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The state Board of Education voted 6-4 in favor of allowing unlicensed people to teach in Kansas.
The proposal applies only to the state's six "innovative districts"--McPherson, Concordia, Hugoton, Marysville, Blue Valley and Kansas City.
Supporters of the proposal said it would help ease teacher shortages. Opponents, including the state's largest teachers union, said the move compromises professionalism in education and hurts students.
Kansas has seen a dramatic increase in teachers retiring, moving out of state and leaving the profession in recent years.
Gee I wonder why teachers are leaving Kansas? Could it possibly be because folks disrespect their profession and think any Tom, Dick, or Cletus off the street could do their jobs?
Isn't there both a book and movie entitled "What's the Matter with Kansas?"
Why yes there is.
And now we know the answer.
Sounds like the Heath men can go get real jobs now.
ReplyDeleteLooks as if this is something to advance the religious homeschooler point of view. The law in Kansas states that homeschoolers must be taught by a 'competent instructor', however:
ReplyDeleteThe term “competent instructor” is not defined either by statute or by case law, and thus it’s meaning is unclear. However, the Kansas Attorney General has specifically held that the statute does not require teachers in nonaccredited private schools to be certified. Additionally, there are no specific requirements for credentials or educational background for teachers in nonaccredited private schools, and thus it is not necessary for such teachers to possess a college degree or even a high school diploma. As a result, “competent” should be interpreted in its ordinary sense, and thus parents who establish an appropriate academic environment in their school, as evidenced by the presence of curriculum, planning and organization, testing, academic progress, and so forth, are presumed to be “competent” for this purpose.
And then there's the small matter of school budgets getting drastically cut even though billions of dollars in tax revenue are flooding into the Kansas state coffers (this is sarcasm, everyone). Any decent teacher can look down the road and figure out that leaving now before the ax falls would be a good idea.
Archie Butt
This was also proposed by our college dropout governor for the recently passed budget in Wisconsin, but rejected at the last minute. That doesn't mean it won't be considered again separate from the budget:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Walker-proposes-new-teacher-licensure-plan-289451211.html
"Highly criticized teacher licensure changes that would have allowed some people without high school degrees to be licensed to teach in Wisconsin are slated to be removed from the state budget.
"Republicans on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee approved the changes in a late-night session last month. But they were calling for their removal from the budget on Thursday.
"The committee had previously approved allowing anyone with a bachelor's degree to be licensed to teach in core subjects of English, math, social studies or science.
"Anyone with experience in other non-core subjects, including high school drop outs, could have been certified to teach under the previously adopted motion. That, too, was to be removed.
"Teachers and others had spoken out against the licensing changes when they were first added."
So what do Kansas and Wisconsin have in common? Koch influence.
Keep em dumb, fill their ears with lies, razzle dazzle em and you get ignorant people who will vote against their own best interests.
DeleteAs a licensed elementary school teacher this news breaks my heart. The students are the ones who will suffer of course. Teaching is a profession. I don't know how I would do what I do without the strong foundation I earned in The College of Education at UNM. Good luck with classroom management; the most important thing I learned. Kansas will suffer in the long run. So sad, and so stupid.
ReplyDeleteI've seen first hand the rigorous studies education majors engage in in order to teach. And non-majors have found some of these courses (about accommodating disabilities, for example) to be among their most valuable. And I've given workshops co-facilitated by teachers and seen how impressively they approach curriculum design and development.
DeleteTeaching is indeed a profession, and K-12 teaching requires the most professional training in order to successfully deal with content, classroom management, disabilities and diversity. It also requires dedication.
Those poor students.
I have to disagree with u. Teaching is more than a profession, it is a calling. You think of everything teachers go through now days, budget cuts, attacks from state governments like the ones mentioned but New Jersy and others, low pay, skewed text books, buying supplies out of their own pockets.... The list could go on.
DeleteWisconsin proposed the exact same thing!! If little cross eyed Scotty is installed into our WH by his owners the Koch brothers, he can spread it country wide. Look how far he has taken himself with no college degree.
ReplyDeleteThe ignorant have no appreciation or respect for education.
DeleteThey wallow in their ignorance and celebrate their stupidity, It's like a badge of honor they wear proudly,
Since "big government" is so bad, why have testing or licensing for teachers, right?
ReplyDeleteWhy not let anybody be a cop, because that's big brother.
Why not do as one town in Tennessee wanted to do, by having only PRIVATE fire department service.
If you're house is burning down, and you didn't buy the local fire dept contract, then let it burn baby!
That's what we'll get if Koch-Scott Walker gets elected
Having "innovative districts" sounds like half the problem. If you live here you get a lesser education, what's "innovative" about that?
ReplyDeleteDo those areas also have factories to "innovate" the kids into?
If conceal carry nuts can play cop and GOPers can play doctor this is the next logical step.
ReplyDeleteIf you asked me to picture what the Teacher's Hall of Fame would look like in Kansas, I would have envisioned a generic strip mall building with a cheap 'open' sign in the window.
ReplyDeleteWeird.
