There’s this one cross-eyed, big-nosed, eyepatch-wearing peg-legged teacher at my school who is about to finish his “Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment” program. While the contracted last-chance-to-fire-beginning-teacher-on-circumstantial-evidence date has passed, I’ll keep him anonymous.
BTSA is a requirement for new teachers, as it works on staff development and that sort of thing. Beyond that, it’s a mystery to me, so I asked him very casually what he thought about it.
It’s bullshit.
Could you elaborate?
It’s bullshit.
While he spoke in a higher register this time, the answer still didn’t help me. I said so.
He sighed.
It might be good if I hadn’t grown up around all this, or if I hadn’t been a high school student. It might be good for new teachers who didn’t go through a credential program. It might be good for teachers who somehow didn’t pay attention during their credential program.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s useless. It’s just more of the same credential program crap.
He didn’t elaborate much further.
I used to think that graduation meant I didn’t have to put up with inherently worthless exercises in busywork. I more recently used to think that getting out of the credential program meant that I didn’t have to put up with an excessive workload of exercises that have very little to no practical benefit in the classroom.
Nope. Two more years.
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Pingback on May 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
[...] there was trouble. Months ago, I had quoted him on mentioning how much bullshit BTSA is, and he could tell who he was. I agreed to change every recognizable feature mentioned in the blog [...]
May 2, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Hi,
Prima facie, this doesn’t sound like a bad idea. It seems like it could be really helpful IF the program is effective and meaningful. I’m sure new teachers must have SOMETHING they can improve upon or need advice about.
However, it sounds like this program is the one needing the feedback!
May 2, 2008 at 1:52 pm
It’s still a mystery to me. She wasn’t the most helpful in illuminating what it all entailed.
May 2, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I’m a first year teacher who’ll be working on her portfolio for the year. Lots of reflections.
You decide if this is helpful or not.
May 2, 2008 at 6:28 pm
If I can just submit stuff I’ve written for the blog, I won’t mind it at all. If detailed, specific and annoying prompts are involved, however, I believe I will.
May 3, 2008 at 10:46 am
I had to take a course like that when I first started. Most of the course I took had to do with the presenter telling us he was a dean and that he was planning to work his way up to AP, and then principal. He thought he might even be superintendent one day, but wasn’t sure whether he would actually get that far before his retirement, which was topic #2 for the new teachers. We learned about his plans in great detail.
Week after week after week.
May 3, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Even experienced teachers, new to the district we both love and adore, have to do BTSA. It hadn’t been invented when I started 19 years ago so I was saved. However, I did have to do the CLAD which I did in an 18 month cohort. That was bad enough. Busy work, busy work, busy work. There, did I say it enough times to satisfy the highers up?
May 3, 2008 at 4:08 pm
We don’t do that. Thankfully. Although, I don’t know. Maybe because I don’t do it, I think it might be helpful. Though, I suppose if I HAD to do it, I would hate it.
This is how my brain works. All the time. No wonder I’m considering starting up a serious drug habit.
May 3, 2008 at 7:46 pm
NYC: I love that I have a laptop. I’ll probably be able to pay just as much attention to our presenters as I want. I would want to pay attention very little.
Ms. Zody: We do our CLAD thing in the credential program these days. Well, as long as I pass the class. At this point, that’s a big if.
It isn’t like I don’t show up. I just don’t pay attention, and I just can’t force myself to care.
Ms. Brandy: I knew a guy, once, but he went high and stayed there.
May 23, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I finished BTSA — but it almost finished me.
Some dishonest people at my school copied my papers. I got hauled in to face charges of plagiarism. Of course, I was cleared….but my credential wasn’t for more than a year.
Meanwhile, the teachers who copied my work were allowed to write their own papers. They got their credentials before I got mine.
BTSA is a huge waste of time. There is no integrity in the program. The teachers who copied my work should have been fired.
With state budget cuts, BTSA should be eliminated. It’s a senseless program for any teacher with an ounce of sense. Most of the work is repetitive — and mindless.
May 24, 2008 at 7:48 am
Horror story, indeed.
To anyone else reading this, don’t try to figure out my perspective, as I have none. Consider the following facts:
1. While I have a great deal of trepidation toward the program given the so-far unanimous criticism, I have no perspective or opinion of BTSA, as I haven’t started it yet.
2. I have only quoted someone else’s opinion.
3. As a public service and out of genuine curiosity, I wrote this entry in order to facilitate and prompt other opinions.
May 24, 2008 at 9:48 am
To those of you who have not experienced BTSA, here is a typical day:
1. You work all day with kids until 3 p.m. and then have to drive across town to take a class from 4 to 8.
2. The teacher is not an expert in the subject being discussed. Rather, he or she is a National Board Certified Teacher who is logging the required 90-something hours needed to claim a $10,000 stipend.
3. The teacher reads — yes — reads from a manual that every student is given. Today’s subject: differentiation.
4. A student raises his/her hand and explains that he/she already has received this information.
5. Other students chime in, too, and ask the teacher to differentiate instruction for those who have already read the material in the manual, written about it, reflected upon it, and put it into practice.
6. Instead of embracing this teaching moment — and opportunity to model how to differentiate — the teacher sheepishly explains that he/she cannot differentiate, because he/she didn’t really lesson plan for the class. Like us, he/she was given a manual and a list of activities. The teacher reminds students we can all leave early if we finish the day’s reading and written activity.
