The bill, S. 1250, the Growing Excellent Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act, introduced in June, would give grants to states to set up or authorize “academies” for training teachers and principals. The training programs could be based at colleges or universities, but could also be hosted by other nonprofits, such as Teach for America. The programs would be required to have a “rigorous” selection process, make clinical instruction (such as student teaching) a significant part of the training process, and only issue credentials to would-be teachers who proved they could improve student achievement.
In exchange, the academies would be exempt from restrictions the bill describes as “unnecessary”: teacher and principal academies would not be required to hire faculty with advanced degrees, faculty members would not be expected to conduct research, and the academies would not need to be accredited.
If you read the article, you will find that the incumbents naturally oppose this. Nick and I have argued that deregulating the New Commanding Heights, notably education and health care, is crucial to having a dynamic economy that restores full employment.
READER COMMENTS
Arthur_500
Aug 8 2011 at 4:40pm
What will become of higher education as we know it? Will all of our teachers be dolts and our children graduate with useless degrees?
Hmmmm, well Harvard was not accredited until to 1980’s, I believe. I would have to presume that everyone who graduated from Harvard got a useless degree.
Much of the advanced research that has taken place prior to about 1930 took place among amatuers and inventors. On the other hand that can all be thrown out the window because they were not lettered and accredited.
Seriously though, my biggest worry is not that we continue mediocre education in the name of Teachers’ Unions but rather an increase in the indoctrination of our teachers.
Since the early part of the last Century when there began a concerted effort to utilize our higher educational institutions to indoctrinate teachers into socialism until the present day we have to fight for common sense and facts. I was recently told, emphatically, that anyone who goes through Macro 101 KNOWS that government needs to pour money into the economy during difficult times. Oddly, that was from a teacher!
Without accredidation will we have teachers separated into camps like those from FOX and those from New York Times? At least now we can see the brainwashing. Will we see papers rejected because it was written by someone from the FOX camp as if we were to say, “Ignore that paper, it was written by a Black, Jew, Gypsy, etc.
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