Thursday, November 03, 2016

Getting More Minority Teachers

From the research I did for my recently-completed literature review on what makes a good math teacher, I don't have high hopes for these teachers or their students:
A controversial alternative route to certification that promises to put more minority teachers into classrooms won approval from the state Board of Education...

The proposal, revised several times since it was proposed in February, will allow Relay to grant teaching degrees to individuals, most of whom are already working in schools, usually as teacher aides. It takes a year to complete the program and will lead to certification in elementary education as well as English, math, science, biology, chemistry and physics at the secondary level.

Connecticut already has three alternative-route certification programs, two run by state entities and one by Teach for America.
Research I read showed that students of TFA teachers show significant achievement gains in math--teachers from other programs, not so much.  Intense PD, especially in math for non-math majors, isn't shown to work, either.

I'd like to be proven wrong here, but the research I read tells me I won't be.

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