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Report Shows Teachers Not Adequately Prepared for Education Reform

A report released in December by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (CFTL) indicated that in California, where schools are pursuing ambitious education reform, while many teachers are well qualified to take on the demands of such an effort, many more simply are not up to the task.

"The Status of the Teaching Profession" offers current data on the supply, qualifications, and distribution of California's educators. The 2009 report includes the results of a survey of high school principals throughout the state regarding their views of their respective faculties' preparedness for the growing demands of 21st-century education.

The survey addressed such components of reform as increasing academic rigor, making instruction more relevant, and creating learning environments that are more personal and supportive. It showed, for example, that only about two-thirds of the state's high school principals believe the majority of their respective faculties have the skills necessary both to promote critical thinking and to engage and connect with students.

"The 3R's of reforming high schools--rigor, relevance and relationships--set a high bar for teachers and principals alike and have implications for teacher preparation, professional development, and the ways in which high schools are organized," said Margaret Gaston, Executive Director of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning. "But there is a mismatch between the needs of these high school teachers and the state's systems of teacher preparation and support."

The report also indicated a gap in principals' perceptions of teacher qualifications along economic lines. Principals in 78 percent of California's most affluent high schools reported that a majority of their teachers possess the skills necessary for effective 21st-century teaching, while only 48 percent of the state's least affluent schools had their principals offering similarly favorable reports.

The complete report, "The Status of the Teaching Profession 2009," along with summary materials and recommendations, can be found here.

About the Author

Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.

Comments

Fri, Jan 8, 2010 Phil Los Angeles

Merit pay, extending teacher tenure, distance or online learning and the prospect of firing inept incompetent teachers will shake up a moribund profession that is widely viewed as a second career. The academic achievement gap between White/Asian and Black/Latino is insurmountable why because the worse teachers and administrators are in minority communities. The CTA is the equivalent of the KKK in that the CTA obstructs meaningful reform at the expense of minority communities. Let's pay teachers $100,000 but let's fire the lazy ineffective teachers.

Fri, Jan 8, 2010 Experienced Teacher Los Angeles, CA

To respond to this article gives it more value than it is worth but, in support of the many teachers I've worked with over the years i have to say something. Most teachers are well prepared, or want to be well prepared, to teach 21st century standards but we are held back by antiquated standards, antiquated lesson plans provided by expensive consultants, and inexperienced educators whose perception of teachers is that they are not capable. Most of our administrators leave the classroom after the three required years of teaching and a suddenly they are the experts? Teaching is a learning profession and our comments on this site are evidence of some of the learning we participate in that no one else sees or hears about. Articles like this are an embarrassment to research practice and have little to no credence. It's a poorly disguised opinion.

Thu, Jan 7, 2010 IAVIATOR midwest

This report will probably get good play in the press as it reinforces the propaganda that that teachers are incompetent and the major obstacle to learning. The spin put on this survey of principals is captured in the headline and conveys a huge distortion of survey evidence (and surveys are the armpit of educational research evidence). The report says more about the originators of the report than it says about education.

Thu, Jan 7, 2010 Mark Dunk

I grew up "in the system" with a father who was a science teacher and elementary principal and a mother who was a paraprofessional (both now retired). Both my brother and I are now teachers, so I feel that I have a pretty good handle on what "education reform" should look like. After countless attempts at "education reform" in my lifetime, I am conviced that meaningful, sustained reform is not going to happen by trying to follow an evolutionary path. What the public education system needs is a complete revolution. While this would certainly cause disruptions in the short term, I believe that the long-term product would be worth the disruption, discomfort, and dead-wood housecleaning that would necessarily occur during the revolution.

Thu, Jan 7, 2010 Scott Merrick Nashville, TN

"Education reform?" A buzzphrase so hackneyed it's beyond cliche. Alvin Toffler said it, echoing some of the other best minds amongst those focused on the future: "We don't need to reform the system; we need to replace the system." Is there any hope for doing so? A tad, and active administrators like Chris Lehmann, principal of the Science Leadership Academy in PA, are fighting the good fight. An essential issue that is seldom mentioned is the need for any realistic system of education to value and reward creative, scientific, literary, social, etc. learning outside of 8 to 4 schoolday instruction. Another is to flex around changing family work and play schedules, perhaps offering something like 20/7 availability of synchronous instructor time, face-to-face or online, with group meetings and their necessary experience with social skills offered the same way. Sit them in rows (or in circles--the "new rows") in classrooms from their least productive circadian hour to a time when a little more non-academic scheduling can keep them in line until their parents can pick them up and shuttle them home? No longer justified. Hope for those kinds of reform? Only a tad from a set of systems so entrenched by custom. The most destructive and inhibiting words in the English language? "We've always done it this way."

