Spring Break
Securing a New Generation of Teachers
Creating a National Teacher Corps
Catharine Bellinger '12
Issue date: 9/30/09 Section: Opinion
Education Schools
Our education schools have failed to consistently produce effective teachers. According to a recent article in Education Next by Thomas J. Kane, Jonah E. Rockoff and Douglas O. Staiger, professors from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Columbia Business School, and Dartmouth College, respectively, "Some teachers are considerably better than others at helping students learn…Yet as we embrace this piece of conventional wisdom, we must discard another: the widespread sentiment that there are large differences in effectiveness between traditionally certified teachers and uncertified or alternatively certified teachers." Their study showed that "by their third year of teaching, teaching fellows [from Teach for America and The New Teacher Project] are eliciting student achievement as well as third-year traditionally certified teachers." If education schools only produce teachers who are more skilled than non-traditional teachers for three years, after which their benefits disappear, they are not effectively serving their purpose.
More and more research from well-regarded think tanks and university professors exposes education graduate schools as little more than money-making machines for their universities. According to Inside Higher Education, an online education news source, former president of Columbia University Teacher's College Arthur Levine has said that many education graduate schools are merely "cash cows"-they have low admissions standards and enroll too many students but bring in the big bucks for large universities. And a report produced by the Center for American Progress concluded that "there is not much difference between [education-school-]certified and uncertified teachers overall."
Such revelations inform against requiring members of a National Teacher Corps (NTC) to acquire traditional certification from education graduate schools. To train NTC members, the federal government will have to look elsewhere.
Our education schools have failed to consistently produce effective teachers. According to a recent article in Education Next by Thomas J. Kane, Jonah E. Rockoff and Douglas O. Staiger, professors from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Columbia Business School, and Dartmouth College, respectively, "Some teachers are considerably better than others at helping students learn…Yet as we embrace this piece of conventional wisdom, we must discard another: the widespread sentiment that there are large differences in effectiveness between traditionally certified teachers and uncertified or alternatively certified teachers." Their study showed that "by their third year of teaching, teaching fellows [from Teach for America and The New Teacher Project] are eliciting student achievement as well as third-year traditionally certified teachers." If education schools only produce teachers who are more skilled than non-traditional teachers for three years, after which their benefits disappear, they are not effectively serving their purpose.
More and more research from well-regarded think tanks and university professors exposes education graduate schools as little more than money-making machines for their universities. According to Inside Higher Education, an online education news source, former president of Columbia University Teacher's College Arthur Levine has said that many education graduate schools are merely "cash cows"-they have low admissions standards and enroll too many students but bring in the big bucks for large universities. And a report produced by the Center for American Progress concluded that "there is not much difference between [education-school-]certified and uncertified teachers overall."
Such revelations inform against requiring members of a National Teacher Corps (NTC) to acquire traditional certification from education graduate schools. To train NTC members, the federal government will have to look elsewhere.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
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posted 12/06/09 @ 10:16 AM EST
All of these changes have been embraced by many prominent education reformers. I think it is good for education system.
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posted 12/15/09 @ 8:46 AM EST
I agree that "teachers are the single most important resource to a child's learning".
brebdonera
posted 3/22/10 @ 3:50 PM EST
Good and interesting article, thanks!
HSaive
posted 7/26/10 @ 5:54 AM EST
Educating new teachers and Education reform, itself starts with teaching history the way it went down. The current 9/11 story is a crafted "myth".
Courageous journalists and reporters like Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman and others don't run away from stories labeled as "taboo" by Bankster controlled, corporate
media. (Continued…)
Barbara
posted 7/27/10 @ 9:22 AM EST
Future of our children depends on the level of teacher`s qualification, I think all these changes and reforms are very important and useful.
Jennifer
posted 7/27/10 @ 11:05 PM EST
Really, kind of an army to save nation.
Thanks for an article!
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