Posted on June 20, 2008 at 9:36 am by Coby Loup
Alternative alternative certification
Mike and Checker, who were at the Excellence in Education summit in Orlando yesterday, may have more to say about this. Apparently New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, speaking at the summit, discussed the possibility of his seeking the power to certify principals and teachers, currently the province of ed schools alone. Call him reckless or brash or whatever you will, but Klein has done more than any other district leader in recent memory to bust the monopoly that has stifled change and innovation in public schooling.
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June 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Certifying teachers and principals is not “the province of ed schools alone.” States certify teachers and principals. What Klein appears to be doing is seeking the power to do so at the district level. Maybe he wants to apply new rules that would allow for alternatives: I don’t know. But get your facts straight.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Bob, you’re right that a teaching certificate in New York requires the state’s seal. My point is simply that you have to go through an ed school to get that seal. As Elizabeth Green points out in the New York Sun article to which my original post referred: “Certification is now done by universities, which act as partners even when it comes to alternative ways to enter the profession, such as Teach For America and the city’s Teaching Fellows program.”
There are, indeed, a few states where you can get a certificate from a district or private entity without going through a university, but New York is not one of them. (See page 17 of this report: http://www.edexcellence.net/detail/news.cfm?news_id=375&id=130.)