New BASIS discussion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't have a policy that prefers professional educators OR subject matter experts in hiring.

I wonder what their commitment is to quality teaching and how they will support teachers in the quest to fulfill BASIS's promises.

Go ahead, Booster. I'm talking to you. Spell it out.

Firstly, mere fact of having a teaching license is not necessarily the same thing as being a "professional educator". There's a matter of definition there.

Secondly, quite a few of the BASIS teaching staff ARE subject matter experts - whereas DCPS and most other schools do NOT have subject matter experts teaching middle school.

Firstly, pp did not mention a teacher's license as being synonymous with being a "professional educator." The discussion has been about the level of teaching experience among BASIS faculty and the school not clarifying that about all its teachers.

Secondly, your point about teaching staff being "subject matter experts" is quite vague and again suggests a lack of teaching experience. Does "subject matter expert" apply to a person who holds a BA or more in the subject who is starting their first year of full-time teaching? If a member of the teaching staff had a degree in education but little or no experience teaching, would they be called "professional educators?"

If BASIS is using these terms to describe its faculty, it is legitimate to ask what the terms mean and exactly how they apply to the BASIS DC faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait. Isn't Basis located on top of two metro lines in the center of the city? Aren't they running free buses around town as well as the city buses that must pass right nearby? Car pools? People aroumd the world bust their butts to get where a good free education is being offered. Let's get creative here.

BASIS and other charter schools are counting on parents busting their butts to travel to get a good free education. Meanwhile people who can afford to live across the street from Deal can preserve their butts and people who can't afford transportation time or costs are stuck with deteriorating neighborhood schools that are being replaced with charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't have a policy that prefers professional educators OR subject matter experts in hiring.

I wonder what their commitment is to quality teaching and how they will support teachers in the quest to fulfill BASIS's promises.

Go ahead, Booster. I'm talking to you. Spell it out.

Firstly, mere fact of having a teaching license is not necessarily the same thing as being a "professional educator". There's a matter of definition there.

Secondly, quite a few of the BASIS teaching staff ARE subject matter experts - whereas DCPS and most other schools do NOT have subject matter experts teaching middle school.

Firstly, pp did not mention a teacher's license as being synonymous with being a "professional educator." The discussion has been about the level of teaching experience among BASIS faculty and the school not clarifying that about all its teachers.

Secondly, your point about teaching staff being "subject matter experts" is quite vague and again suggests a lack of teaching experience. Does "subject matter expert" apply to a person who holds a BA or more in the subject who is starting their first year of full-time teaching? If a member of the teaching staff had a degree in education but little or no experience teaching, would they be called "professional educators?"

If BASIS is using these terms to describe its faculty, it is legitimate to ask what the terms mean and exactly how they apply to the BASIS DC faculty.

As pointed out - "it's a matter of definition" and there is no uniform or concrete definition for what "professional educator" means. One could define anyone who makes a living at teaching as "professional educator" but there are no further conclusions to be drawn beyond that. So it's a term that really doesn't add anything to the conversation.

Secondly, with regard to subject matter, it means things like the teacher teaching science knows and loves science and, actually got a degree in that subject, as opposed to just getting an education degree and winging it through an unfamiliar curriculum with only bare knowledge, unable to answer any deeper questions that students might (and will) ask. Teaching becomes the easy part when you have a passion for the subject matter. It makes it interesting and exciting for the students, and doesn't leave them frustrated when the teacher can't answer their questions (as happens in many schools now). The way our education system has evolved, it has made it all completely backward, with all the emphasis on the activity of teaching as opposed to the real purpose of the subject matter itself.

[Anonymous]

"Inexperience"? I don't see it.

I just looked at their website, and only one or two didn't specifically list prior teaching experience - and for those, it's more than offset by, for example, a Ph.D. in the subject matter being taught. By my read, there will be plenty of experience to go around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS doesn't have a policy that prefers professional educators OR subject matter experts in hiring.

I wonder what their commitment is to quality teaching and how they will support teachers in the quest to fulfill BASIS's promises.

Go ahead, Booster. I'm talking to you. Spell it out.

Firstly, mere fact of having a teaching license is not necessarily the same thing as being a "professional educator". There's a matter of definition there.

