“You mean I can teach with just this diploma saying I have a bachelor’s degree? The one I just got at graduation?”
“That’s right, so long as it’s in a subject that’s taught in middle school or high school.”
“I’m an American History major.”
“Then you can teach history to 6th through 12th graders in any public school in Arizona.”
“It’s just temporary, right? I won’t be a real teacher.”
“Yes, you’ll be a real teacher. They’ll give you a Subject Matter Expert Standard teaching certificate. That means you’ll be a real teacher with your own classroom full of students.”
“Not a student teacher? I won’t have, you know, a real teacher in there with me?”
“Nope. On the first day, you’ll be on your own.”
“But I’ll have to take a test first, right? To see if I know enough to teach? I mean, I’m not sure I’m, um, qualified. I just barely passed some of my classes, and I’ve never really thought about teaching before.”
“No, you don’t have to pass a test or do anything else to demonstrate knowledge of your field. You’ll be exempt from the professional knowledge proficiency requirements other teachers have to worry about. That diploma in your hand is all you need, along with a fingerprint clearance card to show you’re not a criminal.”
“OK, but they’ll make me take some of those education classes other teachers take, right?”
“No, not that either. You can start teaching without any education classes, and you’re not required to take any in the future.”
“But what if I bomb out? Will they take away my, whadayacallit, my . . .?”
“Your Subject Matter Expert Standard teaching certificate? No, the worst thing that can happen is, if in two years the district decides you don’t meet the professional knowledge requirements, your certificate can be suspended. Later, if you can convince them you’ve learned what you need to know, it’ll be reinstated.”
“Does this thing, this certificate, expire? I probably won’t teach that long, but if I decide I want to, do I need to get a real teaching certificate?”
“Not according to the law that just passed. This is a real certificate, and it looks like it’s good as long as you want to teach.”
“Like I said, I don’t think I want to teach all that long. I mean, I never even thought about it until you brought it up. But I guess I can give teaching a try. What do I have to lose? I mean, I kinda know what teachers do. I’ve been sitting in their classrooms since I was five. You think I should do it?”
“Let me tell you something, buddy, you’re not going to keep living in your bedroom eating free food for the rest of your life, and I don’t see anyone knocking on your door offering you a job. Those schools are so desperate for teachers, they’ll take just about anyone. Even you.”
“OK, mom, I’m convinced. Can you drive me down to pick up a teaching application?”
Yes, I know reporters writing about the new teacher certification rules say you need some work experience along with a bachelor’s degree. They’re wrong. I’ve read SB1042 a dozen times, and I’ve spoken with some people who are far more experienced reading legislation than I am, and they say the law is clear. To get one of those Subject Matter Expert Standard teaching certificates, you need a bachelor’s in a field taught in 6th through 12th grade, period. It’s true, you can also get the certificate if you have the right kind of work or teaching experience, but those parts of the legislation don’t make any mention of educational requirements. The way it’s written, with work or teaching experience, you don’t need any college at all, or even a high school diploma for that matter, to have your very own public school classroom. If the district wants you hire you, you’re in.
If this scenario sounds preposterous, talk to the people who wrote the legislation and their colleagues who voted for it. And those of you out there who write about education, unless you’ve read the bill carefully and are still convinced people need work experience on top of a bachelor’s degree to get the new certificate, you should make it clear to your readers how little it takes to teach in an Arizona public school.
This article appears in May 25-31, 2017.
Our one party dictatorship on West Washington is all for “market based solutions” except for the teacher shortage. Don’t raise the pay, lower the standards! Voila, the “education governor” solution!
Except for for Student Teaching, most Courses in a “Teacher Education Program” are worthless. More time should be spent learning the Subject to be taught. A Degree in a particular area is appropriate for one interested in teaching. As with any Profession, effective teaching will come with experience.
There are two essential components to effective Student Learning:
1.Student Motivation; a strong desire to learn with a “do not give up attitude” to continue notwithstanding periodic frustrations;
2. An Effective Instructional Program; Competent/Dedicated Teachers utilizing various Teaching Strategies supported by a Strong Technological infrastructure; and the implementation of Arizona Revised Statutes 1- 841, A(1)(2)
With these two components in place, the “Sky is the Limits” for Student Academic Achievement!
This is just one more way for the Republican authoritarians to undermine the Teachers Union and to discredit public schools for not having qualified teachers so they can move everybody into PRIVATE CHARTER SCHOOLS that are still paid for with public money. Republicans never give anything freely unless they have connived to get back more than they ever give. Those wretched bastards.
Francis Saitta, thanks for laying it out for us. It appears, however, there was a breakdown in your own pedagogical pursuits, because you clearly have no idea when to refrain from capitalizing a midsentence word.
Random Capitalization Is How Dummies Identify Themselves : Your ad hominem attacks under a Pen Name is a sure sign of a Empty-Headed COWARD!!!!!
When I taught in the post-baccalaurate teacher certification program at Chapman College (now university) I taught Foundations of Education, for the purpose of understanding how public education is structured; I taught U.S. Constitution and AZ Constitution, required by the state and useful for understanding civil rights and AZ school finance systems; I taught Language Arts and Social Studies Methods to teach curricular spiral and methodology to reach learning modes; I taught Classroom Management: Organization to teach them HOW to organize a classroom and lessons; and Classroom Management: Behavioral Techniques, to compare a variety of disciplinary approaches and their goals and results. My students were hired by many local school districts and were excellent teachers in their second career efforts. This worked. Just hiring off the street with a baccalaureate degree does not provide the necessary background in either content or methodology.
Does anyone who supports this policy remember how mature YOU were when you graduated with your BA or BS? This is a disastrous idea right out of the cooker of no less a public school advocate than Lisa Graham Keegan and of course the still-celebrated but (thankfully) EX – Superintendent of TUSD. One has to wonder if his most avid cheerleaders support this idea–you know, the teachers and a principal or two that can’t wait to have their pictures taken with him. Way to support public ed, y’all. I must say that having spent the weekend reading about the Texas Miracle, I see where he got his bag of tricks and I would respectfully suggest that we VERY carefully vet educators from that state in the future.
You tell ’em, Francis.
Here’s the problem, Francis. The kind of teacher being described here sounds a lot like my second-grade teacher. Now, for my age I was a very higly motivated student (highly motivated enough to learn when capitalization is or is not appropriate, for one), and I ate up anything I could learn. But I learned next to nothing from this deadbeat or her joke of a curriculum. She was a lazy woman whose idea of teaching ran heavily to “quiet time” and reading aloud from picture books that would have been more appropriate for preschoolers. And guess what? If I recall correctly, she hadn’t even been to teachers’ college. Oh, and she let bullying run rampant.
I languished. I became bored, frustrated, and depressed. I was really hungry to learn interesting stuff, and I wasn’t getting my intellectual needs met. The upshot was that my parents pulled me out of that school and sought alternative educational options. Now, I was very lucky to have those options, and to have autodidactic tendencies, and, most of all, to have two loving, supportive parents who strongly encouraged the nourishment of my mind. But not all kids are as lucky as I was.
Really, if all you need are motivated students and a good curriculum, then why are teachers even necessary? Why do they expect the community to rally around them when they strike? What are they doing to justify their demands for higher wages? Why on earth are we paying them at all? Hell, if the students have to do all of the work themselves, then let’s pay them, for crying out loud.
Aaaaaand all that “high motivation” apparently turned into “hig motivation” in one keystroke. That’s what I get for typing comments after having outpatient surgery with only three hours’ sleep.
Six dislikes for correcting my own typos. Okay. Looks like there are a few folks reading this with a bit of an ax to grind.