IB Certification

PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@cattalus

The rule is no amount of training equals any amount of experience, ISs will pay for training, but if it comes down to a handful of ITs none with IB experience the one with training has an advantage.

Yes according to the new regulations you would need to be trained in each of the 10 DIP courses that you teach. In the past with requiring only one member of staff to be trained if the history teacher and geography teacher each trained in their associated subject were to switch subjects they would still meet the PD regulations since the trained history teacher teaching geography meets the one member on staff requirement. Now each teacher must be trained specifically in the subject they teach. If you were trained in history and then were to move ISs to teach geography you would need to be trained then in Geography.
There are 10 courses (11 if you count ESS) in the IBs Individuals and Societies (social studies) cluster and the cheapest training Ive see for online workshops is $600, so all 10 would cost you about $6000-$6600.
Yes the Professional IB Teaching and Learning certification would meet all of your IB training/PD requirements, for all 10 (11) courses.

Again, its prior IB experience not training that means anything, but if you were trained in all 10/11 and a school needed to move people around youd be able to without needing additional training. Though in all likelihood the IS would just move the staff around anyway, training or not, unless they are going through authorization. An IS can get away with a lot as long as no one is watching. No amount of training is going to equal any amount of experience.

IB PD/training is indistinguishable from any other, as long as its a recognized IB provider/University it counts the same. There is a preferences among admins/HOSs for F2F training, but as far as meeting PD regulations its all the same.

@lookingforlefty

I got my admin certificate (and a couple others) from D.C.

A number of schools will admit you to a Doctorate without a Masters. Avoid the US, a doctorate int he US takes 7 years, go to the UK, or overseas and do a research P.h.D, no classes, just a dissertation, and its 3 years.

I know admins with BAs. Go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, OxBridge, the Sorbonne, but hands down Harvard. An M.Ed/MAT from Harvard will open a lot of doors. Third tier schools will hire you for admin based on that alone. Why they get to advertise about it on their web page and since many third tier schools are for local nationals the parents will all believe you have "connections" and a reference from an Alumni will get their child the inside track.
Credentals aside its easy becoming an admin actually if youve got enough years of experience. Ownership hires their senior/executive admins, those people are typivally not educators, and what they are looking for is someone that represents them as an individual or group. They want someone who believes what they do, wants what they do, and has the same ideas about what direction to take to make all that happen, as they do. So for third tier/bottom schools you just find your little sociopath switch in your brain and turn it on.

When your being interviewed and asked "What is your recruitment strategy?" You say, "Payroll is the highest proportionate cost o organizational expenses. My goal would be to identify appropriate looking westerners who have a qualification in the subject with minimal experience and offer them marginal compensation, but promises of professional fulfillment and development and the opportunity to build their resume."
When they ask "How would you handle a problematic teacher without dismissal?" You say "I would call them into the office and inform them that some evidence of inappropriate misconduct has arisen, that may require reporting to the teachers licensing authority for potential barring, but if the teacher can fall in line, stop causing problems and keep quite, it wont have to be reported".

Three years teaching experience and currently at an IB school. The other requirements of workshops and working with adult learners is where the Professional Leadership certificate can substitute for that. The Professional Leadership certificates are entry pathways for IB ITs into the roles that are typically assigned to those who are IB admins. A Professional Leadership certificate could get you on as a visits team member even without being at an IS that had undergone the authorization process since the Leadership certificate provides such a "deep understanding" of the authorization process.
Its not really written down anywhere, but the IB wants to have a certificate with value and utility, and while the primary market for the IB Professional Leadership certificates is admins who otherwise do not have an admin credential, and cant get one because they dont have previous teaching licenses, or meet licensing requirements where they are licensed. The Professional Leadership certificate helps fill that void.
lookingforlefty
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Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:15 pm

Re: IB Certification

Post by lookingforlefty »

Thank you. Well, mid-career, I'm not headed to H anytime soon. I suppose I'd like another go-round in life!

You're right, I'm not even considering north American programs. Only looking to the UK at the moment.

So if I had to choose between an Ed.D. and a Masters in Ed.Lead. with IB leadership certificate, which would be the most reliable entry into admin, assuming I hustle to get connections and minor leadership qualifications? The doctorate will be more expensive and take longer to complete. I have only been teaching for a couple years but, as you illustrate, I see teaching as a dead-end job compared to what admins do. I don't want to wait years to get out of the classroom.

