ABCTE Blog

Solving Problems By Improving Education

mholden — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:06:14 -0800

Today, Newsweek asked people: "In 6 words, tell us your thoughts on the American educational system." I submitted: "Improving it will solve many problems."

Teach & Inspire Scholarship Application Deadline Approaching

mholden — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:38:16 -0800

The next deadline to apply for ABCTE's Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program is fast approaching.

If you're interested in teaching in a high-need school and subject in Florida, Mississippi or South Carolina, Teach & Inspire provides accepted participants with a full scholarship and materials needed to become certified teachers through the ABCTE program. Once ABCTE certification is obtained, candidates are eligible for an additional $1,000 stipend for completing classroom observations.

Introducing ABCTE One-Day Sales

mholden — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:30:04 -0800

If you subscribe to the monthly ABCTE Circular email, then you may have read about this in the edition that came out last week.

We receive a huge response anytime we offer a discount on the ABCTE program and we’ve decided to try something new—-we will now hold special one-day sales, during which you can save $150 on an ABCTE enrollment.

Here's how the ABCTE one-day sales will work...

ABCTE Blog and Social Media

mholden — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:23:32 -0800

The blog has undergone a couple of changes but, before I write anything else about that, I want to take a minute to recognize Dave Saba, our former CEO who has been blogging here in this space for the last few years.

Among the many things Dave accomplished at ABCTE was growing this blog into a great communication tool for our organization. He posted here regularly, keeping people informed about education news and helping to get out the message about what we're working to accomplish.

Moving on

Dave Saba — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:24:41 -0800

As many of you know, I will be moving on next week to the American College of Education. For those that I have followed this blog, please continue to follow as the ABCTE team will keep you informed on education reform.

For those that wish to continue to follow me, please go to my new blog on Virtual Learning. I have moved over and will keep you posted on our progress to increase educational access for all!!

Thanks!
Dave Saba

Math Anxiety Epidemic

Dave Saba — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:44:57 -0800

What spreads faster then H1N1 in elementary schools now? According to an article in Business Week entitled Female Teachers Pass on Math Anxieties it is a fear of math.

Race to the Top

Dave Saba — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:03:18 -0800

I decided to spend my Friday afternoon reading through some Race to the Top applications. I focused on states where ABCTE is accepted as a TRUE alternative route to teacher certification and read through Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma.

First - this was a TON OF WORK for these states and the people that put these together must have spent some very long hours getting it done.

Second - these states proudly mention ABCTE is a route to certification and they meet the point requirements of Race to the Top! Yay us!!

Toothless Redux

Dave Saba — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:12:41 -0800

Joanne Jacobs writes up some of Andy Smarick’s great work in her Show me the reform blog. Andy sees a lot of toothless reforms in Race to the Top and Joe Williams over at DFER thinks that NYC just blew chunks. They are right on the money, so to speak and it is a case of history repeating itself.

Education Shift

Dave Saba — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:53:51 -0800

The political divisions in education continue to erode in this new era. With Race to the Top forcing more states to adopt progressive education reform initiatives, party lines are getting blurry.

ABCTE was once known as an education reform pushed by the right and opposed by the left. No more. In the past year we have had Democratic legislators introduce bills on behalf of ABCTE and now two different Democratic Governors have issued proclamations supporting ABCTE’s efforts at teacher recruitment.

Substitute Teaching creates the lost year

Dave Saba — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:49:54 -0800

There is an outstanding op ed by Carolyn Bucior in the New York times on substitute teaching. it is outstanding because the facts are just incredible and it is extremely well written by someone who is has been a substitute teacher for years.

So let’s review the facts:

77% of school districts give no training to substitute teachers at all - throw 'em in and hope for the best
read more

Virginia Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson

Dave Saba — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:31:26 -0800

Last week I got a call from Governor Elect McDonnell's transition team about my good friend Gerard Robinson. They were doing some background but would not say what roll they had in mind.

School district cost cutting

Dave Saba — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:43:39 -0800

More great info from the AEI Event on district cost cutting.

School District Spending Cuts

Dave Saba — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:07:16 -0800

Real ideas for school district savings from Great City Schools and McKinsey AEI Event

Absentiesm – as high as 11% in some districts could save $230,000 if you had 10,000 teachers and lowered it to 6%. For that district it means that on any given day, there are 1,100 untrained people teaching students. So every day a minimum of 20,000 students are pretty much wasting the day. Very sad. More to come on the substitute issue.

District Cost Cutting Ideas

Dave Saba — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:43:48 -0800

This is part one - blogging live from the Event

Great start to the AEI Event on district cutting – setting the stage. The first point is that the easy cuts are gone. With drastic cuts in revenue coming, schools cannot lower thermostats, delay text book purchases, change light bulbs and streamline bus schedules to get to the cuts they have to make. It is going to have to come from staffing since that is 80% of the budget. How do schools accomplish that without hurting education?

Insanity is not Innovation

Dave Saba — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:59:58 -0800

I got a flurry of emails about President Obama’s Educate to Innovate program saying that ABCTE should be a big part of this. We should but the President has decided to pursue what Albert Einstein refers to as insanity – doing the same thing and hoping for a different result.

900 New Teachers! Day 4

Dave Saba — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:34:30 -0800

Wow. You set a HUGE teacher recruitment goal and the team responds like no other. Our work recruiting teachers in Pittsburgh and then Harrisburg has so far generated over 500 leads and we have 35 new enrollments which is a solid start. Our Allentown and Philadelphia teacher recruitment events will finish out the week.

Teacher Recruitment

Dave Saba — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:33:54 -0800

At ABCTE we are continuing our quest to recruit 900 New Teachers into the program. It is pretty exciting to hear and see the level of enthusiasm in this team in getting this done. With a "free one week enrollment" to see our amazing teacher preparation resources and $150 off the price, recruitment is working hard to field all the calls and questions.

900 NEW TEACHERS

Dave Saba — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:48:08 -0800

Boldly going where no group has gone before - that is what ABCTE is all about. This month, we have set the unprecedented goal of recruiting 900 new teacher candidates into our program. To do this, we have discounted the program by $150 for January to give people the incentive to enroll.

Every one of our 34 employees are focused on making this goal a reality. We are going to be traveling across all our ABCTE states to talk to people who want to teach and get them focused on making their dream a reality.

Online math and writing courses

Dave Saba — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:40:14 -0800

It probably comes as no surprise that Americans do not write well. It is one of the areas that creates some difficulty for our teacher candidates so we were happy to see Straighterline come along and create a developmental writing course that our candidates can use to improve their writing skills. It comes with 7 graded essays which is huge.

ABCTE - the year in review

Dave Saba — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:46:48 -0800

To: ABCTE Supporters, Allies and Friends
From: David W. Saba, President

Date: December 31, 2009

Subject: ABCTE Year End President’s Update

Donate to help a Teacher

Dave Saba — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:42:58 -0800

Greetings!

ABCTE has issued over 2,000 teaching certifications to date and made incredible progress. So many of these teachers have sent us great success stories from the classroom and they describe how happy they are to have made the decision to pursue a career in teaching.

Stimulus spending

Dave Saba — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:34:31 -0800

There is a funding cliff coming and it is not going to be pretty. School districts are going to have to make some pretty stiff cuts or raise property taxes in order to cover the shortfall left when the stimulus funding runs out.

Now there is apparently a study on school funding shortfalls that supports this.

Race to the Top DETAILS

Dave Saba — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:37:21 -0800

If you are confused as to what your state needs to do to qualify for Race to the Top funding, NCTQ thoroughly breaks it down for you. If you want to maximize your point total then I suggest you download their Race to the Top Scorecard.

Once again - it is very clear that states need to have strong Alternative Teacher Certification programs - that are non-university based and do NOT require excessive coursework. So if your state doesn't have ABCTE, you need it now!

Race to the Top

Dave Saba — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:46:56 -0800

Thank you Secretary Duncan!! Today at the Race to the Top briefing a question was asked on the requirement that states have alternative teacher certification from groups other than higher ed (IHE). Here is the response provided by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools on their twitter account:

WI Question: Will TFA programs in partnership with IHEs count? SECRETARY DUNCAN: if law allows other institutions besides IHEs to credential teachers, score high!

Education Budget Cut Solution

Dave Saba — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:09:24 -0800

Every state is asking two critical questions right now; how do we increase our chances at Race to the Top funding and how do we find new ways to cut education budgets? The guidelines from the US DOE and a new study show that having non-university based alternative teacher certification is the answer to both questions.

Teaching Scholarships

mholden — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:45:37 -0800

The next deadline to apply for the ABCTE Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program is this Friday, December 11. The program covers the cost of teaching certification for accepted candidates who agree to teach for three years in high-need schools and subjects in Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina. Participants are also eligible for a $1000 stipend once they've completed the certification program. Watch this video of Dave to learn more.

Free training and Tribes

Dave Saba — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:34:53 -0800

I am creating a training day for the ABCTE staff and have spent a lot of time reading in preparation. In trying to stretch the mindset of our amazing team, we will be talking about Tribes by Seth Godin, and The Long Tail and Free by Chris Anderson. I will throw in a smattering of Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen just to tie it all together.

Cyber Monday Results

mholden — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:50:42 -0800

As you may know, yesterday was Cyber Monday and we ran a promotion at ABCTE, giving people $150 off our teaching certification program if they enrolled by midnight using the CYBERMONDAY discount code.

This was the second year we’ve run this promotion. In 2008, we came up with the idea very last minute, sending out an email and issuing a quick press release on our website. We saw 14 people take advantage of the 2008 Cyber Monday offer, which gave them $100 off our $850 teaching certification program.

2,000 Certifications!

Dave Saba — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:56:18 -0800

ABCTE teachers are a pretty amazing and independent group and it is always gratifying to meet them. This week we issued our 2,000th ABCTE certification to Heather Herd of Branson, Missouri who received her certification in math. A former controller, she is currently substitute teaching and will soon begin looking for a full-time teaching position.

Virtual Schools = Explosive Growth

Dave Saba — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:36:51 -0800

The biggest takeaway from the Virtual Schools Symposium is that this is a growth industry with incredible opportunity - and that is really starting to attract significant private sector investment. But like any growth industry, there will be operators who will not create quality schools. This will be used by some to say that online learning does not work. Another problem with explosive growth will be the variation in schools. Because there have been no large scale studies of students in online learning, the variation in quality will dilute the overall positive effects.

Great Virtual Teaching

Dave Saba — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:47:43 -0800

These were the notes that I took from a brainstorming on virtual teacher quality

Teacher Quality in virtual teaching:

•Role has changed – from developer to implementer
•Brick and mortar quality does not equal great virtual teacher
•Have to meet federal standards if highly qualified in order
•Have to have a great interest in working in an online delivery system
•Well trained teachers still need mentor teachers

Virtual Teachers!

Dave Saba — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:34:33 -0800

Here at the iNACOL Virtual Schools Symposium and it is THE highest energy education conference I have ever been to.

So I am sitting at a reception last night talking to some teachers and I decided to let them know about ABCTE. They chuckled and said that they knew about ABCTE because that is how they became teachers in a virtual school.

How gratifying to find two amazing teachers who came through our program on the cutting edge of education innovation, helping students achieve their dreams.

More Race to the Top Points

Dave Saba — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:16:59 -0800

For those state decision makers out there – please take a look. The Race to the Top guidelines are clear about the need for effective teachers in the classroom. As states prepare their applications, we invite them to partner with the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) to help increase your overall point total. ABCTE is a non-profit organization funded in 2001 by the US Department of Education and is already accepted in 9 states as an alternative route to certification.

