Unqualified HS teacher

[Anonymous]

This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

[Anonymous]

We had this once (but for middle school) many complained- we had to wait it out to Spring Break (when they departed abruptly)

[Anonymous]

Start being a squeaky wheel, and get other parents to complain too. The more people who bring it up to the school, the more likely to get a mod-year exit. Otherwise the school will wait until summer, because it’s a pain to have a sudden staffing gap.

[Anonymous]

^mid-year. Fumble thumbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Give him a chance op. You sound like a pita.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Send your kid to public school where at least the teachers are qualified and licensed?

This is the thing about private schools. There are no standards for the teachers.

[Anonymous]

On what basis do you think the teacher is unqualified? Surely the hiring process at the school would have revealed something about the teacher’s training and experience. Your school may also have been having difficulty hiring.Perhaps this teacher isn’t the best, but he is the one they were able to get.

Remember that curricula are chosen to teach the greatest number of children well most of the time. Remember also that individual teachers, especially new hires, do not choose the curriculum, an expensive multi-year investment. The success of a new teacher also depends on how well a school keeps its curriculum map updated and how well teachers within a department are able to plan and coordinate together (something which depends on the schedule that admins create for faculty). A lot of teachers who appear to be doing poorly are just in crummy settings. I saw it myself inside a “Big 5” school.

As an educator I’m also quite wary of the phrase “doesn’t teach.” Anything new or different from other teachers often draws this criticism. Students often level it when teachers appropriately try to make them more responsible for good work habits. Also, there’s a big difference between a “bad teacher” and one who’s not the best fit for a particular student.

It’s early in the year. Focus on teaching your kid good study skills and being responsible for him/herself. Start a dialog with the teacher, but accept that you may have different points of view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Send your kid to public school where at least the teachers are qualified and licensed?

This is the thing about private schools. There are no standards for the teachers.

This exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On what basis do you think the teacher is unqualified? Surely the hiring process at the school would have revealed something about the teacher’s training and experience. Your school may also have been having difficulty hiring.Perhaps this teacher isn’t the best, but he is the one they were able to get.

Remember that curricula are chosen to teach the greatest number of children well most of the time. Remember also that individual teachers, especially new hires, do not choose the curriculum, an expensive multi-year investment. The success of a new teacher also depends on how well a school keeps its curriculum map updated and how well teachers within a department are able to plan and coordinate together (something which depends on the schedule that admins create for faculty). A lot of teachers who appear to be doing poorly are just in crummy settings. I saw it myself inside a “Big 5” school.

As an educator I’m also quite wary of the phrase “doesn’t teach.” Anything new or different from other teachers often draws this criticism. Students often level it when teachers appropriately try to make them more responsible for good work habits. Also, there’s a big difference between a “bad teacher” and one who’s not the best fit for a particular student.

It’s early in the year. Focus on teaching your kid good study skills and being responsible for him/herself. Start a dialog with the teacher, but accept that you may have different points of view.

Many teachers have very little control over their curriculum (others much more, my preference). It's possible this teacher was mandated to give out assignments and quizzes for "self-directed learning" to build independence and resilience in students and all that.

Or maybe he's just lazy as you suspect.

I would meet with the teacher first to get his take on your concerns, and then the dean if necessary, if the first meeting doesn't work.

Find out what's going on before drawing conclusions. And remember that students often caricature teachers when telling their parents about them. Get the whole story.

[Anonymous]

For everybody saying OP can’t possibly be correct, hiring errors do happen. When I was in elementary, the parents banded together to get math teacher fired at Nysmith (back when to school was only a few years old) because she literally gave us “placement tests” every class for like 2 weeks and did nothing. My Big3 HS had to hire a new physics teacher unexpectedly over the summer so there was no ability to have the potential teacher lead a class as part of applying, and she was teaching actually incorrect information to AP physics students for the first few weeks. We had kids who took physics through CTY the summer before explaining the textbook to the rest of the class during free periods. She was fired after a few weeks and they hired a great teacher instead. My kid’s current school fired a math teacher a few weeks into school last year. Of course mistakes happen.

