Will there be a difference in student achievement when taught by uncertified teachers compared with certified teachers? Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the academic achievements of students on the mathematic state standardize test at the high school level among minority students when taught by certified teachers compared with uncertified teachers. Description of the Community The Beaumont Independent School District is located in the Southeastern part of Texas.
This is a majority-minority school district with a population of 16,048 minority students (AEIS Report, 2004).
There are 13,152 African American students, 2,280 Hispanic students, 39 Native American students, and 577 Asian/Pacific Islander students in the Beaumont Independent School District. The population of teachers selected was responsible for 3,339 minority students taking secondary mathematics in the Beaumont Independent School District (AEIS Report, 2004).
There are 38 teachers that teach secondary mathematics in the Beaumont Independent School District (IBM-AS 400, 1999).
There are 28 secondary mathematic teachers in the Beaumont Independent School District that are certified, and 10 secondary mathematic teachers that are not certified (SBEC, 2005).
The research will take place at Clifton J. Ozen Magnet High School with a population of 1,669 minority students (AEIS Report, 2004).
There are 1,561 African American students, 85 Hispanic students, 3 Native American students, and 20 Asian/Pacific Islander students at Clifton J. Ozen Magnet High School. The population of teachers selected was responsible for 1,340 minority students taking secondary mathematics at Clifton J.
Ozen Magnet High School (AEIS Report, 2004).
The school’s mission is to provide a safe, orderly and well-disciplined atmosphere where all students will be empowered with academic, social, and technological skills enabling them to compete successfully as responsible and productive citizens in a diverse global society. Description of Work Setting Clifton J. Ozen Magnet High School is a school that has a high number of disadvantage students enrolled. The staff is a very diverse group of teachers from different environments. In the last three years the minority of the students made up of 64% of the students.
The research procedure of the academic achievement of minority students in high school mathematics when taught by certified teachers compared to uncertified teachers at Clifton J. Ozen Magnet High School during 2004-2005. The researcher separated the test subjects into two groups. There are two groups that represent the mathematics department at Clifton J. Ozen Magnet High School. Group A represents six teachers that were certified to teach secondary mathematics in Texas (SBCE, 2005).
Group A was the veteran teachers of the mathematic staff. The second group of teachers was named Group B.
Group B represent six mathematic teachers who were not certified to teach secondary mathematics in the state of Texas. Group B was made up of (E. C. ) Emergency Certified or (E. P. ) Emergency Permit personnel (SBEC, 2005).
The members of Group B were not informed of the study, and these were the inexperience teachers that needed guidance. The teaching environment should remain as normal as possible. Group B will be provided mentor teachers, group lesson planning sessions and guidance from the Mathematic Hall Assistant principal, Mr. William Daniels.
Group A and B will be given specific mathematic department mandates to follow in regards to student achievement. Every mathematics teacher administered released TAKS exams, spring 2004, to gauge the effectiveness of teacher instruction, and the broadening of the students’ knowledge base (see Appendix B).
The results from the TAKS exams were recorded, and item analysis was performed. All students’ test results were complied, and reported to the administrative staff. A report was generated to show how each teacher’s student performed (see Appendix C).
Writer’s Role The writer holds a B. S. in K-12 Physical Education and a minor in Health.
The writer has been teaching for 12 years and presently teaching at the researched school for 11 years. The writers’ role at the school is facilitating the dual credit college courses and assistant to the assistant principals. The writer administers all academic achievement for all dual credit students. The writer input and maintains all responsibility for the students’ grades and study hall. The writer is responsible for administering the attendance of all ninth and tenth graders in their after school tutorial program. She is responsible for administering the growth and improves of all ninth and tenth graders state standardizes test scores.
The writer will consult with the teachers of the control groups of the research. Chapter II: Study of the Problem Problem Description Will there be a difference in student achievement when taught by uncertified teachers compared with certified teachers? There is a concern in education regarding the number of uncertified personnel. Teaching is not a career that many people are willing to explore, so it is difficult for principals to hire certified personnel for this reason. Certification does not always means that a person is qualified to teach. Qualified personnel are characterized by the motivation and success of their students.
The research is important to the future approaches to hiring new teachers. It is important information for principals to know whom to hire, and the best methods for training new teachers to be effective in the classroom. Problem Documentation The research will be conducted by quantitative techniques. T. A. K. S. results will be the instrument of measurement. The test was designed to measure individual’s students’ knowledge of mathematics as prescribed by the state of Texas (see Appendix B).
