Addendum to previous post...
Jul. 31st, 2005 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semiotic_pirateAn article written for today as well, another about teacher education... This one is actually mentioning people doing the midlife switch, and methods that they can use besides the *traditional* schools. Yes, that's right, learning how to teach has gone online. Fascinating. I shall be very interested to see the results of this experiment, to see if the teachers who graduate from these programs have less or more of an attrition rate, and if they are actually successful in teaching. And another thing, why haven't we, as a nation, gotten around to nationalizing the requirements for teachers? An across the board certification rules and regulations so that teachers, like any other profession, can be transferrable with much less hassle than it is today.
July 31, 2005
There's Always Teaching
BY LISA GUERNSEY
With jobs aplenty and an increasing number of adults joining the profession, schools for aspiring teachers seemed destined to go online. This year, with new programs from Kaplan Inc. and other commercial ventures, the concept appears to have reached critical mass. Online students still do fieldwork in real classrooms, but they take courses in theory and methodology on their own time, with the help of e-mail, bulletin boards, digital libraries, video streaming and teleconferencing.
No one yet knows what kind of teachers these programs will produce, and educators forecast logistical headaches, given states' varying requirements. But proponents hope the programs will graduate brigades of new teachers - especially seasoned career switchers (usually parents themselves) who can bring a level of maturity to the classroom that a 22-year-old education school graduate rarely can.
At the forefront is Western Governors University, a nonprofit online university that was opened six years ago by the governors of 19 Western states. It has a teachers' college with 2,600 students enrolled nationwide. About 3,000 students are working toward an Arizona teaching license through a master's program at the University of Phoenix Online, a profit-making institution. That degree is accepted through reciprocal agreements in most states as long as other requirements, like state exams, are met. Ashford University, originally a Franciscan teaching college and now commercial, opened its online doors this spring, enrolling 40 aspiring teachers who are able to receive Iowa teaching licenses, which are also portable. And Kaplan University, a commercial online entity that made headlines when it opened its online-only law school in 1998, is starting a program this fall intended for adults with bachelor's degrees who want to teach in Florida.
Besides online-only programs, about 22 percent of career changers in the growing world of alternative certification programs - fast-track programs for adults with bachelor's degrees - are taking some courses online, according to a recent survey by the National Center for Alternative Certification in Washington. (Prospective participants can search its Web site, www.teach-now.org, for programs by state, location, grade level and subject area.)
Chidiebere Onyia, a Nigerian entomologist who used to work for an international medical aid group, is one such career changer. His program took place both online and in classrooms at a California branch of Argosy University. He enrolled soon after immigrating to Los Angeles, where he first took a job driving a cab to support his family.
Mr. Onyia has experienced firsthand how much urban schools need teachers, particularly in science and mathematics. As soon as he enrolled, he was hired by Lynwood Unified School District, which allowed him to teach and study for his certificate simultaneously. Before that, a substitute teacher had been filling in. "They needed a biology teacher so bad," Mr. Onyia says.
The Teaching Commission, a bipartisan group of business, education and government leaders, projects a shortage of two million teachers over the next 10 years as baby boomers retire. The need is so great that one might think that where a degree was earned - or whether the work was done online - would not matter as long as an applicant has a license and can start right away.
Nonetheless, students about to drop substantial tuition dollars ($16,000 to $18,000 for a two-year program at the University of Phoenix, $11,000 at Western Governors) have considerable complexities to untangle.
For example, specialty master's degrees in subjects like special education and instructional technology can be found online by the dozens. But license seekers beware: these are for current teachers looking for more skills or a salary increase tied to an extra degree. They are not for prospective teachers. Consider the master's degree in education offered by American InterContinental University Online. It is advertised for current teachers and "aspiring educators" and says it provides "the spark you need to start a career as a teacher, corporate instructor or military trainer." But the degree does not lead directly to the certificate that is almost always required of people who want to teach.
Accreditation and state-by-state regulation are also murky territory. None of the online-only education programs have been around long enough to gain approvals from the well-established National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education or the newer Teacher Education Accreditation Council. A few programs are starting the accrediting process. (But note that only half of bricks-and-mortar institutions have received those same seals of approval, so lack of that accreditation is not sufficient to dismiss a program out of hand.)
