On-the-Job Teacher Training

The Dec. 18 editorial, “Building Teachers In-House,” suggests that High Tech High’s training program be emulated many times over. Well, there already is a statewide program with a similar style of training in which K-8 teachers get the training that they need and earn their credentials. Called Cal- StateTEACH, it is housed on state university campuses. Candidates already teaching teach their day classes and work on their coursework at home on the computer. Faculty go to their classrooms to observe and assist with lessons. If these teachers need assistance in passing the state-required test, there is a coach for that as well. This training is completed in approximately 16 months. There is also a student teacher component for those not currently teaching.

Shirley Colvin

Cerritos

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I reread your editorial three times because I could not believe anyone would endorse putting students without any training in a classroom as a teacher and, on top of that, believing that 17 courses versus five years of college would qualify them as teachers. Since teaching is a profession, do you think such other professions as doctors and lawyers, etc. also need their education watered down? You say that emergency teachers in the 1990s weren’t qualified because their education was shortchanged. Is this a dichotomy or what?

Rosina Spitzer

Huntington Beach

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The editorial states, “There’s no better guarantee of a good education than good teachers,” and claims that alternative credentialing may help keep “teachers from leaving the profession, which they do now in unhappy droves.” Yet, the editorial does not explain why so many experienced teachers are unhappy. One reason is that teachers are increasingly expected to deliver a lock-step, one-size-fits-all curriculum, regardless of student learning needs.

Worse, under pressure from the so-called No Child Left Behind law, Los Angeles Unified and other school districts are forcing teachers to give their students a seemingly endless series of time-consuming tests without adequate time to review the material with students who need more help. Administrators, in the name of “accountability,” are using testing as a weapon to harass and intimidate teachers. Yet, school districts that impose such unworkable programs are not held accountable.

Julie Washington

Kindergarten teacher

Board of Directors

United Teachers L.A.