Inside Scoop
Credentials Count

What makes a good teacher? The debate rages about what kinds of training and credentials translate into effectiveness in the classroom.

Education Secretary Rod Paige stirred a hornet's nest recently when he called for revamping the system for licensing teachers. Dismissing education coursework mandates as "burdensome," Paige called for new paths for college graduates to enter classrooms without traditional preparation. Coming on the heels of a new federal mandate for teacher quality, Paige's comments rekindled a debate over what qualifications teachers need to serve students successfully. This month's Scoop separates the rhetoric from the research.

What is Paige's position?
In delivering his first annual report on teacher quality to Congress, Paige asserted that "state certification systems allow into the classroom too many teachers who lack solid content knowledge of the subjects they will teach." Instead, certification standards are overloaded with required courses in pedagogy that "act as an unnecessary barrier for those wishing to pursue a teaching career," he argued.

The debate over certification requirements is particularly important because the massive new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), passed last year, mandates that by the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers of core academic subjects must be "highly qualified," and all teachers will have to be fully certified (in other words, not working under an emergency or temporary waiver).

Under ESEA, new elementary teachers must have a bachelor's degree and pass a state test to demonstrate their knowledge of reading and other areas of the basic curriculum. New middle and secondary teachers must have a bachelor's degree and demonstrate competency in each subject taught. This demonstration can take the form of passing a state test, completing an academic major, or other options. States are now developing their responses to the teacher quality mandate, and their decisions will affect all teachers in some way. Paige favors requiring less preparation for teacher candidates in education methods.

What does research say about the relationship between teachers' credentials and training and their effectiveness in the classroom?
Abundant evidence exists that professional training and credentials matter. A new synthesis of research by James Stronge of the College of William and Mary states that:

• The proportion of well-qualified and certified teachers within a state is one of the most consistent predictors of student test scores in reading and math.
• Teachers with traditional education preparation are better able to recognize individual student differences; those without education coursework frequently have difficulties with classroom management, student motivation, and using specific teaching strategies.

Further, the notion that graduates of traditional teacher preparation programs are weak in subject matter is unfounded. Art Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), cites a landmark study by the Educational Testing Service of scores on its Praxis II exam, which 23 states used to measure the content knowledge of teachers seeking certification. Of 270,000 candidates tested, 91 percent of graduates from NCATE-accredited institutions passed the content exam, compared with 73 percent of candidates who did not study teacher preparation.

What about teachers who enter the field via alternative programs?
Alternative programs that place people in classrooms before they are fully certified vary considerably, and the research on their effects is scanty.

A new study published in the electronic journal Education Policy Analysis Archives examined nearly 300 recently hired primary teachers, comparing those who had regular certification with those who were "undercertified" (teaching under emergency, temporary, or provisional certificates).

According to study authors Ildiko Laczko-Kerr and David Berliner, students of the certified teachers achieved significantly better than the students with undercertified teachers in the subjects measured (reading, language, and mathematics). How much better? Students of undercertified teachers--including some who were in the highly touted Teach for America program--showed about 20 percent less growth per year.

Experts also are concerned about the preponderance of undercertified teachers in poor schools. Poor and minority students are two to three times more likely than students in wealthier districts to be taught by unlicensed, inexperienced teachers. All students deserve a certified teacher and the boost that will bring to their achievement.

If you're already certified, how does the ongoing debate affect you?
Teachers stand very little chance of improving their salaries and working conditions if policymakers and the public accept the idea that teaching requires little more than enthusiasm, knowledge of a subject, and a dollop of coaching or night courses. NEA President Reg Weaver notes, "The sooner we begin treating teachers as respected professionals, the sooner we will attract and retain quality teachers. Gimmicks, short cuts, and lowering standards are not the answer. Respect, funding, and support for the teaching profession will put a quality teacher in every classroom."

--John O'Neil

For More:

• NEA provides a helpful summary of new federal provisions for teacher quality at www.nea.org/esea.
• To learn more about effective teacher preparation, visit the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education homepage at www.ncate.org.
• The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future has developed criteria it urges states to use as they define teacher quality. For more, go to www.nctaf.org.
• Read Laczko-Kerr and Berliner's articles in the Education Policy Analysis Archives at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n37.html.
• See James Stronge's synthesis of research in Qualities of Effective Teachers, available through the website of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development at www.ascd.org/framebooks.html.