Secondly, quite a few of the BASIS teaching staff ARE subject matter experts - whereas DCPS and most other schools do NOT have subject matter experts teaching middle school.

Firstly, pp did not mention a teacher's license as being synonymous with being a "professional educator." The discussion has been about the level of teaching experience among BASIS faculty and the school not clarifying that about all its teachers.

Secondly, your point about teaching staff being "subject matter experts" is quite vague and again suggests a lack of teaching experience. Does "subject matter expert" apply to a person who holds a BA or more in the subject who is starting their first year of full-time teaching? If a member of the teaching staff had a degree in education but little or no experience teaching, would they be called "professional educators?"

If BASIS is using these terms to describe its faculty, it is legitimate to ask what the terms mean and exactly how they apply to the BASIS DC faculty.

As pointed out - "it's a matter of definition" and there is no uniform or concrete definition for what "professional educator" means. One could define anyone who makes a living at teaching as "professional educator" but there are no further conclusions to be drawn beyond that. So it's a term that really doesn't add anything to the conversation.

Secondly, with regard to subject matter, it means things like the teacher teaching science knows and loves science and, actually got a degree in that subject, as opposed to just getting an education degree and winging it through an unfamiliar curriculum with only bare knowledge, unable to answer any deeper questions that students might (and will) ask. Teaching becomes the easy part when you have a passion for the subject matter. It makes it interesting and exciting for the students, and doesn't leave them frustrated when the teacher can't answer their questions (as happens in many schools now). The way our education system has evolved, it has made it all completely backward, with all the emphasis on the activity of teaching as opposed to the real purpose of the subject matter itself.

Not at the middle and high school level. I have a BS in biology with certification in secondary education. I had to take certification tests in my subject area in order to get licensed to teach biology. There is no such thing as a general "secondary education degree" in any state that I'm aware. Of course you need a degree in your subject matter.

If BASIS teachers are not certified, then I don't know what their criteria is for determining whether a teacher is qualified to teach a certain subject. But saying that the education system has "evolved" in the way you describe is flat out incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. Isn't Basis located on top of two metro lines in the center of the city? Aren't they running free buses around town as well as the city buses that must pass right nearby? Car pools? People aroumd the world bust their butts to get where a good free education is being offered. Let's get creative here.

BASIS and other charter schools are counting on parents busting their butts to travel to get a good free education. Meanwhile people who can afford to live across the street from Deal can preserve their butts and people who can't afford transportation time or costs are stuck with deteriorating neighborhood schools that are being replaced with charters.

...and the moral of the story is, if you really want something, you have to work at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. Isn't Basis located on top of two metro lines in the center of the city? Aren't they running free buses around town as well as the city buses that must pass right nearby? Car pools? People aroumd the world bust their butts to get where a good free education is being offered. Let's get creative here.

BASIS and other charter schools are counting on parents busting their butts to travel to get a good free education. Meanwhile people who can afford to live across the street from Deal can preserve their butts and people who can't afford transportation time or costs are stuck with deteriorating neighborhood schools that are being replaced with charters.

DCPS has more money per student than virtually anywhere in the nation, there is absolutely no good reason why any school in the city should be deteriorating. If traveling to charters are not an option for you, then you should be demanding that DCPS mismanagement of your neighborhood schools be fixed.

[Anonymous]

10:09, let me tell you about a high school math teacher in one of the public schools, who had the license and certification, had the credentials, the secondary education degree with a supposed focus on math, and had been in the system teaching math for 20 years. Yet, she evidently still didn't master the material, because she couldn't explain it well, couldn't answer students' questions, and her famous quote whenever a student would ask a question is "it's a desk because I said it's a desk".

And sadly she's one example among many - the public school system is chock-full of inept teachers like that. You really aren't making any solid points here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:09, let me tell you about a high school math teacher in one of the public schools, who had the license and certification, had the credentials, the secondary education degree with a supposed focus on math, and had been in the system teaching math for 20 years. Yet, she evidently still didn't master the material, because she couldn't explain it well, couldn't answer students' questions, and her famous quote whenever a student would ask a question is "it's a desk because I said it's a desk".

