Someone once said after a presidential dilemma, “that you need to decide at age 2 if you’re going to be a politician and then live your life accordingly”. Has that become true with everything that we decide on in life.
As I work on my dissertation, what I am finding out as I talk with people, both students and parents, is that if they’d known….they would have done things differently. I think it’s great that at age 10 a child knows he wants to become a veterinarian and so he takes all the science and math he can in high school along with electives in the agriculture department and joins clubs such as the 4-H Club and the Human Society. Virginia Tech, being the only veterinarian school in Virginia, may be where he always knows he will attend. When entering high school, this child checks with Virginia Tech to see what dual enrollment classes they will accept and then enters those classes knowing he is preparing for his future. He graduates from high school with a transfer associate degree and enters Tech with two years already completed in his long college career to become a veterinarian. He is on top of the world, but he is one in the very, very few who know this at age 10 and can prepare for it all along the way.
There are two ways to look at this example. The first is to congratulate this student for a job well done and his success and speedy travel to his career as a veterinarian. The second is to feel sorry for this child that he didn’t have the time or opportunity to explore the world and all the other wonderful things it has to offer. Was he short changed? You decide. What are your thoughts?
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Hiring Teachers for Advanced Classes
What should be the main criteria in hiring the best teacher for an advanced class?
School districts all across Virginia are faced with increasingly harder teacher recruitment. The low professional salary of pubic education is the main cause of this situation. However, there are still many good teachers out there who would love to come into a school system and teach the best and brightest the school has to offer. How do you select these teachers? Many school districts will chose the teacher with the most seniority, and this keeps the school administration out of hot water with the other teachers. Some schools will choose the teacher with the best credentials. This may be a fair way to access who gets to teach what level of class and, this too, may keep administration from teacher rampage. But has any school district ever considered the teacher that covers the material in the most depth; the teacher that comes in early or stays late to help students; the teacher who gets the best response from lectures and best scores on standardized tests; or the teacher who the students respond to the best.
I ask these questions for several reasons. First of all, as I remember the teachers I had in elementary school all the way to now as I work on my doctorate, the ones that I remember the most are the ones I learned the most from. They may not have been my favorites at the time because they were harder and required more work that others, but they are the ones I remember. Secondly, as the public school district in which I work recruits teachers to teach dual enrolled classes, I wonder what the criteria is. To teach dual enrolled classes, the teacher must be certified in Virginia, endorsed in the area in which he is teaching, and have a master’s degree in the area in which he is teaching. Now, recruiting any teacher is hard based on today’s salary but to find a teacher with a master’s degree is even harder. These people are usually teaching for colleges or universities and making much more money than public education can afford. So, we are faced with a dilemma. Over the past few years, we have lost several teachers to the community college system for this reason. We have also lost an excellent teacher; one like was described above because he didn’t have a master’s degree and in order to teach the classes he had been teaching for years he would have to go back to school and get that degree. This teacher taught physics and chemistry and was also, according to the students, the best calculus teacher to be found. He left to return to college to get the degree but was then headed to the university level where he could make more money.
Dual enrollment has caused this problem. Dual enrollment requires teachers to have master’s degrees, the AP classes we were teaching did not require a master’s degree but only those who wanted to teach high school and had enough interest to volunteer for extra AP training. Did we hurt our students by taking away the best teachers?
School districts all across Virginia are faced with increasingly harder teacher recruitment. The low professional salary of pubic education is the main cause of this situation. However, there are still many good teachers out there who would love to come into a school system and teach the best and brightest the school has to offer. How do you select these teachers? Many school districts will chose the teacher with the most seniority, and this keeps the school administration out of hot water with the other teachers. Some schools will choose the teacher with the best credentials. This may be a fair way to access who gets to teach what level of class and, this too, may keep administration from teacher rampage. But has any school district ever considered the teacher that covers the material in the most depth; the teacher that comes in early or stays late to help students; the teacher who gets the best response from lectures and best scores on standardized tests; or the teacher who the students respond to the best.
I ask these questions for several reasons. First of all, as I remember the teachers I had in elementary school all the way to now as I work on my doctorate, the ones that I remember the most are the ones I learned the most from. They may not have been my favorites at the time because they were harder and required more work that others, but they are the ones I remember. Secondly, as the public school district in which I work recruits teachers to teach dual enrolled classes, I wonder what the criteria is. To teach dual enrolled classes, the teacher must be certified in Virginia, endorsed in the area in which he is teaching, and have a master’s degree in the area in which he is teaching. Now, recruiting any teacher is hard based on today’s salary but to find a teacher with a master’s degree is even harder. These people are usually teaching for colleges or universities and making much more money than public education can afford. So, we are faced with a dilemma. Over the past few years, we have lost several teachers to the community college system for this reason. We have also lost an excellent teacher; one like was described above because he didn’t have a master’s degree and in order to teach the classes he had been teaching for years he would have to go back to school and get that degree. This teacher taught physics and chemistry and was also, according to the students, the best calculus teacher to be found. He left to return to college to get the degree but was then headed to the university level where he could make more money.
Dual enrollment has caused this problem. Dual enrollment requires teachers to have master’s degrees, the AP classes we were teaching did not require a master’s degree but only those who wanted to teach high school and had enough interest to volunteer for extra AP training. Did we hurt our students by taking away the best teachers?
