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CER PublicationsThere is a long-standing tendency to equate teacher certification with teacher quality. Unfortunately, though at first blush it seems a logical connection to make, it simply doesn't hold up under scrutiny. To help dispel these misconceptions, we offer the following . . .
Certification Lets Bad Teachers In And Keeps Good Ones Out
Here are the stats:
1. New teachers come disproportionately from the bottom third of American college students.
2. Between 1993 and 1994, the SAT scores of individuals becoming public school teachers averaged 923; the average of those entering other professions was nearly 80 points higher.
3. Between 1995 and 1998, individuals taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) intending to work in education had the lowest combined scores of any group.
4. From 1982 to 1999, the percentage of teachers with a baccalaureate degree in a subject area fell from 28 to 23 percent.
5. From 1982 to 1999, the percentage of teachers with a master's degree in a subject area fell from 17 to 5 percent.
This despite the fact that:
6. 89.5 percent of teachers were certified in 1982, the same percentage as today.
7. Since 1982, real (inflation adjusted) teacher pay has risen 12%
- Our
Schools and Our Future: Are We Still At Risk, Koret Task Force on K-12
Education, 2003
- Dan Goldhaber, Education
Next, Spring 2002
and
- "Interpreting Your GRE
Scores - 1999-2000"
Why the situation is so bad:
"[A]cademically stronger students tend to shun teaching as a profession …The situation is even more troubling than it appears, since many large school systems have classrooms filled with uncertified teachers and long-term substitutes. These teachers are hired at the last minute, when the systems - having discouraged or turned away Janet [a highly-qualified but uncredentialed applicant] and hundreds like her - are desperate for bodies."
- Frederick Hess, Tear Down This Wall, Progressive Policy Institute, November 2001
"In sum, at the same time that states should be seeking teaching candidates with solid content knowledge and high verbal ability, our system of teacher certification is thwarting the aspirations of our most talented individuals - while at the same time maintaining low academic standards and failing to prepare teachers for the reality of the classroom. There must be a better way."
- Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Annual Report on Teacher Quality, U.S. Department of Education, 2002
"Support" for Certification is Weak
"[T]he academic research attempting to link teacher certification with student achievement is astonishingly deficient. . . . Research that has not been subjected to peer review is treated without skepticism, and there is a heavy reliance on unpublished dissertations. . . . Instead of using standardized measures of student achievement, advocates of certification design their own assessment measures to prove certification's value. . . . Basic principles of sound statistical analysis, which are taken for granted in other academic disciplines, are violated routinely. Examples include failing to control for such key variables as poverty and prior student achievement; using sample sizes too small to support generalizations or reliable statistical inference, and relying on inappropriately aggregated data."
- Kate Walsh, Teacher Certification Reconsidered: Stumbling for Quality, Abell Foundation, 2001
The Experts Have Agreed for a Long Time: Certification Doesn't Work
"Do [state certification] policies effectively serve the purposes of those concerned with teaching? They do not."
- James B. Conant, President, Harvard University - nearly 40 years ago.
"W. James Popham demonstrated on three separate occasions that students taught by teachers trained in teachers colleges do no better than laymen (housewives, automobile mechanics, and electricians) in promoting student achievement."
- R. Barker Bausell and William B. Moody, Phi Delta Kappan , January 1973
"[O]ur system allows too many poorly qualified individuals into the classroom while creating barriers for the most talented candidates."
- Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Annual Report on Teacher Quality , U.S. Department of Education, 2002
"[C]urrent teacher licensing … does not do what it is intended to do. It does not differentiate clearly between those who are qualified to teach and those who are not. The victims are the children."
- Arthur Wise, President, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Excellence (NCATE), Education Week, April 10, 2003
Conclusion
"Certified" does not mean "qualified," and until certification truly reflects a teacher's subject knowledge and teaching ability, it never will.
Web Sites of Teacher Quality Experts:
There are several organizations dedicated to reforming teacher certification. Their web sites are well worth visiting:
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ): NCTQ is devoted to the pursuit of teacher quality and brings common sense to bear on teaching issues.
The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE): ABCTE is committed to increasing the supply of highly qualified teachers essential for achieving student success, and is creating new assessments to evaluate them.
The United States Department of Education's No Child Left Behind Web Site: Having recognized that teacher certification as it currently exists tends to produce all the wrong results, new federal law seeks potential teachers who can demonstrate content knowledge, not just tolerance for red tape. This site discusses teacher quality issues and a whole lot more.
Prepared by Neal McCluskey
The Center for Education Reform
April 2003
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The Center for Education Reform [CER] is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization providing support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For more information, please call (202) 822-9000.
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