Which is more respected - iPGCE or Teach Ready?
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coin_operated
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Which is more respected - iPGCE or Teach Ready?
I am an uncertified teacher who has managed to work in international schools for the past few years, and I'm looking to get proper certification. I am aware that one is British and the other is American (I've taught in both American and British schools). But I'm under the impression that iPGCEs aren't taken very seriously by international schools, British or otherwise. Is Teach Ready (or similar American programs) taken more seriously?
Response
Respected to whom?
On the metrics its probably a wash. The major and most significant difference is that a PGCEi is a academic qualification, you will get a certificate by the institutional program provider and a transcript with credits but you will not get an educator credential. A PGCEi is all academics you do by independent study distance learning the advantage of the program is it gives you something related to professional education without requiring any field experience. Its accepted as a working credential in lower tier ISs.
Teach Ready while giving you far less valuable academics will give you a FL professional grade educator credential (assuming you are American) that is accepted as authorization for delivery and providing instructional services. The field experience however is very lacking its only 5 days, do you learn something between 0 and 5 days maybe, but maybe you dont, and if you do its not a lot. Your not really planing a term or year of curriculum, instruction assessment, etc. Youre basically doing someone elses lessons or your delivering only a sliver of a curriculum. You just dont do much in a five day week. The online seminars arent greatly inspiring either (but neither is Teach Now, or many of the other ACP/Skills based pathways.
You pursue Teach Ready when you have some access to a classroom, typically thats not your own because getting access to a cooperating IS and classroom for 5 days is a much easier sell than Teach Now which is 12 weeks.
All else being equal, if you can, Teach Ready is the better option, it gives you a professional credential vs. a qualification from a PGCEi. The credential is the legal admission to the DE/IE profession, the PGCEi is going to give you better academic preparation and acknowledgment of studies, its half a Masters if taken at graduate level. Teach Ready is about 3-9 credits depending where you transfer them too.
While there will be recruiters and leadership that will know very quickly how you got the FL credential and may have a negative view of ACP/skills based pathways compared to traditional/academic pathways you still meet the regulatory definition of a credentialed DT/IT. You dont get that with the PGCEi, though you can use the PGCEi to get a US State credential and then QTS, you can use the FL Professional grade credential to obtain full QTS directly.
In summary the locust of the two different options depends on a few critical factors such as Citizenship, but mainly what opportunities you have for field experience. If you dont have a classroom you do a PGCEi, if you dont have a classroom but can get a cooperating IS for a week you do Teach Ready, if you have an appointment and a classroom for a term you can do Teach Now.
On the metrics its probably a wash. The major and most significant difference is that a PGCEi is a academic qualification, you will get a certificate by the institutional program provider and a transcript with credits but you will not get an educator credential. A PGCEi is all academics you do by independent study distance learning the advantage of the program is it gives you something related to professional education without requiring any field experience. Its accepted as a working credential in lower tier ISs.
Teach Ready while giving you far less valuable academics will give you a FL professional grade educator credential (assuming you are American) that is accepted as authorization for delivery and providing instructional services. The field experience however is very lacking its only 5 days, do you learn something between 0 and 5 days maybe, but maybe you dont, and if you do its not a lot. Your not really planing a term or year of curriculum, instruction assessment, etc. Youre basically doing someone elses lessons or your delivering only a sliver of a curriculum. You just dont do much in a five day week. The online seminars arent greatly inspiring either (but neither is Teach Now, or many of the other ACP/Skills based pathways.
You pursue Teach Ready when you have some access to a classroom, typically thats not your own because getting access to a cooperating IS and classroom for 5 days is a much easier sell than Teach Now which is 12 weeks.
All else being equal, if you can, Teach Ready is the better option, it gives you a professional credential vs. a qualification from a PGCEi. The credential is the legal admission to the DE/IE profession, the PGCEi is going to give you better academic preparation and acknowledgment of studies, its half a Masters if taken at graduate level. Teach Ready is about 3-9 credits depending where you transfer them too.
While there will be recruiters and leadership that will know very quickly how you got the FL credential and may have a negative view of ACP/skills based pathways compared to traditional/academic pathways you still meet the regulatory definition of a credentialed DT/IT. You dont get that with the PGCEi, though you can use the PGCEi to get a US State credential and then QTS, you can use the FL Professional grade credential to obtain full QTS directly.
In summary the locust of the two different options depends on a few critical factors such as Citizenship, but mainly what opportunities you have for field experience. If you dont have a classroom you do a PGCEi, if you dont have a classroom but can get a cooperating IS for a week you do Teach Ready, if you have an appointment and a classroom for a term you can do Teach Now.
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coin_operated
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Re: Which is more respected - iPGCE or Teach Ready?
Thanks Psy. I'm currently teaching internationally; I am also a US citizen and a have ties to Florida. Would you recommend Teach Now over Teacher Ready?
Re: Which is more respected - iPGCE or Teach Ready?
TeacherReady does not require only 5 days of teaching. There is a final 5 day teaching practicum. However the course requires 150 hours of student teaching in addition to those required 5 days. The student teaching may be conducted in your own classroom if you already work in a K12 school and have a qualified mentor.