Thu, Jan 7, 2010

"Here's hoping the burn-outs with entitlement attitudes move on soon! More importantly, I was much encouraged that the researcher found that 'two-thirds of the state's high school principals believe the majority of their respective faculties have the skills necessary both to promote critical thinking and to engage and connect with students.' This is I believe an increase over ten years ago." This comment was clearly written by someone with no knowledge of how schools operate today. As someone with more than 35 years of experience in teaching I am tired of people like this who assume that all experienced educators are burned out and entitled. The fact that this person was encouraged by the responses of the high school principals in this study was particularly revealing since most administrators stay less than five years in those jobs. In the last decade of my career I have worked under 5 different principals and nearly as many school superintendents. How well do you know your staff and its capabilities with such little commitment to them or the students they serve?

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 bucklava CA

Teachers are only one piece of the puzzle..... PARENTS are the primary educators and clearly this is where the failure is. The teachers I know give 150% of their time, energy and pocket book. The parents I know are absent, careless, or complaining! Stop blaming the teachers!

Wed, Jan 6, 2010

As a career-changer into the teaching profession, I find that the institution runs without any project plans. In software development, you need to have specific step-by-step plans to create a project. Each person plays a part, and the overall deadline is a group effort. Too much is left up to the teachers, such as knowing what other teachers are assigning their students, knowing how to help students improve their scores (the fact that I passed my subject matter competency does not mean I know how to teach it, or bring students' grades up), and having to create their own lesson plans, etc. All of this can be handled by an efficient and effective administration. Now, when I am being observed, I realize that my scores are completely arbitrary, and the size of the smile on my face counts more than the background and experience I bring to the job. PROJECT PLANNING from the top down is the only way to accomplish change.

Wed, Jan 6, 2010

Until schools are student and not teacher centered the reforms can never happen. Here's hoping the burn-outs with entitlement attitudes move on soon! Many of the knee jerk dismissive and defensive comments by teachers in this blog are proof positive of the claim made in the article. More importantly, I was much encouraged that the researcher found that 'two-thirds of the state's high school principals believe the majority of their respective faculties have the skills necessary both to promote critical thinking and to engage and connect with students.' This is I believe an increase over ten years ago.

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 Brian Reid Mukilteo, Washington

The summary of the report provided in this article seems to have missed totally what Gaston perceives as the cause of the discrepancy in educational reform. Basically the state is unwilling to properly fund teacher training, and is firing teachers when they are needed the most. T.H.E. journal shows its probusiness bias again.

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 KLS NM

I agree, many of my recent administrators are so far removed from the classroom that they have no clue. They can use all the appropriate lingo and are great in the public eye, but some glaze over when it comes to classroom issues.

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 Torrance, CA

I agree with the frustration of the other comments posted regarding the current system's inability to adequately meet the social and vocational needs of today's students. In addition,I would propose that "reformers" add a fourth R=Responsibility for parents and families. Home support is the most important variable affecting student success. As an educator for over 30 years in both public and parochial schools, there is NO substitute for involved adults who insist that their children be active & successful learners. Until society as a whole places more value on educatining the young, STOP blaming those who are charged with attempting to educate the next generation with too few resources, low community status, and unrealistic expectations.

Wed, Jan 6, 2010 Gayle

A district's curriculum guidelines, a state's standards, these predetermined criteria dictate the majority of the instruction that a teacher will be allowed to deliver. A school's resources, including technology resources, will impact on a teacher's ability to deliver high quality instruction. A student's home environment, often found through research to be the most critical indicator of student achievement--educational level of the parent/s and economic resources of the parents, can either bolster or impede learning. A hungry, fearful child is not ready to learn. Teachers cannot solve this societies problems when they face as many as 120 students a day. They do make convenient scapegoats.

Tue, Jan 5, 2010 West Contra Costa USD

I agree with others - baloney. And schools of education are a drag on the system. 20% or less of jobs in this country require a college education yet we try educating everyone to go to college, including those mired in cultures of poverty. What fools are we. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would take a major revision of our education systems, starting from the top. There is no real political, by which I mean financial will, to change anything. It would cost too much and big business finds it easier to export work and import talent. Plus it would be necessary to treat teachers like the professionals that most of us want to be. I've come across a much, much higher percentage of incompetent lawyers, earning five times the money, than teachers. And lets not even talk about school administrators. Why did you waste ink on this nonsense of a study?

Tue, Jan 5, 2010 Bill Jones

More of the same old baloney. What has twenty years of crisis in education done? It has created an army of consultants and know nothings who go on and on and on about the crisis. This is nothing but a third rate opinion survey masquerading as scientific research. The problem of our schools is much worse than imagined. Our leadership simply lacks the IQ, adequate academic credentials, and the mindset to tackle this beast. What underachieving schools need is MORE science and math and the will to make them do it. The three R's is nothing but education school baloney. And until we eliminate the schools of education this problem will continue. Too many people are making big coin perpetuating this problem.

Tue, Jan 5, 2010

Why not take a survey of teachers who feel that their administrators are not up to the task of reform. They spout all the current "buzz words"- learning teams, rigor, cultural relevance. Yet, their approach to administration is still top down,with little willingness to let cede decisions about curriculum design, instruction etc. to the teachers.

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