First we have had

[Racket_Man]

Students cheating on test (this has been going on since the dawn of human kind). Then there were the scandals involving teachers either coaching students using actual tests OR changing test answsers to make the district look better

NOW we have Teachers paying ringers to take their certification tests.

and people wonder why some teachers are literally unqualified for their jobs.

[Rapscallion]

Meh - old hat. My chemistry teacher was found, some years later, to have borrowed his brother's qualifications. That's about a quarter of a century ago.

Rapscallion

[Panacea]

You have to supply a thumb print to take the NCLEX RN. That's kinda hard to fake (a criminal background check is completed before you get your ticket to test).

[violiav]

I read about a guy, back in the 90s, that was functionally illiterate that somehow became a math teacher. By the time he was found out he'd been teaching for something like 20years. North San Diego county, I think.

[HYHYBT]

To go that long, he *must* have been doing a much better job than you'd expect. I wonder how he managed.

[violiav]

Color me surprised, I found the guy. Interesting. http://www.johncorcoranfoundation.org/john-corcoran.php


eta- at least I think so, I read the article when I was in high school. I'm pretty sure this was the guy though, I can't find any others with a similar story.

[Mytical]

To go that long, he *must* have been doing a much better job than you'd expect. I wonder how he managed.

He could be like me. Years ago, on my first college attempt..I was taking Algebra..because it was a requirement for my degree. Now I could have tested out of it easily enough, but I wanted a refresher. I ended up qualifying to be a tutor for the class I was taking (figure that one out). Last two weeks of the class a person who had been failing the whole time came to me and asked me for some help. I worked with him, off the books, for two weeks. In two weeks time I helped him get an A on his final exam (worth about 75% of the total grade for the class). He told me I explained it much clearer then the instructor. Then again, everybody I tutored said the same, and would come up to me and get me to explain things the teacher said in class.

Weird thing is I got a B in that class.

The moral of the story is, sometimes it takes somebody who knows the material AND how to translate it to where somebody who doesn't can understand it, to be a teacher.

[Panacea]

The moral of the story is, sometimes it takes somebody who knows the material AND how to translate it to where somebody who doesn't can understand it, to be a teacher.

I get told that by my students all the time; they'll like my classes better because I am able to explain things in a way they can grasp easier than some of the other profs where I work.

Occasionally, it'll work the other way and one of my team partners is able to reexplain things in a way that I'm not able to in order for students to "get it."

That is the secret of teaching. But that doesn't mean I think people who are unqualified should be allowed to do it just because they know how to engage a classroom. There's far more to what I do than that.

[Greenday]

Quite a few kids I tutored in classes I was taking at the time got better grades at the end of the semester than I did. Kinda sad.

Doesn't surprise me. With the lowering level of education quality in this country, it really isn't a surprise at all.

[HYHYBT]

For some reason, the direction this thread has taken reminds me of something from the psychology class I had to take summer before last. We had to learn the parts of a neuron. The instructor said something like "I don't know why books always describe dendrites as 'tree-like structures.' They don't look much like trees to me. But they're *always* described that way, so remember it."

Well, it makes great sense to me, seeing as that's where the structure's name comes from.