A majority of online programs have been blessed by at least one of the six regional accrediting agencies that cover higher education in general. But that is no guarantee that a university's graduates will be allowed to teach where they choose in the United States. Each state has its own rules about who can teach and which programs are acceptable.
Reciprocal agreements exist, and they can enable a graduate of, say, the University of Phoenix to teach in 39 states other than Arizona. But Phoenix does not enroll residents of Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin because of state requirements that might not be met through its program.
Western Governors, on the other hand, is striving for a more national profile in teacher training and has fostered relationships with all 50 states so that its graduates will meet certification requirements as well as be able to student teach locally. "The logistics are daunting," Robert Mendenhall, its president, says.
Marion Kovalenko, a student at Western Governors, is about to discover exactly how that student teaching works.
She is a teacher's assistant at an elementary school in Las Vegas who does her online schoolwork in the evening, between ferrying her two boys to Scouts and church meetings. She has a mentor in Salt Lake City who evaluates her by e-mail, over the phone and by reading papers and test results. For her fieldwork, Ms. Kovalenko will be assigned to a teacher in a school nearby for 12 weeks. That person will be charged with reporting her progress to her mentor, who will ultimately determine if she has passed enough assessments and shown competence to teach. (Western Governors calls itself a competency-based program.)
Ms. Kovalenko is fortunate to be earning her degree in fast-growing Clark County, Nev., which has one of the most acute teacher shortages in the country. There, the people who hire teachers are taking a close look at Western Governors' standards. "We are eager," says George Ann Rice, the school district's associate superintendent for human resources. "I've told their person in charge of student teaching, 'We're here in line.' "
Once Ms. Kovalenko has her online diploma and teaching credential, it appears she is almost guaranteed a job. And without online technology, she says, she could not have come this far.
Harold O. Levy, former chancellor of New York City public schools, is overseeing the start-up of Kaplan's teachers' college. He says this: "A career-changer program that is online-based, rigorous and strong in student teaching can change the face of K-12 education in this country. I really believe that."
But until these teachers prove themselves in the classroom, longtime educators in teacher training will be skeptical.
Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, is researching the quality of teacher education in general. He says that because there is already broad disagreement on what it takes to be a good teacher, and because online offerings are still so primitive, it is impossible to say yet whether they will create strong teachers.
"Here is a cornucopia of new providers," he says. "So what can you say? Can you say they're worse than existing programs? No. Better? No. Equal to? No. We are in an environment in which almost everything goes, and it spawns more and more degree firms.
"What I'm saying is, give me some information before I make a judgment."
July 31, 2005
There's Always Teaching
BY LISA GUERNSEY
With jobs aplenty and an increasing number of adults joining the profession, schools for aspiring teachers seemed destined to go online. This year, with new programs from Kaplan Inc. and other commercial ventures, the concept appears to have reached critical mass. Online students still do fieldwork in real classrooms, but they take courses in theory and methodology on their own time, with the help of e-mail, bulletin boards, digital libraries, video streaming and teleconferencing.
No one yet knows what kind of teachers these programs will produce, and educators forecast logistical headaches, given states' varying requirements. But proponents hope the programs will graduate brigades of new teachers - especially seasoned career switchers (usually parents themselves) who can bring a level of maturity to the classroom that a 22-year-old education school graduate rarely can.
At the forefront is Western Governors University, a nonprofit online university that was opened six years ago by the governors of 19 Western states. It has a teachers' college with 2,600 students enrolled nationwide. About 3,000 students are working toward an Arizona teaching license through a master's program at the University of Phoenix Online, a profit-making institution. That degree is accepted through reciprocal agreements in most states as long as other requirements, like state exams, are met. Ashford University, originally a Franciscan teaching college and now commercial, opened its online doors this spring, enrolling 40 aspiring teachers who are able to receive Iowa teaching licenses, which are also portable. And Kaplan University, a commercial online entity that made headlines when it opened its online-only law school in 1998, is starting a program this fall intended for adults with bachelor's degrees who want to teach in Florida.
Besides online-only programs, about 22 percent of career changers in the growing world of alternative certification programs - fast-track programs for adults with bachelor's degrees - are taking some courses online, according to a recent survey by the National Center for Alternative Certification in Washington. (Prospective participants can search its Web site, www.teach-now.org, for programs by state, location, grade level and subject area.)
