State must end use of unvetted teachers
While impersonating a doctor, Scott Hanson, a 22-year-old living in Oregon, performed surgeries and dispensed drugs to unsuspecting clients. Hanson, who had no medical training, was later charged with assault, identity theft, reckless endangerment, and dealing in controlled substances.
Engaging in medical practice without a license is illegal for good reason. An untrained, unlicensed individual who attempts surgery, for example, might harm or kill people. Medical licensing boards were developed to provide assurance that the man holding the scalpel knows what he is doing.
Similarly, requirements for teachers were developed to provide assurance that the persons entrusted with the care and intellectual development of our children know what they are doing. Children in the United States spend more than 1,000 hours with a teacher each year.
An effective teacher can have a powerful impact on the life of a child. Economists Rivkin and Hanushek found that, “An effective teacher is the most important school-based factor influencing school achievement — more important than class size, school size, after school program quality, or which school a student attends.”
At the University of Oklahoma, prospective teachers are well prepared and heavily screened. Prospective teachers have four field experiences in different settings — rural, urban and suburban — over the course of several years. In each field experience, students have multiple supervisors, including the university supervisor, cooperating teacher, professor and principal. Students take a heavy load in the content area and must maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
Last year, for every teacher OU recommended for licensure, the state Department of Education recommended nine. Forty-three percent of all new teachers were emergency/alternatively certified. Emergency-certified teachers may be geniuses or they may be psychopaths, but there is no way of knowing. These folks are unvetted. They are unproven when it comes to working with children.
OU is working with the Department of Education to offer university-caliber courses to 30 emergency-certified teachers this summer. While the collaboration will have a positive impact, that still leaves 1,593 teachers without training.
Texas, like Oklahoma, allowed about half of its new teachers to go unvetted last year. As a result, student achievement in Texas is at an all-time low while teacher misconduct (sex with students or criminal activity) has soared to all-time high. Last year, Texas had 223 confirmed cases of teacher misconduct; 1,100 additional allegations are pending investigation.
While impersonating a doctor can lead to fines and prison, there are no consequences for impersonating a teacher.
“Emergency certificates don’t constitute a crisis” (Our Views, June 30) suggested that leaving a child with an unvetted adult for 1,000 hours is no big deal. Perhaps those unconcerned with teacher quality should consider moving their children to high-poverty schools, where most unvetted teachers work. Then, parents in high-poverty areas can move their children to safe, suburban schools with experienced teachers.
All Oklahoma’s children deserve safe schools with great teachers. Knowingly providing any child with a substandard education is wrong. For the future of our children, this educational malpractice needs to stop.