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CAT Tracks for July 29, 2010
TODAY IN EDUCATION |
Breathtaking...
A couple of stories..."out there".
First up...Idaho's "second-chance program" for crime-committing teachers.
Actually, this makes sense. In this teacher-firing age, we must certainly leave no stone unturned in our search for replacement teachers. Prison parole...an idea whose time has come!
In fact, I would advocate a pro-active approach. To soothe the ruffled feathers of teachers and their unions who decry the assault on life-long employment through loss of tenure...offer a get-out-of-jail-free card for teachers whose student test scores go up in the annual state testing!
We could directly correlate the "value-added" student test score to the criminal offense...a misdemeanor would only require a modest gain, various felonies requiring more significant gains.
For example...
A teacher contemplating bank robbery to supplement their low-paying teaching gig...would be highly motivated to improve test scores this year! (Of course, some damned politician is going to catch on quickly to the "double-dipping" scenario...pass a law requiring an "offset", the deduction of the "pay-for-performance bonus" from "the take" from the bank robbery. As I've said before...teachers can't win!)
Also, with the test-scores-are-everything mentality, educational reformers might want to rethink that ban on pedophiles...
From Teacher Magazine...
Idaho Officials Offer Teachers A Second Chance
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Ten years ago, a former Blackfoot High School Spanish teacher pleaded guilty to five counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
"I made myself a promise that day," Adrien Coronado told the Post Register. "I promised myself that I'd be back and be the person that everyone who had believed in me had come to know and had expected me to be."
Now — after 46 months in a federal prison, volunteering to help with substance abuse rehab programs in jail, and getting a master's degree in education — he's back teaching again at Emerson High School in Idaho Falls, where officials say he's getting exemplary performance reviews.
Idaho education officials say teachers convicted of crimes can sometimes redeem themselves and make it back into the classroom, as Coronado has done.
"I believe that we all make mistakes and it isn't always a reflection of who we are," said Charles Shackett, superintendent of Bonneville Joint School District 93. "We do occasionally get applicants with a criminal background and we look at these cases very carefully."
To teach again, Coronado had to get his teaching certificate back through the State Department of Education's Professional Standards Commission. That happened in September 2007.
"I think it's important to stress that there is a process set up in statute for dealing with cases like this," said Idaho Falls School District 91 Superintendent George Boland. "I'm reasonably confident that when we hire someone who's been through that process, that's a pretty thorough vetting."
Boland said he's had about five applicants who have been given a second chance, the most recent being Coronado.
"It's important when you have a situation outside of the norm to really look at the specifics and look at it on an individual basis," Boland said.
Shackett said he believes a key to hiring a recertified teacher is looking at each case individually.
"Ninety percent of the time we find that this is a great person who just was stupid one day or had something they were dealing with," Shackett said.
Some crimes, though, such as those involving violence against children, permanently disqualify a person from holding a teaching certificate.
Coronado's crime didn't fall in that category, but he knew getting recertified would still be a challenge.
"I knew there was no guarantee that I'd get my certificate back," Coronado said. "But I did everything I could to give everyone a reason to still believe in me."
And, speaking of test scores...
Also from Teacher Magazine...
Test-Prep for Four-Year-Olds
By Anthony Rebora
Two years ago, New York City instituted a standardized test as the sole criteria for admission into its gifted and talented kindergarten program, according to a New York Times story. The results aren't pretty: Wealthy parents are spending upwards of $1,000 on test-prep "boot camps" for their four year-olds, and enrollment of black and Hispanic children is down by almost half. (Do they really call them boot camps?)