Race to the Top

Dave Saba — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:16:11 -0800

The great thing about the blogosphere right now for people like me who don't have a lot of time is that you can find quick summaries from great people like Steve Sawchuck at Teacher Beat on critical policies affecting teachers.

ABCTE thanks our military veterans

mholden — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:45:57 -0800

A special message from ABCTE:

As we celebrate Veteran’s Day this week, we want to take a moment to thank all those who have served our country in the military and to especially recognize those veterans who have made the choice to serve again through a second career in teaching.

Teacher Fail

Dave Saba — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:17:13 -0800

The “coolest map ever” award has to go to the Leaders and Laggards report on education innovation from AEI, Center for American Progress and the Institute for a Competitive Workforce. Besides being very slick, it presents some interesting information on education innovation. It will be really cool if they do this map again in a year or two to see if the billions spent by US DOE actually move any of the state grades on innovation.

Online Teacher Training

Dave Saba — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:14:20 -0800

A great day for online teacher training and for ABCTE. The Daniels Fund provided our team with a teacher training grant to create two new workshops for the ABCTE preparation program. We will develop Dropout Prevention and Technology in the Classroom workshops with this grant. ABCTE already provides over 250 hours of subject matter and pedagogy training to mid career professionals who want to become teachers through our alternative certification process.

Teaching jobs increase

Dave Saba — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:10:03 -0800

Teaching jobs increased last month even as the rest of the country went to unemployment over 10% for the first time since 1983. The education stimulus is doing the job it was supposed to and at least 10,700 more people got jobs in education.

This is not a fluke. If you are a professional who needs a more rewarding career, education needs to be one of the places to look – especially if you have experience and a background in math and science.

Teacher Quality - a fantastic summary

Dave Saba — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:12:25 -0800

I am late in blogging about this, but here is an excellent summary of the impact of public policy on teacher quality by Brooke Terry from the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I am a big fan of Brooke’s work because she is not a think tank person – she gets out and goes to the meetings and really works hard to advocate for students at all levels.

Charter Schools Work

Dave Saba — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:05:31 -0800

Great opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on charter school effects on both students in charter schools and those in other public schools. It is amazing that in the face of overwhelming evidence, the support of President Obama and parents who prefer charters, there are still some who fight this.

If you have ever seent the faces of the kids denied entry through a lottery into a charter school, you will know why we need to ensure the growth of this amazing reform.

Alternative Teacher Certification Studies

Dave Saba — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:26:53 -0800

Another great plug for alternative teacher certification and for ABCTE in the Heartland Institutes monthly publication. This time Ben DeGrow reviews the latest alternative teacher certification study showing we need alternative quality routes to teaching in order to ensure that we have enough great teachers. The article has some great quotes (including mine) on where teacher certification is moving.

Charter School Resources

Dave Saba — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:01:16 -0800

Having served on the board of a charter school and recently attended the NACSA meeting, it occurred to us that charter schools could use more help. Since we are a non-profit focused on teaching, we felt like we could provide more resources to charter schools in the area of teacher quality.

Alternative Teacher Certification is part of the solution

Dave Saba — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:34:12 -0700

Secretary Arne Duncan hit the one-two punch of teacher preparation this week focusing on how poorly our teachers are prepared in general and then how they need a greater emphasis on math and science if we are to succeed as a nation.

“By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom.”

So very true.

Teaching Job Dissatisfaction

Dave Saba — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:31:31 -0700

A lot of press about teacher satisfaction based upon the Public Agenda teaching job satisfaction survey that said the 40% of teachers are disgruntled. Yet another on many piercing alarms about the sorry state of our education system. That means there are 1.3 million disgruntled people in the United States which means the 22 million students are adversely affected by a teacher who is not happy in their job.

Wow. Can’t understand why we have an education problem in this country.

Teacher Preparation

Dave Saba — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:42:21 -0700

I spent a little of last week meeting in Utah on their performance based teacher certification program - the ARL. They are really pleased with the people that become teachers through that program. There are no seat time requirements or minimum hours required. You demonstrate you have the knowledge, through a program like ABCTE, and you can become a teacher. Meanwhile, down in Louisiana, they created an alternative program that requires enough university based credits to be one couse shy of a Master's.

Charter School Teachers and Virtual

Dave Saba — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:02:42 -0700

NACSA held a pretty good conference here in Utah this week. A lot of talk about holding charter schools accountable including how to replicated great charter schools and close the weak. Virtual charters were a large part of the discussion since charter authorizers have to figure out ways to ensure that they can manage the growth in online learning.

Great Math Teachers

Dave Saba — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:00:27 -0700

Edtrust always cuts right to the bone when it comes to education problems in this country and for that they should be commended. They take the data and provide no-nonsense analysis and solutions.

Eduwonk and Flypaper!

Dave Saba — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:30:31 -0700

Both Flypaper and Eduwonk pick up the New York Times story on alternative teaching. Been a great week for ABCTE even while I am down with the flu (not the H1N1 variety).

ABCTE Teachers in the New York Times!

Dave Saba — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:16:51 -0700

How about this! ABCTE teachers featured in a New York Times article about skilled professionals becoming teachers. Features two of our best - Ron Halverson a former Hewlett-Packard engineer from Idaho teaching special ed and Bill Deloach from Missouri teaching Physics!

Help spread the word - ABCTE Teachers in the New York Times - we have arrived.

Governor Jeb Bush: see you there?

Dave Saba — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:20:32 -0700

I am speaking at the Excellence in Education conference this week and hope to meet you there! If you have not signed up - don't miss it. A lot of great stuff and great networking.

Excellence in Action 2009
Winning the International Education Arms Race

Last Chance to Join Jeb Bush at Excellence in Action

Washington State: looking for teacher certification options

Dave Saba — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:02:20 -0700

We’re seeing a lot of news and chatter coming out of Washington State that all points to the fact that they could really use ABCTE.

Liberating Learning book review in Heartland's School Reform News

Dave Saba — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:44:16 -0700

I was so impressed with the Politics of Blocking outlined in Chubb and Moe's book - Liberating Learning that Heartland asked me to do a book review. You can find it here.

Jay Matthews on Alternative Teacher Certification

Dave Saba — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:29:58 -0700

Jay Matthews has a quick ABCTE plug in the Washington Post this morning. If you have not been following it, he told the story a few weeks back about a gifted teacher who was frustrated by the bureaucracy involved with becoming a licensed teacher. To be blunt, if Jay had not inquired, this man would still be battling the powers that be.

The Best School

Dave Saba — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:13:18 -0700

Last night I was invited by the Education Equality Project to a screening of 2 Million Minutes, The 21st Century Solution and it was a really great night.

Tell us why you want to teach – in 140 characters or less

mholden — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:12:16 -0700

We hear great stories all the time about why someone wants to become a teacher—and we can’t get enough of them.

Let the Debunking Continue: Learning Styles

Dave Saba — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:40:06 -0700

Our founding president at ABCTE, Kathy Madigan, used to bristle (to put it mildly) at the mention of “learning styles” telling us the research just did not support trying to teach to different learning styles. Now one of my favorite cognitive scientists, Dr. Dan Willingham from UVA is in the Post to discuss the issue and tell us that the research doesn’t support the fact that kids learn in different ways.

Love the money quotes from this article:

Let the Debunking Continue: Learning Styles

Dave Saba — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:36:45 -0700

Our founding president at ABCTE, Kathy Madigan, used to bristle (to put it mildly) at the mention of “learning styles” telling us the research just did not support trying to teach to different learning styles. Now one of my favorite cognitive scientists, Dr. Dan Willingham from UVA is in the Post to discuss the issue and tell us that the research doesn’t support the fact that kids learn in different ways.

Love the money quotes from this article:

21st Century Skills - debunked yet again

Dave Saba — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:19:58 -0700

Jay Greene does it again with a great link to Sandra Stotsky's review of the latest in the 21st Century Skills push. From Jay's Blog:

Sandra Stotsky has an excellent review in the current issue of The Weekly Standard of Tony Wagner’s book, The Global Achievement Gap.

Here’s the money quote:
read more

Inspired Teaching

Dave Saba — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:16:26 -0700

Trying to change education when people cling to ancient rituals (like current teacher certification rules) can be discouraging. What we look for to keep us going is adults in the system who aren’t focused on what they want but are truly focused on the students. So it was great to sit down with the Washington Post on Sunday morning with a great cup of coffee and enjoy this piece in the opinion section.

Mentoring - strike 2

Dave Saba — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:38:23 -0700

Mentoring and induction are one of the ‘knowns’ in education. You just know it works and the more you give the better teachers will perform and the longer they will stay in the classroom. A given – just like child psychology, the history of teaching, student teaching and other courses that are absolutely required to ensure you get a great teacher.

Except they don’t really seem to help.

Rhetoric vs. Reality

wschimmel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:19:41 -0700

Democrats for Education Reform have assembled a collection of quotations that do a nice job of demonstrating how the NEA's rhetoric often conflicts not just with reality, but often with their own rhetoric.

Negative negativity

Dave Saba — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:35:25 -0700

If you have never seen Sherman Dorn’s blog, then you are missing a great perspective on education. I wish that I could write as well as he does and create such well though out ideas. But I guess that is why he is a college professor.

Carnival of Education Innovation #004

mholden — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:29:15 -0700

This week's submissions touch on a variety of topics such as virtual schools, online learning, and ideas for teachers:

Mathew Needleman presents Back to School Week: It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint posted at Creating Lifelong Learners.

Education Equality Project

Dave Saba — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:35:41 -0700

I am now listed as a signatory on the Education Equality Project. The group is worth a look and is starting to gain traction. The main focus is we need to stop arguing about the 20% of education reform where we rabidly disagree and start working on the 80% of education change where we all do agree. Check them out!

http://www.edequality.org/who_we_are/the_signatories

The Future of Teaching

Dave Saba — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:46:58 -0700

There is a very important article on teaching by Rick Hess in EducationNext this month. He has some outstanding facts and great suggestions on what has to happen in teaching in order to maximize talent and increase student learning.

First the background – he uses one of my favorite stats about our society of career changers: by 30, most people have held 4 different jobs. So assuming that every kid in college going into teaching is going to stay in teaching through retirement is ludicrous.

Show of support for RTTT

Dave Saba — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:36:11 -0700

A lot of comments going in for the Race to the Top Funds - great combined letter of support from many great reform organizations including ABCTE:

RTTT Comments
-click on PDF

Simple math: RTTT Chances > with ABCTE

Dave Saba — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:55:39 -0700

I have been asked many times in the last few weeks if we are ‘going for’ Race to the Top (RTTT) funds as if I could just jog down to the US DOE and grab a few bags of cash. But people are right to ask about having ABCTE in the mix because the guidelines specifically say that states must have alternative teacher certification programs that are not based in higher education.

Now comes this NCTQ report that specifically recommends that Colorado adopt ABCTE to better their chances of getting access to these funds.

Carnival of Education Innovation #003

mholden — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:18:33 -0700

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Education Innovation.

A shift lost in the shock

Dave Saba — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:45:06 -0700

Wow – some harsh words for TFA from the NEA. It is amazing that after close to 20 years, they are still going after them. Right now the NEA is doing what any union is supposed to do – raise the specter of job losses and fight for member jobs. They have targeted TFA and it is getting ugly.

There is support in the RTTBOC (Race to the Bags o’ Cash) otherwise known as Race to the Top for Alternative Teacher Certification. We are formulating our support during the comment period suggesting some tweaks as are many of the other groups focused on improving teachers.

More Men!

