I would wish that there were enough fully qualified teachers to teach the special ed students in Oakland. Where they come from or what color they are is of no consequence to me. The only thing that matters to me is whether the kids are getting what they need.If it makes you feel any better, most of the Teach for America interns are white and American. And your tax dollars go to those programs, with a never ending supply of new enthusiastic college grads, who teach until they figure out what they really want to do in life.

I would think #18 would not be saying that if her autistic child was about to have a 22 year old teaching intern with no classroom experience as a teacher for the rest of the year. I would guess that she would be upset. Reality is that there is a shortage of fully credentialed special education teachers. I believe about half of the special ed teachers in Oakland are interns.

The shortage is worse in OUSD than other districts, because they don’t pay enough. Other districts all have higher pay for teachers and have an additional stipend for special ed teachers, just so they are able to attract and retain them. See, they actually are not keen on hiring people with no experience to teach special ed students. In OUSD, not only is it okay, but it is their policy to hire all the interns available before even considering fully credentialed or experienced teachers to fill positions. Please keep in mind that the interns they hire have not even begun teacher training programs; they take the classes concurrently.

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Our “tax dollars” pay for this salary and benefits, Oakland Teacher and so, yes, I *can* and will feel free to say whatever I’d like about the subject of “Bambi” and her continued employment in Oakland. As lovely a person as she might be, I would rather have my tax dollars go toward the employment of an American citizen. I would even go so far as to say that, in this economy, I would support tightening the H1B requirements, not relaxing them.

I have posted evidence time and again that experience after a certain point is way overblown, The personality type is much more important .
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The phrase you quoted included “with no experience” – and the rest of your post seems to imply that someone with *no* experience is just as good as, or better than, someone with *some* experience, depending on personality type. I don’t believe that was your intention or your view, though.

Now that my older son has gone pre-k and K-12 in Spec. Ed. and main stream full-inclusion classes (with necessary supports for his autism), graduating last June and starting at CSUEB in September, I can provide piles of anecdotes about the differences between the fresh-out-of-college teachers and the more experienced ones who have taught him in OUSD for the last 14 years. Personalities are a factor of course, but I’ve never met a teacher who was in a Spec. Ed. position for any reason other than wanting to work with and help kids with a real need. One just doesn’t chose this career if one doesn’t have that kind of personality.

The differences between *some* experience and *no* experience is huge. Sometimes it’s frightening to realize one’s child has made no progress at all in a whole school year, because the brand-new teacher with no experience, but a wonderful, warm, loving personality, couldn’t handle the job. (1st grade Communication Handicap special day class – and she left Oakland at the end of the year to take a position in Alameda, where I hope she had the supports she needed from more experienced teachers, and learned to be the teacher I knew she wanted to be for her students.) Then we watched a brand-new teacher come in and face the same no-experience hurdles, but four years later, she’s still running the ASIP program, and she’s a vastly improved teacher four years later when we celebrated our success attending my son’s (and several of her other students’) graduation from Skyline.

Fine, the evidence says the differences between 30 years experience and 10 years aren’t significant. But the difference between the 30-year teacher or the 10-year teacher, and the zero-years in the classroom teacher, that’s got to be very significant.

(And I’ve never met Bambi – I suspect she’s been working with students on the lower-functioning end of the autism spectrum, while my son is considered high-functioning and has been grouped with mostly Asperger’s peers.)

Surely, you been on this blog long enough to know that people would rather attack the poster than the argument they present. Nextset clearly has views not common in Oakland or California for that matter. Instead of engage his arguments, it’s easier to attack the person, particularly when so many would agree. I often don’t agree with his posts, but try to attack the argument. If we limit ourselves to attacking the person, we undermine our own credibility as open-minded thinkers IMHO.

The other thing you see here is an inability to separate a law about process from the result. Bambi might be teacher of the year, but the question is whether the law should be enforced. If not, let’s change the law or get the Congressional exception. Otherwise, it’s just whining about the result. Whining has it’s place, but hopefully it’s short-lived. With so many out of work, I would hope people would see beyond personal upset and respect the policy objective of the law.

Frankly, it’s the nonsense that treats every teacher with the same credential as an equal that’s part of the problem. Bambi should be able to argue that she is better than any American teacher available, but alas our systems aren’t set up for her to provide any real evidence of that.

Someone ought to work on that too. Whining should be for the pre-teens I see all over. Adults should be about solutions.