Obama--radically change teacher education schools

I just read an interesting article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091022/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_teachers).

It looks like the Obama administration wants to change the education prep schools. Read the article for the full low down but a quick summary is--
education schools are 'cash cows' for universities becuase lots of teachers enroll in them and the schooling costs the universities little but these schools, according to many teachers, don't really prepare teachers for the classroom.

I took classes at two different graduate education schools including Columbia University's Teachers College (one of the top ranked ones both in New York state and the nation), and I definitely agree that the schools are heavy on theory and light on the real experience and mentoring that would better server teachers new to the profession.

Obama and Extended School Year

If you're a teacher , you've probably read about Obama's desire to increase the school year in an effort to increase America's competitiveness internationally. I understand the logic in this proposal which goes something like 1) other countries' students do better on international tests than we do 2) other countries have longer school years --> therefore we should have longer school years to get better test scores.

However, nothing operates in a vacuum and, in my opinion, until America's culture shifts and students and families start putting more responsibility on the student--it really won't matter much how long the school year is --because students just don't work that hard. Yes, they might work a few more weeks under this proposal but if those weeks consist of the diluted efforts that characterize much of American students's work--then the benifit will, in my prediction, be marginal at best.

I'm sorry to say it--but a lack of work ethic pervades the attitudes of a large proportion of our youth--and I say this as someone who teaches in one of the 'top 100 public school's in the US (according to those newsweek). Until more families start to place greater responsibility and value on doing well in school, a few weeks here and there won't have much, if any, of an impact on the international academic standings of our students.



Some related articles
1) the negative economic impacts of this proposal

Trying to Earn a Buck as a Teacher!

I wanted to write a quick post about teacher salaries--I have worked for some of the lowest and highest paying counties in New York state ----and , wow, I can tell you there is quite a range. At one private school--where I first started teaching, the salary was barely enough to survive and teachers did a lot of private tutoring to make up for this. There's a lot more opportunity to make some good tutoring to money in private schools where the parents are, in general, wealthier and more inclined to spend the money on home tutors. That said, there are some public schools --like my current one in WestChester County--that have a pretty darn high base line salary (starting salary is about 60K I believe and goes up above 6 figures--at 8 years you're already make about 90K!) My school is not even the highest paying in Westchester County or in Long Island. Talk about a quality of life change--moreover, these high paying counties have many of the perks that you would normally seein a private school including: 1) generally smaller class sizes albiet not as small as most private schoosl 2) generally motivated and high achieving students 3) more opportunties for private tutoring!

If you want to be a New York Tutor, check out Hubalub.com --I'll write a bit more about them in a future post but they're a site that helps New York based tutors find tutoring. The site only accepts certified public school teachers so if you have your certification check em out!



Other good Links for Tutoring in New York:

1. http://www.mathwarehouse.com/private-tutoring/state/new-york/new-york-tutors.php a good low dow of new york tutoring including some of the best places to tutor in new york
2. Jobs for teachers and Tutors in New York

Dept of Education report on Online Learning

A study just came out from the US Dept of education on the efficacy of online learning vis a vis traditional learning and, basically, the report states that classes that infuse online learnining are more successful than those that solely use traditional face-to-tace education.
Here's a quot4e from the Abstract:

The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.

If you have the time to read the full 93 page report, here it is (pdf file).

Obama Administration: Tests will matter more!

Just read a New York Times article about the obama administration's push for education. It seems that the emphasis on students scores is only going to increase. Here's a quote


“We’re mindful of all the criticisms about federal overreaching, about too much testing, of all the complaints about No Child Left Behind,” Mr. Cunningham [Education Department spokesman ]said. “These complaints come up all the time in conversations about all our programs, not just this one, with education officials across the country. The context that No Child has generated is the context that we have to live with.”




The administration is also pushing that teacher evaluations be more closely tied to student test performance-- Many teachers, including myself, find this problematic. If you're asking, yourself 'Why don't teachers want to be assessed based on student performance?' you're probably not a teacher. It is not because I do not want to be held accountable--but rather becuase associating teacher performance with student test performance opens a pandora's box of issues--only a few of which I'll discuss.

#1) If you get a strong vs a weak class, your test scores will unfairly affect your reviews as a teacher--for better or for worse. All of us who have taught know how true this is--a strong class will do well no matter who teaches them and some classes are unmotivated no matter what you do. Moreover, I get 1-2 'skewed' classes a year (strong or bad) and that's over half of the number of classes I teach that take a standardized test. In other words, more than half of the data that would influence my year end performance will, on average, be comprised by a 'good' or 'bad' class's performance. Moreover, what about the teachers who only teach 1 standardized test based class?

#2) States will have even more of an interest in making tests easier. Anyone who has taught Math in New York state just needs to look at how easy the Math A regents (or the new Integrated Algebra) have become over the last 7 years or so. Also consider this, how can you hold an Integrated Geometry teacher responsible for low test scores on the difficult Geometry test when the same students passed the prior year's integrated Algebra exam--even though the latter test is a complete joke requiring like 1/3 of the total points to pass?

#3) It's almost a gurantue that by encouraging teachers to 'teach to the test' the 'good' teachers who encourage true thinking and inquiry will have to replace thought provoking education will test tricks--trust me, test tricks work but they do not necessarily teach much else.

A Great New City Dentist

This post does not fit in with my normal one here--but I had to help promote this guy--he's a dentist that I just started going to and basically, he saved me from having to get a root canal! My prior dentist said I needed one, but went Dr. Auerbach who was able to fill my tooth : no root canal needed!

So if you live in or near Rockland county, New York and need a great New City Dentist check out his website or read about him on yelp.

Summer Time

Now, I want to first start this post by stating that I did not get a teaching job just so I could have summers off! That said, by the time June rolls around I ready for summer! I am in the last stages of getting my students prepared for the end of the year regents, God rest this course's soul after this year, and I just wanted to say...bring on the summer!