Dave Saba — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:54:52 -0700

"It's not glamorous, it's not a status position," said Schmitt, 44. "Guys at a young age are chasing after big dreams, big money. But at some point, later in life, they look for a job that's more meaningful." From the Fewer Male Teachers article in the Chicago Tribune.

Indiana wants me, and we will go back there!

Dave Saba — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:14:47 -0700

We continue to stay in the news in Indiana as SUPERintendent Tony Bennett pushes for major reforms in education. This is great to see as you have a teacher speaking out in favor of these reforms and the SUPERman himself pushing hard.

Let’s break it down – shall we?
1. Teachers have the greatest impact on students

Carnival of Education Innovation #002

mholden — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:36:16 -0700

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the Carnival of Education Innovation, where we take a look at new ideas for moving education forward. The carnival goes live every Tuesday (submissions are due by 4pm every Monday).

Last week, for the first ever Carnival of Education Innovation, we had well over 100 web hits—not too bad for the very first one. Please spread the word and help us increase awareness about the carnival. The more people we get contributing, the better.

It is not teaching to the test

Dave Saba — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:16:43 -0700

Interesting exchange during the New America Alliance conference on education opportunities here in Santa Barbara. There was a panel with Steve Barr from Green Dot, Kim Smith from NewSchools Venture Fund that was moderated by Dr. Angela Valenzuela. It was supposed to be a panel on business response to education issues but Dr. Valenzuela wanted to use the opportunity to rail against testing.

She picked the wrong panel.

Go virtual

Dave Saba — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:10:54 -0700

On Friday I am on a panel for the New America Foundation to discuss how we can dramatically improve education in the US. This is a group of Hispanic business leaders who are tired of the poor performance of our education system. They want to come out of this meeting with actual action items that can have a positive impact on students.

Since we are involved in the teacher quality aspect I really want to focus on the fact that we are never going to find 3.5 million highly skilled, highly motivated, outstanding teachers. One stunning fact I just pulled for this event (emphasis mine):

Carnival of Education Innovation #001

mholden — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:52:27 -0700

Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Education Innovation.

Before we get started, here’s a quick summary of what a blog carnival is for those who’ve never heard of one before: It’s basically a collection of links to recent blog posts on a particular subject. People can come browse the links as a sort of one-stop-shop for all that’s happening in education innovation that week—a “best of the week” so to speak, taking place each Tuesday.

Teachers rule

Dave Saba — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:49:52 -0700

I was pondering what to write about for our Friday blog when I received the email below from on of our scholarship recipients. ABCTE has a Transition to Teaching grant which provides a full scholarship through our program. This is why we fight so hard for alternative teacher certification programs:

New Education Carnival

Dave Saba — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:29:49 -0700

Carnival of Education Innovation

Next Tuesday, August 11, we’re launching a blog carnival—the Carnival of Education Innovation.

More Movement

Dave Saba — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:57:13 -0700

A pretty great day in the world wide webisphere for ABCTE. First, our humble little blog is named to the Top 100 blogs for teachers by Clear View Education. So our sincere thanks for that.

Second, it is great to see a teacher come out in favor of the proposed teacher certification changes in Indiana. A true common-sense editorial to help keep things in perspective which seems to be rare in education these days.

ABCTE isn't just about subject expertise

mholden — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:22:15 -0700

A guest post by ABCTE's Director of Public Relations, Mike Holden:

One of the common misconceptions about the ABCTE program is that our exams focus only on content expertise. I’ll occasionally see a news story or a comment posted online where people are outraged that someone could become a teacher by only passing “a test” showing they are experts in a particular subject.

The Cartel - watch it

Dave Saba — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:28:52 -0700

Fridays need to be simplified – especially in the blogosphere. So I just wanted to provide some quick thoughts on The Cartel – the documentary that looks at education in New Jersey but could apply to any state. To me the most powerful point in the movie is the charter school lottery. The artificial caps on the number of charter schools in this country means that in many places you have to put your name into a lottery to see if you get to go to a great school.

Clear and concise

Dave Saba — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:58:12 -0700

Great post and first comment over at Eduwonk today on what matters more in education - class size or teacher effectiveness. Then 'Jonathon' hits the nail right on the head summing up the research that is continually ignored by education policy makers:

A reflection from another longtime ABCTE employee

mholden — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:38:36 -0700

A guest post by Nicole Price, ABCTE Finance Associate and one of ABCTE's longtime employees, as we celebrate the end of our initial grant and officially being on our own as an organization:

Over five years ago, ABCTE provided me an opportunity to escape from the “for-profit” world, offering a great mission to support and the opportunity to learn and grow with an innovative and young program. At the time, we were thirteen strong, nurturing relationships with three states and putting together a Board of Directors.

More thoughts from a longtime ABCTE employee

mholden — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:21:02 -0700

A guest post by Jessica Morris -- Manager, Teacher Preparation with ABCTE -- continuing our series of reflections as we mark the end of our initial grant and officially being on our own as an organization:

The Long Run

wschimmel — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:53:10 -0700

A guest post by William Schimmel, ABCTE's Vice President of Business Administration:

Today, we have invited our staff, our Board of Directors and our closest friends and supporters to our office to celebrate what we have accomplished during our short lifetime. 7+ years is not that long, but it feels that way to me as I was the 4th person to join ABCTE (NCTQ back then) and now hold the title of most tenured.

A little ABCTE history from those here the longest

Dave Saba — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:57:51 -0700

A guest post by Michael Kelley, Director of Teacher Preparation:

I got my job by making my future boss angry. That’s not usually the way it works, but it foreshadowed my job at ABCTE, where the unconventional not only succeeds but flourishes.

Thank you!

Dave Saba — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:05:48 -0700

Today is the day for ABCTE, we are officially on our own. It was about four years ago that I became the President and things were definitely not as rosy. We had lost our grant in Congress and we had to run around working to get our funding back in the spending bill. The press was not kind to us because of some issues with our board and it had been a while since a new state had accepted us.

Shortage and Surplus

Dave Saba — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:09:13 -0700

No surprise here. People have the hardest time wrapping their minds around the following two truths:

There is a surplus of teachers
There is a shortage of teachers

Both statements are true. There is a surplus of elementary teachers. But there are HUGE shortages of math, science and special education teachers.

Scalable and Sustainable

Dave Saba — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:01:53 -0700

One of the big issues with the ARRA funds and the Race to the Top challenge is the supposed short term nature of this incredible boost in funding. This is a one time opportunity with billions of dollars to be used to give our education system a push in the right direction.

The concern from all sides is what will happen when the funds are gone.

On the right, they are deathly afraid that the spending will continue and the results will be mediocre at best. On the left, they are deathly afraid that the opportunity will be squandered with little or nothing to show for it.

The Politics of Blocking

Dave Saba — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:36:33 -0700

It was pretty nice of iNACOL (the online learning group) to give out copies of Liberating Learning by Terry Moe and John Chubb at the ALEC Conference last week. It is a pretty easy read that I finished on the plane to Mississippi yesterday.

I wish I had read it five years ago.

Moe and Chubb give you a primer on the political strategy of the teacher’s union. They call it the politics of blocking. The key points they make are dead on:

Teacher’s unions are very powerful at the state and local level

Online learning: US gets left in the dust again

Dave Saba — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:10:38 -0700

iNACOL, the International Association for Online Learning held an excellent seminar at ALEC on the future of education. The facts are pretty stunning on the numbers for online learning here and abroad.

It is well known that we are falling behind in K12 because other countries are moving so much faster than we are. What you may not know, and I certainly didn't know, is that this is especially true in online learning where developing nations are using online to rapidly, and dramatically, increase access to education for all their students.

Nothing much happened

Dave Saba — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:03:26 -0700

I am back from vacation, and it was a great one, and I am always eager to find out what has changed in the last week or so. Of course, nothing really changes in education in July so I was not too surprised to find very little flowing in the education news arena.

What school districts look for when hiring

mholden — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:28:29 -0700

This guest post comes from Amber Canidy, ABCTE's District Outreach Coordinator.

Persistence Pays Off

mholden — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:11:50 -0700

With Dave out of the office this week, you'll see some guest bloggers in this space. This post comes from ABCTE's Director of Public Relations, Mike Holden:

Charter School Innovation

Dave Saba — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:37:19 -0700

The press release below is for a charter school where I serve on the Board of Directors. Our school struggled in the first few years to really get going as most schools do. The freedom that charter schools are given means we could have closed or continued limping along. But we chose the innovative path of partnering with a stronger, more successful school with a similar mission - not unlike the business world. The overall winner in this partnership is the students who now have the chance for a safe, dual immersion education with outstanding caring teachers.

In order to fix education - study Fleetwood Mac

Dave Saba — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:27:51 -0700

I am attending the National Educational Computing Conference here in DC and went to the keynote address by Malcolm Gladwell last night. I was a fan of his after the Tipping Point. I have become a little less so in recent years – especially after reading Freakonomics and seeing a great second reason given for the reduction in NYC crime. It suddenly dawned on me that maybe anecdotal causal evidence should be suspect.

There actually is a wolf

Dave Saba — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:03:59 -0700

In many ways I feel like the boy who cried teacher shortage. We talk about the impending doom of massive teacher retirements, yet every year our resourceful HR departments manage to get just enough teachers to stave off disaster.

And with the many teacher layoffs announced around the country in the last few months, people are wondering if this shortage stuff is all just a way for us to weasel our program into more states. Ultimately, the lesson from the fable may be learned the hard way for many states and districts. When the wolf actually comes, no one will believe us.

There will be shrieking

Dave Saba — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:38:08 -0700

It happens every June here at ABCTE. I get yelled at because people fail their exams and are in danger of losing their jobs. About 40% of our candidates respond to our surveys that they are currently working in education. A full 20% are actually the teacher of record and they came in on an emergency license or some other license. Because of their situation, they now have until June 30th or July 31st to complete their ABCTE program or they cannot teach next year.

The End of Over-reaction

Dave Saba — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:57:09 -0700

A while back I noted that school districts love the irate parent ploy when budgets are being discussed. They start letting parents know that sports will be cut, class sizes will be huge, activities cuts and music/art programs eliminated. Obviously, the parents get mad, attend budget meetings and let the county commissioners know they may find themselves electorally challenged in the next election.

No more drop outs

Dave Saba — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:30:03 -0700

For those who are interested in getting more info on Colorado, you can hear the melodic voice of Dave Saba (me) on a podcast from the Independence Institute. Also, here is a great post from ediswatching on the latest education happenings in Colorado.

It's about the students in Colorado

Dave Saba — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:12:43 -0700

I had the pleasure of attending the Alliance for Choice in Education event in Denver this week. Many out there in the education world hate choice and think it is a bunch of rich white guys trying to foist their economic principles on the education system.

But in Denver it is about saving kids. ACE knows that they cannot save every child stuck in poverty, but they feel strongly that saving one at a time from a destiny of failure is a worthwhile cause.

The Reform-O-Meter takes a hit

Dave Saba — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:51:13 -0700

Over at Flypaper, Mike Petrilli is keeping the Obama Reform-O-Meter which he has pointing to a fairly neutral education agenda for the President and Secretary Duncan. He needs to point the arrow more to the left this week.

We got notice that the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) is beginning to release some of the $635 million they have to dole out under ARRA. They want to give out $143 million to 35 lucky groups to improve teacher quality. From the email:

Teacher lottery

Dave Saba — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:23:56 -0700

Interesting summary of Kane's Work on teacher effectiveness in the Harvard Review. I think the most interesting evidence found in the article is that:

Stop the Madness

Dave Saba — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:15:24 -0700

Birmingham, Alabama took a very strange step last week. They decided to continue to hire teachers from the Philippines even though Baldwin County used this same route a few years ago and it didn’t turn out so hot. And they are recruiting overseas in spite of the fact that so many people in this country have lost their jobs.

