[NLA] Certification, state-approval, and the AELS

[Eileen Eckert]

The certification issue is in some ways a microcosm of local vs. state 
control of all the AELS issues.

I believe state-approved certification is an idea with good intentions 
behind it, but the more codified and formalized the process becomes for 
certifying effective teachers, the less flexibility there is at the local 
(and individual) level. The higher the level (state or national) of this 
codification, the less open it is to the influences of lessons learned both 
in programs and in the field as a whole. If there is consensus that work at 
the local level is what's most important then the role of the state should 
be:
1. To eliminate as much as possible its own bureaucratic load on local 
programs,
2. Wherever possible, to streamline the bureaucracy that is imposed on local 
programs through the state by the feds (and others?) through mechanisms such 
as David's proposal to implement a common funding cycle, and
3. To support (but not prescribe or control) continuous improvement in 
services to learners through program and staff development that is "bottom 
up"--responsive to the needs of learners, teachers, administrators (speaking 
for their own learning needs, not those of their teachers), and programs.

Well-meaning state and national efforts to improve the system by 
establishing standards that must be met and ways of demonstrating 
accountability may include all the right words and all the "best practices," 
but they can never take into account all the contingencies at the local 
level. They may help the worst programs recognize what they're not doing, 
but they also keep the best fettered by mandates, and they direct attention 
away from the learners and toward the rules (even when the rules are 
supposed to benefit learners, it's like watching them in a mirror instead of 
looking them in the eye).

The idea of having knowledge of best practices and not using it to establish 
standards and uniform outcomes, curricula, etc. may seem backward, but how 
much learning, how much program improvement really comes from more state or 
national rules, and how much comes through the discoveries and collaboration 
of people working within programs? State-level standards tell people what do 
do; isn't that contrary to the constructivist practices we say are best with 
learners?

What would happen if the only RFP for funding said nothing prescriptive 
except: Tell us who you are going to serve, what you are going to do, and 
how observers will know you are effective?





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