In preparation for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) (P.L. 105-244) next year, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness focused its attention on teacher training at a hearing on October 9.
The Higher Education Act was approved by Congress and signed into law in October 1998. Title II of the Act created three Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant programs that aim to increase student achievement through improving teacher quality. The programs provide three types of competitive grants: (1) state grants to support comprehensive statewide reforms to improve teacher quality; (2) partnership grants designed to bring about fundamental change and improvement in traditional teacher education programs; and (3) teacher recruitment grants to reduce shortages of qualified teachers in high-need school districts. Subcommittee Chair Buck McKeon (R-CA) opened the hearing saying, “I believe we have the same goal here, and that’s to make sure that our children are taught by highly qualified teachers.” He added, “In order to do that, we want to encourage individuals to enter the teaching field, provide them the tools necessary to ensure that they are highly qualified, and make sure that postsecondary institutions providing teacher training are providing the best possible education.”
Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) agreed. “Teacher qualifications are one of the principle concerns in the education field and to parents, generally,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a major part of what we are going to do in the reauthorization,” he added.
Cornelia Ashby of the General Accounting Office (GAO) testified that her agency was asked by Congress to conduct a study of the implementation of some of the provisions under Title II of the HEA. GAO surveyed 91 grantees, made 33 site visits in 11 states and conducted extensive interviews with education experts. The survey revealed that grantees used their funding for a combination of activities, including teacher certification, professional development, support for current teachers, and recruitment of new teachers.
Ms. Ashby told the subcommittee that mentoring was the most common professional development activity. “Seventy percent of the grantee sites visited were conducting mentoring activities,” she explained. “With respect to recruiting new teachers, most grantees were using their funds to fill shortages in urban schools and to recruit new teachers from nontraditional sources such as middle career professionals,” she said. “It’s too early to detect the effect of the grant programs on the quality of teaching in the classroom,” she asserted, but added that grantees were reporting some positive results. “They’ve been able to recruit more teachers into their programs, and they report that mentoring programs are beneficial to the mentoring teachers as well as to the new teacher.”
Addressing accountability, Ms. Ashby explained that some of the institutions of higher education were reporting only on those teacher candidates who passed the teacher certification exam “making their programs seem more successful than they might have been.” Inflating their pass rate to 100 percent “without reporting on teachers who completed all the course work, but failed the certification test does not provide a basis for assessing program quality,” she added.
Kurt Landgraf of the Educational Testing Service explained that his company conducts 12 million tests per year worldwide. “Enhancing the quality of teaching is the single most important way of improving student achievement,” he told the subcommittee. “Don’t back away from the message in 1998 that teacher certification should meet the highest standards,” he urged.
He made several recommendations to the subcommittee relating to Title II of the HEA. “Redirect the focus of assessments on improved teacher education, not pass rates,” he said. “Focus on those who complete their course of study and look at those who are admitted and drop out,” he continued. Thirdly, he urged the subcommittee, “Consider establishing a uniform reporting system to facilitate enhanced utility and comparability of Title II data.”
Dr. Alan Mori of the California State University Charter College of Education testified that his institution “has played an historic role in preparing quality teachers, especially teachers of color.” The campus is located in the heart of Los Angeles and reflects the cultural and linguistic diversity of the city.
In describing the teacher training program at this school, Dr. Mori said that the majority of candidates are adult students, many of whom are pursuing a second career, and teaching methods and subject matter are taught together. The student body is “68 percent female and 32 percent male, with a similar pattern of the diversity that reflects the overall enrollment at the university.”
He called the program “unique” in that it involves the employment of the participants who are apprentices at three professional development schools. The administration and the teachers support the apprentices as they pursue their degrees in teaching, he explained, and added that the apprentices work as para-educators in the classes of master teachers who have been carefully selected and trained.
“There are now 200 graduates from the urban learning program,” he reported. “Most are female Hispanics between the ages of 21 and 27,” he said. “Most are employed over 20 hours a week, take a heavy course load, and still achieve a grade point average of 3.5,” he explained. “Spurred by the Title II requirements, our program is on the cutting edge of quality teacher preparation,” he added.
Steven Brandick of the Los Angeles Unified Schools District testified that there is a dire need for new teachers in his district. “We will need to hire 4,000 new teachers per year over the next five years,” he said. “One in four teachers, and half of all of the new teachers we hire are not regularly certified,” he continued. “The highest concentrations of challenged learners have the most unqualified teachers,” he stressed. “We need more qualified teachers, and we need them quickly,” he added.
Mr. Brandick described the teacher training program implemented in his district in cooperation with California State University in 1999. “The program starts with a fast-track curriculum, which combines undergraduate courses and teacher training classes that lead to a bachelor’s degree and teacher status within two years,” he said. Students are required to observe demonstration teachers in action, attend weekly seminars related to subject areas, and serve as apprentice teachers. “Twenty-eight apprentices have become teachers in the past year and are doing well,” he stated.
“The numbers are unsettling,” acknowledged Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ). “We will need 2 million teachers by the end of the decade,” he said. “If we want smaller class sizes, we will need more,” he continued. “We will have to do a better job of attracting individuals in mid-level careers,” he added, and asked, “Will standards have to be different?”
Mr. Landgraf responded, “Standards shouldn’t be different.” He added, “They should be high and the approach to training should be different.”
“I’m convinced that math and science are the unwanted stepchildren in many classrooms, and yet, that’s where the jobs of the future are,” said Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI). “What I’m most worried about is the culture of female students,” he continued. “I’ve seen this over and over where they get the idea that they can’t get math and they can’t get science because they have a female teacher who says that she could never get it. We must address that problem,” he added.
“From my perspective, it would be wonderful if we could have teachers assisted by para-teachers in math and science, and then those para-teachers could become math and science teachers,” responded Dr. Mori. “One of the big issues we’re always talking about is that if individuals did not make it into med school, maybe they could become a science teacher; they didn’t become an engineer, so maybe they could be a math teacher,” he said. “What I would like to see is people deciding early on, in high school or early in their college career, that they want to teach math and science,” he asserted.