Chidiebere Onyia, a Nigerian entomologist who used to work for an international medical aid group, is one such career changer. His program took place both online and in classrooms at a California branch of Argosy University. He enrolled soon after immigrating to Los Angeles, where he first took a job driving a cab to support his family.
Mr. Onyia has experienced firsthand how much urban schools need teachers, particularly in science and mathematics. As soon as he enrolled, he was hired by Lynwood Unified School District, which allowed him to teach and study for his certificate simultaneously. Before that, a substitute teacher had been filling in. "They needed a biology teacher so bad," Mr. Onyia says.
The Teaching Commission, a bipartisan group of business, education and government leaders, projects a shortage of two million teachers over the next 10 years as baby boomers retire. The need is so great that one might think that where a degree was earned - or whether the work was done online - would not matter as long as an applicant has a license and can start right away.
Nonetheless, students about to drop substantial tuition dollars ($16,000 to $18,000 for a two-year program at the University of Phoenix, $11,000 at Western Governors) have considerable complexities to untangle.
For example, specialty master's degrees in subjects like special education and instructional technology can be found online by the dozens. But license seekers beware: these are for current teachers looking for more skills or a salary increase tied to an extra degree. They are not for prospective teachers. Consider the master's degree in education offered by American InterContinental University Online. It is advertised for current teachers and "aspiring educators" and says it provides "the spark you need to start a career as a teacher, corporate instructor or military trainer." But the degree does not lead directly to the certificate that is almost always required of people who want to teach.
Accreditation and state-by-state regulation are also murky territory. None of the online-only education programs have been around long enough to gain approvals from the well-established National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education or the newer Teacher Education Accreditation Council. A few programs are starting the accrediting process. (But note that only half of bricks-and-mortar institutions have received those same seals of approval, so lack of that accreditation is not sufficient to dismiss a program out of hand.)
A majority of online programs have been blessed by at least one of the six regional accrediting agencies that cover higher education in general. But that is no guarantee that a university's graduates will be allowed to teach where they choose in the United States. Each state has its own rules about who can teach and which programs are acceptable.
Reciprocal agreements exist, and they can enable a graduate of, say, the University of Phoenix to teach in 39 states other than Arizona. But Phoenix does not enroll residents of Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin because of state requirements that might not be met through its program.
Western Governors, on the other hand, is striving for a more national profile in teacher training and has fostered relationships with all 50 states so that its graduates will meet certification requirements as well as be able to student teach locally. "The logistics are daunting," Robert Mendenhall, its president, says.
Marion Kovalenko, a student at Western Governors, is about to discover exactly how that student teaching works.
She is a teacher's assistant at an elementary school in Las Vegas who does her online schoolwork in the evening, between ferrying her two boys to Scouts and church meetings. She has a mentor in Salt Lake City who evaluates her by e-mail, over the phone and by reading papers and test results. For her fieldwork, Ms. Kovalenko will be assigned to a teacher in a school nearby for 12 weeks. That person will be charged with reporting her progress to her mentor, who will ultimately determine if she has passed enough assessments and shown competence to teach. (Western Governors calls itself a competency-based program.)
Ms. Kovalenko is fortunate to be earning her degree in fast-growing Clark County, Nev., which has one of the most acute teacher shortages in the country. There, the people who hire teachers are taking a close look at Western Governors' standards. "We are eager," says George Ann Rice, the school district's associate superintendent for human resources. "I've told their person in charge of student teaching, 'We're here in line.' "
Once Ms. Kovalenko has her online diploma and teaching credential, it appears she is almost guaranteed a job. And without online technology, she says, she could not have come this far.
Harold O. Levy, former chancellor of New York City public schools, is overseeing the start-up of Kaplan's teachers' college. He says this: "A career-changer program that is online-based, rigorous and strong in student teaching can change the face of K-12 education in this country. I really believe that."
But until these teachers prove themselves in the classroom, longtime educators in teacher training will be skeptical.
Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, is researching the quality of teacher education in general. He says that because there is already broad disagreement on what it takes to be a good teacher, and because online offerings are still so primitive, it is impossible to say yet whether they will create strong teachers.
"Here is a cornucopia of new providers," he says. "So what can you say? Can you say they're worse than existing programs? No. Better? No. Equal to? No. We are in an environment in which almost everything goes, and it spawns more and more degree firms.
"What I'm saying is, give me some information before I make a judgment."