In terms of comparison it is apples and oranges. You should be comparing iPGCE and Florida Professional Certification, which in my opinion the latter is more valuable as many schools are most concerned with ticking a box. Florida Professional Certification also gets you a QTS, which is we're talking about it like exchange rates proves that TeacherReady is better.
In terms of comparison it is apples and oranges. You should be comparing iPGCE and Florida Professional Certification, which in my opinion the latter is more valuable as many schools are most concerned with ticking a box. Florida Professional Certification also gets you a QTS, which is we're talking about it like exchange rates proves that TeacherReady is better.
Reply
@cms989
Yes they do. All programs have ancillary tasking as part of there program, regardless whether its called practicum, student teaching, clinical teaching,internship, etc. Those 150 hours are not part of instructional delivery, they are contact hours spent in observation, etc. The field experience for Teach Ready is 5 days, because thats the time you spend actually teaching. Even if we were to assume all the additional contact hours were spent in field experience assuming an 8 hour day those 150 hours equate to less than 19 additional days of teaching, in addition to the 5 days of ACTUAL field experience in practicum its 24 days, far less than the 12 weeks in Teach Now, and thats not counting the ancillary contact hours as part of Teach Nows program. Its 5 days vs 12 weeks of field experience.
@coin_operated
In your scenario there isnt much of a difference. The value differences of the two programs in terms of field experience wont matter. You are already in an IS and have a daily classroom, you get to count the experience regardless of what program you are doing. It matters with someone who doesnt have a classroom as the 12 weeks in Teach Now is a term that you can leverage into a reference in addition to the value of the experience. Teach Readys 5 days might as well be nothing. You cant really recommend someone based on what they do for 5 days. No ones going to get excited over an IT with an otherwise empty resume and their 5 days of field experience. That doesnt really apply to you.
The advantage of the DC credential/program is access to PRAXIS testing. The PRAXIS can be taken globally, and there is probably a test center in the countries capital city where you are at. For FL and Teach Ready you will have to travel back to the US to take the FTCE.
From one perspective the Teach Ready program has the advantage of being shorter and youll get done with the field experience in a week instead of having to deal with it and your mentor for a whole term. Its less complex for you.
The FL credential also has the benefit of being longer at 5 years compared to 4 years in DC and FL requires 2 credit hours (or equivalent) less in PD to renew. FL also allows you to take or retake the certification exam for half of those hours to renew, reducing the complexity of PD.
This is less an issue ideally for you as before both credentials are due to renew you will want to transition your credential to either NJ or CA. Both states have effective lifetime credentials. NJ is a true lifetime credential and CA requires renewal every 5 years but there is no PD requirement. Both states require 2 years post certification experience. CA would require you to obtain an ESOL endorsement (easier to do with DC and access to PRAXIS testing), but more importantly CA would require essentially a Masters degree where NJ does not. NJ uses the PRAXIS exam and while currently will accept out of state exams, including the FTCE that will likely change soon (its unclear if NJ will continue to accept out of state exams once they finalize their transition to PRAXIS).
So while there is a cost and time benefit of being able to take the exams (PRAXIS) locally for Teach Now over Teach Ready vs. the added complexity and work of a longer field experience (12 weeks) with Teach Now vs. Teach Ready (5 days), how much mentorship and work you have to do during those times is the critical issue. If your mentor is just going to sign off as a formality at the end of either time period regardless of what you do, than it doesnt matter how long you have to do it, in which case Teach Now is more convenient. If your mentor is going to want to see journals or reflection logs or even spend more time in your classroom doing observations requiring exemplar lessons, etc. than it might be worth the cost and time of travel to do the FTCE and Teach Ready.
The other factors are negligible. They both have equivalent credibility and status recognition. The cost of the programs is similar. The exam difficulty is comparable. The online seminar components are equivalent experiences.
Yes they do. All programs have ancillary tasking as part of there program, regardless whether its called practicum, student teaching, clinical teaching,internship, etc. Those 150 hours are not part of instructional delivery, they are contact hours spent in observation, etc. The field experience for Teach Ready is 5 days, because thats the time you spend actually teaching. Even if we were to assume all the additional contact hours were spent in field experience assuming an 8 hour day those 150 hours equate to less than 19 additional days of teaching, in addition to the 5 days of ACTUAL field experience in practicum its 24 days, far less than the 12 weeks in Teach Now, and thats not counting the ancillary contact hours as part of Teach Nows program. Its 5 days vs 12 weeks of field experience.
@coin_operated
In your scenario there isnt much of a difference. The value differences of the two programs in terms of field experience wont matter. You are already in an IS and have a daily classroom, you get to count the experience regardless of what program you are doing. It matters with someone who doesnt have a classroom as the 12 weeks in Teach Now is a term that you can leverage into a reference in addition to the value of the experience. Teach Readys 5 days might as well be nothing. You cant really recommend someone based on what they do for 5 days. No ones going to get excited over an IT with an otherwise empty resume and their 5 days of field experience. That doesnt really apply to you.
