Tim: I agree with you 100%. Becoming a teacher is a very costly and time-consuming process, especially considering the relatively low salary. In addition to completing two degrees, you have to pay to take three state certification exams ($90 each), get fingerprinted ($100), and pay about $50 for the certificate itself. Plus the requirements are constantly changing - I had a hard time getting straight answers about anything when I was studying to be a teacher.
To clarify my previous comment, NYSED does make reference to "provisional" and "permanent" certification, but this is the old pathway. (I think it changed over around 2006. Anyone certified before then is grandfathered in.) Now it's "initial" and "professional," with the professional certificate requiring 175 hours of professional development every 5 years.
Thanks for the article. :)
Have you ever done an expose on who is one the Cultural Commission, what they are paid and what they have spent?
A fact missing from this account is that Rochester has more schools of education per capita than any other city in the country in an area with steady K-12 enrollment decline. And despite what Dr. Hursch thinks, many are diploma mills and have taken no responsibility for the lack of quality of their graduates' teaching. Another fact missing is that none of the private ed schools in Rochester were willing to submit data on their admissions in a national study on the quality of teacher prep programs. http://www.nctq.org/transparency.do?stateId=33. Easy to claim you are selective and fabulous in the dark. These college kids are taking on a lot of debt--they deserve to know about the quality of their teacher prep program.
Sarah:
Thanks for your comment. If you go to the New York State Education Department website, there is a reference to requirements for "provisional" and "permanent certification." The point I was trying to make: becoming a teacher doesn't end with a 4-year degree; it's an ongoing, time-intensive, and costly process.
Tim
Google Deliberately Dumbing Down and see what Charlotte Iserbyte oberved in the Education Dept. in the 80's. She was fired for being outspoked. This was No child Left Behind and ELA and Math testing (teaching for the test).
The $1.1 million would be far better spent rounding up the fathers of the little darlings and compelling these louts to man up, so that the children's mothers can stay home to care for them.
This is fantastic news! Many of the young women served by the YWCA have been hard pressed to continue work and school without this support! A great thank you to our state elected officials for giving low income families a chance to participate in the workforce and add their talents to making NYS a great place to live and work!
Wishful thinking on the part of some city officials. It's even outside of Artwalk.
So your hard-earned tax dollars will be going to provide handouts to people making $65k (presumably on top of their food stamps, disability checks and housing subsidies) — and oh by the way, laundered through the AFL-CIO! You can't make up this stuff.
@Troll: Funny, but the city has posted a sign at East and Culver reading, "Welcome to Center City". I'll stick with the official demarcation, thank you.
FYI, I do drive by the site daily (several times). I'll grant you it is downright bucolic compared with my block.
At this writing, Tim's piece has been posted for hours, yet no attacks from the right-wing on public education. The public itself, by overwhelming margins (in the 85%, 90% and higher range, for decades), wants our country to have a strong public education system. That is what we want, as a nation and as a community. The public - you know, "us" - has never wavered over the years. The current attacks will ultimately fail; too bad we have to go through this damage at all.
OMG...after the public meeting in Springwater and 400 comments , the state thinks they only need to clarify their intention not to drill on the land??? The intention was perfectly clear from the beginning and thats why people reacted so strongly.
Just put it in writing that oil and gas drilling for forever prohibited/banned on this land. It's that simple and will never be any need to clarify intentions again.
Please note: There is no such thing as "permanent certification" for new teachers in NYS. Once you've completed your Master's and three years of teaching experience, professional certificates must be renewed every five years, contingent upon professional development.
If anybody expressed to me a desire to be a teacher, I would definitely query their motives.
If they want a good job with tenure, I'd suggest they try something else. If they feel called to it, for any number of reasons, they are at least motivated for the right reasons.
As a teacher, I can agree whole-heartedly with many of the claims made in Mr. Macaluso's article. Many of us do feel targeted and abused by many public perceptions. Even though we have Masters' Degrees, people seem to think we're still not professionals. The amount of stress we are under that has almost nothing to do with bringing high-quality education to the kids is tremendous.
Nothing is going to solve the problems in public education if the public doesn't believe in it or us.
Love this area - used to live close by - but 102 units is awfully large. A somewhat scaled back version might just be the ticket. Then it would be a terrific addition to a really nice area.
@j.a.m., this is hardly the "inner city." Drive by it sometime. It looks a lot like the safe confines of your suburban apartment.
I dont see how a parking lot with a garden next to it is a better alternative to Morgans plan. Morgan would bring additional tax revenue, density, and people to a neighborhood where new housing is in demand. Not to mention a dense development will encourage walking over driving in an already walkable area. Nearby Businesses would no doubt prefer Morgans plan also. In my opinion more parking and green space owned by Eastman is not what is needed for this site.
Wait — somebody's willing to put their own money at risk to bring more than a hundred new households to the inner city, and the bureaucrats are giving them a hard time? Excuse me, but that's insane.
So a parking lot is more appropriate for the East Ave Preservation District? The Morgan design acutally appears to have more trees and green stuff, they didn't even have to throw in a vegetable garden.
Indeed Joe Klein helped bring former RCSD Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard to Rochester. Joe had a plan then. He has one now (although in my humble, but informed view, it's a very, very bad plan, and even dangerous in some ways), at least he has a one, which raises the critically important question: WHAT IS THE ROCHESTER BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE CURRENT SUPERINTENDENT'S PLAN? They don't appear to have one, which is a big part of the reason why people like Joe Klein can so easily implement theirs. Bold, courageous, unbought, unbossed, committed leadership is clearly a big part of what's missing in the Rochester City School District.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/change1…
Re: “NOTA opposes apartment plan for University Ave.”
Do you want an economically viable city with a stable population and tax base, or yet another rotting urban wasteland? This kind of mindless, cranky political meddling will end in nothing but misery. It's just insane. The next prospective investor will learn the lesson.
A word to the wise ought to be sufficient: Detroit.