Teachers are driving force behind student achievement

Spectrum/Michael Carson

The American public school system has educated more United States residents and to a higher degree than at any other time in our history.

Currently 85 percent of those 25 years of age and older, have graduated from high school. That is up 1 percent from the year before. The number of people with at least a bachelor's degree is 27 percent - this is an increase of 1 percent from the previous year. This reflects a continuing decade-long rise. The increase in graduating numbers equates to more income for those graduates.

There is good news about public schools in Alaska as well. Student achievement is at an all-time high. Alaskan students' SAT scores are among the nation's best.

Alaska has the fourth-highest verbal, fourth-highest math and fourth-highest combined SAT college entrance examination scores.

Those SAT scores are also rising. Since 1990, Alaska's verbal, math and combined SAT scores have all risen faster than the national average. Graduating Alaska students are getting higher scores on their math SAT college entrance examinations, with an increase of 37 percent since 2001. The proportion of graduating Alaskan students' SAT scores has increased 7 percent since 1994. A high score is defined as 600 or above.

American public school teachers are one of the single most important contributing factors toward student achievement scores. They are involved in students' lives every day. Teachers are not only leading the academic charge, they support students in many different areas of their lives.

Teachers accommodate a wide range of ability groups, and in some cases have to individualize specific programs for special-needs students.

All certified public school teachers hold a bachelor's degree. Fifty percent hold a master's degree as their highest degree. Five percent hold a national board certification. In Alaska, the number of teachers being honored by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards has nearly tripled since 1999.

Every teacher has to renew his or her teacher certification every five years. This involves taking six college credits - three undergraduate and three upper division courses, or graduate level - and now all public school teachers have to be "highly qualified" by 2006.

That will require teachers to take a test in all the subjects they teach if they want to continue teaching any or all those subjects.

Another means is if teachers can provide a "highly objective uniform state standard of evaluation." This documents years of experience, certifications, college degrees, post-graduate courses and leadership positions in public schools and the educational community.

Many American public school teachers, including many in the Valley, have already taken a content/practice and procedures test, or provided the documentation for the HOUSSE to secure their "highly qualified" status.

Yet challenges remain. Ethnic groups and groups of other races trail behind whites in educational degrees. The disparity is narrowing, but a gap still exists.

We have slightly more women than men with high school diplomas or an equivalency degree. Unfortunately, more men are dropping out and not completing their degrees, although more men have college degrees than women.

The challenge is clear. We will need more public school teachers to meet the challenges of tomorrow. In fact, we will need 2.2 million new teachers in the next 10 years because of teachers' attrition and retirement.

More significantly, it will be student enrollment increases over the next decade that will be the driving force for the call for additional teachers.

To close the educational gap for all groups, we, as a community, need to encourage our children of every background to make education their priority.

We need to open all the educational doors that in the past may have been closed for some.

We need to encourage our highly academically inclined to pursue teaching as their vocation.

We need new teachers who are willing to dedicate themselves, as so many teachers have, to continue to educate our future generations.

We need to raise the level of appreciation and respect that public school teachers truly deserve for giving their heart and soul to their profession.

We need to petition for full funding for our educational needs, and inflation-proof those monies to ensure a full return for our children.

By supporting our students and teachers and securing full funding, we can continue doing the great job that public education is doing now and most importantly, in the future.

Michael P. Carson is a 30-year public school veteran.