Ohio Does Not Need Teach for America

8/6/2019 Ohio Does Not Need Teach for America

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Greg Mild, Columbus Education Association

Ohio does not need Teach for America

House Bill 21 & Senate Bill 81 propose that Ohio grants 4-year Resident Educator Licenses to

qualifying Teach for America participants. I cannot support the decision to do so for individualswho do not meet the qualifications that are clearly spelled out in Ohio Administrative Code forteacher preparation programs in the State of Ohio. These rules are put in place to ensure thequality of the teachers we put in front of children should not be taken lightly. I have detailed thespecific requirements for the two different processes below.

House Bill 21 & Senate Bill 81 lowerthe quality of teaching for future children by lowering thesecurrent standards for teacher preparation. Teach for America is touted as bringing the best andthe brightest to the classroom, but we have always done so in Ohio through existing state lawrequiring universities to provide rigorous teacher preparation programs.

House Bill 21 & Senate Bill 81 would require the Ohio Department of Education to issue a

Resident Educator license to all TFA participants, including those who have never set foot in anOhio classroom.

A Comparison of the TFA Program vs. Ohio's Higher Standards

Field ExperienceTeach for America:Corps members teach summer school students for approximately two hours each day [fiveweeks long], under the supervision of experienced teachers. For the first hour, most corpsmembers work directly with four to five students to build skills in math and literacy, to gainexperience in facilitating group work. For the second hour, corps members lead a full classlesson, which builds skills in delivering lessons and managing a classroom.

(http://www.teachforamerica.org/the-corps-experience/training-and-ongoing-support/institute/)

Current Ohio Law:A minimum of twelve weeks of full-time student teaching [7.5-hour days] and a minimum of one-hundred clock hours of field experiences prior to studentteaching. (http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/3301-24-03)

Ohio State University Secondary Math, Science Technology program:M.Ed. students are placed for field experiences (observation, participation, internship) in schoolsin fall, winter, and spring quarters for increasingly richer experiences. These placementscollectively provide 700 clock hours in the schools spread over 150 days (of the typical 180-dayschool calendar). The placements are in public middle and high schools in Franklin County with

each student experiencing urban and suburban and middle and high school classrooms. STEMM.Ed. students have program classes in fall and winter quarter in the late-afternoon and earlyevening in addition to being in their schools each morning. Spring quarter is a twelve-weekstudent teaching experience with students in the schools all-day every day. During that springstudents complete the action research for their Capstone Project which is then completed thatsecond summer.(http://ehe.osu.edu/edtl/academics/med/stem/)

Admission


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Teach for America:

Bachelor's Degree

2.50 Minimum Cumulative GPA

US Citizenship or National/Permanent Resident Status

The online application consists of:o

Personal, academic, and/or professional informationo Resume

o Letter of intent

Ohio State University Secondary Math, Science Technology program:

Baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution

Minimum 3.0 overall GPA (on a 4.0 scale) in all previous undergraduate course workand a minimum 3.0 overall GPA in all previous graduate course work (may not becombined)

Minimum 2.7 GPA in mathematics, science, or technology content courses. 80% of thecontent should be completed prior to admission. (Include a plan for completing contentcourses, that are not completed by the application deadline) A plan document is located

online at http://ehe.osu.edu/edtl/ Experiences working with adolescents in a learning situation

Official scores from the General Test of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) taken withinfive years of application

TOEFL score for international students, if required (minimum score 550 paper-based,213 computer-based, or 79 iBT)

Statement of Intent: See Application Checklist for format and instructions, locatedonline.

Three letters of recommendation (four preferred), from persons acquainted with youracademic performance, your experiences with adolescents, and your potential as a teacher.Include at least two letters from professors or instructors who have had you in class.Recommendations written on letterhead stationery should be attached to the GraduateSchool Reference Form.

Resume listing academic accomplishments, paid or volunteer experiences working withadolescents, related extracurricular experiences, and honors or awards (limit two pages forfellowship)

The M.Ed. is a competitive program. Meeting the minimum standards does notguarantee admission. Applicants who have completed most or all of the content courses willbe given preference for admission. The admissions committee also considers diversity inthe range of students related to gender, race/ethnicity, and life experience.

Ongoing Support

Teach for America:Teach For America provides professional development to corps members throughout theirtwo-yearcommitments to ensure that they are set up to succeed at helping their students achieve athigh levels.

Current Ohio Law:Ohio teacher residency program, which shall be a four-year, entry-level program for classroomteachers. The teacher residency program shall include at least the following components:


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(1) Mentoring by teachers who hold a lead professional educator license issued under section3319.22 of the Revised Code;(2) Counseling to ensure that program participants receive needed professional development;(3) Measures of appropriate progression through the program.(B) The teacher residency program shall be aligned with the standards for teachers adopted bythe state board of education under section 3319.61 of the Revised Code and best practices

identified by the superintendent of public instruction.(http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3319.223)

Ohio Department of Education:A four-year Resident Educator program of support and mentoring for new teachers will provideOhio educators just entering the profession with quality mentoring and guidance essential for along and flourishing career.[http://education.ohio.gov/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=1260&ContentID=67249&Content=101906 -- This site includes moretraining materials and tools than can be listed here. Each Resident Educator will be mentoredby another teacher (trained for this specific purpose) within the school districtfor the full four-year period and must successfully meet all of the criteria in order to qualify for a professional

educator license.]

