Education a Profession at Risk
...omplex; courses are required at all accredited teacher education programs. A Nation at Risk recognizes the need to strengthen the quality and to raise admission standards for applicants to teacher education programs. Rather than invest in the improvement of teachers’ professional some would seek to dismantle it. Education and development would deprive new teachers the opportunity to develop the understanding how to teach challenging subject matter. Others have argued that the problem is not teacher shortage except in a few areas; while proposals to ease entry into teaching have been based on claims of shortages of teachers. The need to create better working condition would attract and retain candidates into the teaching profession stated a key recommendation by A Nation at Risk. These conditions include competitive salaries, a voice in decisions affecting their practice and an opportunity to engage in professional development. There has been some progress in raising teacher salaries; however nationwide teacher salaries have not kept up with inflation over the past two decades. The pressure to raise salaries has been tempered by the political exigency of hiring teachers who are not fully certified. A Nation at Risk also pointed out the need to create more challenging career opportunities for teachers and more opportunities for teacher leadership. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards represents an example of an organization that recognizes teacher’s accomplishments. Teachers who are board certified have begun to take on positions of leadership in education and participate actively in school reform, professional development and teacher education. The best of the profession represented the accomplishments of teachers leading the path in meeting the challenges of finding highly qualified teachers. They demonstrated how investing in professional knowledge and development can pay off. Also, as a group, not in the classroom but in the profession as a whole. The Open Court curriculum had been adopted by one in eight elementary schools in California by the year 2000, according to a recent issue of California Education. This program robs teachers of the ability to tailor instruction to their particular group of students teacher complained. In Los Angeles, a district that has invested heavily in Open Court told one teacher that he must stop teaching Shakespeare to his elementary students despite the success on reading assessment and teach his students Open Court. Students in low-income and high-minority schools are more likely to have less – qualified teacher which is especially a troubling consequence of the failure to professionalize teaching. In schools with the highest percentage of students qualifying for reduced or free lunch, 22 percent of the teachers were under qualified while in schools with the lowest percentage of such students only 6 percent of the teachers were under qualified, according to another...