a review whether
statutory changes are needed to allow the state to use a
national teacher certification test. Ms. Weiser noted concerns
brought to her from teachers who had been able to use their
teaching certificates in several other states but had been
required to take the certification test in Michigan.
Ms. Jenkins said those complaints would come largely from new
teachers and special education teachers. She said general
education teachers with more than three years' experience are
automatically certified in Michigan, but teachers with less
experience must take the test. And she said special education
certifications are not accepted because in many states those
certifications are not up to Michigan standards.
TESTING ETHICS: The board also approved proposed ethical
standards for those administering the Michigan Educational
Assessment Program tests.
Among the requirements under the new code is that any displays
in a classroom where the test is being administered that might
provide assistance or answers to students be removed. Test
administrators are also require to ensure that all test
materials are returned to the scoring entity.
Ed Roeber, director of the Office of Educational Assessment and
Accountability, which runs the MEAP, said the test materials
need to be return to avoid districts using questions intended
for the coming year's test as preparatory samples. He noted one
school that did save prior year questions paid $40,000 for a
replacement test for its students because some of the questions
it used from those materials were questions on the test for
which the students were preparing.
Mr. Roeber said the department this year would be providing
teachers with access to the questions being retired from the
most recent test shortly after scores are released to allow them
to review each child's needs.
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
|
