Show Survey Shows that Teachers Lack Preparation By Jake Nelson Feature Editor The Simpsons is always quick to joke about t teachers who are under- under qualified unfortunately these jokes may hit a little too close to home A recent survey from the Education Education Education tion Department shows that four out of five teachers dont don't feel ready to teach nowadays More than a third of the teachers say that either they dont don't have a degree in the subject they teach or that they didn't spend enough time training gaining in that subject The Th survey which was answered by teachers nationwide questioned questioned questioned ques ques- teachers about their college studies parental support training and certificates Overall 38 completed their bachelors bachelor's or masters master's degrees in specific fields 37 had majored in general education and 18 had degrees in general subjects like math education Only 20 of the teachers with a bilin bilingual ual or special ed student in their class leIt well-prepared well enough to tech them And despite the toe fact that 78 of the teachers had training in technology only 20 felt well- well prepared to use those skills in the classroom Martin Orland of the departments department's departments department's departments department's depart depart- ments ment's National Center for Education Statistics commented These findings findings findings find find- ings are particularly unsettling given the increasing diversity of our nations nation's students The survey shows the need to better better better bet bet- ter train teachers so that they can keep up with today's changing class class- rooms In 1998 new teachers were more likely lively to have majored in academic fields designed for changing technology technology technology ogy as well as smaller classrooms However only new teachers have full state certificates whereas 99 of veteran teachers do President Clinton proposed spending more than million to hire and train teachers impoverished school districts and recruit teachers for areas heavily populated by American American American Amer Amer- ican Indians In his speech President Clinton criticized using emergency teaching certificates however only 1 of the teachers surveyed reported using such certificates Of that 1 most of those were issued to new teachers and teachers in schools attended mostly by minorities It is unfortunate that teachers feel feela a lack of preparation however many teens have always felt that their teachers didn't understand anything like how a student is working so much that they dont don't have time to study |