|
The New York Times
Editorial
In Search of Good
Teachers
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com on the Web, August 29, 2007
With 50 million children set to
return to school, districts all over the country are still scrambling to fill
teaching positions and are having an especially difficult time finding qualified
applicants to fill shortages in vital areas like math and science. These
shortages will persist and the education reform effort will continue to lag
until states, localities and the federal government start paying much more
attention to how teachers are trained, hired and assigned.
The problem was underscored by a front page article in The Times this week by
Sam Dillon, which describes shortages so severe that some officials were seeking
to fill positions by scooping up any warm body they could find. Better
overall salaries and financial incentives for teachers who work in demanding
areas are necessary. But the country must also adopt measures that
increase the supply of high-quality teachers — especially in math and science —
while cutting down on the distressingly large number of teachers who bail out of
the profession early.
Public colleges and universities, which rely heavily on tax dollars, are a good
place to start. The government should require them to turn out more high
quality teachers of all kinds, especially math and science teachers.
Ideally, the enrollments at these colleges of education should be based not on
whim, but on projected need. The states should find ways to reward
colleges that turn out excellent graduates, while shutting down diploma mills.
The states and localities should also develop comprehensive plans not just for
hiring, but for mentoring and retaining teachers as well.
Beyond that, large urban districts, especially ones with particularly needy
school districts, need to abandon union work rules that give senior teachers the
right to change schools whenever they wish — even if the receiving principal
doesn’t want them. That forces out less senior teachers in the receiving
school, a bumping process that can continue well into the summer. It both
frustrates younger teachers and prevents school administrators from making
timely hiring decisions.
Sam Dillon Article:
With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers
www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/education/27teacher.html
|
