New Book Promotes Alternative Teacher CertificationRobert Gray Holland, Senior Fellow at the Lexington Institute, spoke about his new book to a group assembled at the Heritage Institute on May 12. To Build a Better Teacher: The Emergence of a Competitive Education Industry is written “from an outsider perspective,” said Holland, who has been a career journalist, not a K-12 teacher. In his book, Holland describes how teachers in the 20th century were prepared through schools of education, which were accredited by a single national agency dedicated to process more than achievement. After completing the college and state requirements, the state licensed the individual to enter the classroom and begin teaching. Rather than maintain that system, Holland suggests a competitive system of education that would “open the doors for individuals with real-world experiences to teach.” He said that alternative teacher certification programs can “simplify the process to begin teaching,” but suggested a strong mentoring program once the teacher is in the classroom. In addition, once in the classroom, “a teacher should be evaluated on value-added assessments”—criteria to determine how much the teacher contributes to student achievement. Holland used the alternative teacher certification dual track program in New Jersey as an exemplary model of how a mid-career individual could earn a teaching certificate while teaching in a K-12 classroom, rather than being in a teacher-preparation classroom in college. He coupled that with the value-added assessments currently being used in Tennessee to make the point that options exist to “build a better teacher.” While not endorsing Holland’s book, in his capacity as Associate Deputy Under Secretary, Office of Innovation and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education, Mike Petrilli agreed with the premise of the book. Petrilli said, “President Bush and Laura Bush and Secretary of Education Rod Paige all favor keeping standards high, but lowering the barriers that keep talented individuals out of the classrooms.” Petrilli mentioned several programs that the U.S. Department of Education has assisted in order to encourage alternative teacher certification programs, such as Troops to Teachers, Teach for America and The New Teacher Project as well as the National Center for Alternative Certification and the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. He referred to the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act which require that every teacher be “highly qualified” by 2005, noting that “certification is not a good indication that a teacher is highly qualified.” “Competition”—by encouraging other ways to achieve teacher certification, and by “holding colleges of education accountable for results” the dominant, traditional college-prepared route to teaching will slowly change, said Petrilli. “There are already promising signs,” he said, “some colleges of education have established higher standards for entering their programs,” and it’s become acceptable to talk about alternative certification. Michael B. Poliakoff, former President of the National Council on Teacher Quality spoke briefly, as did Krista Kafer, Senior Education Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation. To Build a Better Teacher: The Emergence of a Competitive Education
Industry was published by Praeger Publishing and can be ordered from
http://www.greenwood.com/books/BookDetail.asp?dept_id=1&sku=G886 |
