Change is Coming?

IPS B.S. pulled this story off the Internet about some of the changes Tony Bennett wants to do.

July 29, 2009 Teacher training faces overhaul State's plan to reshape course work draws complaints By Andy Gammill andy.gammill@indystar.com Proposed rules being unveiled today would give Indiana teachers a new mandate: what you teach matters more than how you teach. A broad series of changes proposed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett would require even elementary education majors to minor in core subjects such as math, English, science, art or social studies while limiting undergraduate coursework in education. The proposal also would relax the amount of training required of principals and superintendents. As details of the plan emerged Monday and Tuesday, school districts, teachers and universities blasted parts of it as putting unqualified people in charge of districts or in front of children. And they questioned why Bennett did not inform deans of education schools earlier. "I don't really understand the rationale for imposing those kinds of restrictions," said Pat Rogan, executive associate dean of the education school at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "Why would we ever want to eliminate even minimum standards for licensure? We need to be increasing the standards." Bennett said the changes are needed to ensure school districts have flexibility in hiring and that teachers grasp the subjects they teach. For instance, a fourth-grade teacher has to teach fractions, percentages and related concepts, Bennett said. Having an outside concentration in math would help ensure that teachers have mastered that subject. "You have to start with the premise that improving education starts with high-quality instruction," he said. "We know that a teacher who doesn't understand complex math problem-solving cannot help a student master that." Bennett said he also wants to give school boards the option to look more broadly than the ranks of educators when filling leadership positions. His plan would allow any teacher to become a principal by passing a test rather than taking courses as is now required. It also would allow anyone with a master's degree in any field to become a school superintendent by taking a test. Principals and superintendents now must take courses in school leadership and Indiana school law. Relaxing those requirements, Bennett said, would allow a district facing serious financial problems to hire a retired corporate CEO for a year to get the books in order. Rogan and representatives of other education schools said the proposed teacher education rules appear to tip the balance too far away from courses on how to teach. Courses at IUPUI, for example, cover the research and laws on working with special education students, how to teach to students who learn differently, ways to engage students in lessons and many other topics. Rogan said the proposed limits of 30 credit hours in education courses for education majors and 15 for education minors would put educators without essential teaching skills into classrooms. Although Indiana State Teachers Association officials said they generally don't have many issues with the state's plan, they, too, are wary of the limits on the number of education courses college students can take. "Just because someone knows chemistry inside and out doesn't mean that person knows how to reach kids teaching chemistry," ISTA spokesman Mark Shoup said. Officials at the University of Indianapolis are still trying to figure out what the proposal means but fear it could turn their program on its head by requiring it to undo cooperative courses that, among other things, merge training in education and various subject areas. "Do you just drop everything you do now that you think is doing well?" asked Dean Kathy Moran. Superintendents also reacted strongly this week to the proposal, saying some changes would be helpful but others would be destructive. Eminence Superintendent Larry Moore said he would welcome the flexibility that would come from allowing teachers to add areas of specialty without taking more courses. That would allow him, for instance, to have a physics teacher take over a math course without having to go back to college to study math. But he questioned the wisdom of relaxing course-work requirements for principals and superintendents. "School business is not business, and you have to have some school sense to run a school and a school corporation," he said. "You get that from having sat in various chairs within a school system." The proposal will be presented to the Indiana Professional Standards Board at a meeting today. The board will then hold hearings. Indiana University Dean of Education Gerardo Gonzalez said he is concerned by the speed of the rulemaking process and the lack of consultation with education leaders. It would be a major break in the culture of academic freedom for the state to dictate curriculum to independent universities, he said. "Here is probably one of the most significant changes that have been advanced around teacher licensure in the state of Indiana," he said, "and the deans of education received notice the day before the meeting occurs." Additional Facts A look at the proposed changes » Teachers no longer would be required to take university courses as professional development to renew their licenses. Classes offered by school districts would count. » Nonteachers could become teachers without going through a school of education by taking a curriculum offered by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. » Teachers could add areas of specialty by taking a test rather than taking more courses. » Any teacher could become a principal after passing a leadership test. » Anyone with a master's degree in any subject could become a superintendent by passing a leadership test.

IPS B.S. agrees with some of this and disagrees with part of it. Let's start a dialogue.