Teacher of the year resigns after being called 'unqualified'

[jpak]

Source: NBC WYFF-4 Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —Alabama's reigning Teacher of the Year has resigned after being told that due to certification issues, she's unqualified to teach.

Fifth-grade teacher Ann Marie Corgill says that officials with the Alabama Department of Education told her that she was unqualified despite her accolades, The Associated Press reports.

In a letter to the department obtained by AL.com, Cargill wrote,"After 21 years of teaching in grades 1-6, I have no answers as to why this is a problem now, so instead of paying more fees, taking more tests and proving once again that I am qualified to teach, I am resigning."

The state Department of Education said it "did not determine Ms. Corgill was not qualified. However, when an inquiry was made, the department reported that her current teaching certificate covers primary grades through Grade 3. This does not carry with it a requirement for resignation," in a news release Thursday.

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Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/education/teacher-of-the-year-resigns-after-being-called-unqualified/36144310

[padfun]

1. You go girl!

You don't need the abuse and low pay that comes with teaching in the USA.

[BlueJazz]

2. What's so unreal is 95 percent of the politicians in Alabama are not qualified to be ditch-diggers.

(they just don't have the IQ for the job)

[csziggy]

15. They are barely qualified to be called human n/t

[erronis]

16. Ahhh. But that makes them eminently qualified to be politicians.

You know peter's principle and the lightest-weight turds rise to the top.

I've worked a bit in Birmingham back in the 70s. Since then I swore I would never voluntarily have to do more than travel THROUGH that state. It's worked out well for me since.

[RKP5637]

26. Yep, the stupid often move themselves into positions of power because they are obnoxious assholes.

[underpants]

28. Welcome to Al Abama

[BlueJazz]

29. I was too embarrassed to point out that the percentage is acually higher where I live. Florida.

[47of74]

48. Yeah, so many politicians should be shoveling shit in Louisiana.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Sweet Home Alabama, #1 in beating up on teachers ...

... or just anyone who displays signs of genuine competence.

[FiveGoodMen]

24. I hope Neil Young will remember...

...that he was right and Skynyrd can suck it.

[phantom power]

4. It's like America has developed some kind of auto-immune disease against public education.

We're systematically destroying our public education system, teacher by teacher.

[Lochloosa]

8. It's called the All Mighty Dollar....Charter Schools...

[catrose]

5. Yeah, I would too. I'd like to think.

[daleanime]

6. "This does not carry with it a requirement for resignation...."

translation-we refuse to take credit for any of our actions.

[oberliner]

7. Her resignation letter is poorly written, including typos and grammar mistakes

Kind of ironic considering her accolades with respect to teaching writing.

Here it is:

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10/national_teacher_of_the_year_f.html

Errors include:

"After 21 year of teaching..."

"...we must feel trusted, valued, and treated as professionals."

[tabasco]

10. It's not that bad.

A couple minor mistakes.

I don't think it deserves a rebuke of her teaching awards.

[2naSalit]

13. and she was

probably very upset when she wrote it.

[daleanime]

23. +1

[blackspade]

17. Keep kicking after she's down.

Some people seem to thrive on the misery of others.

[BlueJazz]

30. I was getting ready to take her out behind the barn and beat the.....

[oberliner]

32. She chose to resign and chose to put her resignation letter online

I was just observing that it had some errors.

[blackspade]

37. Just observing...right...

[oberliner]

41. As opposed to what else?

I read the letter, found a few errors, thought it was a little funny/ironic, shared my observation.

[blackspade]

43. To what end?

Tearing down an outstanding teacher for your own amusement?

[oberliner]

46. This is just a message board

People make observations about minor stuff all the time.

It's not really that big of a deal.

[gregcrawford]

25. These criticisms are petty in the extreme n/t

...

[oberliner]

44. Agreed

It's definitely nit-picking. I just struck me as funny/ironic that her letter had a few errors, considering the circumstances.

[Blue_Tires]

39. I'm guessing she's going through a lot right now

and will cut her some slack...

[oberliner]

42. She chose to resign

She could've just gotten the appropriate certification like everyone else.

[Blue_Tires]

47. There's clearly much, much more to the story

and I don't think she really "chose" to resign -- More like was "asked" to by her supervisors...

[oberliner]

49. Agreed

I'm just responding based on the limited information that I have.

I do think the whole certification process is a bit ridiculous, but it does seem like she was unwilling to take those steps (at least according to the resignation letter) since she felt like it did not make sense for an experienced teacher to do so.

[Fairgo]

50. Feel free to give her the benefit of your critique.

It might be just the insight she needs.

[jwirr]

9. I have mixed feelings about this. Before we started "reform"

efforts that have our children taking continual tests schools used these certificates from colleges to determine if a teacher was "good". At the most we took a level test once a year to see where we were at compared to other students in the USA.

I do think it is idiotic that she was called on this. Obviously she is teacher of the year. And they are no longer using these certificates to "grade" teachers.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Just about every profession that has certifications require ...

a maintenance of that certification. And, in most cases, failure to comply with the certification criteria means you cannot practice in that profession.

