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A proposal that would
have meant all teachers in Alaska would have to prove they
know how to teach reading was voted down by the Alaska State
Board of Education on Friday.
The proposal was opposed
by a broad swath of educators across the state. In
September, the Fairbanks school board passed a resolution
opposing the plan.
The proposal would have
mandated that all teachers in Alaska take an online class to
teach them how to teach reading. Alternatively, they
could have taken a test showing they already have a grasp on
the information covered in the course.
The state board received
522 pages of written comments on the proposal, nearly all of
it in opposition to the plan. The opposition came from
teachers, principals, local school districts and school
boards including the Fairbanks North Star Borough Board of
Education, the Anchorage School District, the Juneau School
District and the Bering Strait School District.
Teachers unions across
the state, including the Fairbanks chapter of the National
Education Association, opposed the reading course, as did
the Alaska State Literacy Association and the College of
Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Many of the comments
argued that the new regulation was a financial burden on
teachers, who would be required to pay for the $900 online
reading course. A number of teachers called the
proposed class an insult and an insinuation that they didn't
know how to teach reading. Some suggested that the
state should be focused on math or writing as opposed to
reading. Of the three, reading is the area Alaska
students score highest on in yearly standardized tests.
"We're doing pretty well
in reading," Fairbanks Assistant Superintendent Roxa Hawkins
said. "We do a lot of professional development on it
already."
Bill Bjork, the president
of the Alaska National Education Association, echoed the
sentiments of many of those opposed to the reading course
when he told the members of the state board during that
body's meeting Friday morning in Anchorage, that, if passed,
the new regulation would scare prospective teachers away
from Alaska.
In order to become a
certified teacher in Alaska, Bjork pointed out, candidates
already have to pass a standardized test after completing
college, as well as take two mandated courses: one in Alaska
history, the other in cross-cultural communications.
The reading course, Bjork said, would be one more obstacle.
"They're already coming
into the state with one of the worst pension systems in the
country," Bjork said. "We must remain competitive. We
want the best and brightest to continue to teach our
children."
Steve Laroe, the
president of the Fairbanks Education Association, said the
special reading course wasn't necessary for most teachers,
especially those who didn't exclusively teach reading or at
all. Math teachers should be focused on math, science
teachers should be focused on science, he said, and should
leave the intense reading instruction to specially trained
reading teachers.
"We have reading
specialists at the secondary level with whom individual
students can work with," he said. "They are well-trained
people."
State education officials
contended when they proposed the regulation that all
teachers are reading teachers since reading is necessary for
the understanding of any subject. |
