Teachers are abominably
trained; accordingly, the current
average level of teacher quality at the Minneapolis Public Schools is
mediocre; a very few outstanding
teachers are on staff but there are also many teachers who are so
knowledge-deficient, pedagofgically unskilled, and culturally insensitive that
they should never have stepped into a classroom--- and should be dismissed after proper legal
measures are taken.
The replacement plan for the academic portion of the Minneapolis
Public Schools (MPS) Comprehensive District Design provides for
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum for impartation by teachers
trained to deliver such a curriculum in logical sequence, grade by grade,
throughout the preK-12 years.
Students of all demographic descriptors will receive the same core
curriculum.
And all students will be instructed by teachers who believe in
knowledge and are themselves learned in the subject areas of mathematics,
natural sciences, socials sciences, history, world literature, English usage,
music, and the visual arts. Teachers at
preK-5 must be prepared to deliver
curriculum in all of these areas; they
will be trained to grasp these subjects as they study for a Masters of Liberal
Arts. Teachers at grades 6-8 (middle
school) and 9-12 (high school) to continue imparting this core curriculum, with
increasing provision of additional course options (electives) in the
liberal, technological, and
vocational arts; and in world
languages. At the grades 6-8 and 912
levels, teachers will possess master’s degrees in the pertinent academic and
vocational disciplines; no degrees
bestowed by departments, colleges, or schools of education will be accepted
In the paragraphs below, after an initial discussion of the current state of teacher
certification programs, I detail the program for teacher training that will be
provided and required by the Minneapolis nPublic Schools
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Currently Abysmal Training of Prospective Teachers for Grades K-5
Programs that train large
contingents of prospective teachers include the University of Minnesota/ Twin
Cities, Augsburg College, and the Universities of Concordia, Hamline, St.
Catherine, and St. Thomas.
At most of these institutions,
prospective grades K-5 teachers major in elementary education. Hamline is
unique among the metro area institutions offering teacher preparation programs
in requiring its aspiring K-5 teachers to earn bachelor’s degrees in legitimate
disciplines (e. g., mathematics, chemistry, history, economics, English, fine
arts). At most other institutions,
teachers aspiring to teach at grades K-5 get a degree in elementary education. For such a degree, students take courses that
include Educational Psychology, Diversity and Education, Theory to Practice,
Schools and Society, and Exceptionality.
The only meek nod to subject
area specificity is in courses such as Social Studies, Language Arts,
Mathematics, and Science Instruction in the Elementary Grades. Education professors, not subject area
experts, teach these courses.
Students at the University of
Minnesota who aspire to teach, both at grades K-5 and grades 6-12, are strongly
encouraged to get a master’s degree. Students
in the College of Education and Human Development typically do their coursework
during the summer and fall terms; they
student teach in the spring, also taking two education courses online.
The route to the Masters of
Education degree takes just three semesters. Once the college or university certification
program is complete, prospective teachers must take exams that include a basic
skills exam, a content-focused pedagogic exam, and a mathematics exam. Upon passing these exams, licensure is
granted. The license is permanent, given
the teacher’s ongoing demonstration of professional development through
certified participation in teacher-in-service days, workshops, conferences, and
the like; and with the option to pursue
an advanced degree, typically a Masters of Education in teaching elementary
education (remembering that a master’s degree is strongly encouraged by
officials in the College of Education and Human Development for students who
seek teacher certification via the schedule of courses at the University of
Minnesota).
The Need to Retrain Teachers at the Level of the Locally Centralized School District
The Need to Retrain Teachers at the Level of the Locally Centralized School District
Teacher training programs are
cash cows for colleges and universities:
Bachelor’s and master’s degrees
in education are academically insubstantial but huge revenue generators for
institutions of putative higher learning. The ruse pulled by officials the University of
Minnesota in encouraging students to pursue both of these empty degrees for
certification constitutes irresponsible philistinism of the worst sort.
