[CSPS] History teachers vs coaches

Tue Apr 5 09:51:45 CDT 2005

Jonathon:

Let's start with our own backyard and see where CSISD fits. The
information on teachers who also coach should be available to the
public, right? The actual hiring practices here may be more difficult to
uncover (I wonder if Ms. Hosey has applied here). This issue has two
sides - the hiring question raised in the article, and the impact on
students, which is more difficult to document beyond anecdotes. My
daughter has experienced some good and some not-so-good teacher/coaches,
one problem being lack of availability after school for tutorials since
they are often tied up with coaching. In all fairness I admit that I
consider this is a problem, based primarily on my own lousy experiences
in CSISD many years ago with coaches who also taught (as distinguished
from teachers who also coach). I tend to view this as a potential
problem and have tried to be aware of what is going on as my kids move
through the schools. I would be interested in hearing if any other
parents have had problems with this issue. 

Eric

	-----Original Message-----
	From: Jonathan Coopersmith [mailto:j-coopersmith at tamu.edu] 
	Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 12:36 PM
	To: csps at PHILEBUS.tamu.edu; l-oliver at tamu.edu;
charleton at cox-internet.com; kate-kelly at neo.tamu.edu;
cecelia_hawkins at hotmail.com; d-berthold at tamu.edu;
j-coopersmith at tamu.edu; l-vallone at tamu.edu; mahajan at tamu.edu;
marchitello at tamu.edu; Arturo.Alonzo at teexmail.tamu.edu;
p-parrish at tamu.edu; kate-kelly at tamu.edu
	Cc: w-buenger at tamu.edu; burlbaw at neo.tamu.edu
	Subject: [CSPS] History teachers vs coaches

	Am I wrong in thinking that this is a real problem?  Any ideas
on how to fix it?

	         Jonathan

	History teacher cut from starting lineup 

	08:47 PM CDT on Sunday, April 3, 2005 

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/education/columnists/jbenton/stories/
040405dnmetedcol.53150.html
	By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News 

	I can't promise you Linda Hosey would be a great history
teacher. 

	I've never seen her try to wrangle a classroom of distracted
16-year-olds. I've never seen her try to explain the fall of the
Bastille or the rise of the New Deal. 

	But I think it's fair to say that her inability to coach
offensive linemen shouldn't stop her from getting into a classroom. 

	You see, a few years ago, Linda decided to go back to college in
her 40s. Living in Lubbock at the time, she enrolled at Texas Tech and
became an academic star. 

	She graduated in 2002 with a perfect 4.0 GPA, summa cum laude.
She knew she wanted to be a social studies teacher, so she majored in
economics and minored in history. She did stints as an apprentice
teacher, she took a rigorous course schedule, and she got all her
necessary certifications. And having school-aged kids, she'd spent years
as a PTA mom. 

	"I wanted to make a difference in young people's lives," she
says. 

	Which is why it came as a surprise to her that, when she started
applying for teaching jobs at North Texas high schools, she got the cold
shoulder. 

	"Everyone I talked to said their social studies jobs were set
aside for coaches," she says. "If I wasn't a coach, I didn't have a
chance. I couldn't even get an interview." 

	Linda isn't alone. "I think it's extremely common," said Shannon
Pugh, a history teacher at W.T. White High and past president of the
Dallas Council for the Social Studies. "There's been this perception
that anybody can teach history." 

	Just hand them a textbook and tell them at what year to start
reciting facts, I suppose. 

	I pulled together some data for North Texas high schools to see
how many teachers in each major subject received side pay for also
coaching UIL athletics. It turns out that more than one out of every
three area social studies teachers also coaches. 

	Proportionally, that's almost four times as many coaches as you
find among English teachers, and about twice as many as you find among
math and science teachers. 

	"We look for teaching ability first," said Linda Massey, a
Dallas teacher and president of the Texas Council for the Social
Studies. "But if there happens to be a coaching position that needs to
be filled, that's what they're going to do." 

	Now, I'm not saying coaches can't be good teachers. They can be
great ones. Ms. Pugh says the history-teaching coaches at W.T. White are
all wonderful, and I don't doubt it. 

	But is it a good thing if the features we look for in teachers -
pedagogical ability, strong subject knowledge - somehow rank below
ability to decode a 1-3-1 zone defense? 

	"It's appalling," says Peggy Althoff, a school administrator in
Colorado Springs and vice president of the National Council for the
Social Studies. "I would hope the top priority is whether they're good
teachers. Otherwise you're encouraging promising teachers to go do
something else." 

	Linda went to a teacher job fair last spring and tried to talk
to as many local districts as she could. She said about a dozen of them
gave her variations on the same theme: Be a coach and we'll think about
hiring you. 

	Last month, she e-mailed one local principal about a possible
vacancy for the fall. "There will probably not be any additional
openings in SS [social studies] this year," the principal wrote back.
"The need to have coaches has already filled SS." 

	Her daughters started telling Linda that maybe she should give
in and learn a sport. Golf can't be that hard, right? 

	"But I'm 47 years old and I don't know anything about sports,"
she said. "I shouldn't have to be a coach to teach history. I shouldn't
have to be a coach to teach economics." 

	Some say the situation will improve over time, since Texas
schools are now being evaluated for their students' performance on the
social studies TAKS. That creates an incentive for schools to worry
about history more than before. But the test has proved so easy to pass
that I doubt it's increased the attention to social studies more than a
smidge. 

	When I started calling administrators for this column, it was
remarkable how quickly they said they didn't want their name in the
paper. "I can't believe they'd say it out loud," one top local social
studies administrator said before insisting on her name being kept
quiet. "I know it happens, but I can't believe they'd say it out loud." 

	Will Linda Hosey be a great teacher? History will tell. But
we'll never find out if no one gives her a shot. 

	Jonathan Coopersmith
	Associate Professor
	Dept. of History
	MS 4236
	Texas A&M University
	College Station, Texas  77843
	979.845.8584
	979.862.4314 fax

	Secretary
	History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
	American Association for the Advancement of Science
	aaas.org 

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