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Fall, 2001
Quality in the
Classroom
What Parents Can Do
Here are some steps parents can
take to help ensure that their children's schools employ
well-qualified teachers and to promote teaching as a
profession:
• Take a survey. Use the National Education
Association's "Teacher Quality Checklist" to see how your school's teachers measure up.
• See how your state teaching standards measure up. Compare your state's teacher qualifications to those in other states. Some states allow
high school teachers to earn a teaching certificate
without a major or minor in the teaching subject area and
with only a few courses in how to teach. Some states
require as few as six weeks of student teaching compared
to 15 weeks or more in other states. If you believe your
state's teacher licensing requirements are weak, contact
a legislator or your governor to express your concern.
Lawmakers can rewrite state requirements to make them
more stringent. They also can require accreditation for
schools of education.
• Start a future teachers club. Work with your
middle and high school administrators and teachers to
start a chapter of Future Educators of America, which provides information on what it takes to
become a teacher, career opportunities, and other
education information.
• Encourage your local schools to establish partnerships
with schools of education at
nearby colleges and universities. Teacher input to
university faculty keeps education schools focused on
real-world issues that teachers face. At the same time, a
connection with the university allows teachers the
opportunity for reflection about the profession of
teaching and feedback from teacher candidates and
professors knowledgeable about education research and
theory.
• Demand certificated teachers in every classroom
and support efforts to increase pay, professional
development, and leadership opportunities. Stanford University Professor Linda
Darling-Hammond, a national
expert on teacher preparation featured in a GLEF interview , says
some states are requiring that teacher licenses be
displayed, something parents could ask of their local
school officials. Among the questions she says parents
should ask are, "How many fully credentialed
teachers are there in the school my child will be
attending?" "How many are engaged in
professional development?" "What does the
district do to encourage (professional
development)?"
Resources
"The Professional Development
School Distinction." For more information on the
benefits of the professional development school concept,
read the paper prepared by the
University of Kentucky College of Education.
Educational
Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Teaching
and Teacher Education. The
center offers an extensive Web library of information
about teacher preparation and the status of the teaching
profession.
Who Should Teach? Quality Counts 2000. This extensive Education Week magazine report
provides a state-by-state analysis of teaching standards
and licensure requirements as well as a grade on how well
states are working to improve teacher quality.
Recruiting
New Teachers, Inc. This
nonprofit organization provides a wealth of information
for anyone interested in teaching. Resources include
everything from information on teacher shortages in urban
areas to a state-by-state listing of agencies that can
explain local licensing requirements and programs at its National
Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse.
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Author: Iona Hoeppner
Copyright © 2001 Handmaidens4Christ. All rights
reserved.
Revised: April 20, 2006.
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