Let someone else do the work

Dave Saba — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:27:47 -0700

It is Friday - so it is time for someone else to do the work. So I refer you to Joanne Jacob's post on a Matt Welch post on a story in the LA Times about the California crisis. It is, as always, a great summary but I also love the comments after the posting. Worth a good Friday read so head that way. I will stop being lazy on Monday.

The Oceanaire

Dave Saba — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:13:44 -0700

Visited Indianapolis and had dinner at the Oceanaire! Amazing and debuts at number 11 of the 32 state capitals that I have visited.

Research that doesn't tell us anything

Dave Saba — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:02:45 -0700

In the education world, you hear “I believe” all the time. I mock these people who think that there is no evidence required – as long as you believe it works in education it must be so. It is as if education is a religion with a prescribed set of beliefs and those of us heretics on the outside must be derided for upsetting their belief system.

On the outside we say there must be evidence – student achievement gains are the coin of the realm and without it you are one of the barriers to education improvement.

COME ON!!!

Dave Saba — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:43:09 -0700

If you are not annoyed, you are not paying attention. This should be the new bumper sticker of all in education – especially all of us who work in teaching.

Here is a report from ETS that is just stunning to me -- the percentage of 8th grade math students on free and reduced lunch whose teachers left before the end of the school is year is 67%.

ABCTE Teachers Increase Student Achievement!

Dave Saba — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:33:41 -0700

Alert the Journal of Anecdotal Evidence! We have proof that ABCTE Teachers dramatically increase student achievement. Our sample size of one, Kelly Bow, an ABCTE teacher who teaches math in an Idaho middle school was able to accomplish the following:

Fluff no more

Dave Saba — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:21:39 -0700

Multiple posts today because there is just so much going on in education. The first concerns a great discussion at Joanne Jacobs' blog on New York City’s teacher and student requirements. The post is definitely worth a read as are the comments.

Friedman Foundation Study on Private vs Public School Teacher Satisfaction

Dave Saba — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:20:04 -0700

One of the things we have noticed in recruiting people to teach is that there is a definite shift right now in the United States with people taking a good hard look at their chosen profession. People want to do things that matter and feel good about their work. People attending our "Become a Teacher" workshops are telling us that without job security, which no one has today, they want a job where they can make a difference and at least have job satisfaction.

Conference Shut out

Dave Saba — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:53:54 -0700

Tonight I head to the New Schools Venture Fund conference in Los Angeles where I will hear about great education entrepreneurs and how they can impact today’s students. I look forward to the networking that will be involved, but get tired of hearing about the same few entrepreneurs at every conference – KIPP, TFA, TNTP and New Leaders for New Schools. Many of these conferences lament the fact that there are not more entrepreneurs in education and yet they can only bring these same people on stage to talk about why.

Oklahoma will be a great ABCTE state

Dave Saba — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:01:23 -0700

I spent the day in Oklahoma City visiting with their teacher licensing and recruitment team and it was a great meeting. Oklahoma is getting hit hard for a couple of reasons. First they have many teacher retirements coming up with, according to NCTAF, 46% of their teachers over the age of 50. Second, by 2011 they will have Pre-K in public schools – meaning they need a lot more teachers to cover more grades. So an alternative route has the full support of the state department of education.

Meet some of our teachers

Dave Saba — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:05:42 -0700

One of the best ways to illustrate the inspiring work ABCTE teachers are doing is by letting them tell the stories themselves. We’ve been doing this in the Meet Our Teachers section of our website with written profiles and we recently launched an ABCTE YouTube channel where we’ve started posting video profiles of our teachers.

Randi is Right

Dave Saba — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:30:07 -0700

I keep wondering what is going on when I keep agreeing with the teacher’s unions. Randi Weingarten, who I have not quite figured out, had this to say about National Standards at a hearing on the Hill. From the Alliance for Excellent Education newsletter:

Common goals in Wisconsin

Dave Saba — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:46:04 -0700

When a local paper writes that ABCTE can be “the best and most practical option to fill important math and science teaching positions” it is extremely gratifying (more press here). At the same time, the state teacher’s union, WEAC, is neutral on the bill.

Tipping Points in Education

Dave Saba — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:14:01 -0700

Here at ABCTE we do a lunch time book club of sorts. Every six months we pick a professional book to read and then discuss. We meet in groups so that I can get to know our great staff better and they can become more familiar with each other and me. We started with 7 Habits last year and had some great discussions on how we can improve ourselves. The current book we are reading is the Tipping Point.

Oklahoma is the 9th ABCTE State

Dave Saba — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:49:44 -0700

Last night Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma signed SB582 into law allowing ABCTE teachers to teach in Oklahoma. This is the 9th state that now accepts ABCTE teachers and the unanimous passage of this bill in the Oklahoma House says some pretty great things about our program.
1. The content we have added to the program makes it easier for states to accept our teachers
2. The data we have gathered is compelling evidence that our teachers are doing well in the classroom
3. Alternative certification just isn’t so radical anymore

100 Hundred years of tradition unhindered by progress

Dave Saba — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:35:22 -0700

We used to have a similar tongue in cheek motto at the Naval Academy where traditions could not be undone by progress. And now I see first hand how education continues to struggle with modernizing the classroom in spite of amazing technological gains in the last 20 years.

Can we believe in this change?

Dave Saba — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:12:00 -0700

Today in the Oklahoma House, Senate Bill 582 passed with a vote of 99 for and 0 against. A unanimous vote for the ABCTE alternative teacher certification program to be accepted in Oklahoma. This is pretty stunning as our program has, in the past, faced stiff opposition from the education establishment.

Shortsighted is as shortsighted does

Dave Saba — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:50:33 -0700

I have been trying to keep up on the stimulus dollars to see if it is really going to prevent teacher layoffs etc. First, my amazing ABCTE team got word last week from Utah that there is a hiring freeze on teachers right now. After a four year pilot using our math program, we were recently approved in Utah for all ABCTE certifications because they were constantly facing teacher shortages and knew they had looming teacher retirements. One district that normally hires 300 teachers will hire less than 50 next year.

FEAR THE TSUNAMI

Dave Saba — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:47:57 -0700

Pretty interesting day for education in the press as they are finally breaking the story that I broke on March 20, 2009 about the pending “tsunami” of teacher retirements. USA Today has a piece about it quoting Tom Carroll from NCTAF saying that “we will lose one third of our teachers in the next 5-6 years”.

The unprecedented leading to the dramatic

Dave Saba — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:20:16 -0700

I was invited to attend the ARRA briefing over at the US DOE today. For us, the briefing actually provided a little more information than previous top line discussions. In times of great change, effective organizations over-communicate. With ARRA, the US DOE is definitely making sure that they do that and it is appreciated by many. This extra communication is certainly keeping people from finding things not to like about the recovery money (see – I didn’t call it stimulus so their communication plan is working).

ABCTE Teachers

Dave Saba — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:41:43 -0700

I would urge you to go to the Meet our Teachers section of our website. It is really quite incredible and the reason we exist. Here you will learn about Angela Moore who worked in the military and other careers before finding teaching as her calling. With her spouse in the military, it was tough for her to complete any teacher preparation program that did not have an independent study option. With ABCTE she was able to teach. With our scholarship program, she could do it now.

Unanimous

Dave Saba — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:23:34 -0700

Yesterday we went around to all the House Education committee members in Oklahoma to ensure passage of the alternative teacher certification legislation SB 582. We had some very good questions from all the members. The most striking discussion with one of the Democrat members was that she told us that a math teacher/department head had called her and told her she had two math teachers who needed to be fired because students in their classes were not learning math. But she couldn’t fire them because she had no one to replace them.

The Retention Myth

Dave Saba — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:55:35 -0700

I think a quick note is in order regarding the EdWeek Article on the Ingersoll and Perda research suggesting that we are producing plenty of math and science teachers and all we need to do is just retain them and we are set.

The facts are probably correct – though dated – that we produce 2X as many math and science teachers than retire. Thus, retention is the solution. Woohoo - problem solved.

Part 5: What is happening to teaching jobs

Dave Saba — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:01:20 -0700

For Part 5, the final in our series on teaching jobs, I was hoping to have more information about the billions going to protect teaching jobs, but I guess that is going to have to wait for a few months once we see what really happens.

A Reasonable Blog

Dave Saba — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:49:47 -0700

Two nice things going on in Arizona in support of alternative teacher certification - give a read to Lisa Snell at the Reason Foundation to find out more!

Part 4: What is happening with Teaching Jobs

Dave Saba — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:03:34 -0700

Layoffs are incredibly difficult for any organization. During a recession it takes true leadership for an organization to make it through to better times and come out stronger. Organizations with weak leadership do not survive, and if they do, aren't able to take advantage of the upcoming economic recovery.

Layoffs damage morale and if they are done wrong, can irreversibly impact your talent pool. The problem for our education system is that performance never appears to have an impact on who gets the pink slip.

Part 3: What is happening to teaching jobs

Dave Saba — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:51:59 -0700

Interesting bits of news from around the states on hiring and firing of teachers. First is to keep your wits about you as reported by EIA. In 2003, California issued 20,000 pink slips to teachers and ended up only firing 3,000. Contracts in most states and districts require ample notice for layoffs which means that many teachers will be understandably upset now, but when the stimulus dollars start to trickle out, may ultimately be saved.

Great paper on teacher certification

Dave Saba — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:43:03 -0700

Great paper that concludes that alternative teacher certification can help states build a world quality teaching workforce from Dan Lips at Heritage

http://maciverinstitute.com/2009/03/alternative-teacher-certification-of...

Part 2: What is happening with teaching jobs

Dave Saba — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:12:53 -0700

Guest Blog by Jessica Morris, ABCTE Teacher Preparation Manager

Part 1: What is happening with teaching jobs?

Dave Saba — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:09:07 -0700

Today will begin a 5 part series on the state of teacher employment in the US and what we are hearing from around the nation. We will initially focus on the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund because that is supposed to be the critical element that will help states and districts prevent teacher layoffs.

If it doesn't work, stick with it

Dave Saba — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:37:51 -0700

"When you have a 2-year-old car, and maybe it's sputtering a little bit, you don't get a new car. You get a tune-up." Prince William School Board member Michael I. Otaigbe in a recent Washington Post article.

Closing Ed Schools

Dave Saba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:41:34 -0700

When practicality wins over tradition in education it is a noteworthy event. So I want to take the time to applaud the University of the District of Columbia President Allen Sessoms for taking a stand to close their education school. He is analyzing all aspects of UDC to create a much better performing university. When he looked at the ed school, he found that it had a graduation rate of less than 8% after 6 years.

Heed the Call

Dave Saba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:40:07 -0700

From President Obama's education remarks today:

Teacher Certification through CertMap

Dave Saba — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:16:50 -0800

Teacher certification resources are hard to come by, they are difficult to understand and it is very difficult to keep them up to date. So we are pretty glad to see the Rossier School of Education at USC taken on the challenge. They have launched CertMap to help you navigate the difficult terrain that is teacher certification.

Props to the Administration

Dave Saba — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:59:32 -0800

I must admit that I am very impressed with two big statements from the Obama administration this week. It is refreshing to see such honesty and transparency in public policy especially in the critical area of education.

The first came from Vice President Biden in Delaware while addressing the teacher's union highlighting the need to get results from the stimulus dollars for education:

Male teachers earn more

Dave Saba — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:09:01 -0800

A most puzzling graph in the New York Times shows that male teachers earn 10% more than female teachers. The exception is special education where they make 3% more than men. It is puzzling because so many teachers are in collective bargaining agreements and those contracts do not distinguish between male and female. A note on the university level says that there are more tenured male professors which is why they make more.