The advantage of the DC credential/program is access to PRAXIS testing. The PRAXIS can be taken globally, and there is probably a test center in the countries capital city where you are at. For FL and Teach Ready you will have to travel back to the US to take the FTCE.
From one perspective the Teach Ready program has the advantage of being shorter and youll get done with the field experience in a week instead of having to deal with it and your mentor for a whole term. Its less complex for you.
The FL credential also has the benefit of being longer at 5 years compared to 4 years in DC and FL requires 2 credit hours (or equivalent) less in PD to renew. FL also allows you to take or retake the certification exam for half of those hours to renew, reducing the complexity of PD.
This is less an issue ideally for you as before both credentials are due to renew you will want to transition your credential to either NJ or CA. Both states have effective lifetime credentials. NJ is a true lifetime credential and CA requires renewal every 5 years but there is no PD requirement. Both states require 2 years post certification experience. CA would require you to obtain an ESOL endorsement (easier to do with DC and access to PRAXIS testing), but more importantly CA would require essentially a Masters degree where NJ does not. NJ uses the PRAXIS exam and while currently will accept out of state exams, including the FTCE that will likely change soon (its unclear if NJ will continue to accept out of state exams once they finalize their transition to PRAXIS).
So while there is a cost and time benefit of being able to take the exams (PRAXIS) locally for Teach Now over Teach Ready vs. the added complexity and work of a longer field experience (12 weeks) with Teach Now vs. Teach Ready (5 days), how much mentorship and work you have to do during those times is the critical issue. If your mentor is just going to sign off as a formality at the end of either time period regardless of what you do, than it doesnt matter how long you have to do it, in which case Teach Now is more convenient. If your mentor is going to want to see journals or reflection logs or even spend more time in your classroom doing observations requiring exemplar lessons, etc. than it might be worth the cost and time of travel to do the FTCE and Teach Ready.
The other factors are negligible. They both have equivalent credibility and status recognition. The cost of the programs is similar. The exam difficulty is comparable. The online seminar components are equivalent experiences.
Re: Which is more respected - iPGCE or Teach Ready?
Rather than try to debate this topic I'll just state the facts as someone who has actually done the program vs. just read about it on a website. Anyone interested can ask me more questions and I'll address them directly. I just want to correct the misinformation so often found here.
TeacherReady has 150 hours of student teaching with an additional 35 hours which are formally assessed. Much of the field work during the 150 hours is required to be instructional time, but in reality most of it will be instructional time as your mentor teacher knows this is student teaching and is going to have you teaching the class. That goes for the hours as well, most people go beyond 150 hours that's really the bare minimum, you can do however much you'd like with your mentor. There is no practical difference between what is being described by some as "ACTUAL teaching" vs. something else, the only difference during those last 5 days is that the mentor is filling out an evaluation form (which is really based on the entirety of your placement).
Anyone can try to minimize it and say it's only 19 days at 8 hours. good luck teaching 19 days in a row. Might as well say its only 6 days because 6 x 24 ~150 hours.
TeacherReady has 150 hours of student teaching with an additional 35 hours which are formally assessed. Much of the field work during the 150 hours is required to be instructional time, but in reality most of it will be instructional time as your mentor teacher knows this is student teaching and is going to have you teaching the class. That goes for the hours as well, most people go beyond 150 hours that's really the bare minimum, you can do however much you'd like with your mentor. There is no practical difference between what is being described by some as "ACTUAL teaching" vs. something else, the only difference during those last 5 days is that the mentor is filling out an evaluation form (which is really based on the entirety of your placement).
Anyone can try to minimize it and say it's only 19 days at 8 hours. good luck teaching 19 days in a row. Might as well say its only 6 days because 6 x 24 ~150 hours.
Reply
@cms989
The only misinformation is yours. Facts have to be true before they can be facts which yours are not. They arent facts because you say they are, they are not self authenticating.
Its not all required to be instructional time, and its not a fact if a mentor gets to decided what your doing with it, whether its sitting in the back of the room and observing or doing a demo lesson. Its ancillary tasks to field work. as all EPP/ITT programs have ancillary contact hours as part of their program. The Teach Ready field experience is 5 days.
No, thats how math works, assuming the typical instructional day is 8 hours, thus 150 hours is 18 days and 2 hours, but yes it would be a little less than 6 whole 24 hour days as well, math works that way.
19 days is nothing, many DT/IT candidates do internships and teach each instructional day, consecutively for a year.
The only misinformation is yours. Facts have to be true before they can be facts which yours are not. They arent facts because you say they are, they are not self authenticating.
Its not all required to be instructional time, and its not a fact if a mentor gets to decided what your doing with it, whether its sitting in the back of the room and observing or doing a demo lesson. Its ancillary tasks to field work. as all EPP/ITT programs have ancillary contact hours as part of their program. The Teach Ready field experience is 5 days.
No, thats how math works, assuming the typical instructional day is 8 hours, thus 150 hours is 18 days and 2 hours, but yes it would be a little less than 6 whole 24 hour days as well, math works that way.
19 days is nothing, many DT/IT candidates do internships and teach each instructional day, consecutively for a year.