A Superintendent Submits... Certification Audit

A LYS Superintendent submits the following:

SC,

This information needs to get out soon. I have yet to find a campus administrator in a small district that knows this information.

Each district or campus needs to do a campus level review of employee certification. Do this in an Excel spreadsheet and update it yearly. The link to SBEC VirtCert is:

http://www.sbec.state.tx.us/sbeconline/virtcert.asp

Most people are familiar with the certification site and use it frequently. Once you have this information, you will need details of teaching assignments, which means master schedules for secondary schools and teaching assignments for elementary schools.

Next, you need the following document:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5830&menu_id=865&menu_id2=794

Once you arrive at this page, find the link that says Teacher Assignment Chart.

This chart is broken down by grade level: elementary, middle school, and high school. Note that middle schools are further broken down into Self Contained and Departmentalized. My guess is virtually every junior high out there is Departmentalized.

Now, look at the teaching assignment in the left column, and then look at which certificates are valid to teach the listed course. DO NOT DEVIATE. The language on the certificate MUST exactly match the language in the Certification column. Some certificates have very similar wording, but can not be used to teach the exact same subjects.

This process gets tricky because many teachers hold certificates that are no longer available. DO NOT ASSUME that because an old certificate seems very similar to a more currently issued certificate that the two certificates entitle the teachers in question to teach the exact same courses. In many cases this is not true.

For example, there are some older Theater certifications that can be used to teach speech, and there are some more current Theater certifications that may not be eligible to teach speech. If in doubt call SBEC.

Review your teachers for each class they are assigned. If everthing matches up, that's great. If not, develop a corrective action plan and fix it this year. You may find some people need to go take certification tests, so I would do this soon so as to give them time to resolve any problems.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

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A Reader Asks... (Brezina's Rule)

In regards to the Brezina related posts, a reader asks:

“Why is it so hard for school systems to understand the exact quote...'If it is not right for kids, it is wrong.’”

SC Response
This seemingly simple question has a very painful answer. The belief that schools are about students is a myth. Schools are really about adult convenience. Now before you get indignant, I will present three common (and near universal) proof points.

Proof Point #1: The master schedule. Master schedules are built for adults, not students. If master schedules were built for students, we would shuffle the schedule many times a year to address student needs. Instead, schedules are built to reward, punish and/or reduce the workload of adults. Ask anyone who worked for me and they will tell you that the schedule was a fluid instrument that changed at any time there was a compelling student need (this is also why all of my staff had at least two certifications).

Proof Point #2: Annual appraisals. Annual appraisals have next to no correlation to student improvement. Notice, I didn’t write student "performance"? Let me explain. Was the performance of your campus essentially the same as last year? Did you receive any “exceeds expectations” ratings on your annual appraisal? Why? If your system is about students, then the performance of the prior year is the new expectation. To exceed that expectation, you must significantly improve. Otherwise, I appreciate the effort and at best you met my expectation.

Proof Point #3: Teaching assignments. How are teaching assignments doled out on your campus? Let me take a wild guess. The most experienced teachers teach either the highest grade levels, and/or the most motivated (GT, Honors, AP, etc.) students. The rookie teachers teach the weakest students and the weak teachers are shuffled off to non-tested subjects. If your campus is about students, the best teachers teach the weakest students, always. I always put the best teacher I ever worked with (Coach John Boyd) with my most academically fragile students. ALL DAY LONG. And all he produced was successful students, semester after semester.

Being about students is hard work, everyday. Most people don’t want to work that hard. And if leadership does not commit to the concept, our most academically fragile students die a death of 1000 convenient cuts.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…