Education Problem Solving revisited

Dave Saba — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:50:48 -0800

Interesting three days in Arizona on the education “human capital” front. First there was an article on teacher shortages in Arizona followed the next day with an article on our attempts to get approved in Arizona.

Teacher Performance Pay

Dave Saba — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:55:43 -0800

I too struggle with teacher bonuses. I totally agree with Ladner's post on Jay Greene's Blog (full disclosure that he sits on my board but that is not why I agree with him) – teachers need to be rewarded for the success of the school and for their individual contribution to that school. I saw this first hand in one of my jobs in manufacturing. We had an annual bonus that was based on how well the organization did and how well my department did.

NO LDH - sigh of relief

Dave Saba — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:07:32 -0800

If you heard a collective sigh of relief from the education reformers in the world, you heard correctly. Linda Darling-Hammond (LDH) will not be joining the US DOE citing family reasons. Her daughter is ill and, as a dad, I will keep them in my thoughts.

Stop the madness

Dave Saba — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:45:04 -0800

How can a person teach if they have not had course work or student teaching? It is a question that I am asked many times when visiting states. In the past, this was somewhat difficult to answer, but as the data arrives from multiple studies, it is clear that the answer to this question is: just as well as those who had course work and student teaching.

We now have four separate studies that provide pretty much the same conclusion that students of alternatively certified teachers perform as well as students from traditionally certified teachers.

Great Schools

Dave Saba — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:14:33 -0800

Spent the last few days in Arizona and got to visit the Basis School in Scottsdale to see how a charter school can be the top ranked High School in the Nation. Taking a tour and meeting the directors, you can see why. They push and they push hard. The middle school students were doing advanced algebra (as a former engineer I really got into solving two variables and didn’t want to leave).

No difference.

Dave Saba — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:19:15 -0800

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc has a new study out on teacher certification comparing traditional versus alternatively certification teachers.

The conclusion:

Rhee likes Teachers

Dave Saba — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:11:03 -0800

Please read Michelle Rhee’s op-ed today in the Washington Post. While I still feel that some of the praise for her should wait until the results are studied, the progress she has made in moving the district forward is impressive. Her work ethic and drive are just amazing to me in tackling this amazingly difficult task.

Rolling

Dave Saba — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:37:26 -0800

When you see your team making real progress, it is a most rewarding thing. Over the past month the incredible ABCTE team has blown past many of our goals. Each of these brings ABCTE closer to long term sustainability.

First, we already have 600 enrollments in 2009 which is incredible. Our fiscal year revenue is far exceeding our target and our fiscal year expenses are under our budget. Wall Street Banks take note – that is how you thrive and survive – higher revenue, lower costs. Wow – business rocket science from a non-profit.

The Irate Parent Ploy

Dave Saba — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:46:09 -0800

Joanne Jacobs has a post on sports in high school. While the point is improving leadership skills, I am driven to respond to the other issue that will come up more often in the next few years: threatening to cut sports and after school activities due to budget constraints.

A science class saved

Dave Saba — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:50:38 -0800

We toured Missouri last week to let state leaders know how well we are doing with teacher recruitment. We have been approved there as a route to teacher certification for only 6 months and we have over 900 people enrolled with 450 focused on math and science. This is an amazing success story. Obviously this was very well received in the capital and it is great, as a non-profit, to let people know that we are living up to the expectations set for the ABCTE program.

You can't push a rope

Dave Saba — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:49:09 -0800

It is hard to fully understand everything that is going on in every state. So it came as a surprise to me yesterday when I was in Springfield Illinois that the demise of Governor Blagojevich was written in stone long before the unanimous vote was taken. As we walked around the capital, it became clear that the sin of selling Obama’s senate seat was the tip of the ice burg. Apparently, his approval rating had fallen to 18% before the indictment was made public.

Mentoring - still searching

Dave Saba — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:50:51 -0800

For true alternative teacher certification programs, mentoring is a critical component to ensure that career changers are brought up to speed as fast as possible. In an independent study of ABCTE teachers, we were pleasanty surprised to see that 83% of our first year teachers had a mentor and received about 45 minutes per week with that mentor. So our school districts are helping new teachers.

President Obama and ABCTE

Dave Saba — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:38:59 -0800

It is appropriate for the blogosphere to recognize the transformation in DC right now. Since our birth occurred during the Bush era I am often asked how we will fair with the new administration. The answer apparently lives at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/education/

Low Expectations

Dave Saba — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:50:58 -0800

I am a little behind on blogging topics but wanted to give a quick plug to the Core Knowledge blog and this post on curriculum. It is a discussion on high expectations and I am always fascinated with the misdirection that goes on in education discussions (not from Core Knowledge but other discussants). In this case there is a discussion of writing assignments that is a part of the Ed Trust presentation on why schools are failing.

The economic opportunity

Dave Saba — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:51:08 -0800

When unemployment rises, education organizations do well. When the economy is good, people coast and soak up the rewards. When the economy tanks, people want to make themselves more valuable to their current organization or seek training to move into a new career after losing their jobs. At Kaplan, we could count on many more LSAT, GRE and GMAT test takers during a crunch.

More than wind sweeping down the plains

Dave Saba — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:00:09 -0800

It is not often in your travels that you get to witness an historic event. But I was lucky enough to be in Oklahoma this week when the 2009 legislative session started and it is the first time in the history of that state that the Republicans have a majority in the state senate as well as the house. Considering the political environment of the 2008 elections, this is no small feat.

North Carolina needs a change and Tennessee makes one!

Dave Saba — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:46:21 -0800

Great opinion piece in the Fayetteville Observer from Terry Stoops of the John Locke Foundation. There are a growing number of education thought leaders like Terry who understand the benefits of alternative teacher certification and are advocating for states like North Carolina to get on board. He also advocates for ABCTE as a way for North Carolina to get there.

DC Schools moving forward

Dave Saba — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:29:31 -0800

Yesterday I was going to blog about the outstanding opinion piece by Colbert King in the Washington Post on Saturday appropriately titled “Beyond Publicity, What is Rhee Producing”. King makes a great point that seems to occur with every rock star superintendent of schools – they make changes and are immediately canonized before we even see the results.

ABCTE Science Teachers in the News

Dave Saba — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:35:05 -0800

It has to be about the students. When ABCTE was formed, it was because so many students were going without a great teacher because the certification rules were so complex that too many people were ignoring the teaching profession.

More Alternative Certification

Dave Saba — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:45:07 -0800

Matt Ladner does it again on Jay Greene's Blog with a great post looking at the Brooking's data on teacher certification and the Paul Peterson paper. Similar to what I did back in November with this post, but with a lot more gusto.

Union Perceptions

Dave Saba — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:05:50 -0800

I am a big fan of Mike Antonnuci’s Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) blog as he does an amazing job of keeping an eye on all things union. Since the teacher’s unions have come out so firmly against alternative certification, I rely on EIA to keep track of union positions and facts.

WSJ Nails it!

Dave Saba — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:19:27 -0800

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent summary of the recent research on teacher certification. It is great to see the Journal take on teacher quality and advocate for more alternative teacher certification programs like ABCTE.

Wall Street Journal

We responded with the following letter to the editor:

Letter to the Editor – Wall Street Journal:

TIMMS results - mediocrity reigns supreme!

Dave Saba — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:04:09 -0800

I was going to blog on TIMSS and talk about the mediocre performance of our schools in math and science and how we can never be competitive as a nation unless we lead in the area of technological expertise, but most other bloggers already have. So then I thought I could do a summary of what other bloggers said about the TIMSS results and provide that to our loyal readers, but then I found that Core Knowledge already did that as well.

Teacher Bonuses on the chopping block

Dave Saba — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:35:22 -0800

The outlook for state budgets is not good which means teacher bonuses are going to be in trouble. I have already heard this in Minnesota and now find the same thing in Utah. Florida has cut way back eliminating the reimbursement for the cost teachers must endure to go through the program in the last round of budget cuts and this year they will have even more.

Malcolm Gladwell is throwing the certification baby out with the bath water

wschimmel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:49:45 -0800

In many areas of education, it is interesting to observe how easily wrong conclusions can be drawn from data. In a recent piece in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell implies that because there is no difference in student performance between certified and non-certified teachers that we should eliminate the certification process altogether. You may label this the "Let them all in and sort them out later" strategy.

This is why we come to work every day

Dave Saba — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:46:18 -0800

This is why the people of ABCTE get up excited to come to work in the morning:

Oconee County School District's First ABCTE-Certified Teacher Making 'Positive Impact' at Alma Mater
This time last year, Blake Hedden was working as an instructional aide in the Oconee County school district. Now, he’s teaching General Science at his old high school, getting rave reviews and inspiring others to pursue a teaching career.

The Big Tent getting some love

Dave Saba — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:40:29 -0800

Dan Lips turns in an excellent piece about the comprehensive focus of education reform today. ABCTE has been advocating for this and many in education see the "big tent" as the best way for all education improvements to move forward. It is great to see so many groups starting to come together for true systemic change in education.

Read the article here!

Student Success Strategy

Dave Saba — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:14:35 -0800

It has been incredibly difficult to gain momentum for the systemic change necessary for success in all of America’s schools. True change requires a comprehensive strategy that focuses on the many variables that affect student performance. While many individual programs are working toward this goal, those organizations working alone will not produce the education our students deserve and require in order to be competitive in the world market.

Out of field teaching - more facts

Dave Saba — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:55:26 -0800

Out of field teaching ensures the continued decline of high poverty schools. It is shameful that we will put someone in front of a math class who does not know math, but states will not open up teacher certification to high quality routes like ABCTE - - hopefully, parents will become outraged that their students know more algebra than their teacher and demand solutions.

FROM EDTRUST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LA Times Editorial

Dave Saba — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:50:55 -0800

Great editorial in the LA Times - hopefully the Obama staff will take thoughtful action based on this type of input.

The true school scandal
Jonah Goldberg, LA Times columnist
November 25, 2008
www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-goldberg25-2008nov25,0,2913644.col...

Hypocrisy is an overblown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasionally violates his principles than a villain who never does.

3 minute interview today

Dave Saba — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:27:46 -0800

Yay Examiner - gave us a nice interview - always helps when a TFA alum is interviewing you on alternative teacher certification.

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/3_Minute_Interview-Saba11-26.html

Can we reform Title II

Dave Saba — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:44:04 -0800

Ed Sector and Andy Rotherham put out a pretty ambitious plan for the Obama Department of Education. In this chapter, he takes on Title II – the $3 billion in spending each year where “tangible results form these efforts are scant and there is little evidence that these funds are driving the sort of changes that are aligned with broader human capital reform efforts in education.”

Free Markets include more than vouchers

Dave Saba — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:47:37 -0800

Props to Ross Douthat for calling out conservatives for limiting their focus to very narrow parts of the overall debate. This may become my new favorite quote in education:

“the most interesting arguments are between liberal reformers and liberal interest groups, with conservatives sitting on the sideline talking about vouchers and occasionally praising the Michelle Rhees and Corey Bookers of the world.”

Edubusiness Update

Dave Saba — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:57:19 -0800

Signal Hill had a great conference on education business today. They had 30 minute presentations from a lot of the for-profit entities out there looking for more money or to keep their investors happy. The for-profit side of education is actually not doing too bad when compared to other stocks in the market.

But there is concern. There is a lag time between the plummeting house price and the lower tax revenue. Districts are clamoring right now for cuts. Since the economy is getting much worse, states and districts are about to get hammered. Budget "cuts" are going to become "slashes".

