Teacher certification.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

I thought it might be handy, if we were going to talk about teaching and homeschooling, to have a reference for teaching certification. These links are about different agreements between the states to recognise each other's teachers. A teaching degree is not as portable as one might hope.

http://www.uky.edu/Education/TEP/usacert.html

http://www.nasdtec.org/agreement.tpl

This is similar in nature to debate over "unauthorized curriculum". Curriculum requirements are an extremely local issue. Any big city, as we know, has high schools with vastly differing requirements and opportunities. The states have their own guidelines and standards. The federal government does not control it.

So, in the end, the efficacy of homeschool curriculum rests on the same standard any teaching does. If it enables you to do the things you are meant to, it works.

Not everyone educated at home is one of those "graduated from Harvard at 12" folks. Some of them are plumbers. Some of them are housewives or househusbands. Some of them are computer programmers, some actors.

Would homeschooling be right for every child or family? Probably not. Why should it be...nothing else is.

But resting secure in the notion that "teacher certification" will guarantee teaching ability is living in a fool's paradise. If teachers had to carry malpractice insurance, as doctors do, we'd start seeing a real reordering of priorities in the education world. Since I'm not in the business of creating more work for lawyers, however, I'm tabling that as a legislative initiative.

Of COURSE there are great teachers. I hope everyone is blessed to have them. But, for me, the great teachers have been in all walks of life.

And most age groups.

[The Gaffer]

Well, it seems a bit mad, not to say monstrously inefficient, that there are different qualitications and curricula between states.

In the UK, control of the educational system is also devolved to local government, but teacher training, certification and curricula have to meet standards specified centrally. Pay scales are also standardised.

Lately, the government has employed a more "heavy-handed" approach: schools are evaluated on how well they score on specific targets (e.g. literacy) and, crucially, on how much they have improved from the last time they were assessed ("added value"). Schools which do well get more money; schools which don't get a Government hit squad in to sort them out.

UK schools' performance has been on an upward curve pretty much ever since they introduced this method. Whether that's because of genuine improvement or because they are good at filling in the forms is another matter.

Oh, and school teachers get paid more than university lecturers, and almost as much as plumbers, which has halted the exodus from the profession.

[brownjenkins]

My wife's a teacher. She taught in public schools, then in a Montessori school for many years. Now she runs a preschool out of our home, at least until our youngest is old enough to be in school fulltime.

She was never a big fan of the certification process, though she religiously maintains her qualifications and yearly training requirements. It's amazing that public school teachers are required to take so much training and yet get compensated so little.

[Rían]

The states thing is just a part of who America is, Gaffer, but national standards would probably be nice. It certainly was difficult when we moved to another state. Both of our youngest kids made the same comment - that the kids here were bad readers but better at math.

[Lady Ravyn]

i started out in public school, then was homeschooled, and now i'm in college to be a teacher. (so i guess i'm getting a taste of almost everything??? lol)

as a homeschooled student, i think that teacher certification requirements are a load of crap that people in the public school administration world are trying to push through in order to stop the mass exodus of kids from public schools (because trust me- at least here in new jersey, families are taking their kids out constantly whether you hear about it or not...). neither of my parents are certified. my mom has a bachelors in english and one in equine science, while my dad just has his trade certification in floristry. they are two of the most intelligent people i know, and are wonderful teachers. i'll be honest and say that perhaps they could work on their discipling and scheduling of our schoolwork, but they've never discouraged us, and have put enough pressure on us to always strive to get the best grades we can. the household mantra has always been "mediocre isn't good enough"- not that we're competitive, just not satisfied with not doing the best we can personally. i think that either of them are much better teachers than quite a few of those i had in public school (hence why i and my brothers were homeschooled). anyway, my point is that they are wonderful teachers without a piece of paper. it's like someone's SAT scores- they don't really tell you how smart you are, they're just a number to show on your college applications. in the end, they don't really matter; it's how well you choose to do, or in this instance, how well you choose to teach.

not to mention, one could construe it to be an invasion of privacy for many of the same reasons that people say (including myself) that tests shouldn't be given to homeschooled students.

now, having said all of that, i'll speak as a potential teacher. i think that maybe some parents do need to be certified. there are manyy families out there homeschooling that are not teaching their children the skills they need to get into college. i know- some of you are about to reply that college is not for everyone. this is very true, but shouldn't every child be given the opportunity to have the right building blocks to go there if they so choose? i don't think there should be a set curriculum; i don't even think that there should be tests administered to kids that are homeschooled. but maybe if there was at least a one-time certification class and test for parents starting to homeschool, it would give them a base for a teaching philosophy/mind set... i dunno.

as usual, i can see both POVs :\

[brownjenkins]

I prefer basic competency tests over the achievement-kind. The basics are important for everyone, but you could be completely clueless about pre-algebra or even american history and still do very well in life according to the profession you choose.