Fixing the Teacher Certification Mess

Jay Matthews:

I have no doubt our system for certifying teachers is broken. On Aug. 24, I wrote||http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/08/_am_not_a_big.html about a first-rate Prince George's County teacher who was nearly fired because of official confusion over his certification credits. These are courses he must take to keep his job, but the people in charge had given him conflicting information about how many, and which, courses he needed. Since then, scores of educators have sent me their own horror stories---some of which I collected in another column on Sept. 7.

What do we do about this? Many readers have sent their ideas. But it's not going to be easy. Injecting common sense into the process threatens the way our education schools teach and the way our school districts hire. Those powerful interest groups show little willingness to change. But the acidic frustrations expressed by people who contacted me are, thankfully, corroding the resistance to innovation.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 19, 2009 1:56 AM
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