Building a GREAT teaching workforce

Dave Saba — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:52:22 -0800

A new report on alternative teacher certification released in Education Next called "What Happens When States Have Genuine Alternative Certification?” is absolutely HUGE!! I could not love this report more if I tried. If state policy makers use this report, they may finally understand the issues they create when they do not have alternative teacher certification.

DQC - really moving forward

Dave Saba — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:16:31 -0800

ABCTE Supports Data Quality Campaign

Washington, DC (November 17, 2008) — Results released Friday by the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) show that states have made impressive gains in building longitudinal education data systems and now must use the information to improve student achievement.

In a press release issued by the DQC, ABCTE President Dave Saba offered support for the campaign’s efforts:

In this economy starting a business is better than teaching

Dave Saba — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:29:45 -0800

I received the comment below on an earlier blog about career changers. Hare are several interesting points from this teacher.

He/she is leaving because of teachers/administration not because of the kids
He/she prefers to start a business in this economy over teaching
He/she believes that career changers can get into teaching and bring content to life
In his/her experience teaching is learned on the job

Hopping over the low bar

Dave Saba — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:47:36 -0800

Ed Sector has some great discussion on teacher certification and is using the graph from the Brookings Institution study of LAUSD teachers. The study showed almost no performance difference between alternatively certified teachers, teachers certified through standard routes and teachers with no certification. This is mainly due to the wide variation in teacher performance in all three groups.

Carnival of Education is UP!!

Dave Saba — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:14:55 -0800

Over at Core Knowledge - http://www.coreknowledge.org/blog/2008/11/12/carnival-of-education-trans...
Very creative!

School Choice Debate at AEI

Dave Saba — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:19:46 -0800

I went to the AEI event on School Choice on Monday – and it was a great event. It had promise with Sol Stern, Joe Williams, Robert Enlow, Howard Fuller and Rick Hess on the panel and it lived up to that promise. For once in DC we got an honest discussion on a major issue and it seemed that there was even some agreement on what needed to happen in the future.

An Expensive Band-Aid: STEM part 2

Dave Saba — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:25:50 -0800

From the previous post, math and science is not a full blown crisis yet. However, it does affect our homeland security and our collective expertise is on a significant downturn. So where can we find our next technical experts to help drive our economy and keep us as a world leader?

The math/science crisis

Dave Saba — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:56:15 -0800

I participated in a math and science conference a few weeks ago. Two interesting points came out of that meeting for me. The first is that we actually looked at defining the problem! The 2005 Duke University study "Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate", did point out that we are doing OK in production. They reported that the United States annually produces 137,437 engineers with at least a bachelor's degree while India produces 112,000 and China 351,537.

Bringing Ed Reform to Scale

Dave Saba — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:20:32 -0800

Yet another data point on the selectivity model for improving education. By selecting teachers from top universities, charter schools in Boston are getting better results for their students. This is pointed out in an editorial over at Gadfly today by Steven Wilson from Ascend Charter schools.

There are 7 charter schools that are realizing significantly higher student learning gains on the state’s MCAS tests. Over 50% of the teachers in those schools are from elite universities compared to 19% at public schools.

Carnival of Education is UP!!

Dave Saba — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:09:18 -0800

Read all about it at the Examiner

Selectivity - revisited

Dave Saba — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:03:06 -0800

Joanne Jacobs has a great post pointing the way to Carpe Diem. It turns out that Education PhD’s have the second lowest GRE scores compared to any other academic focus. SAT scores are the same – in 2006, the College Board reported that only 2 majors had lower SAT scores than teachers – public relations and family studies.

Obama will close the achievement gap all by himself

Dave Saba — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:46:09 -0800

It goes without saying that pop-culture has a dramatic impact on our youth and their studies. When LA Law became a hit show in the 80's, the number of people entering law school sky-rocketed. It was closely followed by ER which created a rush to get into med school. The CSI effect had universities scrambling to create CSI degree programs.

Alternative Certification Works

Dave Saba — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:51:55 -0700

Last week, representatives from the McCain (Lisa Graham Keegan) and Obama (Linda Darling Hammond) campaigns met at Columbia University for a debate on education. Later in the week, in an open letter on The Huffington Post in response to the debate, Stanford University professor Martin Carnoy took issue with several of Senator McCain’s education policies, including his stance on teacher recruitment.

Judge Halts Algebra!!

Dave Saba — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:26:20 -0700

Wow. Judge orders halt to algebra. Only in California could you have a court case that results in this type of headline.

I am a huge advocate of STEM and lament the loss of our competitive edge in the world marketplace. But I support the judge in this case. It is wrong in so many ways to force all students to take algebra in the 8th grade.

USA Today.......today

Dave Saba — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:19:42 -0700

They published a letter to the editor from us today!! Always nice to get a plug.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/10/a-way-to-tackle.html?csp=34

Carnival of Education is up

wschimmel — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:19:31 -0700

This week, we are celebrating Mole Day.

Wanted: male teachers

Dave Saba — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:23:18 -0700

There was a segment on Good Morning America today about the shortage of male teachers. There were representatives on from MenTeach.org and while ABCTE was not mentioned on the air, we are featured on the MenTeach.org web site.

MenTeach.org’s “How to Become a Teacher” page with link to ABCTE:
http://www.menteach.org/resources/how_to_become_a_teacher

There’s also this article from ABC News that links directly to MenTeach.org:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/Story?id=6070282&page=1

Education Debates

Dave Saba — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:00:26 -0700

Tomorrow night there is an education debate between Lisa Graham-Keegan (McCain) and Linda Darling-Hammond (Obama). There have been a few debates between Lisa and various Obama representatives. The funny thing about these debates is that some of the Obama representatives support and believe very different things.

Education cuts will get even worse

Dave Saba — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:44:13 -0700

Just over a year ago, I predicted extreme belt-tightening ahead in state budgets. After looking at my retirement savings, I wish that I wasn’t so right. Now we read that 29 states face a total shortfall of $48 billion. And the states that were immune last year to the real estate crumble because they had oil and natural gas revenues are going to be hit hard with oil down under $80.

Great School Districts

Dave Saba — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:14:42 -0700

I had the pleasure of attending the Broad Prize for Urban Education in New York City yesterday. It was a pretty amazing event and if you have the chance to go next year, I suggest that you make the time and understand what school districts do to become great.

To listen to the five superintendents who were the finalists for the prize is to be amazed. It was difficult to keep up with the many great ideas they had implemented and it became very clear why they were there and how they had accomplished such great things with their students.

A partial list:

Math and Science Focus

Dave Saba — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:40:53 -0700

Always nice to get the word out about ways to solve the math and science teacher shortage in the Fairmont Sentinel.

True Systemic Change

Dave Saba — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:14:56 -0700

The biggest no surprise of last week was that ED 08 has died of natural causes. The Gates and Broad foundations initially said they would put up $60 million to get education in the forefront of the election. They apparently spent $24 million and really don’t have much to show for it. I saw Roy Romer speak a couple of times and I was not impressed and wondered why he was chosen.

A very old house

Dave Saba — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:00:48 -0700

Jay Matthew’s looks at staffing our schools. He uses the KIPP DC: Key Academy as an example where the principal had to fire 2 teachers because they were disorganized and were not improving even after coaching. He is correct in imagining the nightmare that would result if the teachers were left in place. Students in those classes would suffer academically and it would be very difficult to get them back on track.

Reinventing the Wheel

Dave Saba — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:44:23 -0700

It is interesting that many of the same ideas get recycled regarding teacher shortages. One of the favorites is for professionals to spend a few hours a week teaching math or science. This was a President Bush proposal a few years back known as Adjunct Teacher Corps and Minnesota is the latest to raise the proposal.

Education Problem Solving 101: Define the actual problem

Dave Saba — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:36:18 -0700

I am often amazed by the lack of problem solving in America’s schools. We jump to a solution without ever truly analyzing the problem. Two examples:

Importing Teachers

Dave Saba — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:30:49 -0700

Let’s review what is going on right now in America:

Millions of Career Changers Waiting to Teach

Dave Saba — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:05:43 -0700

It is hard to tell if you are on the right track in education some times. But a recent survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation seems to show we are in the right place at the right time to have a positive impact on students.

A good bottle of whine left unopened

Dave Saba — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:30:25 -0700

I went to the State Policy Network program in Arizona this week and, as a new guest, had picked out a delightful and amusing bottle of “whine” to bring with me. I get pretty frustrated with education reformers at these conferences who say we are going to talk education reform and then spend two days talking vouchers and tax credits.

Fixing Teacher Quality

Dave Saba — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:18:50 -0700

Teaching quality continues to move forward in the news. Mike Petrilli has an excellent write up in the Gadfly from last week and now a new article in the Washington Post about what the newly canonized Michelle Rhee plans to do. But they are all trying to run before we learn to walk.

Management texts will tell you that you need to focus on improving staff. In teaching, the staggering numbers always tell the tale.

Jay is a little off

Dave Saba — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:42:19 -0700

Jay Matthews has an article about schools in miserable condition and makes the bold statement that it is the teachers and not the schools that need to be fixed first. He argues that once we have great talent generating great results, then we should fix up the schools.

Go St. Louis!!!

Dave Saba — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:59:40 -0700

Great article today covering our start in Missouri. It has been such an amazing response from some amazing people. Our first certified teacher completed last week - - an electrical engineer who has been teaching in a private school for three years.

NCLB generating new leaders

Dave Saba — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:44:07 -0700

Mike Petrilli over at Flypaper wonders if NCLB has created a new breed of education leaders by looking at superintendents of large school districts.

It got me thinking about the other dramatic shift that seems to have been caused by NCLB through the highly qualified teacher requirement. Over the last 18 months, 5 different state directors of teacher certification have suddenly retired: Kansas, DC, Louisiana, Colorado and Georgia.

There is change in Devner

Dave Saba — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:01:56 -0700

If you have not read The Slate's coverage of the education reform rally in Denver before the Democratic National Convention then I strongly urge you to do so now. This is truly a watershed moment in American politics. Democrats are finally realizing that the teacher’s unions are doing their job – working hard to get better pay and working conditions for their members and if that conflicts with improving schools, schools lose.

Textbook Insanity

Dave Saba — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:10:52 -0700

This weekend I dropped my daughter off to begin her sophomore year at James Madison University. I am a member of USAA and on their site, they recommend clearly establishing what the parent will pay for and what the college student will pay for. We have done this and I am paying for tuition, room/board and books.

I threw in books just being a generous parent. I sincerely wish I had not done so. The ridiculousness that is college text books is totally out of hand. We were able to buy used books for half of her requirement for this semester and it still cost over $550 for five classes.

Free markets in higher education

Dave Saba — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:14:44 -0700

Free markets continue to infiltrate higher education. I am not talking about the proliferation of for-profit institutions, I am talking about ratemyprofessors.com. If you do not have a child in college, you may not be aware of the power this is bringing to college students.

Time on Task

Dave Saba — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:53:36 -0700

Apologies to the 10’s of loyal readers – summer hiatus to take care of family issues, get daughter 1 ready to transfer to James Madison University and relax.

McCain Backs ABCTE, Focuses on Teacher Recruitment in Education Platform

wschimmel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:47:52 -0700

Great news for ABCTE today. Here is our press release. I will include a link to the full text to the speech as soon as it is available.

UPDATE: Full text of the speech from McCain's web site.

