Which of these things is not like the other?

Finally, something from this US Department of Education (US DOE) infographic that I can agree with. [In prior posts, I: (1) pointed out that it was unclear what "unprepared" meant to new teachers; (2) wondered how the ease of an exam could be determined simply by the pass rate; and (3) explained that it is impossible to completely prepare new teacher for every school-specific situation.] We do need to increase the diversity of the U.S. teaching force. Unfortunately, a recent Supreme Court ruling makes it difficult for colleges in Michigan to take intentional actions to address this issue. 

And the US DOE is not helping. Instead, Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, is focusing on "accountability" for education schools.

The goal: To ensure that every state evaluates its teacher education programs by several key metrics, such as how many graduates land teaching jobs, how long they stay in the profession and whether they boost their students’ scores on standardized tests. (Politico, 4/25/14)

A possible consequence will be that education schools will be more selective in their admissions, thereby reducing the number of teachers they train.

How does this help to address the lack of diversity in our teaching force? It doesn't. Perhaps, this panel of the infographic was never meant to be included in the US DOE's latest policy push. They simply needed something to balance out the picture. The result is a warped game of "One of These Things is Not Like the Others."

Sadly, in this case, the "thing that doesn't belong" is the thing that is most important.

Am I ready for this?

I leave for Africa tomorrow to support our study abroad program in Tanzania.

We have been meeting since the beginning of the year to get ready for this trip. However, it has been stated many times by those who have gone before that nothing can completely prepare us for what we will encounter during our time there. This seems reasonable to me; how does one prepare for an adventure of a lifetime?

That is why I find the infographic recently shared by the U.S. Department of Education so strange. Teaching is also a lifelong adventure and nothing will completely prepare the new teacher for what they will encounter in their first classroom. Even the author, Arthur Levine, of the paper used for the top two panels states: 

One plausible explanation is that no professional school can possibly teach its graduates everything they need to know before taking a job. Some things can only be learned on the job. (p. 33)

Prof. Levine goes on to refute this statement using results from a survey completed by deans of education schools, but I believe this ignores the point that all jobs require some on-the-job training.

In Part I and II of this series, I addressed the panels on the left. For the remainder of this post (briefly since I still have packing to do), I wish to share my thoughts about the statistics provided in the upper right.

Our teacher preparation program tries to address all three of these skills either through study or experience. We have two entire courses that focus on diversity and classroom management. As for the first skill, one of the expectations of student teaching is that our teacher-candidates will participate in parent-teacher conferences and make phone contact with parents during the semester.

Could we improve? Certainly! I have been begging for a lab school for years. That way preservice teachers would have more direct experience and support needed to learn the important skills and knowledge necessary for success in the classroom.

Still, I am not sure a lab school would change the principals' responses to the original survey questions. Especially if they are thinking solely about new teachers in their schools. You see, we are trying to provide teacher-candidates with a firm foundation in all these areas, but we cannot prepare them for ever possible situation they might encounter. Even in a lab school, the experiences would be specific to that setting. For example, if it were an urban school, then it might not adequately prepare them for a suburban setting.

If teachers are expected to be ready for every possible situation before being certified, then they will never be certified. That is the nature of an adventure - encountering the unexpected. Perhaps that is what the best education programs do; they prepare teachers to expect the unexpected and to handle it with grace. I believe that is what our work in Tanzania does for preservice teachers. Which is why I am excited, though not completely prepared, to begin this adventure.

Kwa heri!

How is it "too easy"?

On April 25th, Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, announced a new focus on improving teacher-preparation. This announcement coincided with the release of the U.S. Department of Education's (USDOE) infographic shown on the right. Problem is, this infographic is surprisingly short on information.

For example, as I pointed out in the first post of this series, the claim that "62% of NEW TEACHERS say they graduated from education school UNPREPARED for the classroom" is missing a lot of detail. Had the infographic included references for the statistics behind this claim, then interested readers could find out more about the data and draw their own conclusions. Instead, we only have the USDOE's damning interpretation, which conveniently supports its narrative.

