Michael Lach
Tue, 14 Aug 2001 04:49:58 -0700
-------------------- Teacher reforms veering off track -------------------- Massage classes, horse betting used for recertification By Stephanie Banchero Tribune staff reporter August 12, 2001 Illinois' year-old teacher recertification program is operating with almost no oversight, allowing teachers to claim professional development credits for gambling at the racetrack, enrolling in Tai Chi classes and learning to give massages. Although it is supposed to oversee the program, the state Board of Education does not even know what classes are being offered. Teachers are complaining about the flood of paperwork they have to fill out. And local school officials are angry they have to put substitute teachers into classrooms while the regular ones serve on time-consuming, state-mandated relicensing committees. Six years ago, as part of a national push to reform teacher development, Illinois began developing a bold plan to boost the quality of classroom teaching. But the state's bureaucracy and compromises demanded by teachers unions helped create a system that many believe isn't working. "It's a shame and a huge disappointment," said Carolyn Nordstrom, of Chicago United, a business group involved in negotiating the relicensing program. "We expended all this energy and time to meet the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. Many people, teachers included, are viewing the end result as a joke." Added Walt Warfield, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators: "The reality is that, after teachers go through this, there is no guarantee they will be better than they were before they started," he said. Many of the development classes taken by Illinois' 120,000 teachers cover weighty subjects aimed at boosting knowledge and teaching skills. But there are neither tests nor any other way to measure whether the system is improving the level of teaching--and many question whether it will. On a sweltering Saturday last month, 45 teachers from across the Chicago region gathered at Arlington Park to eat lunch, place bets and cheer for their favorite horses. The afternoon of gambling was part of a two-day, 15-credit hour class called "Probabilities in Gaming," where teachers discussed statistics, played bingo and talked about the chances of winning the lottery. Mostly, though, they talked about horse racing. Teachers learned how to read the racing guide and calculate payout. They discussed betting odds and what to consider when picking a horse, such as the age and days since the last race. Then, they put their new-found knowledge to work at the track. As a final assignment, teachers were supposed to create a math problem for their students and discuss it. When the educators walked out the door at the end of the day, though, the classroom math problem had not come up. David Spangler, an adjunct professor at National-Louis University who taught the course, said the day at the track gets teachers excited about math. Math in real world "The goal is to take math out of the classroom. This is math in the real world," said Spangler, wearing a blue tie with red dice on it. "We are not encouraging gambling. We want to give these teachers a way to integrate probability in a meaningful way into their curricula." The high school and middle school educators who enrolled in the class said it was a beneficial professional development tool. "I think it's a boost to a classroom when you have active stuff kids can do," said Casey Plackett, a middle school teacher from Naperville School District 203. "But I'll have to be careful about teaching anything that has to do with gambling. I probably wouldn't talk about the horse racing stuff we learned, but I will use the bingo stuff." "Kids all gamble nowadays, whether it's cards or dice, so teaching probability this way makes it more fun for them and I think they can understand it better," said Phil Deady, a math teacher at Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago. But, added Deady with a laugh: "When I told my wife I was going to Arlington racetrack, she didn't believe I was going to a professional development class." The sentiments were similar during an Illinois Education Association leadership conference in Normal earlier this month, where teachers could earn credit for Tai Chi and massage therapy classes. Basics of back rubs Early one morning, in a stuffy classroom on the Illinois State University campus, a masseuse calling himself "Magic Fingers" led 25 teachers through the finer points of back rubs. He taught them how to knead kinks out of necks, rake bad energy from their bodies and lower stress levels. A few hours later, Tai Chi expert Al Llorens led 30 educators through a vigorous Tai Chi workout. Elizabeth Read, a special education teacher from the south suburbs who took both classes, said they should count for credit. "With my students, especially those with autism, they need to learn how to reduce their anxiety," Read said. "I thought these classes might help me with that." But Read acknowledged she took the courses mainly to reduce her own stress levels. "The burnout for teachers is really high, and these kinds of classes can help with that," she explained. Until this year, Illinois had one of the most lax teacher relicensing procedures in the country. Educators needed only pony up $4 every five years to renew their certificates. But in 1995, the state Board of Education, following a national trend, began rethinking how it prepares and licenses teachers. The board, along with the University of Illinois at Chicago, convened a task force that developed a blueprint for change. It recommended hinging certificate renewal on a teacher's ability to "demonstrate" knowledge and skills consistent with national teaching standards and the state's student learning standards. Quantity over quality The proposal quickly became volatile, with business leaders, the unions and the Board of Education at odds. By the time the rules were adopted in 1999, they were controversial, complicated and significantly weaker than the task force's recommendations. Most importantly, they focused on the quantity of time spent in professional development, instead of the quality of that time. Generally, the new rules say teachers must accrue a prescribed number of hours over five years through attending workshops, serving on statewide education committees, traveling to foreign countries, writing magazine articles and participating in union activities related to career development, among other activities. The new law established local committees that decide whether the credits teachers claim should count. Teacher union appointees dominate those committees and the two appeals committees. Under the legislation, the state board was given the power to approve the businesses and groups that award credit hours. On paper, the plan has plenty of oversight. In practice, however, it has not worked out that way. For instance, the rules governing providers are so vague that the state board hasn't turned down any of the approximately 1,700 groups that applied. Providers also are supposed to send in a syllabus for each course offered, but a Tribune review of state files reveals few have done so. Board can't reject classes But collecting the course outlines is only a clerical procedure because the state board does not have authority to reject classes, said Dennis Williams, who oversees certificate renewal for the board. As a result, state officials do not know what classes are being offered or whether they are of high quality. "It's a weakness in the rules and it's something we fought against," Williams said. State officials plan to audit about 10 percent of the providers every year to ensure they are meeting state teaching standards. Williams expects as many as 10,000 providers to register within the next few years. Despite the inherent problems with the certificate renewal system, Warfield, of the school administrators association, and Nordstrom, of Chicago United, believe the best teachers will improve their skills in spite of the current system, not because of the current system. "The tragedy is that everyone involved agrees this system will not lead to better student outcomes," Nordstrom contends. "I know there are challenges of time and resources to create a quality professional development system, but now is the time to make the hard decisions. If we don't fix the system now, we are cheating our kids." Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune -------------------- Subscribe to the Chicago Tribune Today! Good Eating, Your Place, and TV Week -- just a few reasons to get the Chicago Tribune at home every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Subscribe by calling 1-800-TRIBUNE (1-800-874-2863) or online at chicagotribune.com/subscribe -- This is the ISTA-talk mailing list. To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://www.ista-il.org/ista-talk.asp> To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/ista-talk@lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>