Over the long haul, we need to
dissolve our departments, colleges, and schools of education and come to a
consensus on a new approach to training teachers:
The transformation nationally
will require much time to confront entrenched interests of the many adults in
the education establishment who benefit from the current system that is so
deleterious to the interests of excellent teachers and students waiting to
receive a substantive education. The
program designed for the Minneapolis Publics Schools could be implemented
immediately, given full focus and dedication to the task, before that time when
we can expect to dismantle departments, schools, and colleges of education. The immediate task is to retrain teachers
newly certified after participating in current, useless programs of teacher
preparation.
As to veteran teachers, my
abiding estimate is that no more than 10% of the teachers presently on staff in
the Minneapolis Public Schools are truly excellent; 15% are so terrible that they never should
have been allowed in a classroom; and
the remainder fall in the broad 75% that are intolerably mediocre. The terrible teachers in that 15% category
will most likely always be terrible and in almost all cases will have to be
jettisoned. Most teachers in the 75%
category of mediocrity should be given the option to retrain and prove their
mettle for retention.
In my program for retraining
teachers of the Minneapolis Pubic Schools, teachers aspiring to teach at the
K-5 level will have to undergo an intensive full year of weekly, all-day
training leading to a high-quality Masters of Liberal Arts degree;
followed by a full academic year internship.
The Masters of Liberal Arts Degree for Aspiring Minneapolis Public Schools Teachers at Grades K-5
Teachers at level K-5 should be
broadly and deeply knowledgeable scholars, at home in the intellectual worlds
of mathematics, natural science, history, literature, and the fine arts. The key components of the academic program
leading to this degree are described below. It is expected that the courses taken for the
Masters of Liberal Arts will be taken intensively, five days a week, during one
full school year, from late August until early June. Over the summer, the aspiring teacher studying
for the Masters of Liberal Arts degree will write her or his master’s thesis,
then the remaining months of the master’s program will be spent as a classroom
intern undergoing a full academic year of classroom observation and teaching
under the guidance of a teacher identified as highly competent. The latter teacher will be chosen for
manifesting as much excellence as we dare hope, given current realities with
regard to teacher quality.
Officials in the Minneapolis
Public Schools should embrace these components and set about establishing a
program in conjunction with one of the universities in the Twin Cities. Those representing the Minneapolis Public
Schools should articulate exactly what they want from the degree-granting institution.
From the degree-granting university,
this will mean embracing the details of the program given below, providing the
professorial expertise required, and following through on the administrative
aspects leading to the granting of the Masters of Liberal Arts to the K-5
teachers of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The program and requirements for
the Masters of Liberal Arts degree for prospective teachers at levels K-5 are
given as follows:
Mathematics
Mathematics
During the full academic year of
retraining of teachers at grades K-5, professors of mathematics should be
brought in by decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools to give
educators of the very young a thorough overview of mathematics up through calculus.
Teachers at grades K-5 need a
fundamental readjustment of the way that they view themselves. They must regard themselves as capable
learners and practitioners in the full range of human knowledge. We cannot abide the level of math phobia that
often abides in the hearts of many current K-5 teachers. The way for an aspiring teacher to overcome
mathematical phobia and prepare to launch the young student on the K-12
mathematical experience is for everyone involved to know what is ahead on this
exciting quest for numerical, algebraic, geometric, trigonometric, statistical
knowledge, and calculus.
University of Minnesota Mathematics
Professor Jonathon Rogness has commented to me, “It is always advisable that a
teacher have knowledge far beyond the concepts that he or she immediately
covers in class.”
If teachers themselves had a
substantive education in either high school or as undergraduates at a college
or university, then reviewing previously learned mathematical concepts will not
be difficult: Much of the information is
either lying latent for reawakening or, even more happily, is actually
operating nearer the surface to be pulled upward into the brightness of mental
reflection, ready for application. But
for those teachers who have done what our K-12 schools and universities too
often encourage, somehow muddling through math courses without really
understanding for lack of teachers capable of giving them clarity, then the
process will be more arduous.