Then there is this statement:

The lack of source leaves me with several questions. Which exams are we talking about? In Michigan, a teacher-candidate might take three different certification exams. Also, does the 96% represent first-time exam-takers or all exam-takers? Again, in Michigan, all teacher-candidates are expected to pass a basic-skills exam before beginning professional education coursework. The goal for my department is that 100% of our teacher-candidates will pass the test. In fact, our program is evaluated based on our success rate.

However, this can result in a Catch-22 because a high success rate seems to suggest to the USDOE that the test must be "too easy." Where does this interpretation come from? A similar argument was made for "beefing up" Michigan's Test for Teacher Certification:

the basic exam and various other tests for teaching specialties screen out almost no one, with four out of five passing on the first try.

That 79 percent initial pass rate for the various tests – 88 percent pass after retaking the tests – is a similar pass rate to license exams for cosmetology.

It is interesting to me that the author of the article decided to compare the results to cosmetology (a profession, like teaching, that has a high population of females), and does so with such derision. What if we compare "That 79 percent initial pass rate" to the first-time taker pass rates from the American Board of Internal Medicine?

No one seems to be saying that the Internal Medicine exams are "too easy." Could it be some tacit assumption about teachers' academic ability that leads to this double standard? If so, then making the test "harder" is a no-win situation for teachers and the programs that prepare them. Should teachers continue to pass at such alarmingly high rates, then the tests remain "too easy." Lower pass rates, on the other hand, reinforce the belief that teachers are less academically able than other professionals and that Schools of Education are not doing their job to adequately prepare candidates for the test.

Maybe the USDOE is right and the current test do not accurately represent the foundational skills teachers need to be effective in the K-12 classroom. If that is the case, then show the actual evidence that supports this claim. Otherwise, what is being provided is not information; it is propaganda.

Update

(4/30/14) The US DOE has provided this document as the source for the 96% pas rate. It also includes the following:

shortcomings with the use and calculation of passage rates make them a misleading and untrustworthy indicator and should not be used to make cross-state comparisons or assumptions of program rigor, student success, or other similar measures of quality.

What was missing?

Taking Action to Improve Teacher Preparation

"Virtually every school I go to, I ask teachers whether they were prepared when they first entered the school or the profession," Duncan said. "There's often a good deal of nervous laughter," he said, before teachers confess that they were nowhere near ready for the job. [Politico, 4/25/14]

"Often the vast majority of schools, "  [Duncan] said, "when I talk to teachers, and have very candid conversations, they feel they weren't well prepared." [New York Times, 4/25/14]

Something is missing from this assessment of teacher preparation. A good educator might follow up with, "So what was missing?" Either Secretary Duncan did not ask that question, or he did not believe the teachers' answers were worth sharing.

I am just imagining here, but based on my experience with new teachers, I might predict that they would respond to, "what's missing?" with:

• I wasn't prepared to have to turn my back on all the promising practices I learned in my teacher preparation program just because my district's instructional approaches are stuck in the 19th Century.
• I wasn't prepared to focus so much on test-prep. Don't those who clamor for accountability understand that test are only one measure of learning?
• I wasn't prepared for the poverty some of my kids deal with. Why are we ignoring this issue?
• I wasn't prepared for how much of my own money I would need to spend on school supplies.
• I wasn't prepared to be attacked from all sides. Why do some many people hate teachers?

However, I might be wrong, so let's ask these new teachers what was missing from their teacher preparation program (if anything) before we go about trying to fix it. It is a poor teacher who tries to educate without adequate assessment. I learned that from the College of Education that I attended.

Updates
(4/30/14): The 62% number comes from 2006's Educating School Teachers.
(4/26/14): My wife did some research and found out why teachers leave. Spoiler: it's not because they were underprepared by their teacher preparation program.