Dual Enrollment vs. Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement is a nationally recognized educational curriculum that is taught at a more rigorous level than any other and if the student scores high on a final test given at the end of the class, the college of his choice may grant him exemption from taking that class in college. One of the things that universities like about the AP classes is that all students take the same tests, therefore all students are ranked by the same unit of measurement. One of the downfalls of the AP class is that everything is riding on that one test. Not all students are good test takers and this type of class does not do much for that student.
Dual enrollment, on the other hand, means that students are taking the high school course but also integrating the college curriculum into it. If the student passes the course, he is automatically awarded the college credit. This would seem to be the better option. However, there are some things that need to be considered. First of all, who gets to take the dual enrolled class? Is anyone who wants to give it a try eligible to take the class? Some schools say yes, others have placement test students must pass before entering the dual enrolled class. Secondly, which colleges dual enroll with high schools and what are their reasons? If student numbers are the colleges’ only criteria then everyone involved is jeopardizing their credibility. Teachers who teach dual enrolled classes must meet the same criteria as the teachers on campus and if that is not enforced then the college faces accreditation issues and the high school dual enrollment program looses credibility. If the classes are dual enrolled though community colleges then the possibility is always lurking as to whether the university will accept the credits.
What are the opinions of those of you who have experienced these two different options?
Dual enrollment, on the other hand, means that students are taking the high school course but also integrating the college curriculum into it. If the student passes the course, he is automatically awarded the college credit. This would seem to be the better option. However, there are some things that need to be considered. First of all, who gets to take the dual enrolled class? Is anyone who wants to give it a try eligible to take the class? Some schools say yes, others have placement test students must pass before entering the dual enrolled class. Secondly, which colleges dual enroll with high schools and what are their reasons? If student numbers are the colleges’ only criteria then everyone involved is jeopardizing their credibility. Teachers who teach dual enrolled classes must meet the same criteria as the teachers on campus and if that is not enforced then the college faces accreditation issues and the high school dual enrollment program looses credibility. If the classes are dual enrolled though community colleges then the possibility is always lurking as to whether the university will accept the credits.
What are the opinions of those of you who have experienced these two different options?
Cost of Tutition
Should the cost of tuition be a factor in determining if a child participates in dual enrollment in high school?
The old saying ”money is the root of all evil”, may be a factor here. Are we rushing our children through the best years of their life just to save a few dollars in college tuition or is if really fair to even make that comment? Sure cutting college costs in half sounds good to me as a parent, but are we really going to do that? First of all it would depend on the payment method of the dual enrolled classes. In my district the school system pays the tuition but that is not the case in some schools. If the parent has to pay the cost of dual enrollment, are they really saving any money? I guess that would depend on where the child goes to college and how many of his classes are accepted without having to double dip just to get enough credits from the university. By double dipping I mean that if a child transfers to a college that will only accept 12 hours of dual enrollment credits from high school and the parent has already paid for 60, then the parent has paid for 48 credit hours they would not have had to pay for if the high school classes had not been dual enrolled. In my locality that amounts to over $3500 from the community college. What has been the experience of those of you who have encountered this?
The old saying ”money is the root of all evil”, may be a factor here. Are we rushing our children through the best years of their life just to save a few dollars in college tuition or is if really fair to even make that comment? Sure cutting college costs in half sounds good to me as a parent, but are we really going to do that? First of all it would depend on the payment method of the dual enrolled classes. In my district the school system pays the tuition but that is not the case in some schools. If the parent has to pay the cost of dual enrollment, are they really saving any money? I guess that would depend on where the child goes to college and how many of his classes are accepted without having to double dip just to get enough credits from the university. By double dipping I mean that if a child transfers to a college that will only accept 12 hours of dual enrollment credits from high school and the parent has already paid for 60, then the parent has paid for 48 credit hours they would not have had to pay for if the high school classes had not been dual enrolled. In my locality that amounts to over $3500 from the community college. What has been the experience of those of you who have encountered this?
Rushing Children to Adulthood
Some of the responses to my first blog and the opinion of my husband lead me to ask this question. When we provide early or advanced entry to college are we rushing children to adulthood that they are not ready or prepared for?
Some of the responses from my first blog, High School Dual Enrollment, lead me to think that many of you think the same thing. My son will graduate from high school with an associate transfer degree from a community college at the age of 17. He plans to attend Virginia Tech and the dual enrollment program he is in is supposed to allow him to graduate in two years from the four year university. That means he will graduate from Virginia Tech with a bachelors degree at the age of 19. Hopefully he will continue into a masters program and hopefully ( with a little encouragement from me) double major into another area as well but if neither of these things happen, will he be mature enough and ready to begin his career at age 19? Parents of children in these programs have many questions like these and would like to hear from those of you who have experienced it already
Some of the responses from my first blog, High School Dual Enrollment, lead me to think that many of you think the same thing. My son will graduate from high school with an associate transfer degree from a community college at the age of 17. He plans to attend Virginia Tech and the dual enrollment program he is in is supposed to allow him to graduate in two years from the four year university. That means he will graduate from Virginia Tech with a bachelors degree at the age of 19. Hopefully he will continue into a masters program and hopefully ( with a little encouragement from me) double major into another area as well but if neither of these things happen, will he be mature enough and ready to begin his career at age 19? Parents of children in these programs have many questions like these and would like to hear from those of you who have experienced it already
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