By Charles Barone
(From Politico, January 14th, 2011)
Despite all the talk about how to fix education, reform is likely to fall far short of expectations if we don’t fundamentally change the way we recruit, prepare and retain good teachers.
We need to attract the best and brightest, provide the highest-quality preparation and reward them commensurate with our higher expectations.
A nationwide “Ticket to Teach” effort aimed at these goals that is deliberate, sustained and relentless is one good place to start. As we saw with Race to the Top, a relatively small amount of funding spurred dozens of states toward significant reform. Something on the same scale could happen with the teacher-prep sector if we make better use of the monies and policies we have — and provide additional, targeted investments.
First, we must create motivators that drive interest in teaching, pair high expectations with high rewards and attract top college students before they even choose a career. This is already being done in high-achieving countries like Singapore and Finland.
Several woefully underused and poorly publicized federal programs could aid these efforts.
For example, the federal government now sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars each year for forgiveness of teachers’ Stafford student loans. Already, K-12 teachers in their first to fifth year at high-need schools, in shortage subjects like math and science and in specialty areas like bilingual or special education, are eligible for $17,500 in student loan forgiveness.
Yet of 600,000 first-to-fifth-year teachers in the U.S., only about 14,000 use this program. We estimate the number eligible could be five times that.
There are other poorly deployed programs, including TEACH (Teacher Education and Compensation Helps) scholarships for prospective teachers and income-contingent loan repayment. These and other resources could be bundled together, aggressively marketed and supplemented as needed with funds from other government and nongovernment sources to recruit top candidates and guide them toward the schools and students who most need them.
Second, we must drastically overhaul teacher education and training. Graduates of the nation’s 1,400 schools of education frequently find that when they enter the classroom, they do not have the skills, knowledge and experience needed.
Unfortunately, the sharp criticisms of teacher education and sweeping proposals for reform offered over the past century seem to have brought little real or enduring change. So everything should be on the table.
We urge policymakers to institute policies that shake up our demonstrably immovable system of educating teachers and create greater competition in the teacher recruitment and preparation sector.
Teach for America, The New Teacher Project and other efforts show that drawing on new talent pools and trying fresh ideas can remake the entire training landscape. Let’s take what we have learned from these upstarts and invest in pilots that marry them with formal residency programs and scientific expertise in areas like reading and mathematics instruction, brain development, learning disabilities, behavior management and English language learning.
Equally important, let’s expand the universe of available human capital and spur a more diverse array of organizations to invent, develop and implement innovative teacher preparation and certification models. This should include those both within and outside formal institutions of higher education. Think of these collaborations as charter teacher preparation programs.
In addition, we need an accountability system that can measure the performance of all teacher preparation and certification programs.
The federal government now gives education schools roughly $4 billion annually. But the money flows regardless of whether a program does a good job or a terrible one.
Government responsibility to students, parents and taxpayers demands that we set clear expectations and goals that define success. Some standards are on the books now, but they are not worth the paper they are printed on.
The threshold to earn a teaching certificate from a school of education is far too low. Even students who do not pass their state’s licensing exams still earn diplomas, so virtually every teacher preparation program reports a misleading 100 percent pass rate for its graduates.
Congress passed a new teacher preparation accountability law in 2008, but the Obama administration has not interpreted or implemented it. It should review the law and consider additional changes that reflect cutting-edge accountability models, such as Louisiana’s, which measures the performance of graduates starting from the time they leave training and first enter the classroom and each year thereafter.
Once we set benchmarks, we should give schools appropriate time to meet them. But instead of condoning wasteful practices indefinitely, as in the past, those responsible for overseeing federal funds must issue an ultimatum: Shape up or lose subsidies.
In this era of international benchmarks and ever higher expectations, it is just as unfair to allow unprepared teachers into the profession as it is to place students with them whose futures hinge on the outcome.
With better use and deployment of current funding, and targeted investments that leverage systemic change, we can help ensure that the next generation of teachers is ready, willing and able to fulfill its enormous societal responsibilities.
Charles Barone is director of federal policy for Democrats for Education Reform, a former independent consultant on education policy issues and a former senior staffer to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).