Should a master's degree be required for teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering there is a teacher shortage, no. Adding this requirement would causes problems for school districts. Teachers with masters should get paid more.

They do.

Not in Baltimore City they don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For certain subjects like high school math and sciences, yes.

For self contained special education, also yes.

Lol. My masters did not help me be successful at all in my self contained classroom. Theory is useful to know, but didn't help with day to day teaching.

[Anonymous]

Paying for degrees just results in AARTs with doctorates from online diploma mills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tiger moms would make ideal teachers.

No they wouldn't. They'd ignore the struggling kids and those who don't brown nose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For certain subjects like high school math and sciences, yes.

For self contained special education, also yes.

For self contained, they are lucky to get a warm body. If anything, they should lower the requirement so that they can fill the role

They are not babysitters.

They kind of are. Once they age out of school, they literally are

Adult services is very different than school age services, that’s correct. But there are legal reasons behind that.

SN teachers are not babysitters, but if you treat them that way then that’s all you’ll get back. If you want them to respect and protect the children you entrust in their care, then you have to respect and protect them first. And give them the proper training and tools they need to do it.

SN children are, by nature, unpredictable, especially when placed together. Protocols and training and being able to trust and depend on other staff around you for backup is literally all you have in the worst moments. When SHTF (and it ALWAYS does)- you’d better hope your staff aren’t just glorified babysitters and are trained to handle any and every situation so nobody gets hurt.

You try implementing an emergency protective restraint on a child in public school and see what support you get from admin. You will probably get fired and the entire incident swept under the rug. Try that in a well-trained SN school and you’ll have to do some paperwork and make an uncomfortable phone call to the parents. But the admin will always support you IF you followed protocol.

Problem with public schools- there is minimal protocol and minimal support. Go ask 5 teachers what they should do in a situation and you’ll get 5 different answers. Ask the administrators and you’ll get even more variations. The left hand never knows what the right hand is doing and they pass the blame back and forth.

Public schools need to take notes. Train and educate your staff- ALL the staff. That should always be #1. You can teach almost anyone to be a decent teacher, that’s actually secondary when dealing with SN. If teachers don’t feel supported they’ll quit out of frustration before they can gain the experience needed to become good at teaching.

[Anonymous]

Yes. If my PT needs a doctorate, my kids teacher should at least have a masters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For certain subjects like high school math and sciences, yes.

For self contained special education, also yes.

Lol. My masters did not help me be successful at all in my self contained classroom. Theory is useful to know, but didn't help with day to day teaching.

I'm the PP and also teach self contained. YMMV. I did my Master's with a certification in ABA and passed the BCBA exam. My training is helpful for the day to day teaching but the second shift of the job. I see a lot of IEPs and behavior plans where progress monitoring is not done well and data collection and implementation are spotty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most better public school systems at least incentivize teachers to get advanced degrees.

By and large, public school teachers have better credentials than private school teachers.

I wouldn’t say this is true at the high school level. I work with more PhDs (6 currently on staff) at my current private. None at my former public.

Private school teachers also appear to have fewer education degrees. Bachelors and masters work is more often in content areas other than education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tiger moms would make ideal teachers.

Not at all. Teaching is not one dimensional.

-Teacher

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher with a masters. It was worth it for me because I got a pay raise, but I could have read a book or two and learned what I learned in my program (which wasn't much). So, no, I don't think masters should be required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For certain subjects like high school math and sciences, yes.

For self contained special education, also yes.

Why? I double majored in bio and education My (first) master's is pretty general. Did nothing to help my teaching but I'm originally from NY so I had to get that master's before I could enter an admin program. That first master's was a throw away degree.

[Anonymous]

No, it should not be required. They should require IQ testing for teachers. IQ is the number one predictor of job performance and a more useful screening criteria than requiring a masters degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all- not one teacher should major in Education as an undergraduate. It is a giant waste of time and money. Teachers should major in a liberal arts major of some sort (broad span of humanities, literature, history, econ) and then, after graduation do the 15 credits or a masters in education to receive accreditation. Make sure that includes plenty of in classroom practicum.

The word is pedagogy. If you can’t use that word and instead use words like “practicum” you really shouldn’t expressing an opinion on this. At all. Take a seat.

[Anonymous]

In MD, its encouraged, not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MD, its encouraged, not required.

Nope. You have a certain period of time to obtain your Master's in MD.

How do I renew my Standard Professional I Certificate?
Complete a total of 6 credits, reading credits if you still need them, during the five-year validity period. Since you will have a total of ten years to complete your master’s degree or master’s equivalency, you will probably want to take more than just the 6 required credits. You also must have a minimum of three years of successful teaching experience during the validity period of your certificate.

https://www.fcps.org/careers/maryland-teaching-certification