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Governors Report Shows Teacher Quality Lacking
By Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin
American public education has failed to recruit a top-notch teaching workforce, says a study by the National Governors Association, NGA chairman Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., announced yesterday.
According to the report, many other countries draw their prospective teachers entirely from among their highest performing students. All of South Korea’s teachers come from the top 5 percent of the nation’s college graduates, Finland’s come from the top 10 percent, and Singapore and Hong Kong’s come from the top 30 percent.
America’s teachers, however, have declined in academic prestige over time. One in 10 new teachers scored in the 90th percentile on their high school standardized tests, a decline by half since 1964. And university education programs have become more lax in their acceptance rates: Pennsylvania State University’s top-rated business school accepted under 25 percent of applicants while its even better-rated education school accepted 50 percent of applicants last time around.
The report, titled “Building a High-Quality Education Workforce: A Governor’s Guide to Human Capital Development,” said this situation demands a remedy and needs to be reversed.
“Effective, well-trained teachers and principals are vital to the success of students in every state,” Mr. Rendell said in a statement. “To improve student achievement and outcomes, states must invest strategically in our education workforce.”
His organization’s document outlines three strategic guidelines to that end: “Selectively recruit prospective teachers and principals to the profession, improve the preservice training of prospective teachers and principals and work to retain the most effective teachers and principals.”
More specifically, the report recommends that states set minimum SAT or other testing standards for admission to colleges’ and universities’ teaching programs. It also suggests changing teacher-licensing programs to provide teaching students more coursework in subject knowledge and paying more to money teachers with special skills such as in math, science or special education.
Neal McCluskey, an education policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, has argued for merit pay as well.
“We have our biggest shortages in math and science because people with a strong math and science background can get jobs elsewhere doing things that pay better,” he said.
But, he added, any effort to improve teacher quality in the U.S. would have to dismantle some of the certification requirements that keep skilled professionals out of the teaching business in order to truly be effective.
“Certification requirements are a huge barrier to entry,” he said, adding that they have “very little or no impact on someone’s ability to teach.”
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
According to the report, many other countries draw their prospective teachers entirely from among their highest performing students. All of South Korea’s teachers come from the top 5 percent of the nation’s college graduates, Finland’s come from the top 10 percent, and Singapore and Hong Kong’s come from the top 30 percent.
America’s teachers, however, have declined in academic prestige over time. One in 10 new teachers scored in the 90th percentile on their high school standardized tests, a decline by half since 1964. And university education programs have become more lax in their acceptance rates: Pennsylvania State University’s top-rated business school accepted under 25 percent of applicants while its even better-rated education school accepted 50 percent of applicants last time around.
The report, titled “Building a High-Quality Education Workforce: A Governor’s Guide to Human Capital Development,” said this situation demands a remedy and needs to be reversed.
“Effective, well-trained teachers and principals are vital to the success of students in every state,” Mr. Rendell said in a statement. “To improve student achievement and outcomes, states must invest strategically in our education workforce.”
His organization’s document outlines three strategic guidelines to that end: “Selectively recruit prospective teachers and principals to the profession, improve the preservice training of prospective teachers and principals and work to retain the most effective teachers and principals.”
More specifically, the report recommends that states set minimum SAT or other testing standards for admission to colleges’ and universities’ teaching programs. It also suggests changing teacher-licensing programs to provide teaching students more coursework in subject knowledge and paying more to money teachers with special skills such as in math, science or special education.
Neal McCluskey, an education policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, has argued for merit pay as well.
“We have our biggest shortages in math and science because people with a strong math and science background can get jobs elsewhere doing things that pay better,” he said.
But, he added, any effort to improve teacher quality in the U.S. would have to dismantle some of the certification requirements that keep skilled professionals out of the teaching business in order to truly be effective.
“Certification requirements are a huge barrier to entry,” he said, adding that they have “very little or no impact on someone’s ability to teach.”
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
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