In the last decade, many countries have tried to find ways to evaluate and make teachers accountable for the quality of their work. Although, in America unqualified teachers have increased in the last few years, effective teachers are important because it helps the students in their learning process. The educational system has made many attempts to solve this particular problem. However, this has proven to be difficult. The education for teachers is lacking the curriculum they need to be able to teach their students in higher educational levels (Ingersoll, 1999). Also, the teacher unions are working hard to limit the hiring of new qualified teachers and want the tenured teachers to teach classes that they have little or no schooling for. Lastly there are not qualified teacher available to hire. Simple solutions might be a chal- lenging program to train teachers how to teach effectively, better paid, and the unions should have less authority.

       The lack of education for teachers has been a problem in America since 2005 (Ingersoll, 1999) Studies show that teachers began to have a higher degree of job dissatisfaction and therefore started leaving the teaching profession. This created an unexpected need for teachers in a short amount of time school were will to hire anyone who applied for a job. By doing this students were unable to learn from qualified teachers in specific field.

       The University of Utah has made their teaching classes a lot more difficult by raising their standards which eliminates students who cannot reach those standards.This allows only the more qualified teacher to get their degree. After this kind of teacher is hired schools have seen their students more challenged in the classroom and grades have gone up. Unfortunately, schools still have teachers who did not complete a rigorous university program and are still teaching at substandard levels. School districts have incorporated level changes where a teacher can take classes in the evenings to learn other subjects (Edelman, 2017). But this option is one that few teachers take since it would take up a lot of their free time.

       One of the large issues in the education system is the salary teachers receive annually. Depending on what subject they teach and what grade or level that they teach at, they get paid far less than they should. Since they do get paid far less than other salary job holders across the country, many people choose to pick a different career than teaching just so that they can properly sustain themselves. Since there is such a low amount of people choosing to be teachers there is a huge need for teachers in schools to meet the needs of all the students (Strauss, 2013). A way that schools try to get more teachers available is to offer students training to be teachers emergency contracts to teach immediately, even if they are not qualified to do so (Rado, 2014). This is a common practice done in states where there teacher shortage is highest. While going through this loophole to get more teachers available it makes an even bigger issue of having unqualified teachers in the classroom as most don't go back and get their certification after being hired on.

       In the United States teacher unions were set up to protect the rights of teachers across the nation. While the intentions of the unions were honorable they have become corrupted over time and have made the classroom a far worse place to learn. Today the union's goal is to keep those who have stayed longest at schools keep their jobs when their are cutbacks in schools. While this can potentially be a good thing, it can also be a huge issue. In the unions they have a "first hired, first fired" approach to teachers during cutbacks (Edelman, 2017). This means that an unqualified teacher who has been teaching for a longer amount of time will be kept on vs. a brand new teacher who has finished all of their credentials. The brand new teacher will most likely be fired even though they are more qualified than the teacher who has been at the school longer (Edelman, 2017). This ensures that unqualified teachers stay in the system to give an unqualified education to their students.

       Of all these solutions, a challenging program to train teachers how to teach effectively, better paid teachers, and the unions should have less authority. I believe that the unions should have less authority is the best because unions do not require a higher excellence in teaching since they just want every teacher to keep their job no matter how poorly they perform as teacher. If we either reform the unions or get rid of them entirely, unqualified teachers will no longer have a place in schools across America (Ingersoll, 1999).

Exercises

References

Edelman, A. (2017). Problem: A massive teacher shortage. Solution: The Philippines. [online] NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/problem-massive-teacher-shortage-solution-philippines-n793831 [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].

Ingersoll, R. (1999). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Repository.upenn.edu. Available at: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=gse_pubs [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].

Rado, D. and Gutowski, C. (2014). Study shows many teachers not credentialed in their subjects. [online] chicagotribune.com. Available at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-out-of-field-teachers-20140806-story.html [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].

Strauss, V. (2013). How the public is deceived about ‘highly qualified teachers’. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/08/27/how-the-public-is-deceived-about-highly-qualified-teachers/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].