Student loan forgiveness program for teacher

Byline: Reg Weaver, SPECIAL TO INSIGHT

The idea that we can raise standards for student achievement while lowering standards for entry into the teaching profession is absurd. And yet, this is the very policy the Bush administration has chosen to pursue. It is investing millions of federal dollars in programs that make it easier and quicker for a person to become a certified teacher.

These programs such as the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence's "Passport to Teaching Certification" greatly reduce the amount of time a candidate must spend studying how to teach (pedagogy) and totally eliminate the requirement that a would-be teacher first must practice teaching in a real classroom, under the watchful eye of an experienced teacher, before teaching solo.

Everyone agrees that a teacher candidate must possess a deep understanding of the subject matter he or she is going to teach. You can't teach what you don't know. And many would agree that there must be alternate routes to teacher certification for people who already have bachelor's degrees, want to change careers and want to go into teaching. The state of New Jersey, for example, has provided such an alternate route since the mid-1980s without lowering teacher-quality standards, and it has produced many quality teachers.

Serious disagreement arises, however, over how much knowledge a teacher candidate must have about how to teach. As a veteran teacher, it is my judgment that it takes a lot more than a bachelor's degree, a winning personality and good intentions to become a quality teacher. Teaching is a profession, not missionary work. It requires practice and the mastery of a special body of knowledge about how children learn and develop.

What's more, as an African-American male teacher, I encourage more African-American and Hispanic men to come into the teaching profession and serve as role models for our children. And as much as I desire that, I never would advocate lowering teacher-quality standards to achieve my objective. That would be self-defeating.

No two students are alike; a quality teacher not only must know his or her subject, but also how to reach and inspire learners. In the classroom, one size definitely does not fit all. Quality teachers know how to adapt their instructions to meet the different needs of their students. I know that it took a few years in the classroom for me to learn the most important lesson of my professional life: If my students can't learn the way I teach, then I must teach the way they learn. Today's children will challenge you, no question about it. But all children can be taught if you know how. All children can learn. All children can achieve.

Studies consistently show that experienced teachers are more effective at tailoring their teaching for students with diverse learning needs. And, according to a recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators, 70 percent of high-school principals report that teachers with more experience are more knowledgeable about curriculum, assessment and instruction.

Today, teacher quality in schools that serve poor and minority children is not being undermined by "burdensome education requirements" that discourage bright people from going into teaching, as some insist. Rather, as the latest report from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future states: "The real school staffing problem is teacher retention."

High teacher turnover is what is undermining teacher quality and student achievement in our urban and rural schools. One-third of new teachers leave the profession within three years and almost one-half leave within five years; the turnover rate is even higher in urban and rural schools. The fact is that too many students are being taught by underqualified and inexperienced teachers.

Research tells us that teachers who exit the profession in the first few years of teaching are far more likely never to have done practice teaching and never to have received adequate training in child psychology and development or in different instructional techniques and classroom management. In other words, these new teachers were ill-prepared for the classroom. This shouldn't come as a surprise to us. A soldier who is

ill-prepared for combat is more likely to get shot, and a lawyer who is ill-prepared to practice law is more likely to lose in court. Preparation matters.

Conversely, there is no research evidence that supports the claim that quality teacher preparation, rigorous program accreditation or strong certification or licensure standards are barriers to providing the nation's schools with a sufficient quantity of highly qualified teachers.

It is instructive to note the track record of a program such as Teach for America. In this program idealistic college graduates receive a summer crash course in how to teach and, come fall, they are given a classroom and students to teach, usually in an inner-city school. Teach for America's teacher turnover rate is 75 percent in the course of a five-year period even higher than the national average.

Here is a lesson for policymakers: There are no shortcuts to a person becoming a qualified teacher that is, a teacher you or I would want to turn our own child over to for an education. When you shortcut teacher preparation or certification, you shortchange the students. To be a quality teacher, a person must learn certain skills and demonstrate they can practice them. And if this is too "burdensome" for some, then they should not be teaching.

But lack of teacher preparation is not the only cause of the high teacher-turnover rate. In some schools conditions simply do not support quality teaching. Frustrated by their inability to do what they want to do most make a difference in their students' lives some qualified teachers leave such schools.

For example, a California survey found that teachers in high-minority, low-income schools report significantly worse working conditions, including inadequate facilities, less availability of textbooks and supplies, fewer administrative supports and larger class sizes. And these teachers are far more likely to leave such a school because of these poor working conditions. Moreover, a subsequent analysis of these data confirmed that turnover problems are more strongly influenced by school working conditions and salary levels than by the characteristics of the student population.

If President George W. Bush and the Congress truly are serious about leaving no child behind, they must get serious about putting a truly qualified teacher in every classroom, because that is what it will take. Seven years ago the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future proposed an audacious goal: "By the year 2006, America will provide every student with what should be his or her educational birthright: access to competent, caring and qualified teaching." In reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2002, the president and the

Congress took up this challenge, requiring that by the spring of 2006 every teacher in every classroom in every public school across the nation must be "highly qualified." In addition, this law, renamed the No Child Left Behind Act, expressly states it is not acceptable to have a teacher who has "had certification or licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary or provisional basis."

A "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom by spring 2006 is a worthy goal for America, a goal that should transcend bickering and partisanship. Unfortunately, implementation of this worthy goal has been abysmal. Bureaucrats have wasted money subsidizing programs that lower teacher-quality standards in order to increase the supply of teachers, and they have cut funding for programs that would enhance teacher quality, especially in Title I schools that serve poor and minority students.

As 2006 fast approaches, we must ask: Is there a true commitment to provide every student with a "highly qualified" teacher? I don't believe so, but America's students deserve nothing less. It is time now that the Bush administration and the Congress buckle down to the task at hand.

Instead of cutting funding for facility upgrades and class-size reductions in Title I schools the Bush administration and Congress should be increasing them. And instead of cutting the federal Teacher Quality State Grant program they should be expanding it. Offer student-loan forgiveness for teachers after five years of service in Title I schools. Provide tuition aid to those who are pursuing teaching as a second career and tie this assistance to service in Title I schools. Support Title I schools' efforts to mentor new teachers and provide all teachers with meaningful professional development at the school site.