Maricopa Christian Academy, being my third and last private school to start from the beginning and manage, has a lot of similarities to the first two schools. It also has some differences. One of those differences is in the qualifications of who we hire.
One qualification the three schools share is the requirement of having at least a bachelor’s degree. In this , the third school, there has been one significant change in the bachelor’s degree requirement. The bachelor’s degree cannot be an education degree. That is correct. No bachelor’s or master’s degree in education will allow you to be hired at Maricopa Christian Academy.
“Are you crazy”, you may say. And you may be correct. But not on certification. All teachers with degrees in education want to practice whole group instruction that includes whole group expectations. You know. Teach to the low middle skills of the class. For those who don’t understand, tutor before or after school in small groups. And if small group tutoring is not successful, individual instruction is next. Then the teacher instructs the whole group the next day on its new goal, whether the previous day goals are mastered or not.
That method only works for 5-15% of the students. The rest of the students catch what they can in hopes of maybe increasing their understanding during the next year’s review of skills.
The excuses from those teachers with education degrees are consistently the same. It is much easier to teach the whole class method. The process of instruction goes something like this. First, prepare your instruction. Present your instruction. Then give a grade. Understanding or a “passing grade” is the proof of understanding. Not mastery, just some level of understanding shown by a letter grade.
Whole group instruction we do not do. The excuses are consistent. Most will complain after a while that the individualized approach is too much work. The other excuse is students should be allowed to fail. It is a part of life.
In our individualized instructional approach, each students must prove to his teacher his understanding of the material that is presented in a one-on-one meetings throughout the day with their teacher. At least 15 meetings a day. Mastery is at a level, set by the teacher for each subject.
Hiring teachers with no education degrees mean we have a better chance of hiring someone with some skills in something. Home economics, art, music science or anything that gives that teacher candidate some skills to support our students with.
The noneducation degree is the first step. After interviewing with me an application is submitted. Then an interview with the teaching staff. And if all goes well, a final interview with the candidate’s spouse, myself and my wife.
Any thoughts? Please contact me.
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