Searching for those who can't do

Educators have long had this sense that the quality of teaching has been on the decline along with student performance. Much like the people of the Middle Ages, who comparing themselves to the civilizations of classical antiquity, concluded man must be getting dumber, many believe schools must strive to return to their glory days.

Of course, finding "better teachers" is not easy, given the low salary and various indignities of the job. Today's Times tells of the latest effort to recruit better educators.

Foundation Hopes to Lure Top Students to Teaching

By KAREN W. ARENSON

Taking the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships as a model, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton is creating a fellowship program that it hopes will lure top students into teaching and transform teacher education in the United States.

“Research shows that providing excellent teachers is the single most important way to improve student achievement,” said Arthur E. Levine, president of the foundation, which coordinates a variety of academic fellowship programs. “But the quality of our teaching force today is not as strong as it needs to be, and our teacher preparation programs are too weak. We hope this program will produce significant improvement in both and provide models that the rest of the country will follow.”

But the quality of teachers is not a new concern:

July 18, 1931
ASKS FOR BETTER TEACHERS
Dr. Newlon Blames Administrators for Lack of Scholarship

American school teachers lack scholarship and are “little more than automatons, little better than employees in the factory sense of the word,” Dr. Jesse H. Newlon, director of the Lincoln School, told educators at the Columbia Summer Session in the Horace Mann auditorium.

Many factors have “conspired to produce this condition,” he explained pointing to low salaries, insecurity of tenure, large turnover, and lack of recognition by the public of the fundamental importance of education. The real fault, however, rests with the administrators, he declared

Read two more examples after the jump:

June 20, 1954
BETTER TEACHERS URGED

NEW HAVEN, June 19 (UP)—Dr. Samuel M. Brownell, United States Commissioner of Education, said today that the nation needs better teachers “at all levels of our educational system.” Dr. Brownell spoke at the New Haven State Teachers College commencement. He was president of the college when he was appointed to his present spot.

February 23, 1958

TAX RELIEF STUDIED TO LURE TEACHERS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (AP)—Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury, says that he feels some type of income tax concession may be in order as an incentive for more and better teachers.

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