The exam is a good indicator of student knowledge, and educators in the state of Texas designed the test questions.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) guide curriculum design in Texas. The TAKS exam is testing students on the basis of knowledge of the TEKS. Test reliability indicates the consistency of measurement. TAKS test reliabilities are based on internal consisting measures, in particular on the Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20) for tests involving dichotomously scored items and on the stratified coefficient alpha for tests involving a mixture of dichotomous and polytomous (essay prompted short answer) items. Most internal consistency reliabilities are in the high 80’s to low 90’s range (TEA, 2004).
Timeline of the investigation will be the school year 2004-2005. Literature Review Isn’t the enterprise of educating America’s children at least important enough (Chase 1999)? We must acknowledge that in teaching, as in any profession, it is hypocritical to demand top quality unless we are willing to pay for it. Many school districts are responding to the teacher shortage by hiring teachers who are not certified or who lack a college major in their teaching field. Chase 1999 comments, it is absurd for public schools to lower the bar for teacher quality at the same time they abruptly are raising the for student achievement.
The student achievement gap won’t be closed until we close the teaching quality gap, and to do that every school must attract and retain highly qualified teachers (Walsh, 2005).
High attrition rates undermine the teaching continuity, coherence, and community that are so essential to good schools. Urban and rural schools serving poor and minority students have the highest turnover rates, and as a result they have the highest percentages of first-year teachers, the highest percentages of teachers with fewer than five years of the teaching experience and the lowest paid teachers and lowest percentages of accomplished teachers.
Walsh (2005) says these conditions create a vicious cycle in high-need schools that undercut the ability of those schools to attract and retain well-qualified teachers. Educators know that qualified and effective teachers are the most important building blocks for improving student achievement, especially that of “at-risk” students (Rebell, 2004).
High –quality teachers are key to educational opportunity, in the urban and rural schools that educate most low income minority students today, unqualified and under-qualified teachers abound.
In a recent lawsuit over educational adequacy in New York State, the trail court found that 14% of all teachers in New York City’s schools were uncertified and that 31% of all recently hired teachers – over 40% in math and science performed poorly on teacher certification examinations testing for minimum competency. Over the decade, policy makers and business leaders have come to realize what parents have always known, that teachers make the most difference in student achievement (Barnett, 2004).
Thanks to new statistical and analytical methods used by a wide range of researchers, the evidence is mounting that teacher quality accounts for lion’s share of variance in student test scores. Consensus is growing among school reformers that teachers are the most important school-related determinant of student achievement, there is not much more than ephemeral agreement on what we mean by “teaching quality: or what steps we must take to see that every student has access to high-quality teachers. Could race play a role in student achievement?
The racial interaction between teachers and students could influence student performance in several ways (Dee, 2004).
A teacher of the same race may serve as a more effective role model, boosting student’s confidence and enthusiasm for learning. While such role-model effects are widely believed to be important, there is actually little direct empirical evidence that exist (Dee, 2004).
We recognize that some advocates view accountability tests that impose uniform standards of achievement, such as those required by NCLB, as engines of social justice that will force schools to meet the needs of all students (Berry, 2004).
Our schools must be staffed by teachers who have the increasingly sophisticated skills as well as the cultural competence necessary to make learning meaningful for every student. We agree on the urgent need to hold schools accountable for the success of every child, but test alone will not raise achievement to high levels. Causative Analysis One of the major concerns of school districts is the decline of people wanting to be school teachers. It is increasingly difficult to find qualified, as well as certified people to teach school.
An area of particular concern is mathematics, where the higher order thinking skills and problem solving techniques are important to our country’s technological future and success. Why is there a shortage of teachers? According to a 1997 report from the National Center for Educational Statistics, retirement topped the list as a reason for teachers leaving the profession (Southworth, 2000).
The demand for teachers also comes from legislation demanding smaller class sizes, lower pay compared to other technological fields, and discipline problems in our schools today (Southworth, 2000).
School districts scramble to place anyone into classrooms when certified people cannot be found. Principals are required to find certified people, but a legal alternative utilized is hiring people working on alternative teacher certifications (Neighbors, 2001).
The SBEC has approved such programs as Accelerated Certification for Educators – A. C. E to accelerate teachers’ certification, and get qualified and certified people in the classroom. Do hiring uncertified teachers affect student performance?
Is there a major difference between certified teachers instruction compared with uncertified teachers instruction when affecting student achievement? Chapter III – Outcomes and Analysis Goals and Expectations The purpose of Chapter III is to describe the design of the study that will be used to investigate the academic achievement of students on the mathematics state standardize test at the high school level among minority students when taught by certified teachers compared with uncertified teachers.
The procedure used in this study will be outlined including a general description of population size, instrument design, treatment of the data and a detailed explanation of the study. Expected Outcomes There are six specific outcomes that the students, teachers and school district will receive for hiring certified teachers and implementing instructional assistance for uncertified teachers. (1) Students and teachers should have a variety of measurable instructional interventions that could help with increasing and recognizing student accomplishments.
(2) Instructional and organizational methods can be looked at for identifying accountable measurements. (3) Education can accomplish student achievement and success without the huge disconnection between the reality of the law and the rhetoric. (4) Focusing more on instructional interventions that could improve schools and on increasing the capacity of educators to teach differently based on research. (5) Teachers will be encouraged to obtain their certification prior to obtaining a teaching job.
(6) Certified teachers will implement a mentoring program for the uncertified teachers in their department. Measurement of Outcomes The measurement tools that will be used for some of the expected outcome is the state standardized mathematic Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skill test scores from year 2004-2005 academic school year. The classroom assignment of students’ ratio and academic level of mathematics enrolled in the uncertified and certified teachers class roll. The tool used for this is the IBM Advance System 400.
The comparison of prior Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test scores from year 2004-2005. The Academic Excellence Indicator System will be used for the school report card for clarification. Also a survey will be used to view the feelings on the issue of uncertified teachers teaching without certification. Analysis of Results Charts and graphs will be used to show the comparison of the scores from the students enrolled in both uncertified and certified teachers’ classes. Also the comparisons will be used to show the academic level of students’ enrolled into those teachers classes as well.
A survey will correlate with the analyzing results and the use of different non conventional lesson plans and mentoring. Chapter IV – Solution Strategy Statement of Problems The purpose of this study is to investigate the academic achievement of students in high school mathematics among minority students when taught by certified teachers compared with uncertified teachers. Furthermore, fully certified teachers may produce higher levels of student academic achievement than certified teachers (Boe & Cook, 2006).
Studies showed that students of veteran teachers perform better than students of Non-University Certification Programs (Simmons & Steadman, 2007).
A combination of traditional teacher preparation programs and selective, well supported emergency permit programs will supply sufficient numbers of new teachers to meet the future demands (Justice, 2003).
The problem is that students in many schools and states are not meeting the mathematics standards on the state tests with the No Child Left Behind Act due to the ratio of certified teacher verse uncertified teachers.
At the same time that NCLB has given states a mandate to staff their classrooms with “highly qualified teachers,” the federal government is pushing a dangerously narrow definition of the knowledge and skills that today’s teachers need (Berry, Hoke & Hirsch, 2004).
Among the preliminary findings: the recent actions, and in some cases inactions, of the federal government have often led to confusion and uncertainty as to how state and local policy makers ought to proceed to ensure that each student has a ‘highly qualified” teacher (Berry, Hoke & Hirsch, 2004).
The American teacher’s are put in a dysfunctional situation and asked to perform under maladjusted levels. The students are measured and severely punished for not achieving or meeting the set standards by the No Child Left Behind Act. There are several professors, articles and the National Education Association that challenges the No Child Left Behind Act because of the descriptive information that identify schools with low scoring on standardized test scores as nonconformity schools.
There are several professors, articles and the National Education Association that challenges the No Child Left Behind Act because of the descriptive information that identify schools with low scoring on standardized test scores as nonconformity schools. The No Child Left Behind law should be a reauthorized and reevaluated for ‘Transforming education to allow all children to reach their potential is not, primarily, an accountability problem; it’s a teaching and learning problem,’ said Joan L. Herman, another CRESST director and professor of education at UCLA” (Olson 2007).
Those include the lack of evidence that all students can score at the “proficient” level on state tests by 2014, as the law requires; the wide variation in how states define proficiency; and the inability to draw firm conclusions about school quality based on test scores alone” (Olson 2007).
Objective tests are only considered to be effective measures of teacher effectiveness when the tests being used are clearly related to the objectives defined for the courses involved (Cassel, 2000).
Selected Solutions The No Child Left Behind Act should be curriculum based to insure that the students meet the requirements for the state mandated tests.
Also by the year 2014, there should be realistic requirements for the No Child Left Behind Act for passing the state standardized tests. These are approaches that need to made to correct the current position of the No Child Left Behind Act. Next, all teachers should be certified when hired to teach in any school district. No teacher should be allowed to teach without certification. This will ensure that every teacher has met all the approximate requirements to be an educator which would include: is certified or licensed to teach and has a bachelor’s degree and knows the subject(s) he or she teaches.
There should be an implementation of a new teacher mentoring programs for new teachers into the education profession and campus. For example, the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC) has approved such programs as Accelerated Certification for Educators (A. C. E. ) to accelerate teacher certification, and get qualified and certified people in the classroom. The survey results will be posted and emailed to the entire faculty and staff for viewing. This will help future researchers and the administrators realized that we need and want certified teachers on campus. References
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