And since we want them to be
teachers who most certainly never themselves abet the muddling through approach
to mathematical education, we want them to have confidence as capable
mathematicians.
Over the course of ten (10)
weeks, aspiring K-5 teachers studying for the Masters of Liberal Arts
degree will pursue the following topical schedule for mathematics:
Week #1 >>>>> Fundamental Math
Week #2 >>>>> Algebra I
Week #3 >>>>> Geometry
Weeks #4 and #5 >>>>> Algebra II .
Weeks #6 and #7 >>>>> Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry (FST)
Weeks #8, #9, and #10 >>>>> Calculus (corresponding to a full year of college-level calculus)
Natural Science
Week #1 >>>>> Fundamental Math
Week #2 >>>>> Algebra I
Week #3 >>>>> Geometry
Weeks #4 and #5 >>>>> Algebra II .
Weeks #6 and #7 >>>>> Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry (FST)
Weeks #8, #9, and #10 >>>>> Calculus (corresponding to a full year of college-level calculus)
Natural Science
Prospective teachers at K-5
should also be highly confident in themselves as students of natural science,
one of the five key subject areas emphasized during the K-5 years. The three
natural science fields that should dominate their own study in route to the
Masters of Liberal Arts degree are biology, chemistry, and physics. Professors in these fields should teach
compact courses of about two weeks each, during which the prospective K-5
teachers review (ideally) or learn well for the first time (as too often will
be the case) the most important concepts pertinent to these important fields of
natural science.
Over the course of six (6)
weeks, aspiring K-5 teachers studying for the Masters of Liberal Arts
degree will pursue the following topical schedule for natural science:
Week #1 and Week #2 >>>>> Biology
Week #3 and Week #4 >>>>> Chemistry
Week #5 and Week #6 >>>>> Physics
History
Week #1 and Week #2 >>>>> Biology
Week #3 and Week #4 >>>>> Chemistry
Week #5 and Week #6 >>>>> Physics
History
Teaching for all subjects in our
current system of K-12 education is mediocre. Knowledge of history is particularly
unskillfully imparted to students. And what is true generally is especially
true at the K-5 level. In our K-5 schools, history is subsumed under an
amalgamation known as “social studies,” in an innervated curricular approach
that is entirely consistent with the “constructivist” precepts under which
teachers have been trained. There is a
great deal of focus on the lives of the students, in which they are asked to
reflect about their own families and community, in the absence of any social
scientific context in which to compare their own family mores and structures
with others that prevail in the general society. Nothing is learned of any substance in the way
of sociology, psychology, economics, and government--- and certainly nothing
very coherent in the way of history.
Under our new curriculum,
history will be the subject identified for study at the K-5 level. History as an appellation is used rather than
“social studies,” because humankind’s experience over time has produced the
life that we live today, and when we study history in depth, we also learn a
great deal about sociology, psychology, economics, and government. For that matter, great discoveries in
mathematics and natural science are contextualized in a study of history, and
knowledge of the essence of those discoveries is gained.
Hence, history is key to full
understanding of all subjects germane to the liberal arts.
Over the course of eight (8)
weeks, aspiring K-5 teachers studying for the Masters of Liberal Arts
degree will pursue the following topical schedule for world and American
history:
Week #1 >>>>> Prehistory and
Developments Through Earliest Civilizations (Beginnings to 700 B. C.)
Week #2 >>>>> Classical Period (700 B. C to 500 A. D.)
Week #3 >>>>> European Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, Contemporaneous World
Week #2 >>>>> Classical Period (700 B. C to 500 A. D.)
