Teacher certification prestigious but too costly, Rhee says

[tonysam]

You know the REAL reason Rhee is complaining about the national board certification: It's because teachers who complete the program, and they tend to be experienced, higher paid teachers, get paid even MORE on top of their salary. Rhee can't have that:

About 82,000 educators nationwide, or 3 percent of the teaching force, have been certified by the Arlington County-based board, which was created in 1987 by the Carnegie Corp. of New York to raise the level of professionalism in the field. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised last year's class of 8,900 as "an extraordinary group" that has "demonstrated a commitment to taking their teaching practice and the teaching profession to a different level."

But that's too much for Michelle Rhee:

Michelle A. Rhee, said that although she considers board certification a valuable form of professional development, it was difficult to justify the annual expenditure of about $600,000 because so few teachers were making it through the process.

"It didn't seem like the best investment," Rhee said. "It seemed to us that there was a more foundational level of professional development we needed to do with our staff," she said, before teachers reached for the national board certification. (The $4,000 stipend, a provision of the current contract with the Washington Teachers' Union, remains in place).

Although some research suggests that board-certified teachers can improve student test scores, Rhee said the most substantial scholarship she has seen shows that there is little significant impact.

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I doubt Rhee is going to change her mind. After all, when firing senior teachers is your policy, you aren't going to be in favor of something which is geared towards making senior teachers even better teachers.

[FSogol]

1. DC Schools already spends more per student than anywhere else in the Country.

Rhee is tackling a very troubled system which is extremely resistant to change. Also she only fired some senior teachers, not all senior teachers. Not everything is about money.

[tonysam]

2. Oh yes it is

Rhee has no business running a school district, but thanks for the spin.

[mzteris]

3. don't waste your breath -

Next to Arne Duncane - tonysam hates Michelle more than anything! (except maybe all charter public schools and homeschoolers . . . lol) There is absolutely no room for any type of dialogue with this one. Her mind is MADE UP and don't you DARE try and change it. (fat chance, that, anyway :rofl:)

[FSogol]

5. Yeah, I figured that. I'm in DC schools a couple times a month and have met

Rhee. I think she is making some progress in a very dysfunctional school system.

[mzteris]

6. based on all evidence

the schools ARE improving - the students ARE doing better. . .

Is she taking somewhat draconian measures? Maybe. :shrug: - but you do what you gotta do in order to get the job done. Sometimes that means stepping on toes and shaking up the status quo.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. What kind of progress?

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I also have a huge problem with a school administrator

who covers up for a child sexual abuser.

Maybe it's just me but I'd rather not have these kinds of people running our school districts. :shrug:

[tonysam]

14. As I've said, school administrators are the major problems

in public schools. They have unconscionable amounts of power and ironclad job security while teachers have none.

[tonysam]

15. I don't hate Michelle; I just find her unqualified.

It's not personal with me at all.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Where is Rhee getting her research?

I have seen research showing just the opposite.

[mzteris]

7. I dunno, but I found this . . .

"The NBPTS has the potential to make a valuable contribution to efforts to improve teacher quality, together with other reforms intended to create a more effective environment for teaching and learning in schools, increase the supply of high-quality entrants into the profession, and improve career opportunities for teachers. Our review of the research, however, suggests that there is not yet compelling evidence that the existence of the certification program has had a significant impact on the field, teachers, students, or the education system. We note, however, that much of the research needed to evaluate these impacts has not been conducted, in part because the necessary data have not been collected. Moreover, revolutionary changes of the kind the board’s founders envisioned would be expected to develop over decades, not years. The founders also intended, as we have repeatedly stressed, that the certification program would be supported by an array of other reforms, many of which have not been implemented. This evaluation thus provides an opportunity to take stock of what has worked well and what has not and to consider changes that are needed to respond to the current policy environment." http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12224&page=261



"COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROGRAM
To estimate the cost-effectiveness of the NBPTS program, we combine the information on the benefits and the information on the costs from the preceding two sections. As stated in Conclusion 11-1, there is no conclusive evidence yet that board certification directly improves the teaching practices of candidates or that it has led to the improvements across the educational system in the ways enumerated (in Benefits 3a through 3f). As a result, there is little evidence that we can use for a cost-effectiveness analysis. However, board certification does offer a way of identifying high-quality teachers, and the difference between board-certified teachers and nonapplicants reported in value-added analyses provides a quantitative estimate that can be used in cost-effectiveness analyses. " http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12224&page=223



http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12224&page=R1
Assessing Accomplished Teaching
Advanced-Level Certification Programs

Committee on Evaluation of Teacher Certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Milton D. Hakel, Judith Anderson Koenig, and Stuart W. Elliott, Editors

Board on Testing and Assessment
Center for Education
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.

[tonysam]

8. When your goal is to have nothing but teacher temps,

with "careers" of no more than two or three years, then there is NO need for "national board certification."

This is just another excuse to show senior teachers the door.

[Catshrink]

9. Or to do it all online or by computer

with the "teacher" as overseer.

[tonysam]

10. I do believe that is where education is headed ultimately.

Teachers will be little more than technicians, not real teachers, and the students will be learning at home.

About the only way I could ever return to teaching is if I worked for an online charter school like Connections Academy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. How far we have gone in the opposite direction!

Just a few years ago the PTB were scrambling to get teachers to sign up for Nat'l Board Certification.

[Goblinmonger]

16. I'm going for my national certification right now.

Best thing I've done for my teaching practice possibly ever.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Don't tell mzteris

She'll tell you it won't make any difference.