7. The teacher drones on. The students become disengaged.
8. No one falls asleep, though, because we are sitting in little chairs in an elementary school classroom designed for the needs of fourth graders. Big people sitting at little tables; it’s quite a sight!
This is the kind of professional development I don’t need. It underscores why the profession is filled with people who are burned out … or bummed out. We are not treated like professionals. The teachers who are there to help us hone our crafts can’t/won’t change curriculum to meet the needs of students. We cannot take the courses at a local college, because the district gets state funding for every head in the room.
My mentor teacher is wonderful. She looked at the huge binder of work I had to do, shook her head, and told me to jump through hoops. She knows I’m a good teacher, because she has watched me interact with my kids and had even asked to use some of my lesson plans. She knows I care about my students, and my students know I care about them.
Frankly, anyone who has completed a quality credential program doesn’t need BTSA — unless it’s done the right way. My school district is one that is struggling to figure out the right way to design BTSA. I’ve got to believe I could get a better education for a college professor who is a specialist in his/her field than some classroom teacher who is just jumping through hoops to get NBC hours and a fat stipend. … BTSA is a program the district could — and should — eliminate to trim the administrative bloat.
Send the district-employed BTSA experts back to school sites. Rent their office space. And let me take my classes at a nationally ranked university. I’ll pick up the cost of tuition.
We all win.
May 24, 2008 at 10:57 am
How do you respond to those who say that BTSA has improved retention among new teachers?
May 24, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The retention rate is increasing because of NCLB. Under NCLB, districts must have “qualified” teachers in classrooms. That means state officials are no longer issuing emergency credentials to anyone who can pass the CBST and pony up $55. Most of the people who left teaching did not complete teaching credential programs. The emergency credentials used to be good for five years.
BTSA is a program taken after completing the teaching credential program. Everyone in BTSA has invested time in money in a credential program. My credential cost me $45,000. I went to a private college.
May 24, 2008 at 9:56 pm
There are some bright spots in NCLB, it seems.
Where did you find your information?
May 24, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Got it in one of my grad school classes.
May 24, 2008 at 10:40 pm
If you could find a study or somesuch, I would appreciate it.
May 24, 2008 at 11:19 pm
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing does yearly reports.
How many people are going to invest four years in earning a credential and then walk away from the profession?
If you make it through to get the clear, you’re probably going to stay.
Moreover, NCLB stipulates that teachers be “highly qualified.” In years past, the emergency permits were for five years.
Now, the permit is good for one year (and renewable for a second). To get the permit, candidates must pass a subject-matter test and be enrolled in a certified teaching credentialing program. To renew the permit, the candidate must complete half the requirements for a credential.
It’s a different world.
I have worked with people who taught four or five years and took one education class a year. They didn’t think they ever needed to get a credential. They lost their jobs.
In the six years I’ve been teaching I have yet to meet anyone who knows a teacher who quit the profession — AFTER earning a credential. Those who have quit did so because they didn’t meet the credential requirements. Other newer teachers were asked to leave, because they received poor performance evaluations.
Hope this helps. The CCTC has a website. The reports are there.
May 24, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Interview: Who Stays in Teaching and Why?
The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard University, in conjunction with the AARP’s educator community, recently released a report titled “Who Stays in Teaching and Why: A Review of the Literature on Teacher Retention.” In an e-mail interview, we asked Morgaen Donaldson, a PNGT research assistant, what the research on retention can tell school recruiters and personnel administrators.
Agent K-12: In what way does the hiring process affect retention? What can schools and districts do to ensure that their hiring process results in strong retention rates?
Morgaen Donaldson: While we were not able to identify studies that explicitly link teacher hiring and retention, we did find studies that link teacher hiring and satisfaction. One 2004 study founnd that a hiring process that includes a rich exchange of information between candidates and hiring districts is associated with higher levels of satisfaction among new teachers. Research also indicates that districts lose candidates when they hire teachers late in the season. Those hired right before the school year (or during the school year) struggle to get a foothold in schools. The bottom line here is that districts can increase the chance that their new teachers are satisfied by hiring them through an information-rich exchange and hiring them early.
AK-12: How much does a teacher’s preparation or qualifications correlate with retention? Are there signs or qualifications school personnel should look for when interviewing a candidate?
MD: There is some indication that retention rates are higher for teachers who have gone through teacher-education programs in contrast to alternative-certification programs. However, researchers do not know whether differences in retention are due to the programs or the different types of people they attract. In other words, people with a short-term interest in teaching may be attracted to alternative-certification programs and then spend only a few years in the classroom, whereas people who have a more long-term commitment to teaching may enroll in longer, traditional programs and then teach for longer.
Retention or attrition reflects the influence of many individual-level factors and school- and district-level factors (not to mention the labor market and other influences that are probably at play). So human resources personnel should probably not depend on research on individual-level attributes to predict which candidates will stay in teaching. Their resources are probably better spent working with schools to build supports that help retain the candidates they hire. For example, a new teacher who has a well-matched mentor, for instance, is more satisfied. High-quality induction has also been associated with higher retention of new teachers.
May 25, 2008 at 12:24 am
Excellent; thanks.
If you want to share anything else, let me know.