Even hairdressers complete a uniform course of study and take an examination before they are licensed. Our children deserve the assurance that their teacher is prepared and qualified. Accreditation is voluntary and not all colleges of education attain it. The intricacies of teaching a child to read, to solve math problems, or to understand scientific concepts should not be a trial and error proposition, added Wise. The quality of a teacher s preparation, and his or her performance and knowledge, is the key to a child s education.
Parents can play an important role in demanding qualified teachers.
If they ask questions about their children s teachers, officials will have to begin to take the steps necessary to ensure that every child is taught by a competent, caring, and qualified teacher. The standards include mechanisms for candidates to improve their skills over time as they listen to feedback from peers, professors, and a variety of P-12 teachers who observe them regularly. Parents are usually unaware of the qualifications of their child s teacher, mostly because the current system obscures that information, added Wise. Only those who meet increasingly rigorous requirements based on demonstrated performance and subject matter knowledge should be given the title teacher. Others who are not qualified teachers should be known by a different title, such as para-teacher or instructor.