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That isn't the case in either Texas or Washington. All your higher education credits and degrees count towards your salary scale in both states, not just education degrees. How do I know? My masters degree was in marine resource management and it counted in both states such that I ended up on the pay scale with MA+45 in both TX and WA.
This was in North Carolina abouit 20 years ago. My advanced degrees counted toward subject qualification but not for salary purposes.
In WA it is the State Office of Public Instruction that tracks all of the educational credits and clock hours that districts use to generate their salary schedules. So school districts can see where you are in terms of educational hours just by checking your license on the state site. But the local districts negotiate the salary schedules with the unions.
But I have never heard of any district that only counted degrees in education.
My experience when I attempted it -- there was a difference between official policy and what those doing the hiring did. My kids' high school, rather than hire one of the many retired scientists or engineers around here to be a physics teacher, instead assigned it to the coach as an additional duty. I mean after all, what the difference between a degree in Physics vs a degree in Phys Ed? They both have "Phys" in them, right?
My experience when I attempted it -- there was a difference between official policy and what those doing the hiring did. My kids' high school, rather than hire one of the many retired scientists or engineers around here to be a physics teacher, instead assigned it to the coach as an additional duty. I mean after all, what the difference between a degree in Physics vs a degree in Phys Ed? They both have "Phys" in them, right?
Ok I'll say it.
What's the problem with this thread? All of the people here looking at teaching in the US public schools as some kind of "Plan B." Didn't go to college to be a teacher, never were student teachers, never taught in a traditional US public school, looking for an income and let's guess: summer and Christmas off. Full of content knowledge and zero to no ability to run a classroom or motivate young people, the kind of adult that thinks, hey, I love kids, I even had children, I could do this no problem.
It rarely, rarely works. The kids smell blood in the water and they chew you up and spit you out. The staff resents your know-it-all attitude (when you clearly don't know how to do your job), and worse is the person who have a bachelors in a field (science, math) where they know their stuff but have zero ability to creatively convey the knowledge to a class of kids.
In short, you need the training, one that you can only get from a legit university K-12 teaching program. With real published professors with years of experience with boots on the ground, who have seen it all and can guide you through it. So obviously, Grand Canyon Univ or Univ of Phoenix won't cut it. Take it seriously and don't do this important training on your laptop in your PJs.
Can you find work as a teacher otherwise? Sure. You'll always find some stateside district desperate for warm bodies to fill the slot, but the good ones won't touch you with a ten foot pole without the background. If that's what and why you are doing this for, I pity you and you're dragging the profession down. Instead, be serious about it and love it: go to school, get the training, take it seriously: this isn't some random full-time 9-5 gig you find on LinkedIn. If you love it, it becomes your life. And if you're lucky, it will be one of the greatest things that ever happened to you.
For 29 years as a K-12 HS teacher I've seen teachers sign up for their Plan B for all the wrong reasons...you're wasting the kids' time and your colleagues' time and your community's time and your administrator's. And you simply will not survive. Or you'll be a crappy teacher. Or worse, you'll blame the school and the district for not mentoring you enough. When you have zero training going in. Because you don't think it's that important since you "know your content" so it "won't be that hard to be a teacher."
Thanks for the vent, all. I love my profession and love the kids and I hate what's happening to public K-12s in this country with nonstop alternative licenses and the watering down of pedagogical approach.
Ok I'll say it.
What's the problem with this thread? All of the people here looking at teaching in the US public schools as some kind of "Plan B." Didn't go to college to be a teacher, never were student teachers, never taught in a traditional US public school, looking for an income and let's guess: summer and Christmas off. Full of content knowledge and zero to no ability to run a classroom or motivate young people, the kind of adult that thinks, hey, I love kids, I even had children, I could do this no problem.
It rarely, rarely works. The kids smell blood in the water and they chew you up and spit you out. The staff resents your know-it-all attitude (when you clearly don't know how to do your job), and worse is the person who have a bachelors in a field (science, math) where they know their stuff but have zero ability to creatively convey the knowledge to a class of kids.
In short, you need the training, one that you can only get from a legit university K-12 teaching program. With real published professors with years of experience with boots on the ground, who have seen it all and can guide you through it. So obviously, Grand Canyon Univ or Univ of Phoenix won't cut it. Take it seriously and don't do this important training on your laptop in your PJs.
Can you find work as a teacher otherwise? Sure. You'll always find some stateside district desperate for warm bodies to fill the slot, but the good ones won't touch you with a ten foot pole without the background. If that's what and why you are doing this for, I pity you and you're dragging the profession down. Instead, be serious about it and love it: go to school, get the training, take it seriously: this isn't some random full-time 9-5 gig you find on LinkedIn. If you love it, it becomes your life. And if you're lucky, it will be one of the greatest things that ever happened to you.
For 29 years as a K-12 HS teacher I've seen teachers sign up for their Plan B for all the wrong reasons...you're wasting the kids' time and your colleagues' time and your community's time and your administrator's. And you simply will not survive. Or you'll be a crappy teacher. Or worse, you'll blame the school and the district for not mentoring you enough. When you have zero training going in. Because you don't think it's that important since you "know your content" so it "won't be that hard to be a teacher."
Thanks for the vent, all. I love my profession and love the kids and I hate what's happening to public K-12s in this country with nonstop alternative licenses and the watering down of pedagogical approach.
Thank you. Very well stated. And real.
Let me add one thing: It's far less about "content" than most people realize. I know that will sound odd to some. But I had 2 degrees in geology, with associated course work in weather and meteorology, as well as astronomy. I then taught 9th grade earth science for 13 years. I would estimate that if you took all the content that I learned in college about the earth sciences, in the classroom I didn't even use 5% of that knowledge base. It was the one reason that at least once in a while I enjoyed a GT class of students because I could go at least a little bit deeper. Teaching in public schools is mostly about teaching...not as much about content as many would assume. It's about getting students open to learning. It's about teaching them how to learn, how to solve problems. And you learn that in 3 ways -- in college "prep" courses about teaching, through student teaching, and then learning by doing.
The point is that an effective teacher needs to be qualified to teach and be qualified in the subject matter. Just because you have a degree in education does not make you a physicist or effective in teaching physics. And just having a degree in physics doesn't make you a teacher. You have to be both.
Your resentment of more qualified people is apparent. Welcome to my ignore list.
The point is that an effective teacher needs to be qualified to teach and be qualified in the subject matter. Just because you have a degree in education does not make you a physicist or effective in teaching physics. And just having a degree in physics doesn't make you a teacher. You have to be both.
Your resentment of more qualified people is apparent. Welcome to my ignore list.
No, he made his point. You have a somewhat different point.
Every high school science teacher I worked with over the years had a degree in the science they taught (earth sciences, biology, chemistry, physics) with at least a minor in education.
No, he made his point. You have a somewhat different point.
Every high school science teacher I worked with over the years had a degree in the science they taught (earth sciences, biology, chemistry, physics) with at least a minor in education.
Most states actually require that.
Here in WA, to get a secondary science teacher certification you need to (1) pass the science teaching certification test, and (2) have a certain minimum number of college credits in the sciences. You don't necessarily need a degree or undergrad degree in a science field. But they will go through your transcript and make sure that you have enough science credits before you are given that certification. The amount of science credit required is roughly equal to what is required for a major in some science field. But they can be spread across undergrad and graduate levels.
And schools need to have a certain high percentage of their teachers certified in their subject area in order to meet state standards. So they can maybe have a couple of teachers filling in and teaching subjects the aren't certified in, but not very many.
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