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. ARENSONTaking 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 ScholarshipAmerican 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: