Does Credentialing Produce Effective Teachers?
Controversy regarding the relationship between the competence of teachers and the performance of their students causes some people to believe that the qualifications of teachers have no direct effect on their ability to teach efficiently. Others believe that poor student performance is directly caused by the teacher's lack of preparation. Thus the question: is teachers’ lack of preparation contributing to poor student performance on standardized achievement tests? This review contains information regarding teacher credentialing: what is a teacher credential, how is a multiple-subject credential obtained in California, emergency credentials, teacher credentialing is related to student performance, and teacher credentialing is not related to student performance.
What is a teaching credential?
Teacher credentialing is a process in which teachers become recognized by the state as competent and professional in teaching. There are many different types of credentials, a primary one being a multiple subject credential. According to Dr. Ruth Norton, a professor of education at Cal State San Bernardino, a multiple subject credential allows a teacher to teach all subjects in a self-contained classroom in grades K-12. In California, the multiple subject credential generally applies to grades K-6 because of the structure of the school systems; grades 7-12 generally emphasize single-subject credentials.
How is a multiple subject credential obtained in California?
In speaking with Jason Moore, an advisor at CSUSB PALS office, to obtain a multiple subject credential in California it is required to have a baccalaureate degree from a four-year university, passed the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) during their junior or senior year, and participate in a fifth year credential program. Currently, in the extended credential program, the Reading Instruction Competency Assessment (RICA) test is required and as of September 2000, the Math Instruction Competency Assessment (MICA) will also be required. It should be noted that California is the only state that requires the fifth year credential program.
In addition, the state of California has a list of competencies of what every teacher should possess to be effective: creating and maintaining effective environments, planning instruction and designing a learning experience for all students, engaging and supporting all students in learning, understanding and organizing subject matter for student learning, assessing student learning, and developing as a professional educator.
Emergency Credentials
Deep within African mines, elusive diamonds lay enveloped in the Earth’s crust. Possessing much influence, beauty, and tension, nature’s hardest known substance causes parallel occurrences of unity and destruction on opposite sides of the globe. Diamonds, derived from the Greek word "adamas", meaning invincible, are formed deep within the mantle, and are composed entirely from carbon. Moreover, only under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure can diamonds form into their preliminary crystal state. In fact, diamonds are formed approximately 150km- 200km below the surface and at radical temperatures ranging from 900-1300 C°. When these extremes meet, carbon atoms are forced together creating diamond crystals. Yet how do these gems, ranking a ten on Moh’s hardness scale, impact the individual lives of millions of people besides coaxing a squeal out of brides-to-be? These colorless, yellow, brown, green, blue, reddish, pink, grey and black minerals are gorgeous in their cut state, but how are these otherwise dull gems recognized and harvested? Furthermore, how and why is bloodshed and violence caused over diamonds in Africa, the supplier of approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds? (Bertoni) The environmental, social, and economic impact of harvesting, transporting, and processing diamonds is crucial because contrary to popular belief, much blood has been spilled over first-world “bling”.
"College Athletic Programs Undermine Academics." Student Life. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 July 2011.
Saffici, Chirstopher and Robert Pellegrino. "Intercollegiate Athletics vs. Academics: The Student-Athlete or the Athelte-Student." The Sport Journal 15.1 (2012): 6. online.
According to current federal education legislation, schools are required to measure and report teachers’ qualifications in order to ensure that students are receiving high quality education and district teachers equally across schools. Based on the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), twelve percent of math teachers in high school do not have a certificate or major in this subject, meanwhile the percentage for science teacher is around 4. These statistics suggest that there is a serious issue th...
Credentialing has replaced education, in a way that negatively impacts society, due to the effect it has on the purpose of learning in relation to job status and overall authenticity of a person. Education and credentialing have very different meanings, although they both rely on each other to provide purpose. An education is the accumulation of information, resulting in an overall knowledge of a certain topic, where critical analysis and thought have taken place. Hence, material has not been purely memorized to pass a test, but actually absorbed into the person through a clear process of understanding. However, credentialing is a process that requires education, but the effort to acquire it is minimalized, as it is more viewed as a phase to
A typical definition for teacher is one who passes on knowledge, but the job of teacher entails so much more than simply imparting knowledge to students. Or, rather, the job is not so simple. In order to pass on the information and understanding necessary for a student to become proficient enough to become a contributing member of society, there are many things at which a teacher must be competent. The Ohio Department of Education has created a list of standards for teachers as a guideline to achieve or improve in the competencies they need in order to be considered highly qualified at their profession.
A competency specifically teaching competency is determined as the level of integration of skills, wisdom, and behaviors. It is servered as a standard on how teaching should be performed within a particular measure of passable level. However, often studies about teachers' competency are being extremely examined today. Since, imposing student learning to identify how efficient the instruction among student targets depend on how competent a teacher is. In addition, possessing this kind of standards for teachers prepared higher quality performance of right classroom assessment. Ergo, awareness of deliberating students' advancement and teahers enhancement of their teaching can be developed. (Magno, 2013; Stoof, Martens, & Van Merrienboer,
One of the greatest controversies that is spreading throughout high schools in the United States is parents and their children against the enforcement of their school’s uniform policy. More schools have been adopting uniform policies within the past decade. Rules contained in the policy that are implemented range from wearing certain types of tops (shirts) in specified colors to students being required to tuck in their shirts. In the past, uniforms were exclusively for students who attended private schools because they were “well-off”, but now uniforms are being seen more frequently in public schools on students of all economic levels. Having gone through a school system that considered adopting a uniform policy, I would have to press against the issue of mandated uniforms, because it is simply un-American and unjust.
Herbet D. Simans, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington focuses their argument on academic motivation of student athletes and what drives them to want to succeed in the classroom as well as on the court or field. Although Flynn also focuses on academic motivation of student athletes, he also discusses how colleges tend to spend more money on sports related necessities for the students instead of towards their education. Flynn’s argument displays how colleges are basically a business...
Noorman, Merel, and Deborah G. Johnson. "Negotiating autonomy and responsibility in military robots." Ethics and Information Technology. (February): 2014. Print.
One must be very knowledgeable and understanding of the content that is to be presented. It is important that the teacher be able to teach lessons that are both rigorous and clear to diverse learning styles.
There is something comforting about school children and teenagers dressed in pleats and plaid. Maybe it is a reminder of past times, or conjures up thoughts of order and safety. Whatever the reason, school uniforms are getting a lot of ?wear? these days, yet remain an unproven deterrent to school violence. No long-term, formal studies have been done with regards to the effectiveness of school uniforms, but many schools have kept their own informal statistics, such as the Long Beach School District. These statistics offered by Long Beach are often most cited as a proven deterrent to school violence, after adopting a mandatory uniform policy in 1994. According to Richard Van Der Laan, school crime has dropped over seventy-five percent, while attendance has reached an all-time high. One question we must ask ourselves is this, ?Is it the uniforms, or the induction of them that is solving the problem?? Maybe it is the school and parents showing some ?back-bone? which is affecting the students, not the clothing.
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
School uniforms are a boiling conversation point these days. There are so many well-built points of view about what route parents, students, and superintendents wish to go in. It has been disputed that school uniforms have the potential to make a school safer, that uniforms reduce harassment or self-esteem issues, and that uniforms return the focus to the students' learning. I disagree. I, in fact think that school uniforms do not help make our schools a more secure place, I think that they do not revisit the center of attention to student's education - they just shifted where the attention was previous, and that they won’t help cut down on harassment or self- esteem issues in school.
Many have argued that school uniforms have been a successful source to putting an end to combatants and bringing about order and stability in a school setting. However, others argue that school uniforms put a barrier between students and their personal character. In addition, there are many people who consider clothing as being a way to define the individual's originality. On the other hand, there are people who are in favor of enforcing school uniforms, because they have concluded that it does eliminate students from being assaulted by peers. Based on observations, many have seen that student's have expectations that one must abide by in order to comply to what is considered the norm. Therefore, by enforcing school uniforms it can lessen the conflicts among students. Certainly, school uniforms should be enforced in a high school setting because it reduces fighting and violence, promotes good discipline, and eliminates distractions.