There are a number of places in this country where they are trying to turn teaching into just another $8/hr mcjob (low pay, no benefits, no respect, no authority). How many times have we seen heartfelt posts by teachers who can't do it anymore and are punching out? Education is for the lords anyway, not the serfs.
ReplyDeleteKansas will become a have for teachers who have been stripped of their license. Let the pedophile parade begin.
ReplyDeleteThe amount they spend settling lawsuits will be a mountain compared to the molehill they save on this ignorant move.
Arizona is seeing a mass exodus of teachers as well, and due to the same Koch/TeaTerrorist/ALEC legislation that has, as it was intended to do, made strides toward destroying public education.
ReplyDeleteAs for non-accredited teachers, that's not necessarily a bad thing - it depends how it is applied. Community colleges have used non-accredited teachers for decades as Associate Faculty. Frankly, I'd rather see high school math taught by someone with a degree in Math or Engineering than those with an Education degree and no math past high school. I believe it shortchanged the entire public education system when the requirement for Education majors to have a major subject area, e.g., History, English, Math, etc., was eliminated.
I don't know what colleges are being cited but in my state I have never heard of an Education major.
DeleteIn my district you cannot teach a single subject in middle or high school without a degree or credential in that subject. You cannot get a credential in that subject without passing rigorous tests which in many cases are more detailed and rigorous than getting that degree in the first place. This is to discourage people from testing for credentials instead of doing the degree work.
Once you have a degree you do spend one additional year of teacher training, observation and practice teaching under a master teacher to get a credential. (Not all candidates pass by the way. This weeds out a lot of so called "bad" teachers before they are ever hired.) If you pass, then you get fingerprinted and pay for your credential, which you must renew every few years.
Private schools, charters and community colleges and universities can do what they want, but for K-12 public schools, you have to be highly qualified in your subject area under No Child Left Behind.
BTW even our elementary teachers have degrees in either math, history or language arts. They then get a multiple subject credential for elementary school. That's as close to an "education" degree we get.
I have four credentials: single subject music, multiple subject, library media and I qualify for an administrator's credential.
Requirements for teaching certification can vary greatly by state, but all of the states I'm familiar with require an extensive background in the subject you're planning to teach.
DeleteI got my degree in Art Education and was certified to teach K-12. I had to take all the education courses plus a comprehensive list of art courses which included drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, graphic design, and crafts (stained glass, enameling, cloissone). There was also a class which covered teaching methods specific to arts education. Because of all the required courses, my degree program nearly qualified as a dual major.
While the Fine Arts majors could specialize in one medium, the Art Ed majors had to take classes in all of the different types of art. Several years after I graduated, they added computer graphics courses to the list of requirements as well.
While all of my professors were respected professional artists, many having shows in well-known museums and galleries, not all of them were skilled at teaching others. I learned the most from those who were not only talented artists, but also great at helping their students identify and learn the techniques that were specific to their particular medium. Just because a person has skill in a subject does not mean that they are able to share that skill with others.
They are going to have to do that here in Indiana as well. So many teachers have retired and there are not enough future teachers in the college pipeline to fill the spots. The tell is that in most cases the wages would be rising FAST to grab folks who might be on the fence. Not so with teachers' salaries, if anything they have been dropping and benefits have been stagnant or worse. This has everything to do with the GOP wanting to kill public education and ship all those students to charter schools and religious institutions (I can't call the schools, sorry I went to several of them).
ReplyDeleteThat is why any college student with any brains is NOT going in to teaching.
DeleteFunny but we senior teachers and our professional organizations have been warning about this for years and no one paid any attention.
Well, TOLD YOU SO!
Man, that felt good.
Funny how the right wing claims to love the free market...except when it comes to a public service like education that doesn't make enough profit for their corporate benefactors.
DeleteThen they'll be happy to manipulate the market and artificially keep the salaries low and benefits reduced by starving the school budgets.
mlaiuppa - My certification expired years ago and, while I have been working in several capacities in education for the past 17 years, I am no longer working as a classroom teacher. Many of the teachers I've worked with used to tell me I should go back and get re-certified.
DeleteNot. A. Chance.
My music credential is for life but my multiple subject and library media expire in 2016. Not planning on renewing.
DeleteMy National Board Certification in Library Media expires in 2020. Not planning on renewing that either.
One year, my husband and I were in one of the big lots stores (BJ's or Sam's Club) and impulsively decided to spend a hundred or so on stationery supplies, which he then took in to donate to one of our local elementary schools. He told me later the teacher actually cried.
ReplyDeleteIn Kansas "innovative" must mean something different from my understanding of the word. What is "innovative" about letting unqualified people teach? It sounds positively ignorant to me.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Yes, ignorant. They did not sit in class and take about six years of tests. Gee.
DeleteI'd call on satan now.
12:14---My daughter is a teacher in Colorado. I challenge you to pass any of the tests she took to obtain her accreditation.
DeleteGee!
Thank you, wonderful thing you did. More peole should follow your lead. You will never find the 1% doing anything like that. Apart from Bill Gates, that is.
