Alabama Primary Grade Teacher of the Year not Qualified to teach 5th Grade

[MickintheHam]

This teacher after she won the Alabama TOY Award made a change moving from the school system for one of the 5 richest cities in the country to an experiemental Inner City program in Birmingham called the Woodlawn Innovation network. This is the elementary school in a pod with Woodlawn High school, made famous by the recent movie Woodlawn and it allows some teacher with needed skills who have professional experience to teach without a certificate. The State of Alabama and Birmingham city schools have notified her she is not qualified to teach 5th grade because her AB certification only allows her to teach through second grade. She is certified nationally to teach children up to 12 years old, which would include 5th graders. She has 21 years experience teaching grades 1-6. She is resigning rather that sit for more testing. She will take the time off to write her second book on teaching.

This is truly sad that some accommodation cannot be made. The Birmingham City Schools have had all sorts of administrative problems. They have fired 4 or 5 of the very best superintendents in the state. The have trouble attracting top talent. I wouldn't be caught dead in one of their schools. Well, if I taught there I might wind up dead. But, how are you going to improve failing schools if this is your approach to education? Rules, we have to follow rules.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...art_river_home

[Doc]

I'm a bit torn on this. Rules and regulations are there for a reason. What if she wasn't TOY, but just somebody with years of experience aka tenure, who by all accounts sucked as a teacher. Who determines? Does being TOY allow bypassing regulations and qualifications that apply to others?

[MickintheHam]

I'm a bit torn on this. Rules and regulations are there for a reason. What if she wasn't TOY, but just somebody with years of experience aka tenure, who by all accounts sucked as a teacher. Who determines? Does being TOY allow bypassing regulations and qualifications that apply to others?

Teacher of the Year doesn't give you special privileges, but she has taught the grade before, she is in an experimental program where you as one with professional credentials could teach, she is in an inner city program desperate to attract quality people. She left one of the top school systems in the entire country to teach in the experimental program.

[Doc]

The "wise" folks (dws) in FL have or had something like this in my profession at one time. Special provisions and exceptions were granted to veterinarians educated in Cuba. They didn't need the same liscencing procedures and testing that I requrired to practice in FL despite me going to a better school with better facilities. I had to jump through all the hoops, pass all the tests and pay all the fees. Always bothered me that I did and had to prove I was competent, and continue to do so, whereas they are granted an exception. A state board exam and teaching certificate seems analoguos

[CitizenBBN]

I'm a bit torn on this. Rules and regulations are there for a reason. What if she wasn't TOY, but just somebody with years of experience aka tenure, who by all accounts sucked as a teacher. Who determines? Does being TOY allow bypassing regulations and qualifications that apply to others?

In the private world that's exactly what it would mean.

Bc the alternative is the very false premise that if you pass this test or meet that paper requirement you're inherently qualified. That's the problem w bureaucracy in a nut shell.

That includes your example. I bet there are some questionable vets out there who passed. Esp w teaching I doubt any test can tell you much about whether someone can really teach.

[Doc]

In the private world that's exactly what it would mean.

Bc the alternative is the very false premise that if you pass this test or meet that paper requirement you're inherently qualified. That's the problem w bureaucracy in a nut shell.

That includes your example. I bet there are some questionable vets out there who passed. Esp w teaching I doubt any test can tell you much about whether someone can really teach.

Yes but the requirement is there and it should apply to everybody equally. In my profession, if a vet passes the test but sucks as a vet, eventually he or she will be brought before the state board and lose their license. So, yes, questionable vets pass their tests (lawyers and MDs too as well as beauticians and boat captains etc.....) but eventually they get weeded out. Interesting comparison thought with teachers because once they get tenure, they are pretty much immune from that. Ever see a tenured teacher loose their job?

[CitizenBBN]

Yes but the requirement is there and it should apply to everybody equally. In my profession, if a vet passes the test but sucks as a vet, eventually he or she will be brought before the state board and lose their license. So, yes, questionable vets pass their tests (lawyers and MDs too as well as beauticians and boat captains etc.....) but eventually they get weeded out. Interesting comparison thought with teachers because once they get tenure, they are pretty much immune from that. Ever see a tenured teacher loose their job?

I can't say if she should have gotten an exemption or not, but I do think bureaucracy inherently limits the flexibility that is the basis of common sense.

In the big picture I prefer a system with no government regs and standards at all for education. Completely privatize the system and let each school/entity decide their standards for themselves. The market can take care of it by creating the proper incentives so that good teachers are retained and bad ones expelled.

In your business no doubt you hire and fire without a 1,000 page manual to tell you every detail of how to make evaluations. The market takes care of things by incentivizing you to provide good customer service, and you in turn take responsibility for getting the people to make it happen.

That all can happen in schools just as easy as in an office.

Two things need desperate fixing in this country, health care and education. Health care is far more complex, but education we could fix fairly easily. Privatize the whole thing and we'd get a huge improvement.

[MickintheHam]

I'm with you Citizen, privatize it all. This city school system is desperate to find halfway decent teachers, they get a gem a pointy nose liberal educator in our fine Capital city, the cradle of the confederacy, buts in.