[etni] Alternative teacher certification in Pa. could be school saver
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- Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:27:26 +0200
Alternative teacher certification in Pa. could be school saver
pennlive.com - October 13, 2010
In 1967, I entered my classroom of ninth-graders with an English
degree and traditional college preparation in secondary education.
I thought I was prepared, but in my first year I learned more about
instruction through reading Bel Kaufman’s novel “Up the Down
Staircase” and intense mentoring by fellow English teachers than I had
in four years of education courses.
Unfortunately for Pennsylvania, it seems as if only traditional
programs in teacher training are considered to have high enough
standards. Dinosaurs still thunder across the commonwealth in these
programs that have changed minimally in four decades.
Professors, conventionally trained teachers and their unions fear
change, even if alternative certification would improve instruction
for the students they profess to cherish. Their old-school attitudes
helped the state lose about $400 million in funding from the Race to
the Top federal grant. It’s a loss that will affect current and future
students unless the education dinosaurs become extinct.
In the last 40-plus years, I served as an English teacher, department
chair, assistant principal, high school principal and most recently as
a clinical supervisor of teaching interns in a one-year, fast-track
program at Towson University in Maryland. The master of arts in
teaching program and other alternative certification pathways prepare
new teachers to navigate classrooms effectively.
(To read the whole article, go to -
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/10/alternative_teacher_certificat.html
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