Technology in the Classroom

Dave Saba — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:13:06 -0700

I am rapidly becoming a tweenteacher reader based on excellent blogs like this one on technology in the classroom (the graphic is worth the look). It still seems pathetic that education is the one area that has not benefited from technology. In any other industry, when there is shortage of a critical resource (i.e. great teachers), technology creates efficiencies that allow us to fully leverage that resource.

Math and Science Problems Continued

Dave Saba — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:55:50 -0700

Great article about the shortage of math and science teachers even affecting suburban schools now. These are schools that normally have a waiting list for jobs and now they can't find math and science teachers. Why is that?

Education Studies Show Nothing but High Price Tags

Dave Saba — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:03:37 -0700

Two articles this week on education research with no real winner or loser in either. Shocking. The first is the result of an exhaustive study of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Ed Week says that the results show that “National Board Teachers found to be Effective”. Wow. Not exactly a resounding victory.

Teacher testing is necessary

Dave Saba — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:01:57 -0700

If you have not seen Flypaper over at Fordham – they have a lot of posts on their blog. They had a recent post about a study that will appear soon that says that teacher testing deters good people from becoming teachers. I posted the following response on their blog:

Best restaurants in state capitals

Dave Saba — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:38:10 -0700

I have a second blog. It has the same content with one exception - the other blog has my running tally of the best restaurants in state capitals. I have now been to 28 different state capitals in the last 2 ½ years and had some pretty great food. I highly recommend Leo’s BBQ in Oklahoma City if you are ever there and save room for the amazing cake at the end. So enjoy this list and provide comments if you wish.

Transforming Schools

Dave Saba — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:44:29 -0700

Education next has a great article on transforming schools. The authors describe the current systems in historical context as organizations invest in innovation/technology and see no return on that investment. Schools everywhere are experiencing this and it is because we are trying to “cram innovation into the existing operating model” which never results in improvements.

Ed Schools at the abyss

Dave Saba — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:57:54 -0700

Not so shocking revelation from the Cleveland Plain Dealer on colleges of education. To me, it is amazing that this issue has not outraged more parents and students. (Note that there are always exceptions and there are many schools working to improve and all people who generalize are jerks). We do not have a lot of exceptional Education schools in the US and we cannot have a world class teaching workforce if we aren’t more selective of who gets in the classroom.

Alternative certification and mentoring

Dave Saba — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:02:23 -0700

I received a great comment from tweenteacher on my recent post on alternative certification. She makes a very strong point about the quality of the courses at her Ed school and the fact that her on the job training is what really helped her succeed. During legislative committee hearings this year, I also heard that some of the courses teachers are forced to take have no value.

Missouri Legislative Session Ends

Dave Saba — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:53:40 -0700

The Missouri Legislative session ended last Friday. It was not a great session. Only 147 bills passed out of 1,954 filed. That means they only passed 7.5% of the bills that were filed and the ABCTE bill was one of them. Pretty amazing and our thanks goes out to the Missouri Chamber, some outstanding legislators plus Kent Gaines and Nikki Strong who helped us get this done.

Alternative Teacher Certification

Dave Saba — Mon, 19 May 2008 06:59:52 -0700

There is a great report on alternative teacher certification from the Center for American Progress. They get many things right in this article and are pushing lawmakers/decision-makres to think outside the university in order to get the numbers of teachers we need in this country.

The Downward Spiral

Dave Saba — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:08:07 -0700

Joanne Jacobs has an excellent post on the academic issues with college students and college graduates. I wholeheartedly agree with many of the viewpoints listed and it is well worth your time to read. At ABCTE, we continue to see this problem first hand.

MO does equal momentum

Dave Saba — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:04:34 -0700

First Missouri and now Utah. When people honestly look at what is best for students and not just consider the politics, things can actually get done in education. In 2004, Utah accepted ABCTE’s math certification as a pilot program. Friday, after seeing the quality of the teachers who complete our program and an exhaustive look at our exams, the Utah State Department of Education recommended that the Utah State School Board accept all the ABCTE certifications. And the School Board did just that.

Thank you Governor Blunt!

Dave Saba — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:01:40 -0700

I first went to Missouri two and a half years ago and knew nothing about the legislative process. I learned the hard way. We didn’t even get our bill out of committee that year. But last Thursday, I was standing next to Governor Matt Blunt as he signed the first bill of this legislative session; a bill to allow ABCTE. This was a hard fought victory to help school districts with their teacher shortages. Once the politics are done, the real work takes over.

The irony of high teaching standards

Dave Saba — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:48:19 -0700

I had an interesting day in Richmond speaking with education leaders from all over the state. I keep hearing from all around the country that no one can find high school teachers and this was certainly evident in Virginia. It is rapidly reaching crisis level. The irony is that states claim that they don’t want to lower standards and try other alternative ways to recruit, prepare and certify teachers while districts continue to just ignore the current standards to fill critical positions any way they can.

BIG MO!

Dave Saba — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:07:41 -0700

MO – it stands for Missouri and momentum. We got a little of both yesterday when the Missouri State House voted final approval of Senate Bill 1066 without any new amendments. This means it goes on to the Governor who has shown he is in favor of the bill. This will allow ABCTE to recruit, prepare and certify new teachers for Missouri schools.

It's Limbo Time!

Dave Saba — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:03:19 -0700

Where are the teacher unions in Massachusetts? As defenders of the profession, they should be outraged by a bill that will lower the standard for getting into the profession. McKinsey tells us from their research that selectivity is how the best performing schools in the world build a world class teaching force. Massachusetts is going to keep the bar high to get into teaching unless you can't reach the bar.

Drill and kill

Dave Saba — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:28:03 -0700

Both of my daughters completed their middle schooling in Virginia. We moved to Loudoun County because they have great schools and I endure the long commute to ensure they had the very best.

Wanted: Improved Reading Scores

Dave Saba — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:51:10 -0700

We need a school that wants to improve their reading scores. We have a reading certificate program for teachers based on the recommendations from the National Reading Panel. The program has a CD ROM and workbook for teachers to complete and then a rigorous certification exam. The program covers phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, text comprehension and differentiated instruction.

Career switching will get worse

Dave Saba — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:00:21 -0700

When people try to claim that the teacher shortage we face is a retention problem, I laugh. Don’t get me wrong – I would love to see better working conditions and even higher salaries for teachers. But that will not come close to fixing the problem.

We no longer live in a society where someone works in one job, let alone one career, for life. Based on my daughter’s college friends, it is not going to get any better.

Starfish, change and data

Dave Saba — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:17:48 -0700

This one is a little sappy but quite applicable to education. I was speaking with Dr. Nixon in Tennessee and he has all these starfish in his office. So I asked him if he likes the beach. He said no and that he had them in his office to remind him of The Star Thrower Story which can be found at: http://www.starthrower.com/star_thrower_story_script.htm

The Battle Rages On

Dave Saba — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:40:27 -0700

Interesting discussion in Education Next on Teach for America. I am amazed that after 19 years there is still discussion on whether it is good for schools. Somehow the education establishment, in this case appropriately represented by Art Wise, always wants the change agent to show why the program is good.

Prediction: another panel report that leads to no changes in education

Dave Saba — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:02:48 -0700

I should probably be happy with the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s recommendations because of the far reaching implications that could lead to incredible leaps in math expertise in our youth with the United States regaining the title of world leader.

But I am not.

Teach & Inspire

Dave Saba — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:38:55 -0700

Recruiting teachers is not an easy task as any principal can tell you. But there are a lot of people out there that want to teach. In April 2007, the Tarrance Group conducted a survey of Florida residents and found that 28% wanted to teach at some point in their lives.

Is there only one right way in education?

Dave Saba — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:25:19 -0700

The last few months we have been working in Utah to help them develop a way to recognize great teachers. Some of their more forward thinking legislators put forth a modest bill to provide $275,000 to teachers who complete our Distinguished Teacher program. That program recognizes teachers based on student achievement through value add analysis (40%), live observation (30%), subject matter mastery (15%) and principal evaluation (15%).

Carnival of March Ed Madness is UP!!

Dave Saba — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:25:59 -0700

http://learnmegood2.blogspot.com/

Management by Fad

Dave Saba — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:16:09 -0700

When United States manufacturing companies were getting their collective butts kicked by Japan in the late 70’s early 80’s, they started grasping for straws. They would try anything new to get their edge back and the string of different techniques they tried became known as management by fad. Many of these fads were actually sound ideas. However, when companies went to implement the latest fad, they neglected to properly train staff which created lousy execution.

Selectivity

Dave Saba — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:49:18 -0800

I find the McKinsey & Company analysis of the world’s best performing school systems fascinating. This analysis and comparison should create some amazing actions to help improve education in the United States. Unfortunately education is not about analysis, it is about politics.

Their number one recommendation is that we need to develop a world-class teaching work force if our schools are ever to regain their rightful place as the best in the world.

Been a little busy lately

Dave Saba — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:31:17 -0800

It has been a while since I blogged - but it turns out that many states are looking for the solutions we offer.

In Missouri, the Senate passed a bill allowing ABCTE to recruit, prepare and certify teachers. A lot of press on this since one senator attempted to filibuster the bill that ultimately passed 25 to 5. It is now on to the Missouri House.

Updates from the university world

Dave Saba — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:51:35 -0800

Two significant updates from the college world this week. I have a daughter at Radford University in Virginia and one who is a junior in high school.

Education moving forward

Dave Saba — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:43:10 -0800

Today I had the pleasure of attending the US DOE working group on school leadership looking to exchange ideas on teacher recruitment, retention and leadership in general. A number of points from this outstanding discussion:

Great Teaching Defined

Dave Saba — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:47:02 -0800

How do you identify a great teacher? It is a question that seems to always bring out political ramifications mixed with research questions. But today I heard an interview of Richard Ognibene who is the teacher of the year for New York. His thoughts are so inspiring and his advice absolutely the best. If we had 3.3 million clones of Richard teaching in our schools, we would have the absolute best educational system in the world.

Subsitutes getting a longer term

Dave Saba — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:14:37 -0800

The use of long term substitutes as a story is getting legs. As school districts continue to experience severe shortages, the practice of using substitutes to fill positions grows. And the students suffer. The US DOE says that we now have double the number of long term subs in the classroom since 1994 and that over 20% of schools now use long term subs every year.

Budget cuts = creative solutions

Dave Saba — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:26:15 -0800

District Superintendents are running a huge business. It is fascinating to watch Fairfax County Superintendent Jack Dale. He is basically running a $2.3 billion company. Most CEO’s with vast business experience don’t have a $2.3B budget and haven't yet had to make drastic cuts in a budget that large.

A GREAT week for education improvement

Dave Saba — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:32:36 -0800

The "good weeks" in education improvement really keep you going. This week was certainly one of those weeks here. We had our 750th certification!! She is a health care professional from North Carolina who is moving to South Carolina to teach science. See what happens when you have the right program to attract career changers NC – you get the teachers you need!! (or if you don't, you lose a great science teacher)

Senator Kennedy on NCLB

Dave Saba — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:10:17 -0800

Senator Kennedy has an op-ed in the Washington Post today to mark the anniversary of No Child Left Behind. It is a valiant effort to ensure that even with everyone focused on presidential politics, we don’t leave the legislation behind. I think it is a futile effort.

Charter School Staffing: help is on the way

Dave Saba — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:52:03 -0800

The Issue:

Teachers have the greatest influence on student achievement
There are not enough great teachers
School districts have TFA and TNTP to help them
Charter schools need to start demonstrating that they are really increasing student achievement
Charter schools are not getting the staffing they need

The Solution:

Hold ABCTE recruitment events just for Charter and Private Schools

2008: Education Changes Ahead

Dave Saba — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:41:37 -0800

My safe prediction for 2008 is that it will be a wild year for education. It is a safe prediction because more people are getting involved, more people are becoming disillusioned, more state legislators are finding their voice and there is so much more data available to help drive change. Our schedules for January are pretty busy - so we know we will be helping drive more change.