ReplyDeleteTeaching is both an art and a science. It is not something easily done by an untrained individual. Many people feel they know how to teach because they've spent twelve or more years in a classroom watching it from the student side of the desk. They have no idea of the amount of planning, research and on the spot informed decision making that goes on "behind the scenes".
ReplyDeleteMy usual response: spending time in a classroom doesn't make you a teacher any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
Yes, you read about the history.
DeleteWell isn't that what homeschooling is like? Anyone can do it, there is minimum regulations and no followup by the school district.
ReplyDeleteThe right wing has poisoned the well and expertise is simply something they can do without and have convinced others to follow. The evil staggers.
ReplyDeleteI knew someone in the Coast Guard who lived there (CG has administrative offices there) and she told me her children were in great public schools there compared with anywhere else they had lived. She thought it was top-rate in the 1990s and said when a student graduated they were given a letter with their diploma for a future employer listing the competency of a student from Kansas schools. What a sad thing to see this.
ReplyDeleteAs a newly retired teacher of 37 years, I'm glad I got out when I did.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be teachers were respected as professionals and trusted to be able to do their jobs.
This is just another step in deprofessionalizing the profession. Not only are the amateurs telling teachers what to teach and how to do it, but soon they'll be hiring the greeters from Walmart, handing them a script and if they can read it, they're hired. They'll issue tablets to all the students courtesy of Bill Gates and have the students do drill and kill on them prior to taking their formulaic, meaningless tests.
It's part of the dysfunction of the right wing's demands.
They want individualized instruction but also one size fits all.
They want the very best but want to pay the very least. Highest quality at cheapest rates.
They think fresh out of college teachers are both highly qualified and unqualified. Good enough to replace experienced senior teachers but not good enough to teach at low income at risk schools.
They have no respect for knowledge, training or experience.
I planned early and I planned well so I will never have to step foot in a classroom again. I will not have to substitute to make ends meet.
If I want to work now that I am retired, I have many choices available to me. I certainly won't sell myself short by doing everything I used to do but at a bargain rate just because I am a substitute.
What a shame. My sister left the profession this year, for much the same reason, except she lives in New Jersey. Teachers do one of the most difficult jobs, they raise the next generation, stimulate them to learn about themselves and the world around them, and then some. Chris Christie slashed funding and pushed against the unions, giving vouchers to kids who got the best education to begin with, only to go to schools that value test results to real learning, running schools like businesses and not providing enough resources.
DeleteInstead of lesson plans, she was told to write an outline in letter form of how she plans to get to level b to level c in as short a period of time as possible.
Meaning, they don't value experience, education, and learning. She misses her "kids" and is upset, Anyone with a high school education can follow a script.
I'm glad you planned ahead of time, she's moving out of state, and something tells me the trend will eventually get where she's moving, and then what? She won't be able to retire for at least eight years.
The sad thing, is people do more research finding a dog sitter than learning about the people who are teaching their kids and what's demanded of them.
Some places it already is. Look in dentist offices, hospitals. The workers are getting younger and they or most have no work ethic or really care about patients. And some are lazy as heck. They are on computer to check their social media. Ask your IT security to run logs on IE, FireFox,... they really can't function as the older generation did, and can't put two and two together. It is very strange workforce.
ReplyDeleteThe gop wanted this, so China and other counties will rule the earth soon. So you can be high on pluto images that the USA accomplished, but it will be gone soon. Just my rant.
Outsourcing was a contributor to the fall of Rome.
DeleteA lot of our health care professionals, especially nurses and orderlies, are not native born Americans. They are from other countries either on visas, green cards or have attained naturalized status. Without them our healthcare industry would be ruined.
Look at movies, the star always has some rich friend or they have hidden wealth. Life isn't even like that. Millions are living paycheck to the next.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like he took a page out of Rick Snyder's playbook. His "innovative districts" are called the Education Achievement Authority and also uses untrained teachers. It's a crapcluster, rife with horror stories from both students and teachers, there are cronies making big bucks off the software they use, so of course he wants to expand it. It's another way of busting the teacher's unions.
ReplyDeleteRead the comments on the story Griff links to. Kansas is definitely in need of critical thinking skills. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThere's a bad mentality toward education in this country. We're talking about people with education, experience and a drive to educate young people, the future work force, taxpayers, and voters. We're doing out kids a huge dis service and losing great teachers (I prefer the term "educators").
ReplyDeleteCharter schools are the rage where I live, along with vouchers. The problem is, that state mandated tests don't accurately measure the value of a good teacher. Some kids need a different approach taken, and a true professional can nip problems in the bud early, before they lose the kid to a cycle of failure. Some kids are brilliant, yet don't "test" well. A good educator can teach methods of test taking that makes them less anxiety prone and more able to communicate effectively what they conceptualize and know.
We're not paying teachers enough, they have to buy the basics FOR their students, and that comes out of their own generosity and pockets. Why? Because the higher ups slash funding and want to run schools like businesses, and hold teachers accountable if some artificial goal isn't met.