And sadly she's one example among many - the public school system is chock-full of inept teachers like that. You really aren't making any solid points here.

Don't be ridiculous. It works both ways. Let me tell you about the many uncertified "teachers" out there who struggled mightily and left (or were asked to leave) because they had no conceptual background or practice in: classroom management, instructional design and delivery, child and adolescent development, pacing and sequencing concepts and skills, etc. etc.
Like EVERY other profession in the world, there are stars and duds. However, certifications such as passing the CPA exam or real-estate exam heighten the chances that the employee has the skills necessary to do the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:09, let me tell you about a high school math teacher in one of the public schools, who had the license and certification, had the credentials, the secondary education degree with a supposed focus on math, and had been in the system teaching math for 20 years. Yet, she evidently still didn't master the material, because she couldn't explain it well, couldn't answer students' questions, and her famous quote whenever a student would ask a question is "it's a desk because I said it's a desk".

And sadly she's one example among many - the public school system is chock-full of inept teachers like that. You really aren't making any solid points here.

Don't be ridiculous. It works both ways. Let me tell you about the many uncertified "teachers" out there who struggled mightily and left (or were asked to leave) because they had no conceptual background or practice in: classroom management, instructional design and delivery, child and adolescent development, pacing and sequencing concepts and skills, etc. etc.
Like EVERY other profession in the world, there are stars and duds. However, certifications such as passing the CPA exam or real-estate exam heighten the chances that the employee has the skills necessary to do the job.

Sure, there are poor teachers who aren't certified as well. But the beauty of a charter is that their administration is far more agile and flexible toward quickly remedying any problems with teachers, whereas it could take years and years to weed out the bad teachers in DCPS. Certifications are no guarantee. If the DCPS approach and its certifications were really so much more likely to ensure that teachers have good teaching skills, then we wouldn't have DCPS schools full of kids that are barely proficient even on the watered-down CAS tests, so it seems to me that the actual results do not back up your theory that certification is more likely to ensure good teaching.

[Anonymous]

Why is this whole teacher certification debate even in a "Basis" thread, since it's not really specific or unique to Basis?

Start a new thread if you want to debate the merits of teacher certification, because it doesn't really belong here.

[Anonymous]

Charters can't use that "agile and flexible" argument any more, now that IMPACT allows DCPS to fire a teacher after one year of "ineffective" performance.

By the way, Charter students have to take the DC-CAS too and generally don't do any better than the DCPS kids, despite all the charter attrition back to traditional public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. Isn't Basis located on top of two metro lines in the center of the city? Aren't they running free buses around town as well as the city buses that must pass right nearby? Car pools? People aroumd the world bust their butts to get where a good free education is being offered. Let's get creative here.

BASIS and other charter schools are counting on parents busting their butts to travel to get a good free education. Meanwhile people who can afford to live across the street from Deal can preserve their butts and people who can't afford transportation time or costs are stuck with deteriorating neighborhood schools that are being replaced with charters.

...and the moral of the story is, if you really want something, you have to work at it.

and too bad for the kids whose parents can't or won't make the needed effort now that their neighborhood schools are being pulled out from under them?

[Anonymous]

See above, 13:00, DCPS spends more per student than virtually anywhere in the nation. There is no excuse for neighborhood schools going to pieces. DCPS and apathetic parents only have themselves to blame for the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. Isn't Basis located on top of two metro lines in the center of the city? Aren't they running free buses around town as well as the city buses that must pass right nearby? Car pools? People aroumd the world bust their butts to get where a good free education is being offered. Let's get creative here.

BASIS and other charter schools are counting on parents busting their butts to travel to get a good free education. Meanwhile people who can afford to live across the street from Deal can preserve their butts and people who can't afford transportation time or costs are stuck with deteriorating neighborhood schools that are being replaced with charters.

DCPS has more money per student than virtually anywhere in the nation, there is absolutely no good reason why any school in the city should be deteriorating. If traveling to charters are not an option for you, then you should be demanding that DCPS mismanagement of your neighborhood schools be fixed.

So why after five years of reform are schools still deteriorating? Obviously reform has failed. So why does DCPS keep its current management? Because it is facilitating charter development.