At a time when education in Ohio is under intense scrutiny, why would we seek to LOWER thestandards for becoming a teacher?

Consider this peer-reviewed study that examined the effect of Teach for America corpsmembers on student performance, both in prior studies and through independent analysis. Thispaper compares apples to apples by thoroughly identifying all participants.(http://www.bama.ua.edu/~jstallwo/CEE_Strand5/LDarling_Hammond.pdf)

Regarding TFA'a highly-publicized study by Mathematica:

"The Mathematica study, using the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, found that there werestatistically insignificant differences in reading achievement for students in the TFA andcontrol classrooms. In math, students in the TFA classrooms faired slightly betterequal to one months extra teaching. The Mathematica study also found, however, thatTFA teachers had no substantial impact on the probability that students were retainedin grade or assigned to summer school."A closer look at the math and reading results shows that neither the TFA group nor thecontrol group was even beginning to close the achievement gap. In math, the TFAteachers bumped their student math scores from the 14th to the 17th percentile. Thecontrol group stayed flat at the 15th percentile. In reading, both the TFA and controlgroup teachers marginally raised reading scores, from the 13th to the 14th percentile forthe control group, and from the 14th to the 15th percentile for the TFA recruits. This, as

Center for Teaching Quality head Barnett Berry notes, is essentially virtually no gain atall. These [TFA] students were still reading more poorly than 85 percent of their peersnationwide, and well below grade level. Teach for America boasts about its impact,noting on its webpage: [O]urcorps members and alumni work relentlessly to increase academic achievement. Yet ina study touted by TFA, the students of corps teachers remained far below their national

peers and made only marginal gains."- Barbara Miner (http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml)


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If we truly believe that the Teach for America program creates teachers who are more effective,then why would we limit its influence to so few students and only allow placement in urbanareas (per TFA)?

If we truly believe that this is in the best interest of students in the state of Ohio, then shouldn'twe make this the standard process for teacher preparation?

Start by eliminating OAC 3301-24-03.C.6. (http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/3301-24-03) which states:(C) A college or university which seeks state board of education approval to prepareteachers shall request approval to offer a program leading to a specific type of licenseas designated in rule 3301-24-05 of the Administrative Code. Approval by the stateboard of education shall be based on evidence of coursework and experiences designedto include the following:......(6) A minimum of twelve weeks of full-time student teaching and a minimum of one-hundred clock hours of field experiences prior to student teaching.

While Teach for America only requires 50 hours of cooperative teaching during a summer

school program, Ohio state law requires that prospective teachers complete a minimum of 460hours of field experience, including 12 weeks of teaching, with typically 6 of those weeks beingfull days of independent instruction, under the supervision of a university professor(s). Theseuniversity programs come at a huge price to both students and universities, and if they produceless effective educators, then you need to propose that we eliminate this requirement statewide.Such a change would accelerate the process for all future educators to get into the classroom inall schools, not just a select few in the urban areas. Will we take this program into the suburbsof Upper Arlington, Westerville, Olentangy, and Bexley? If we only want what is best for ourstudents, too, and if that means teachers with less practice in the actual teaching ofstudents means better results, then we need to move this forward.

Know that there is already a process in place in Ohio for students who graduate with a

bachelor's degree in a content area who then wish to become teachers. This graduate schoolprogram is the process by which secondary educators now obtain their teaching license atquality universities such as The Ohio State University. Ohio State's program for Math, Scienceand Technology can be found here: http://ehe.osu.edu/edtl/academics/med/stem/

Look at the admission requirements and note that they are more rigorous than those requiredby the Teach for America program.

Teach for America has only a two-year commitment that includes continued mentoring. Ohiojust adopted a similar mentoring process as a part of the new Resident Educator license. Sinceyou support this bill, then you obviously know that the Resident Educator license is a four-yearprogram. You will most certainly need to work to revise that recently adopted change

(ORC 3319.223; http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3319.223) to reduce the requirement down to two years.

Senate Bill 81 sponsor Senator Cates, in his email response to me stated:

"Research has shown that TFA has a proven record of success in teaching students inhard-to-staff urban and rural schools. Researchers at the University of North Carolinaconducted a study of teacher impact of TFA versus UNC graduates of its own teacherpreparation system. Researchers found that TFA teachers had a larger impact in highschool math, science and English and UNC grads The state of Tennessee studied all 42


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teacher preparation programs in the state. They found that TFA members outperformedthe average new teacher across all subject areas and grade levels making TFA the topperforming new teacher preparation program in the state"

I appreciate that the Senator is referencing studies in his response. He mentioned that Teachfor America members were found to have outperformed their University of North Carolina

counterparts. Since he did not cite the report, I was unable to specifically address the reportingmethods and data sets used. So, giving Senator Cates the benefit of the doubt, let'sask whyNorth Carolina might have reported success with Teach for America corps membersand examine whether or not it changes the fact that we should not welcome Teach forAmerica's lower-standard program into Ohio.

