Tapping Experts to Teach

Four years ago, I was dismayed by the terrible math education my son was getting at a Seattle public K-8 school; for two years in a row, he had had the same incompetent teacher. So I pulled together a committee of similarly concerned parents and started a before-school math program. I put an ad on Craigslist and received résumés from a dozen qualified math teachers. Students were divided into two classes of 15. They paid about $250 each for the school year to cover the teacher’s salary. Over the course of their one 45-minute class each week, they completed an entire Algebra I curriculum. Many who had previously hated math became big fans of the subject.

At a time when so many of the jobs available in our region require a high level of math and science, our public schools are failing us. What chance do we have of graduating students in such important fields as chemistry, physics and computer science when so many give up on math by the eighth grade? 

Key to the success of our before-school math class was the teacher we ended up hiring: She had a Ph.D. in philosophy and logic, and had taught math at the college level in California. She wanted to teach in the Seattle Public Schools system, but couldn’t get a job because she didn’t have the requisite credentials.

Public schools need to take advantage of our region’s wealth of science and math talent. We should give public school principals, like private school principals, the authority to pick the best people available to teach math and science classes, regardless of what their credentials may be. No doubt there are many retired engineers and scientists who would enjoy a second career teaching in the schools. They would not only understand their subjects better than many credentialed teachers, but they might also even be able to get students excited about careers in their fields. Many youth avoid those fields because of the tough work required. But few realize that once they get over the hurdle of acquiring an education, prospects for an exciting and lucrative career are higher in the sciences than in liberal arts.

Former Microsoft executive Scott Oki has been an aggressive advocate for school reform not just on the question of certification but also on a range of issues outlined in his book, Outrageous Learning: An Education Manifesto. Oki’s next step is to create a parents’ union, a membership organization that would raise money to represent the interests of parents and kids to counter the influence of principals’ unions and teachers’ unions. It’s a great idea. Our failure in Washington to pursue innovative solutions to improving schools is particularly punishing today because this intransigence has prevented us from gaining access to grants offered under President Obama’s Race to the Top program. At a time when our schools are in crisis, we can’t afford to let unions and bureaucratic inertia stymie progress. There are smart, obvious solutions that we fail to pursue at our peril.

Leslie D. Helm, editor

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