Good news, you no longer need a college diploma to teach public school in Arizona

[fooferdoggie]

another hold my beer moment.

signed earlier this week, a person only needs to be enrolled to get their college degree to begin teaching in public schools. It’s a big change, and it’s been met with mixed reactions.

Jens Larson said there was a teacher shortage back when he joined the profession in 2000. “I was hired as an emergency certified teacher. I had a degree but I didn’t have the teacher credentials that were needed,” Larson said.

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For 14 years, he worked at the Phoenix Union High School District. He said the low pay, lack of respect, and resources led him to leave. Since leaving, he started Phoenix Youth Circus Arts Program and continues to work with children. “I have more fun teaching circus than I do teaching geometry, I have to admit that,” he said.

But this new change, SB 1159, he said, was a stretch. “The situation will be even worse if you’re dealing with either younger people or even less well-educated people,” Larson said.

Educators no longer need a college degree to begin teaching in Arizona public schools

Under legislation Gov. Doug Ducey signed earlier this week, a person only needs to be enrolled to get their college degree to begin teaching in public schools.

www.azfamily.com

 

[Hrafn]

The stupid just keeps getting thicker.

 

[Herdfan]

This is taking it a bit too far.

My wife majored in French in college and speaks it fluently. So much that she taught French and Spanish in a mission school in Nigeria for 2 years.

Came back to the US and she couldn't teach it in a public school because she didn't have an Education degree.

I understand needing an education degree to teach elementary school as those kids have specialized needs. But to teach a kid who is a couple of years away from taking Calculus in a lecture hall with 200 students and a prof that couldn't care less whether they understood it or not (personal experience here), I think someone with mastery of the subject would do just fine.

 

[AG_PhamD]

I’m not opposed to teachers not being required to have a degree in education to teach in public schools, particularly in high school level courses and maybe even some middle school classes. I went to private school most of my life and many of my teachers did not have degrees in education, but did have bachelors and usually masters degrees in the fields they were teaching- in some cases PhD’s or other profession degrees like law. Also consider the fact most college professors don’t have degrees in education either. If you have a degree in biology for example, I’m going to assume you have the understanding to teach basic biology class in middle and high school. Or if you’re a mechanical or electrical engineer, especially with real-world engineering experience, you probably have a good grasp on physics. To some degree having real world experience in the given field is a great benefit- you can’t really teach practical experience and real-world application. Plus you’ve had sufficient higher education to understand how education works for reasonably developed minds.

When it comes to teaching in earlier education, I think a degree in education masks sense as I would imagine teaching young children I requires a specific education and sufficient psychological understanding.

Here is Mass, as I understand it essentially all teachers need a masters eventually. to get their teaching license, though it’s not required to start one’s career. This might be a bit unnecessary, especially depending on the age and subject.

In general I think the more education, the better, but honestly, not having teachers have a college degree is a bit ridiculous. Maybe a lack of degree is fine for gym and art teachers, particularly in elementary schools. But when it comes to more academic classes like math, science, language arts, history/social studies, etc, if the goal is for most students to attain higher education (I suppose that’s an argument in itself), how can we expect teachers without a degree to know how to best prepare students?

Maybe the problem with the shortage of K-12 teachers is inadequate resources, a lack of respect from parents and admins, and in many cases inadequate pay.

 

[SuperMatt]

This is taking it a bit too far.

My wife majored in French in college and speaks it fluently. So much that she taught French and Spanish in a mission school in Nigeria for 2 years.

Came back to the US and she couldn't teach it in a public school because she didn't have an Education degree.

I understand needing an education degree to teach elementary school as those kids have specialized needs. But to teach a kid who is a couple of years away from taking Calculus in a lecture hall with 200 students and a prof that couldn't care less whether they understood it or not (personal experience here), I think someone with mastery of the subject would do just fine.

An Education degree is not mandatory to teach in a public school. Every state has a teacher certification system of some kind for those with degrees in another field who want to teach in the public schools.

 

[Herdfan]

An Education degree is not mandatory to teach in a public school. Every state has a teacher certification system of some kind for those with degrees in another field who want to teach in the public schools.

Depending on the county in my state, you can either get an Education Degree, or take a required number of education classes - at a college.

They simply make it too hard for the average person with a degree who might like to teach.

 

[SuperMatt]

Depending on the county in my state, you can either get an Education Degree, or take a required number of education classes - at a college.

They simply make it too hard for the average person with a degree who might like to teach.

That is not the same as:

Came back to the US and she couldn't teach it in a public school because she didn't have an Education degree.

Since other posters were responding to your post as if it were accurate, I thought it was worth clarifying.

My father had a long career as a high school teacher, and it isn’t as easy as you think. I have no problem with there being required coursework and/or certification beyond the degree in one’s field before they can teach. A lot of stuff comes up in school that has nothing to do with the subject matter, and you have to be ready to deal with it.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Both my parents are retired public school teachers, one high school and the other middle school. They don't know why anybody would want to be a teacher now. Starting even before Trump teachers started being seen as the enemy attacked by the parents of special snowflakes. Then it morphed into attacks by the proudly ignorant who take their head out of the sand just long enough to attack teachers. Then depending on the state, deal with the ever-changing set of rules on what is acceptable to teach or even mention. F all that.

 

[DT]

I don't know how teachers to do it. The expectations, the shitty parents and their equally shitty kids, having to navigate political BS, and for not even close to enough pay.

 

[Joe]

Both my parents are retired public school teachers, one high school and the other middle school. They don't know why anybody would want to be a teacher now. Starting even before Trump teachers started being seen as the enemy attacked by the parents of special snowflakes. Then it morphed into attacks by the proudly ignorant who take their head out of the sand just long enough to attack teachers. Then depending on the state, deal with the ever-changing set of rules on what is acceptable to teach or even mention. F all that.

Yeah, I don't see why anyone would want to teach these days. The pay is terrible and you have to deal with shitty kids and their even worse parents.

I still crack up at my co worker who received a call from her son's school because he had apparently ran into the wall and hit his head after calling another student a bitch. She was so adamant that she knew her son and he wouldn't do that. She was ready to go tear that school down and I just shook my head feeling for the educators that would have to deal with her when she got there. The next day she comes in and the school had everything on tape and just showed her the tape lol. I said "I guess you didn't know your son as well as you thought" LMAO

Yeah, you couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher today.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Yeah, I don't see why anyone would want to teach these days. The pay is terrible and you have to deal with shitty kids and their even worse parents.

I still crack up at my co worker who received a call from her son's school because he had apparently ran into the wall and hit his head after calling another student a bitch. She was so adamant that she knew her son and he wouldn't do that. She was ready to go tear that school down and I just shook my head feeling for the educators that would have to deal with her when she got there. The next day she comes in and the school had everything on tape and just showed her the tape lol. I said "I guess you didn't know your son as well as you thought" LMAO

Yeah, you couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher today.

One of my favorite education related stories was from somebody who worked for the call center for a SAT tutoring company. On their last day they got a call from a parent irate that their kid didn’t do well on the test after getting tutored. They responded “Mam, I understand. Have you considered the possibility that your kid is a fucking moron?”. They got to leave early on their last day.

 

[Alli]

I understand needing an education degree to teach elementary school as those kids have specialized needs. But to teach a kid who is a couple of years away from taking Calculus in a lecture hall with 200 students and a prof that couldn't care less whether they understood it or not (personal experience here), I think someone with mastery of the subject would do just fine.

In most states, in order to teach at the high school level you need a degree in X field. You can then either add a few education courses or take a PRAXIS exam. Sounds like your wife would have done fine doing that.

Elementary is a different ball game because the pedagogy is more important than the field - because every teacher is teaching all core courses.

What AZ is doing is cutting out the requirement for having expertise in a field. They’re looking for baby sitters.