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[quote=Anonymous][quote]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.
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You don't know very much about education, do you? It isn't a matter of definition. Every state has minimum qualifications for certification and certification is how states determine who is a professional educator. You may not like it, but that would be your personal, non expert opinion. It adds much to the conversation because uncertified teachers cannot be considered experienced or educated in the art of teaching, which is fundamentally different than being considered an expert in a subject matter. Anyone who has spent five minutes trying to help a technology newbie check their email knows there is a vast difference between knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it.

Secondly, being excited about a subject and getting your BA in it is not the definition of a subject matter expert. Further, again, knowing a subject does not mean you know how to explain the subject to someone else. This is where the skills of teaching come in. Teaching a subject requires skills in dissecting content material and creating experiences that allow students to scaffold content, understand content, and use content in a new setting. The fact that you don't understand how critical teaching skills are to the equation convinces me that you have never taught and have zero understanding of the critical interplay between content mastery and teaching skill.

You can have legitimate issues with teacher unions, hiring practices, tenure policies and dead wood in the profession and I will likely agree with you. But your base misunderstanding and dismissal of the balance between content and teaching is both baffling and ignorant.

(And to the PP who thinks this issue should not be discussed here because it is prevalent in other charters and not BASIS specific? Too bad. This absolutely belongs here because BASIS is starting out with questionable practices and a questionable faculty. They need to own that.)[/quote]

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