The long term results of lowering standards

A key question for Indiana Citizens is "why should we care?" Well, here's a shot: The proposed new changes in teacher licensure will result in new teachers being less prepared to teach all children. They will not be as ready to teach children who learn in a variety of ways. They will tend to teach as they learned which is most often lecture (remember these?). This can only result in maintaining or widening the achievement gap since children from diverse cultures often learn in ways that are different from the traditional ways of teaching.

The proposed new changes in teacher education licensure will lower standards for teachers and teacher education programs. The dropout rate during the first 5 years of teaching for new teachers who are not well prepared to address all the challenges of the classroom, not just know the content, is much higher than for those who have been better prepared in how to teach. We do not need to create a “revolving door” in our classrooms but need to prepare teachers who will stay in the profession.

The long term results of lowering the standards for teacher licensure is “failing” schools. We need to protect our schools from being doomed to failure by not placing teachers in the classrooms who do not understand how children learn.

The long term results of lowering teacher standards is that the status quo will be maintained and the education system will not be able to help children from diverse backgrounds improve their social status through education. This isn't just a good idea BTW....it's the foundation of our democracy.