CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
March 25, 2016 03:09 PM UTC
15 Comments
Is there a causal link between teacher licensing and positive academic results?
Are teachers at Kent, Regis, Mullen, Colorado Academy all licensed?
There's a link between teacher licensing and people knowing about teaching methods for children, and class management.
You did not answer my question.
Is there even a causal link between knowing teaching methods and academic success?
There is a link between teacher preparation (including being highly qualified in the subject area(s) they teach, and student achievement. Not as strong a correlation as smaller class sizes, having paraprofessional aides, good early childhood education, and parent involvement, but yes, there is one. I don't know about the teachers at those schools you mentioned – usually schools post statistics on their websites about what % of teaching staff has master's degrees, etc.
My guess is that the "non-licensed rural teachers" amendment came out of the difficulty of attracting and retaining qualified teachers in small rural districts.
or being able to recruit from Sunday School….
… Sunday School teachers don't need no stinking licenses!!!
I agree with "being highly qualified in the subject area", but what does that have to with licensing?
In order to become a licensed teacher through the Colorado Department of Education, one must pass an accredited teacher preparation program, in a content area such as English, math, K-12, Special Education, etc, pass content mastery tests such as PLACE or PRAXIS, slog through the "methods" classes, which is basically an unpaid 2 semester-long teacher internship with sponsoring teachers, or equivalent OJT training. Teach for America places young teachers in high need schools on an alternative licensure program. They have a helluva turnover and drop out rate.
Probably some of these rural school districts are looking to recruit through an alternative OJT licensure program without the formal training. Not really sure what you're asking. I certainly believe that better, formal teacher preparation leads to higher student achievement.
There is quite a lot of research out there that shows that certain teacher preparation paths lead to better student outcomes. I tend to take them all with a grain of salt, unless they are peer-reviewed 2-3 year studies. Otherwise, they tend to be marketing jobs by someone with a curriculum to sell to a district.
I'm not going to sift through the dross for the gold, as you could do it yourself to satisfy your curiousity. The NEA site is a good place to start. Their research and resources provide a good overview of current education research on "closing the achievement gap".
Before we decide to eliminate mandatory testing, we need to ask ourselves if it is important to measure academic progress.
The whole point is that "mandatory testing" and "measure academic progress" are not the same thing.
I think the popularity "testing" has with certain folks has as much to do with the bottom line of a giant industry as it has to do with any benefit for students. Public policy is only rarely solely predicated on public need.
No gaf, testing and measuring progress have little to do with one another in Colorado. You have to go way back into the legislative archives, to find the purpose of the CSAPs, as they were called then. Bill Owens was one of the biggest boosters of high-stakes testing. Students were to be tested on a schedule and any school that failed three years in a row was to be closed and turned into a charter, The plan was to progressively turn al of the schools over to private charter companies that could undoubtedly do a better job for less money; just ask a Tea Partisan. Most people no longer seem to remember this history, But I do. It's kind of like the way people were hornswoggled into turning the Lotto money over to GOCO when Lotto was approved specifically to fund prisons.
I don;t recall it that way at all, so I did some research. This link details the history that Lotto was initially approved by the legislature for parks and conservation (50%) and the half for construction, which included prison construction — but not actually running those facilities. The legislature moved more and more into capital construction, so the initiative was enacted to create GOCO and require more to parks and conservation. http://tornado.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/olls/PDF/LOTTERY%20FUND%20DISTRIBUTION.pdf
Back in the dark ages when I was in High School anyone who completed the course work recommended for the college bound with decent grades found themselves prepared when they entered college. We weren't constantly being tested and I didn't know anyone who managed to get Bs who needed remedial courses in college. There were no AP courses or other means of inflating averages with extra point As and a B average was good enough to get into a top tier state university as long as you also had good SAT and/or ACT scores. In fact I didn't know anyone taking remedial courses in college, period. I assume it's because in those days you couldn't get Bs, much less As, without being proficient.
I don't know what's changed since then to the point where so many kids who graduate with good grades aren't prepared for college without remedial work but I doubt spending less time learning and more time taking tests is going to fix it.
I remember
taking 1 or 2 standardized tests per year in HS. I don't know how it affected my course of study, probably not much. Looking back I think they were mostly practice for the ACT and SAT. In any event, when I took those college entrance tests neither the format nor the strategies for doing well were a surprise.