For the new year, I resolve to blog a minimum of twice per week. There are so many more issues out there and so much to think about and I have no excuse not to.

Math Problems

Dave Saba — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:40:13 -0800

The question that I sometimes ponder is how our deteriorating national rank in math and science will manifest itself in everyday life. What effect will this have on the economy here in the U.S. and in the rest of the world?

The Business of Education

Dave Saba — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:22:04 -0800

A few weeks ago, AEI held their annual education entrepreneurship presentation where they have the usual suspects (TFA, KIPP, TNTP, Edison, New Leaders etc – it seems they are required for every education panel) present and talk about how difficult it is for entrepreneurs in education. Attending this annual event, you would feel that these are the only companies working in education and that there is no hope for business in education.

Clock Officially Cleaned

Dave Saba — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:38:46 -0800

A stunning day today. In DC, pretty much on any given day, there is a panel discussion about some study with the usual suspects doing the discussing with alarming regularity. The results of the myriad of panel discussions is not startling and usually have enough error that both sides can still argue their case. And the day after these weekly panel discussions - nothing ever really happens. You could seriously get discussion panel poisoning in this city.

Science Bonanza

Dave Saba — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:06:33 -0800

Not here. A recent study in the Bay Area confirmed what most people know: elementary students are not getting the science basics they need. Forget high school reform - if you don't develop a love of math and science early in life, you are not going to suddenly find it in high school. From the study:

Carnival of Education is UP!

Dave Saba — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:40:57 -0800

The Carnival of Education is up - - very different and interesting format!

Enjoy!!

Math: there is no substitute

Dave Saba — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:58:41 -0800

Schools continue to use long term substitutes as a way to mask the critical issue of a shortage of highly qualified teachers - especially in math and science. The latest is from Michigan which hired 20 long term subs even as they close schools and teachers graduating from schools of ed are leaving to find jobs in other states.

This quote from Dominque, the student representative on the school board in Flint Michigan, highlights the issue:

Ugly

Dave Saba — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:22:12 -0800

Ugly. I have two daughters and if they had a teacher that had made suggestive comments towards them - and he didn't get fired and didn't lose his license and went on to teach somewhere else, I would be outraged.

That is what happened in Houston and a reporter there called to ask me what I thought.

Distinguished Teachers

Dave Saba — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:47:51 -0800

Here is an outstanding paper about pay for performance written by Joan Baratz-Snowden, formerly of AFT, who now sits on our board of directors. She clearly states the issues with current pay programs for teachers in saying; "it has not produced competitive salaries in the current job market, it does not respond to market forces, and the evidence linking teacher education and experience to improved student performance is weak."

Reg, that is just OFFENSIVE

Dave Saba — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:55:51 -0800

I cannot believe that any professional, yet alone an education professional, would say what Reg Weaver said in Oklahoma. It is truly offensive - and I am not talking about the thinly veiled reference to ABCTE.

As for the ABCTE part, how about examining the research, instead of just criticizing something new, for a change Reg.

To Persevere

Dave Saba — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:16:21 -0700

Today, after 43 years of being beaten by Notre Dame, Navy won in triple overtime. As a Naval Academy graduate, I cannot tell you how good it feels to end this streak. It was truly inspiring to watch guys who weigh half of their opponents, try on every play and never, ever give up. They are not playing for a future NFL spot; they are playing for their team and for their school. By June, many will be stationed in Iraq. But today, they battled hard and won.

It was amazing and I am more inspired then I have ever been in my professional career.

Challenging Teaching

Dave Saba — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:34:49 -0700

Outstanding look at classroom management over at the New Teacher Hotline. Also a really good snapshot of what teachers have to go through in the classroom today. Any letter that ends in "God please let him be absent today" pretty much sums it up.

Only the best need apply.

Dave Saba — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:36:40 -0700

The Economist article on successful schools is certainly eye-opening. There is always a danger in extrapolating data – but there are some solid lessons that McKinsey has developed from their research. First – we must be more selective in getting teachers and we must provide more ongoing training and collaboration for them when they get into the classroom.

Carnival of Education is UP!

Dave Saba — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:39:30 -0700

Over at History is Elementary you can get the latest on education blogging!

The Shallow Pool

Dave Saba — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:03:26 -0700

When the pool gets shallow, you are going to end up with some of the sludge.

Teaching: eating their young

Dave Saba — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:03:13 -0700

Great post over at Joanne Jacob's site on some TFA teachers struggling to survive. As is usually the case, people find their political point in the article and in the comments use that point to push their case instead of looking at the big picture presented.

Here are the key points as I see it:

Belaboring the numbers

Dave Saba — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:05:36 -0700

Let's do the math. Great chart up at the Department of Labor on back to school statistics

Talent Competition

Dave Saba — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:24:43 -0700

There is a limited pool of talent in the United States. In an expanding economy, recruiters are competing with each other for that talent. In most companies, these recruiters are savvy, experienced talent scouts who are trained for this role and know the tools that help them succeed. They have only one role - recruit the best possible talent for the company.

Evolution of Teaching Knowledge

Dave Saba — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:39:02 -0700

Top secret test development stuff revealed: we are at the 5 year point in the life of our professional teaching knowledge examination. Therefore it is time to reassess the assessment and make sure it covers the material teachers need to know in order to succeed. We assembled our panels of experts and have had a series of meetings over the last 6-9 months and some great work has come from those meetings.

We will be adding more depth and questions to the exam to create requirements on special education, English language learners and gifted & talented students.

Disconnected

Dave Saba — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:09:11 -0700

We are from Washington and we are here to help - that line always gets a chuckle out in the various state leaders I visit. The chuckle comes from a belief that people in Washington couldn't possibly know what is needed in their state.

The Fox Guarding the Hen House

Dave Saba — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:04:26 -0700

Yesterday in Nevada, I again was subjected to the harsh conflict of interest that exists in Teacher Certification. Many states, like Nevada, have professional standards boards to approve changes to teacher certification that are made up of - SURPRISE - Ed School Deans and professors!! Woohoo. Now, normally they try to take the high ground and not appear blatant about protecting their monopoly - but yesterday was an extreme exception.

Exponential change vs Glacial Change

Dave Saba — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:37:15 -0700

If you have not watched this yet, you need to.

Alternative Certification Isn't

Dave Saba — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:09:31 -0700

Obviously, we are thrilled with the recent study by Fordham and NCTQ revealing that Alternative Certification in the US really isn't. I remember back a few years when I briefly thought about going to law school and looked into a couple of night schools. I found out that they basically consisted of the day time program crammed into the night - it wasn't spread out or really designed for busy professionals to complete their course work.

Subject Matter Matters

Dave Saba — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:40:54 -0700

I have been in 4 different states meeting with 4 different state education chiefs and all of them expressed the same concern - there is a serious lack of subject matter knowledge in their math teachers. Therefore, it was with great pleasure that I read the Title II draft and saw the emphasis on STEM professional development for teachers. It is with great sadness that I read that all the money had to go to institutions of higher ed (hopefully this will change).

Gen X and Gen Y: any teachers there?

Dave Saba — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:27:08 -0700

Education loves to ignore societal trends - going through time as if nothing could alter the current operation. Finding talent is one such blind spot. In the past, "Education" always found the talent they needed so they ignored the incredible societal shift going on around them. The current teacher preparation, recruitment and certification system is great for finding and keeping baby boomers. But that no longer represents the current reality.

Title II - No Competition = No Innovation

Dave Saba — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:57:20 -0700

Here is our response to Title II - the bottom line is that it forces states and districts to partner with higher ed and national board which will limit competition and innovation.

Dear Chairman Miller, Rep. McKeon, Chairman Kildee, and Rep. Castle:

On behalf of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE), I am writing to provide comments on the Title II Discussion Draft of your No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Reauthorization legislation.

Tier Twos Try Harder

Dave Saba — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:51:24 -0700

We dropped our oldest daughter at Radford University for her first year and it really is quite impressive how things have changed. Part of this is due to the fact that someone at Radford mistakenly received training in customer service. Gone are the - "look left and look right because only one of you will be here". It has been replaced by bragging about freshman retention rates, graduate in four years rates and all the things other education pundits are pushing for in the US News rankings.

Teachers Lawyers Doctors

Dave Saba — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:29:47 -0700

The next few blogs will be about solutions to teacher shortages. Many of the opponents to alternative teacher certification like to play the doctor/lawyer/nurse card when defending the current system of preparing and certifying teachers. They say that you would never allow lawyers or doctors to come into the profession through an alternative certification.

More Students & Less Teachers

Dave Saba — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:19:36 -0700

NCES statistics have been updated and the big story that everyone is covering is the dramatic increase in students - over 1 million new students reporting to schools. And on the teaching front there is barely a sound. Based on an average class size of 20, we would need 50,000 new teachers to handle this new work load and that is only to cover the new students - it doesn't even address the issue of teacher retirements and teachers changing careers.

Prognostication - Extreme belt tightening ahead

Dave Saba — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:15:32 -0700

State and local budgets are going to get very tight for at least the next two years. You can already see it happening in Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and many others. From NCES data for 2005, $214 billion came from local and $228 billion came from state coffers for education with only $45 billion from the Feds.

DC Public Schools - Anecdotal Positives

Dave Saba — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:51:49 -0700

The absolute most effective way to positively impact education is to actually do something in a school - not write about, not attend the countless briefings by the same 5-6 education experts in DC every week - but actually go to a school and help. And so it was with great excitement that I woke my family up at 6:30 am on Saturday to trek in from the suburbs to meet up with a half dozen other ABCTE'rs and help Michelle Rhee and the DC Public Schools on school beautification day.

Start STEM Sooner

Dave Saba — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:52:14 -0700

Where do young students first experience passion for math and/or science? It starts from having a great experience in math and science in the early grades. If you have that great elementary teacher who has a passion for math and science, they will pass that on to our young students and ensure they become so proficient that they will actually like math and science in secondary school.

Standard standards anyone?

Dave Saba — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:50:53 -0700

We are talking with many states right now and one of the big questions we get concerns teaching standards. Do the ABCTE preparation and testing standards align with the state standards? So, we hire an independent firm to go line by line between our standards and the state standards to ensure that they are properly aligned.

History vs Social Studies: we lose

Dave Saba — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:49:18 -0700

Two years ago, our test development team began the lengthy process of creating our history exams. Our quest started in a time that now seems like a totally different world. It was a time when the Highly Qualified Teacher aspect of No Child Left Behind had yet to be neutered and (to properly mix metaphors) still had potentially scary teeth. So we listened and were told by “experts” and DC thinkers that “social studies” would not be tolerated. In order to be highly qualified, you needed to be an expert in your subject and therefore we should create separate certifications for U.S.

I guess irony can be pretty ironic

Dave Saba — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:47:58 -0700

We had the ABCTE South Carolina launch last week with full press coverage and teacher recruitment events in Charleston, Greenville and Columbia. We had over 1,000 people request information from South Carolina – that is a pretty large group wanting to become teachers PLUS over 300 people attended the events and so far 40 have enrolled! Not a bad start and the Governor is doing a signing ceremony with me next week.

Is there a problem?

Dave Saba — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:42:43 -0700

Gone are the days of political rhetoric at ABCTE. We exist for one reason – to help states recruit, certify and retain quality teachers. Much has changed here and those changes are radically altering the way we are perceived. Bottom line from NCES numbers on degrees issued: