Another aspect of requiring advanced degrees is the continuation of student loan debt. I work in the mortgage industry and see many teachers with student loan payments that exceed their car payments. If a teacher is married to another teacher, monthly payments can equal or exceed the mortgage payment they are applying for.
The system in my state requires the continuing education to advance up the pay scale. This system guantees income for universities on the backs of the teachers.
This makes some amount of intuitive sense. Why should the ability to pass calculus III or do advanced matrix manipulation be correlated with someones ability to teach HS algebra?
There is no real mechanism by which the benefits of a teacher with collegiate-level knowledge would even show up in metrics designed to assess a student's grasp of k-12 level knowledge. The latter sort of knowledge builds on the former, not the other way around.
If one considers the actual scenarios in which a teacher with a subject-relevant degree would have an advantage over someone with only a HS diploma and a teaching certification, then it quickly becomes clear that a teacher with knowledge "surplus to requirement" would only benefit those students seeking knowledge "surplus to requirements". There is no reason to expect that a teacher's ability to "teach towards the test" should be correlated with their ability to answer questions beyond the bounds of that test.
The benefits of teachers with higher education would probably show up more in AP scores and students having a better performance in college. However, it seems wrong to say its specfically an "issue" of college expectations. If shop class made a grand return, complete with a standardized test for "basic practical skills any HS graduate should know", then there's no real reason to think Master Electrician hired on as teacher would do better at "teaching towards the test" than a competent general contractor.
Am I misinterpreting the first graph or do high school teachers seem to get worse with time, to about the same degree that elementary and middle school teachers improve? This is surprising to me
Another aspect of requiring advanced degrees is the continuation of student loan debt. I work in the mortgage industry and see many teachers with student loan payments that exceed their car payments. If a teacher is married to another teacher, monthly payments can equal or exceed the mortgage payment they are applying for.
The system in my state requires the continuing education to advance up the pay scale. This system guantees income for universities on the backs of the teachers.
This makes some amount of intuitive sense. Why should the ability to pass calculus III or do advanced matrix manipulation be correlated with someones ability to teach HS algebra?
There is no real mechanism by which the benefits of a teacher with collegiate-level knowledge would even show up in metrics designed to assess a student's grasp of k-12 level knowledge. The latter sort of knowledge builds on the former, not the other way around.
If one considers the actual scenarios in which a teacher with a subject-relevant degree would have an advantage over someone with only a HS diploma and a teaching certification, then it quickly becomes clear that a teacher with knowledge "surplus to requirement" would only benefit those students seeking knowledge "surplus to requirements". There is no reason to expect that a teacher's ability to "teach towards the test" should be correlated with their ability to answer questions beyond the bounds of that test.
The benefits of teachers with higher education would probably show up more in AP scores and students having a better performance in college. However, it seems wrong to say its specfically an "issue" of college expectations. If shop class made a grand return, complete with a standardized test for "basic practical skills any HS graduate should know", then there's no real reason to think Master Electrician hired on as teacher would do better at "teaching towards the test" than a competent general contractor.
Am I misinterpreting the first graph or do high school teachers seem to get worse with time, to about the same degree that elementary and middle school teachers improve? This is surprising to me
It would be useful to rerun this research in a first class education system like Shanghai where all teachers have advanced degrees.
How can you compare outcomes if ALL teachers have advanced degrees?