Week #3 >>>>> European Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, Contemporaneous World
Development (500 A. D. to 1500
A. D.)
Week #4 >>>>> The Rise of the Nation-State and the Importance of the European Enlightenment (1600 to 1800)
Week #5 >>>>> Imperialism and the Industrial Revolution (1600 to 1900)
Week #6 >>>>> Major Events of the 20th Century and Early 21st Century (1900 to 2016)
Week #7 >>>>> American History through the 18th Century
Week #8 >>>>> American History from 1800 through 2016
Week #4 >>>>> The Rise of the Nation-State and the Importance of the European Enlightenment (1600 to 1800)
Week #5 >>>>> Imperialism and the Industrial Revolution (1600 to 1900)
Week #6 >>>>> Major Events of the 20th Century and Early 21st Century (1900 to 2016)
Week #7 >>>>> American History through the 18th Century
Week #8 >>>>> American History from 1800 through 2016
Language Arts
Over the course of six (6)
weeks, aspiring K-5 teachers studying for the Masters of Liberal Arts
degree will pursue the following topical schedule for language arts:
Week #1 and Week #2 >>>>>
Classical Greek and Roman
Literature; Classics of World Literature;
Premodern and Renaissance
Classics of Europe; Shakespearean
and Elizabethan Literature
Week #3 and Week #4 >>>>>
Modern and Contemporary British
and American Literature
Week #5 >>>>>
African American Literature and
the Literature of Other Major Ethnic Groups in the
United States
Week #6 >>>>> English Grammar, Syntax,
and Written Composition
Fine Arts
Fine Arts
Over the course of four (4)
weeks, aspiring K-5 teachers studying for the Masters of Liberal Arts
degree will pursue the following topical schedule for fine arts, which adopts a
chronological approach for presenting the history of the visual arts,
architecture, and music:
Week #1 >>>>>
Week #1 >>>>>
The Prehistoric World
(Beginnings to 3,000 B. C);
The Ancient World (3,000 B C. to
700 B. C.)
Week #2 >>>>>
The Classical World (700 B. C.
to 500 A. D.);
The Medieval World (500 to 1500
A. D.)
Week #3 >>>>>
The First-Stage Modern World
(1450 to 1750); The Second-Stage Modern World (1750 to 1945); The Contemporary World (1945-2016)
Week #4 >>>>>
Survey of Musical Forms and
Composition
Composers and Music in the
Western Classical Style;
Blues, Blues-Based, and
Blues-Inspired Music
in the United States;
Folk and Country Music;
Musical Instruments
Additional
Requirements for Prospective Teachers at Grades K-5
Teachers aspiring to teach at grades K-5 will, after completing the above-given course of study during a full academic year, research, write, and defend a master’s thesis in the course of the following summer.
Teachers aspiring to teach at grades K-5 will, after completing the above-given course of study during a full academic year, research, write, and defend a master’s thesis in the course of the following summer.
Then, during the succeeding
academic year, aspiring K-5 teachers will serve a full year of internship
before gaining consideration for employment in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Revolutionizing Training for Teachers of Students in Grades 6-8 (Middle School) And Grades 9-12 (High School)
Revolutionizing Training for Teachers of Students in Grades 6-8 (Middle School) And Grades 9-12 (High School)
Teachers of students at grades
6-8 and at grades 9-12 will, in the revolutionized curriculum in this program
for achieving academic excellence, of necessity be first-rate scholars
possessing broad and deep knowledge of the subject areas that they will teach.
As with teacher aspirants at the
grades K-5 level, master’s degrees in education will not be recognized.
Teachers aspiring to teach at the grades 6-8 and 9-12 levels will earn
degrees in departments relevant to their teaching fields (e.g., mathematics,
physics, economics, world literature, Spanish).
As in the case of K-5 teachers,
teacher aspirants at the secondary level (grades 6-8 or 9-12) will serve a full
year of internship before undergoing evaluation for employment in the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
………………......................................................................
Thus, for both teacher aspirants
at the K-5 level and those at grades 6-8 and 9-12, the entire program in the
aftermath of earning a bachelor’s degree will typically take three years.
Such teachers will thereby gain
professional status via academic training as rigorous as programs in law and
medicine. They should be paid
accordingly, with median salaries rising to around $85,000 from the currently
prevailing median of $71,000.
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