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Kentucky flunks Teacher Quality 101

By Nicole Thieneman

Most parents whose children bring home a report card containing four “Ds” and an “F” would be very unhappy and frustrated. They certainly wouldn’t consider their young learners to be on the right track.

In the same way, the latest report card on the quality of Kentucky’s teachers is disturbing, especially considering the important role educators play in our children’s future success. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) issued the state an “Unsatisfactory” grade for the overall effectiveness of its teaching policies.

Some of the findings from NCTQ’s 2007 “State Teacher Policy Yearbook”:

• Kentucky universities and colleges fail to equip future elementary teachers with proper knowledge and skills in their subject-matter areas. They also rely on unproven scientific methods. For example, although Kentucky teachers must study reading instruction, the state neglects to ensure its teachers learn scientifically based reading methodologies.

• The most vulnerable students – the 109,000 with special needs – don’t get teachers adequately prepared to educate them. The NCTQ’s report card awarded the state an “F” for failing to properly prepare “highly qualified” special-education instructors, saying these teachers don’t receive “subject matter preparation relevant to topics taught in the elementary or secondary classroom.”

• State policies remain vague when it comes to the knowledge and skills expected of teachers. The NCTQ assigned a “D” for areas of compliance required by federal No Child Left Behind law, including pointing out a lack of objective evaluation of teachers and the programs used to prepare them.

• Vague evaluation criteria fail to ensure teachers’ performances get assessed based on “objective evidence of classroom effectiveness.” Mandatory full evaluations are too infrequent (one every three years) and tenure is granted too quickly (after three years).

Using these policies, Kentucky teachers can receive tenure after only one full evaluation of their classroom work. This greatly increases the chance that an undue number of Kentucky students receive inadequate classroom instruction.

Further support for this assertion comes from new research indicating teachers often stop growing in effectiveness after the first few years of their careers.

University of Washington researcher Marguerite Roza wrote a report published by the think tank Education Sector and referenced by the Washington Post. She concluded that her analysis of available research indicates teachers become more effective for the first few years of their careers, but improvement “tends to plateau after only five years or so, and may even decline as teachers approach retirement.”

• While Kentucky received a “B” for providing alternative routes to teacher certification, the report criticized the state for its “low and inflexible admissions standards.”

The NCTQ’s findings aren’t the only ones indicating problems with the training and quality of the commonwealth’s teachers.

In “Educating School Teachers” published in 2006, Arthur Levine wrote that 62 percent of teacher-education alumni throughout the U.S. reported, “schools of education do not prepare their graduates to cope with the realities of today’s classrooms.”

In a 2000 report, the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission highlighted similar issues, including its “deep concern whether veteran teachers really have the content skills and knowledge needed for today’s curricula requirements.”

A 1998 review conducted by the Southern Regional Education Board also raised questions. It revealed that lower percentages of basic student achievement and increased retention rates for students graduating from eighth to ninth grades in SREB states likely resulted from teachers’ lack of relevant content knowledge and proper methodologies in their fields.

While the same problems with teacher quality have existed during the past decade, the state’s political and educational leadership have done little to improve them.

It seems officials find it politically beneficial to pander to the interests of teachers unions staunchly opposed to increases in accountability and higher certification standards. Union bosses often balk at taking on the tough tasks involved in creating rigorous policy initiatives – including performance-based pay tied to student achievement and school choice – to improve teachers.

The Frankfort bureaucracy loathes changing the status quo and instead travels a middle-of-the-road path, setting education policies with mediocre standards and appeasing special-interest groups. All the while, bureaucrats assure the public they are “taking action” to improve the system.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s students continue to lose ground. They attend classes led by teachers with good intentions but lacking proper skills, content knowledge and methodologies for more effective instruction.

In most cases, parents across the commonwealth must watch from the sidelines, powerless to exercise better choices for their children.

– Nicole Thieneman is a graduate student at Vanderbilt University and an intern with the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank.

The Bluegrass Institute is an independent research and educational institution offering free-market solutions to Kentucky's most pressing problems.

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