ENCORE TEACHERS: Classroom calling
Posted 11/11/2008 - 4:26pm
by David Bank
in
A former biotech entrepreneur, David Donnelly teaches economics at Sonoma Valley High School in California. Photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat.
Teaching appears to be the encore career of choice, judging from the boom in articles and studies about people taking up the challenge of public school classrooms.
“Clearly it’s not for the money,” writes Meg McConahey in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “For many, it is a calling that went unheeded early in life in favor of a more lucrative career. For others, it is a chance to reconnect with a subject they once fell in love with, whether it be art, literature or history.”
The story highlights Dave Donnelly, who co-founded a successful biotech company, sold it to a Japanese corporation, and returned to his first love — teaching. “Students are amazing. They’re funny. They have incredible insight. I write down pages of things I’ve learned from students,” the economics teacher at Sonoma Valley High School told McConahey.
Education, and teaching in particular, topped the list of desired encore careers in the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Career Survey of 44-70 year olds, released earlier this year. That finding was confirmed by a survey for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J., which found that 42 percent of college-educated adults ages 24 to 60 would consider teaching as a career.
“There are many people of this generation who are extremely idealistic and who came out of the spirit of all that was going on when they were growing up and had a great desire to make a difference in many different ways,” said John Gomperts, president of Civic Ventures, which publishes Encore.org.
“But a lot of people get diverted, and life intervenes and you end up being something you never thought you were going to be. And yet for some, there is a little flame that still burns with idealism and their dreams deferred.”
Joan Shinkle, 59, was a surgeon and health care executive before taking several years off to spend time with her son. Shinkle now teaches ninth-grade science at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, Calif.
“I have been gainfully employed, which is not just about making money but about being useful, for all of my adult life,” Shinkle told McConahey. “I suppose I could have decided I wanted to learn about ancient Chinese tapestry. But I was interested in being of use to the community.”
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A New Idea for Certification
Judy Goggin, Vice President, Civic Ventures
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. published a report in June, 2008 on the Passport to Teaching program http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/passportteaching.pdf
It’s a new pathway for certifying teachers but it’s only accepted in seven states so far. The project attempts to address some of the certification issues raised in this stream of comments by creating a nationally recognized, portable, high quality pathway to teacher certification.
“The American Board Passport to Teaching certification (ABCTE) was formed through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to develop an alternative certification for teachers who needed to earn certification as well as for professionals seeking to change careers and become teachers. The goal was then and continues to be to provide an affordable, flexible, and high-quality route to certification that is also nationally recognized and portable. Unlike many other alternative routes to certification, ABCTE does not require any formal course work or classroom-teaching practice prior to certification. Rather, the certification centers on a set of exams, one in content and one in pedagogy.”
Useful national web links on teacher certification
Judy Goggin, Vice President, Civic Ventures
Certification requirements are set individually by states and some have reciprocal agreements to accept one another’s certification processes.
Some useful information about teacher certification is available through the Troops to Teachers website:
http://www.dantes.doded.mil/DANTES_WEB/troopstoteachers/RECIP-text.asp
Another good source for info about reciprocal agreements among states is the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. The following link provides information about the exact relationships among the states: http://www.nasdtec.org/agreement.tpl
Another online source for alternative pathways to teacher certification is TeachNow.org http://www.teach-now.org/ hosted by the National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification
too much red tape
It’s the same here in Missouri. Even teachers who are fully credentialed moving in from other states have to take a year or more of coursework to qualify to teach in Missouri and, believe me,there is nothing better about K-12 education here than there is anywhere else!I know more than a couple of teachers from other states (New York, Colorado, for example) who just moved on rather than go through what was expected of them here.
Teaching in California: Too many hoops
I have a BA in Education, a MS in Public Administration and I could not obtain a clear teaching creditial in California. I came here in 1989 and I just gave up because there was always another class another something required. I don’t think it has changed.
Terri
Teacher Credentials
The frustration here in Minnesota, where several highly educated and conscientious SHiFT members would love to teach, is that there is no way around the lengthy credentialing education process except a portfolio review which demands prior experience in classroom teaching.
What is the difference in California that allows Dave Donnelly and Joan Shinkle to teach in public school classrooms? How did they obtain their teaching credentials? Or is there a waiver process?
Jan Hively
(Janet M. Hively, PhD)
HIVEL001@umn.edu
Teaching
How ironic!! Many of us spent decades (38 years myself) and retired reluctantly from public education. Now after 2 years of "rewirement", maybe I will go back at least part-time.