Unfortunately the traditional markers of teacher quality--degree from an acredited program, credentials, advanced degrees--are pretty much useless. Far more important is the teacher's basic intelligence and ability to be open to following direction and learning methods of teaching that were most likely NOT taught in the university. Charter schools must be free to employ as teachers people who have not been through the indoctrination of the Ed School follies. Secondly, schools must have the ability to remove teachers who are unwilling (or unable) to teach in the manner prescribed by the school's philosophy and mission.
Finally, there must be a strong component of inservice training. It takes a year full-time to teach a college graduate to become a really top notch teacher. Charter schools will find such already-trained teachers in very short supply. So if they plan to "grow their own" they must be prepared to offer multiple complete course-sized packages of inservice training to their teachers--rather than simply piecemeal one-week crash courses just before school starts. For example, understanding effective reading instruction takes a full 4 hour course for a quarter to impart. That 40 to 50 hours of instruction is needed for teachers to truly learn enough to understand effective reading instruction--and this is far more than the typical one-day or two-day trainings provided by publishers.
Posted as a reply to:
Teacher Quality by Jim Cowardin
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