In 2010, Washington, D.C.’s School Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 241 teachers under a then-new evaluation system that held teachers accountable for student test scores. Seventy-six teachers were terminated because they lacked “proper teaching credentials” (most likely, a "state teacher's certificate"). The following 2 cases cast doubt on the wisdom of those terminations.
Case 1. Some years ago, a 28-year old teacher failed his first attempt to pass his state’s teacher-certification exam, which had written and oral parts. The failure is not surprising, for the young man had not attended college; so his superiors sent him to the university for 2 years of study. Five years after his first attempt, he retook the teacher-certification exam. Again he failed. That 2nd attempt was his last. He taught 13 more years sans a teaching certificate. Despite his lack of teaching credentials, students revered the man, saying of him, “He … delighted so much in his work as a teacher … and he was able to present every topic so agreeably and so invitingly that we always looked forward to our lessons …."1 During 8 of those last 13 years, the uncertified teacher also conducted some experiments in plant hybridization. Who was that teacher? He was Gregor Mendel—known today as the father of genetics. Much of modern genetics stems from Mendel’s experiments with the edible pea plant.
Case 2. Many folks are aware of the amazing accomplishments of a deaf-blind woman named Helen Keller. Far fewer are aware of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. At age 7, Anne contracted an eye infection and became legally blind. Around that time, Anne’s mother died. Three years later her father abandoned his children. Anne and her younger brother (Jimmy) were sent to the Tewksbury, MA almshouse. Three months after their arrival there Jimmy died. Anne stayed there 4 years. At age 14, she was transferred to the Perkins School for the Blind. Upon her arrival there, she had had no schooling; she could not read, write, or do arithmetic. While there, she had operations on each eye. The 2nd operation improved her sight enough for her finally to be able to read print. In 1886, at the age of 20, Anne graduated as valedictorian of her class. She had had 6 years of schooling. Two months later, she was offered a job teaching 6-year-old Helen Keller, who since age 19 months had been deaf and blind. Anne accepted the offer. She arrived in Tuscumbia, AL (the Keller’s home town) on 3-3-1887 to begin a new chapter in her life as Helen’s teacher.
If ever there was an educational genius, it was Anne Sullivan. That assessment is not mine alone. John Macy, who knew both women well, said:
Miss Sullivan’s skill in presenting material …; her instinct in striking out the unessential; her feeling … for just the turn of thought that Miss Keller needs at the moment—all this is quite beyond me, and, I believe beyond anybody else. Miss Sullivan has the knack of teaching. Mr. Hitz, of the Volta Bureau, cuts the Gordian knot with a very short solution, “Miss Sullivan is a genius.”2
Anne Sullivan was not a trained teacher, much less certified, but she truly was a “miracle worker,” to use Mark Twain’s description of her. Ms. Rhee’s new teacher-evaluation system would have resulted in Gregor Mendel and Anne Sullivan being fired for lack of “proper teaching credentials.” That firing would have deprived students of 2 superb teachers. Mendel was a scientific genius and a revered teacher. Sullivan was an educational genius, the likes of which this world rarely sees.
Conclusion: The issue in evaluating teachers should not be “credentials;” it should be “ability to help students learn.”
I have no state teaching certificate, but I have a B. A. in mathematics, an MPA and a PhD in Accounting. I’m also licensed as a CPA in Texas. All 3 of my college degrees are from The University of Texas at Austin. Its Accounting program is one of the finest (if not the finest) such programs in the country. I have taught at UCLA, the University of Illinois, and Ohio State University. My students rated me very highly on end-of-course questionnaires that went directly to the school’s administrators and eventually to the student body and me. An Associate Dean whose job it was to rate my overall performance said to me, “You may be the finest instructor I’ve ever known.” When I was a student at UT Austin, I heard of a UCLA Accounting professor who was a fantastic teacher. He was known far and wide for his skill at helping students learn. I cannot recall his name; so let’s call him Professor Z. Once a year at UCLA I met with Clay Sprowls (the Associate Dean of UCLA’s Business School) for him to discuss with me my overall performance as a faculty member for the last year. When it came to my teaching, he once said to me, “You may be as good as Professor Z.” I replied, “Wow! That’s quite a compliment!” And it was! I thoroughly enjoyed helping students learn.
The point is: Despite my background and demonstrated skill as a teacher, the state of Texas does not consider me qualified to teach high-school students. I lack the “credentials” that high-school teachers must have. That is, I lack a state teacher’s certificate. To get one, I would have to go back to school and take some more courses designed to teach me how to teach students. If I'm qualified to teach college freshmen, master's students, and PhD students, then why am I not qualified to teach high-school seniors? In my opinion, the state law should be changed to allow one with my background to be awarded a teacher’s certificate.
Notes
1https://www.guwsmedical.info/natural-science/young-mendel-chooses-the-monastic-life.html
2Shattuck, R., editor. 2003. The Story of My Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Page 392.