If this guy really hasn’t done anything except assign gobs of homework, other parents are going to be upset too. If OP is the only one who complains then sure, they were probably overreacting and the school will ignore it. But if the majority of parents with kids in that class start raising the issue, the school will look into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On what basis do you think the teacher is unqualified? Surely the hiring process at the school would have revealed something about the teacher’s training and experience. Your school may also have been having difficulty hiring.Perhaps this teacher isn’t the best, but he is the one they were able to get.

Remember that curricula are chosen to teach the greatest number of children well most of the time. Remember also that individual teachers, especially new hires, do not choose the curriculum, an expensive multi-year investment. The success of a new teacher also depends on how well a school keeps its curriculum map updated and how well teachers within a department are able to plan and coordinate together (something which depends on the schedule that admins create for faculty). A lot of teachers who appear to be doing poorly are just in crummy settings. I saw it myself inside a “Big 5” school.

As an educator I’m also quite wary of the phrase “doesn’t teach.” Anything new or different from other teachers often draws this criticism. Students often level it when teachers appropriately try to make them more responsible for good work habits. Also, there’s a big difference between a “bad teacher” and one who’s not the best fit for a particular student.

It’s early in the year. Focus on teaching your kid good study skills and being responsible for him/herself. Start a dialog with the teacher, but accept that you may have different points of view.

Many teachers have very little control over their curriculum (others much more, my preference). It's possible this teacher was mandated to give out assignments and quizzes for "self-directed learning" to build independence and resilience in students and all that.

Or maybe he's just lazy as you suspect.

I would meet with the teacher first to get his take on your concerns, and then the dean if necessary, if the first meeting doesn't work.

Find out what's going on before drawing conclusions. And remember that students often caricature teachers when telling their parents about them. Get the whole story.

This, and when you approach the school - instead of complaining, ask questions about what the expectations are for someone teaching that class and how much freedom teachers have to deviate from one another if multiple teachers teach the same class in different sections. Also, if the teacher doesn't seem to match the expectations given by your school, ask whether the school is providing the teacher support to help in their transition. If you think a teacher is unqualified now, it doesn't mean that that don't have what it takes to be a great teacher (in the mold of what is typical in your school) with some support and direction to help them get there. I know it's not fun to be the guinea pig kid while the teacher is on the learning curve - but every teacher started new at some point (or tried something new along the way). Your school and the teachers will be healthier if you work to make sure teachers are getting the support they need vs piling on complaints.

[Anonymous]

PS to above. If there are truly egregious things going on, collect the ones that are documentable along the way. If these continue after asking the questions above...return and ask again... "In our last meeting we spoke about X, but here are examples of Y....is this ok?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Send your kid to public school where at least the teachers are qualified and licensed?

This is the thing about private schools. There are no standards for the teachers.

This exactly

+1! No qualifications are required to teach in private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Send your kid to public school where at least the teachers are qualified and licensed?

This is the thing about private schools. There are no standards for the teachers.

Hilarious!

Kids in public schools can’t read at grade level, nor can they do math at grade level.

And these kids are being taught by “qualified” and “licensed” teachers.

Doesn’t seem like these qualifications are having much effect, does it?

I doubt if things could be any worse with more “unqualified” ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This HS new teacher is unqualified for the job he took this year. All he does is assigning heavy homework and sitting at his messy desk. He’s the only teacher who hasn’t taught anything since the beginning of the school year. During the 10 minute presentation at BTSN, he just talked about himself, made jokes, and barely explained the grading.
Any ideas on how to proceed?

Send your kid to public school where at least the teachers are qualified and licensed?

This is the thing about private schools. There are no standards for the teachers.

Hilarious!

Kids in public schools can’t read at grade level, nor can they do math at grade level.

And these kids are being taught by “qualified” and “licensed” teachers.

Doesn’t seem like these qualifications are having much effect, does it?

I doubt if things could be any worse with more “unqualified” ones.

My kid is in FCPS. They don't do math at grade level; like most of their friends, they're two years ahead. I'd say you could compare their scores on standardized tests, but privates avoid anything that might make you question whether or not your kid is actually ahead of the masses