Chapter 5


	Teachers in American Society Teaching in America: An Overview. Teachers as Professionals. National Board Certification for Teaching. National Education Association Code of Ethics of the Education Profession. Teaching as a “Moral Craft.” The Teacher as a Moral Force. The American Federation of Teachers. Teaching in America: Historical Development. Education and Literature: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Education and Literature: John Steinbeck. Why Do People Become Teachers? The Typical American Teacher. Teaching as a Feminized Profession. The Professional Socialization of Teachers. Teacher Salaries. Merit Pay for Teachers. Teacher Demand. Recruitment of Minority Teachers. Teacher Unions. Rewards and Satisfaction for Teachers. Teachers' Rights. He? She? The Teacher as a Social Force. Post-Modern Trends and Their Implications for the Work of Teachers.

	National Board Certification for Teachers http://www.nbpts.org/nbpts/ Among the most interesting developments in teaching has been the establishment of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The NBPTS is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1987. Its purpose is to improve American education and the teaching profession through voluntary advanced certification of elementary and secondary schoolteachers. The mission of the NBPTS is to establish national standards and advanced licensing for America’s teachers.

	Online Information About Teachers Information about teachers and their work can be found on many different sources on the Internet. If you are interested in statistics about the teaching profession (Who teaches, average salary, availability of jobs and so on) then a good place to look for information is on the website for The National Center for Educational Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/). In particular, use the main search engine on their site to find reports on teacher salaries, job availability and demographics. Projections on teacher retirements, and thus the availability of new jobs, for example, can be found by typing into the search engine the descriptor "teachers and retirement." This will lead you to a number of different reports including "Teacher Trends," Fast Facts (http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/). Professional organizations provide invaluable resources on teachers and their work. If you are interested in information about accreditation and requirements for entering the profession, a good place to start is the National Council for the Accreditation of Teachers. National Council for the Accreditation of Teachers http://ncate.org If you would like to listen in to teachers actually talking about their work, there are a number of web sites that provide forums for teachers. These include: Teacher Talk http://www.mightymedia.com/talk/working.htm and Teachers Helping Teachers http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/

		Excellent resources for teachers are provided by the country’s two main teachers’ unions. They can be linked to at: American Federation of Teachers http://www.aft.org/index.htm National Education Association http://www.nea.org/ For research on education the main national organization is: American Educational Research Association http://aera.net/ The web is an ideal place to rersearch accreditation issues and requirements for entering the profession. Many states have reciprocitiy agreements for certification that allow teachers to work across the country no matter where they studied. The national clearinghouse for certification is the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). You can visit their website at: National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education http://ncate.org/ Certification requirements vary across different states. To find out what is required in each state visit the following gateway site at the University of Kentucky. It will take you to the appropriate website to learn about certification requirements for each state throughout the country. 50 States’ Certification Requirements http://www.uky.edu/Education/TEP/usacert.html For information on Florida teacher certification visit: Florida Teacher Certification http://www.firn.edu/doe/cgi-bin/doehome/menu.pl Among the very best resource sites for terachers is Kathy Shrock’s Guide for Educators. At it you will find information on lesson plans, bulletins boards and wide range of other topics. Kathy Shrock’s Guide for Educators http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/ Other good sites include: Ask Eric Lesson Plans http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/ Education World http://www.education-world.com/ Encarta Schoolhouse http://encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/default.asp Teachers Helping Teachers http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/ Teacher Vision.Com http://www.teachervision.com/index.html?web

	NetQuest #6 Teacher Demographics The United States Department of Education conducts research on contemporary schools, as well as collects statistics on their makeup and the people who work in them. Particularly valuable information is provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Among the most interesting documents available for educational research at the National Center for Educational Statsistics is the Encyclopedia of Educational Statstics. You will find listed under the Encyclopedia of Educational Stats reports such as: The Condition of Education: 2000, The Digest of Education Statistics: 1999, Projections of Education Statistics to 2008. Visit the site at: National Center for Educational Statistics http://nces.ed.gov/edstats/