Let's compare North Carolina's and Ohio's Teacher Preparation programs.

Consider the following information from the National Council for Accreditation of TeacherEducation (NCATE). NCATE is the professions mechanism to help establish high qualityteacher preparation. Through the process of professional accreditation of schools, colleges anddepartments of education, NCATE works to make a difference in the quality of teaching and

teacher preparation today, tomorrow, and for the next century. NCATEs performance-basedsystem of accreditation fosters competent classroom teachers and other educators who work toimprove the education of all P-12 students. NCATE believes every student deserves a caring,competent, and highly qualified teacher. The accreditation covers all educator preparationprograms. (http://www.ncate.org)

North Carolina has 42 accredited institutions.Ohio has 39 accredited institutions.

Listed below are the number of institutions that have Nationally Recognized Programs in thespecified content areas:

English (As recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English)North Carolina - 0Ohio - 28

Foreign Language (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)North Carolina - 0Ohio - 19

Math (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)North Carolina - 1Ohio - 31

Science (National Science Teachers Association)North Carolina - 0Ohio - 28

Social Studies (National Council for the Social Studies)North Carolina - 1Ohio - 33


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Despite having more accredited institutions, North Carolina's subject-specific teacherpreparation programs fall short of Ohio's high standards. In these five areas alone that cover themajority of secondary education programs at Institutions of Higher Education, Ohio has receivedNational Recognition for139 programs while North Carolina has been recognized for2. Whywould Ohio use North Carolina's teacher preparation programs as a benchmark? Ohio'suniversities already produce high quality educators, demonstrating no need for a decrease in

standards as would be introduced by Teach for America.

Now consider some statistics from the United States Department of Education (TheSecretary's Seventh Annual Report on Teacher Quality: A Highly Qualified Teacher inEvery Classroom, http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/teachprep/index.html):

Number of individuals completing Traditional Route ProgramsNorth Carolina: 3,909Ohio: 8,154

Number of individuals completing Alternative Route ProgramsNorth Carolina: 749

Ohio: 547

Total number of individuals completing programsNorth Carolina: 4,658Ohio: 8,701

North Carolina has fewer than half as many individuals completing traditional programs thanOhio does, yet over 200 more individuals completing alternative route programs.

Number of tests given for teacher certificationNorth Carolina: 21Ohio: 42

Ohio has implemented twice as many post-education teacher exams to ensure program fidelityacross the state and ensure that teachers are properly prepared in their respective specialtyareas.

Percentage of teachers certified who were trained in another stateNorth Carolina: Greater than 40%Ohio: Less than 10%

Total number of teachers receiving initial certification or licensureNorth Carolina: 13,047Ohio: 11,199

Number of teachers and number of teachers on waivers (to enable them to teach)North Carolina: 100,484 total 1,641 on waiversOhio: 107,702 total 244 on waivers

These numbers demonstrate the lack of quality teacher preparation programs in NorthCarolina and demonstrate the state's desperate need to try and attract teachers fromelsewhere (i.e., Teach for America). By contrast, Ohio is self-sufficient in preparing and retaininghigh quality teachers and is a place where other states recruit to fill their teaching vacancies.


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And finally, what is the effect of all of this on the performance of students? How do students fareafter their years of learning in their respective states?

North Carolina appears to favor the SAT test, while Ohio appears to favor the ACT. Both stateshave data on each test.

SAT(score out of 2400)North Carolina had a participation rate of 71% and an average composite score of 1485 andranked 39th nationally.Ohio had a participation rate of 27% and an average composite score of 1608 and ranked 22ndnationally.(http://www.collegeboard.org/)

My argument in defense of North Carolina would be that they have nearly all of their studentsparticipate in the SAT and therefore have numbers that represent all students, whereas theOhio students must represent the top-tier of students, those who are taking both SAT and ACTto widen their college options. So all this would prove is that Ohio's top students achieved

higher scores than North Carolina's average students. So let's look for the opposite effect in theACT results.

ACT (score out of 36)North Carolina had a participation rate of 16% and an average composite score of 21.9 andranked 21st nationally.Ohio has a participation rate of 66% and an average composite score of 21.8 and ranked 24thnationally.(http://www.act.org)

Where's the expected opposite effect? Unlike the SAT results, when North Carolina's best andbrightest students were compared to Ohio's average students, there was no discernible

difference. North Carolina's best students are Ohio's average students.

And about Senator Cates' reference to Tennessee? They reported 100% participation on theACT and ranked 47th nationwide with average composite score of 19.6.

At a time when education in Ohio is under intense scrutiny, why would we seek toLOWER the standards for becoming a teacher?

Ohio Does Not Need Teach for America

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