Americans Say Knowing How to Teach is Critical to Teacher Quality

Also Support Raising Salaries, Better Working Conditions

Statement of Arthur E. Wise
President, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
On the Hart Teeter Poll on Teacher Quality Released June 13, 2002

Teacher quality is on the mind of the American public. According to the Hart-Teeter poll results, the American public expects its teachers to know how to teach—to teach so that students achieve at a proficient level on assessments geared to standards that states and the profession have set. The poll tells us that Americans are willing to pay more to ensure that we have enough well qualified teachers to teach all of America’s children.

First and foremost, the public says good teachers must have the skills to make learning interesting so that students will achieve the goals set for them. Developing these skills takes education and training—it does not happen overnight. According to the Hart-Teeter poll, Americans say that developing the proper skills to make the subject interesting so that students learn is the most important factor in quality teaching, even more important than knowledge of subject matter. The public is telling us what we know—that both knowledge of the subject and how to teach it are equally and vitally important ingredients in successful teaching.

However, the U.S. Department of Education has just released a report, Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge, which differs in its conclusions. The report says that teacher preparation institutions should reduce the emphasis on the 'how to teach' portion of their programs, and that states should revamp state licensing requirements to eliminate much of the clinical education 'how to teach' experiences in teacher training programs. This conclusion does not square with the America public's ideas on what is needed to produce high quality teachers for the nation's schools.

The Teacher Shortage/Quality/Retention Issue

Much has been written about the teacher shortage. Poor teacher retention rates are driving teacher shortages today. America actually trains enough teachers each year for America' schools, but a significant percentage of those candidates choose not to enter the classroom. A significant percentage of others leave after less than five years. What can be done?

The American public has some answers. The Hart-Teeter poll results show that more than half of Americans believe colleges turn out good teachers, but they leave because of poor working conditions and low salaries.

In response to this dilemma, more than two-thirds of Americans support raising salaries, creating better working conditions, and providing teachers more high quality continuing education. And 80 percent tell policymakers to increase salaries even if it means higher taxes. The public is willing to make major changes in the way teachers have been treated. They intuitively realize that if we demand higher standards for our teachers, then we must treat them as professionals who should be paid accordingly.

In addition, according to the Hart-Teeter poll, the public supports hiring more teachers, but not if it means lowering standards. Two-thirds of Americans 'just say no' to lowering standards in order to hire more teachers to lower class size.

State and local officials are recruiting people from all walks of life to staff the schools. Administrators scamble every fall to fill classrooms. In an increasing number of cities and rural areas, they cannot find enough highly qualified teachers at the price they are willing to pay. These same officials are responsible for students and their learning. Research is clear: students with fully prepared teachers outperform those with unprepared teachers. In terms of teaching skill, graduates of teacher preparation programs outperform those who have not been prepared. The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas found that students of all ethnic backgrounds scored significantly higher on the Texas student assessment when the great majority of their teachers were fully prepared and licensed. Other studies support this data.

Studies reveal that unqualified teachers are generally assigned to teach children in low-performing schools. Most of these students have failed state-mandated achievement tests. Moreover, unprepared teachers leave teaching at a much higher rate than those who are prepared. The more unprepared persons hired, the harder and harder it becomes to staff classrooms in the future. Individuals who are not prepared, teach students who are already failing. Is it any wonder the achievement gap continues?

Quick-fix approaches do not work well when placing teachers in the classroom. These approaches do not create a high quality, stable teaching force that will help all students learn, year after year. Whatever the merits of Teach for America, which is touted in the U.S. Department of Education's report, it is not an answer to staffing the nation's schools. America must add 200,000 teachers a year to a teaching force of three million. In its entire history, Teach for America has placed 8,000 teachers in schools; approximately 2,000 of them are still in the classroom.

Until America addresses the fundamental issues of teacher retention and turnover through significant salary increases and changes in working conditions, and in making teaching a more attractive profession, we cannot and will not have a uniformly high quality teaching force, and we will have to run faster and faster to stay in place. Children, their parents, and American society deserve more.

We ask policymakers not to lower standards by placing unqualified, unprepared individuals into classrooms, but instead to raise salaries, improve working conditions, and develop higher education/P–12 school partnerships using the professional development school model which focuses on the training and induction of new teachers. The public signals that it will support these changes and believes they are necessary to attain a high quality teaching force for the nation's schools.

ETS Release on Hart-Teeter Poll (link will only work if you have active Internet connection)