On Tuesday, June 25, 2019, the New York City Council Committees on Education and Higher Education will conduct an oversight hearing on Teacher Preparation and Training. The committees called for this hearing concerned that prospective educators are not prepared for the challenges of today’s classrooms including efforts for the greater inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms and the large portion of the student population in New York City public schools who are English Language Learners. They are also disturbed that teachers of color, especially male teachers of color, are significantly underrepresented among the city’s teachers.
This is my testimony.
I am a former New York City high school teacher and a teacher educator at Hofstra University on Long Island. Many graduates of our School of Education become New York City teachers. Speaking today I represent my views but not the views of the university.
We need to dispel some myths about education and teacher preparation. Basically, there are no easy or inexpensive solutions.
1. Education and teacher preparation are not miracle cures for massive social upheavals. We can make our schools better, but that will not address the over 100,000 New York City school children that are homeless at some point during the school year, the interrupted education of many young people arriving from war zones, the deterioration of public housing, gentrification that produces overcrowding and general economic distress in poorer minority communities.
2. Initial teacher preparation in a School of Education is not like a one-time vaccination good for the rest of someone’s career. At the completion of student teaching, a graduate of a School of Education program is only a certified beginner. The problems described in the call for this meeting, especially better instruction for students with disabilities and English Language Learners, means an investment in ongoing teacher staff development and daily time set aside for planning teams to coordinate how they will address student learning needs.
3. One teacher in a classroom is not sufficient. New York City needs to hire more teachers. New York State recommends but does not mandate inclusion classes with two teachers in the room. Only specifically designated classes with a high number of students with registered disabilities have an additional teacher in the classroom. Given the large number of struggling students, 15% are English Language Learners, more than 20% have IEPs and many more require 504 support, more than half score of the 3rd through 8th grade student scored less than satisfactory on Math and reading tests, almost every classroom needs a second teacher whether students are classified ELL or with disabilities or not.
4. Charter schools are not a solution; instead they are a big part of the problem. Charters are permitted to hire untrained, uncertified people and call them teachers, undermining teacher preparation and Schools of Education. The Charter chains run a Peace Corps type operation, recruiting people from elite colleges, predominately white, who want a New York City experience, who follow scripts and then leave before learning how to teach. Meanwhile the charters draw off better performing children from the public schools and they have been documented either refusing to offer special services to students with disabilities and English language Learners or counseling those children out of their programs.
5. High-stakes multiple choice qualifying tests for teacher certification do not improve the quality of teaching. Instead, they block potentially excellent minority candidates, especially people who were English Language Learners themselves, from the teaching profession. Drop the tests. Let Schools of Education prepare and evaluate candidates.
6. Politically connected alternative certification programs, including charter school options, Teach for America, and Teaching Fellows, are the Uber of education. They look good until the consequences become clearer. They circumvent efforts by city and state officials to improve teacher preparation and many of the people they put in the classroom prove to be temporary.
7. If New York City wants to increase the number of minority educators, it will have to make teaching more financially attractive for people from lower income families. Provide opportunity scholarships and forgivable loans for local high school graduates that cover living expenses for college students who commit to teaching in New York City schools in high needs communities and specified certification areas. Salaries must go up significantly. A one-bedroom apartment in a less desirable area of Brooklyn rents for $2,500 a month or $30,000 a year, more than half of a starting teacher’s salary.
It will not be easy or inexpensive to address these problems. A useful start is to at least recognize the depth of the difficulties and the cost of potential solutions.
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