[csziggy]

18. She does have her certification

From the article linked in the OP: "But 2015 National Teacher of the Year finalist Corgill holds National Board Certification to teach children ages 7 to 12, a group includes most fifth-graders, the AP reports, and that certification is valid until November 2020, according to the National Board Certification directory."

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. In the practice of Law, one is ABA certified AND one has a continuing legal education requirement ..

fail to achieve the CLE, and one can't practice ... the same goes for any number of other professions.

[Igel]

33. No, she probably does not.

Not from the article. She's not state certified.

Look at it this way:

If you're a doctor there's a state board certification and there's a national board certification. The national board certification is a cool thing; it looks good, it says you're extra qualified. But without the state certification, it means you're not certified to practice medicine in that state.

Same for lawyers. There's the state bar for practicing in state and local courts. There's the federal bar for practicing in federal court. I think that if you're admitted to the federal bar you're good for anywhere in the country. But there are no "national" medical jurisdictions.

Nor are there "national" schools. Just state-run or state-monitored schools. I'm certified in Texas. I'm not national board certified. I can teach in Texas. My mentor when I was a student teacher was national board certified. Not sure what it got him but a nice line on his c.v.

[alfredo]

12. It seems that being teacher of the year puts a big target on your back.

I remember during the days of the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority, they led that attacks against the teacher of the year.

The theocrats need the uneducated.

[blackspade]

14. Back peddle, back peddle....

The state Department of Education said it "did not determine Ms. Corgill was not qualified. However, when an inquiry was made, the department reported that her current teaching certificate covers primary grades through Grade 3. This does not carry with it a requirement for resignation," in a news release Thursday.

CYA much?

[Igel]

34. No, it's not back-peddling.

There are several ways of being highly qualified. State certification is often the easiest.

I'm highly qualified to teach an oddball class, were it offered, because I have a masters in it. I can teach other things because I have the necessary number of college credits.

I could teach anything, but I wouldn't be highly qualified. There are teachers all over the country teaching that lack the proper credentials, but it's often them or nobody and frequently they're qualified in fact but don't have the credentials.

[blackspade]

38. First they tell her she is unqualified....

Then she posts about it online.
Then they say that they didn't determine she was unqualified.

That is a back peddle.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

19. Obviously Alabama knows more than the rest of the United States.

After all, Alabama education is ranked 44th of US states by the conservative ALEC lobbying outfit, 50th in 2015 by US News, 49th by the personal finance site Wallethub, and 45th in 2015 by KidsConnect, just to name a few.

It is no surprise that Alabama thinks it has "better" recognition qualifications than National Board Certification. Just look at their success rate as compared to the other 49 states.

According to the AP, "2015 National Teacher of the Year finalist Corgill holds National Board Certification to teach children ages 7 to 12, a group includes most fifth-graders, the AP reports, and that certification is valid until November 2020, according to the National Board Certification directory."

[Igel]

35. Here's what it sounds like.

She was teaching a lower grade.

She became board certified.

At some point she was moved to a different grade. A lot of states have K-6 certifications. Somebody didn't check before moving her. Or perhaps it didn't matter at the time. Or it was an emergency. Maybe she was certified for those grades years ago and let it lapse--some certifications have "renew by" dates. (Mine does. I have to renew every 5 years, but there's no additional testing. My team leader's is perpetual.)

To be highly qualified under NCLB you need to have the right state certification. She lacks it for her grade. Simple enough thing to fix.

She doesn't want to get it. She should, because one of the grading criteria for NCLB is the percentage of highly qualified teachers in the classroom. She's lowering the percentage slightly, and that's probably when they caught her certification mismatch.

[jalan48]

21. Total BS and insulting.

How do you go from Teacher of the Year to unqualified? Didn't Alabama just close a lot of DMVs, where people can sign up to vote?

[Igel]

36. When "unqualified" has a legal meaning separate from it's practical meaning.

I know highly qualified teachers who are incompetent in their subject. But they passed the qualification test.

It's like a professional driver's lacking a class C driver's license. Expert, but not allowed to drive.

In this case, she can teach. But it hurts the school a little.

[paleotn]

22. And yet we allow parents....

....with no more than a high school education to home school their children through high school.

[underpants]

27. Yeah but they are really good at it

No one gets worse than a B.

[Gore1FL]

31. I do believe in having standards and having those standards followed.

I don't know the full story, I don't know how national certs work, so I don't know who is really in the "right" here as far as those standards go.

The abrupt resignation seems very non-proportional as a response. There has to be much more to the story than the article gives.

[yellowcanine]

40. Sounds to me like a bit of an over reaction to a bureaucratic snafu at the state dept of education.

A mature response would have been to have a chat with her principal to see if he/she had confidence in her rather than flipping out and writing a resignation letter. Very drama queen of her, imo.

[Blue_Tires]

45. So clearly this whole thing is just a bureaucratic mixup

or a gap in the paperwork, and for some reason the teacher and school couldn't come to a meeting of the minds?