Thanks to exploding population and a voter mandate to reduce class size, Florida will need nearly 200,000 new teachers over the next 10 years. That's bad news for the Sunshine State, according to a Sarasota Herald Tribune series that documents the alarming number of Florida teachers who have repeatedly failed portions of the state's three certification exams. The paper reports that "more than half a million Florida students sat in classrooms last year in front of teachers who failed the state's basic skills test for teachers" - a finding that raises "questions about Florida's education reforms, which require students to pass standardized tests to advance, yet allow teachers to fail exams dozens of times." What's worse, according to teachers interviewed by the Tribune, the material on the tests "is easy enough that no teacher should fail." According to Elizabeth Amos, a middle school teacher, the test included only the most basic questions, the sort of thing "you expect the average high school graduate to know." Yet, many teachers don't pass, despite multiple opportunities. "The two worst performers," the Tribune reports, "failed 59 times each." And "nearly 1,400 teachers failed 10 times or more." Not surprisingly, schools that serve the highest proportions of poor and minority students have the most failing teachers - a trend that will likely worsen as higher performing schools expand and cream the best teachers from harder-to-staff schools. Of course, many are taking this opportunity to complain that we need to increase teacher salaries across the board to attract the best and brightest to the profession. The problem, alas, is not that simple. Research suggests that it's not just pay but also the bureaucratic sclerosis that turns young people off to careers in public schools. (See "Tapping the next 'greatest generation' in education" for more.) Given the success that programs like Teach for America have had putting high-flyers in tough classrooms - and given the success those teachers have had there - it's high time we rethink the way we recruit, train, and pay public school teachers.
"Trouble at the source," by Chris Davis and Matthew Doig, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 12, 2004
"Measuring a teacher's knowledge," by Chris Davis and Matthew Doig, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 14, 2004
"Teacher facts the state didn't want to know are admitted at last," by Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 14, 2004
"Minority teachers struggle on certification exams," by Chris Davis and Matthew Doig, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 14, 2004