(For that matter, I think it's just a matter of years before most IT jobs are replaced by fresh-faced 22 year olds with instant teaching licenses who are willing to work for near-free. That and Pamoja.)
PsyGuy
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Discussion

Post by PsyGuy »

I know people who werent too smart that werent geniuses that got Masters degrees in education from Harvard, if your looking in the UK OxBridge would do the same for you as Harvard at least at British ISs.

An M.Ed, a doctorate is what you want at executive admin level, but below that your likly going to be working for people with Masters degrees and you dont want to intimidate them, you always want to be VERY likable. Since youll be applying to junior admin and AP/VP/DP admin positions. At the start your not going to have ASIJ or any elite tier schools talking or interested in you, so you dont want to seem too much like an academic, you want to present the image of someone that they can mentor and mold, who can do the job and will have their back. Many senior admins would chaff at having to call their junior "doctor".

Teaching is supposed to be a dead end job, there is no advancement except for out of the classroom . Unlike a university with a long hierarchy in the organizational chart and ranks like instructor, researcher, lecturer, senior lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, etc.. K-12 has one, "Teacher" our organizational advancement chart is pretty flat. Sure you have HODs (senior teachers or teacher leaders, etc..) but its otherwise flat.
On the instructional side I feel librarians have the best job (counselors are close but they have to deal more with parents, and every tiger mom thinks her offspring is ivy league). On the admin side its academic/curriculum/IB Coordinator/AP/VP/DP. People leave you alone, dont have to be the bad guy, can still have contact with students, and your not the one having to make the hard decisions or report to ownership, all while going home at a reasonable time.

::giggle::

Pamoja, you have to acknowledge from a business standpoint its genius. With the Open Global IB Program, it wont be long before you can get an IB Diploma entirely online, which will be the point that National curriculum schools will dump their resident IB programs and just offer a portal to the virtual IB program and provide the assessment exams like a testing center. Pamoja will be cashing in when that happens.
lookingforlefty
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:15 pm

Re: IB Certification

Post by lookingforlefty »

Thanks for the good advice. One more question: if I have a choice between a big name (Oxbridge) M.Ed. and an unprestigious M.Ed. that includes an IB leadership cert, what can I do more with? I assume prestige trumps all, but I may not be able to get the prestigious degree anyway for logistical or cost reasons.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

Prestige, an Ivy degree opens doors you didnt even know where there. Really, and cant say this enough no amount of training equals any amount of experience. IB professional certificates and workshops meet technical PD requirements, but an IB Professional certificate is not a VIP pass to fast lane recruiting. Many admins/HOS/recruiters are not impressed or moved by training. The only thing IB training is going to help with is make you a bit more marketable than the ones with no training and no experience.
You cant really do anything with an IB Professional Leadership Certificate, its for admins who dont otherwise and cant get an admin credential. It offers a few potentially trivial benefits. The IB Professional Teaching and Learning certificates have some real PD utility, considering the new DIP regulations. Understand there is no difference between someone who does an M.Ed with X coursework and gets the Professional Leadership certificate and someone else who does the same M.Ed and coursework, and doesnt get the professional Leadership certificate. If that coursework is equivalent across schools than you have the same academic preparation, one person just got an extra cool piece of colored paper to go with it.
lookingforlefty
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:15 pm

Re: IB Certification

Post by lookingforlefty »

I suppose I do buy the idea that a leadership cert might help me into various IBEN roles, but then again it might not.

I suppose I am beginning to feel that without a prestigious qualification of some sort, my career will be somehow stunted or at least I'll be on the same track as everyone else. What if I am able to get experience at a school known for an "elite" IB program--I suppose that would be any of the elite schools, or any other school known to be academically strong? I might have put some of the better US/Canadian independent schools, some well-known private schools in the UK, or maybe UWC in this category, but you probably would disagree. Anyway, does that make any difference with looking for an admin job?

You said it is "easy" to get on as an admin at a third-tier school. This is assuming I'm coming from a decent school. I suppose it depends on how bad the third-tier school is? Would a junior admin at a third-tier school have much for future prospects, or even a decent salary?
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

The issue is always going to be how you answer the question 'What makes you qualified to administer.manage our school?". There are three answers: Experience, Education, Credential, and Status, the more the better.

If you were at a 1st tier school you could move down to a lower tier school as an admin, without having much than teaching qualifications and some experience. This is only common at 1st tier schools or elite tier schools. It doesnt work so much from 2nd tier schools. Though getting to a top tier school is a career in itself.

Sure if you teach at Exeter in the US, Eton in England, Appleby in Canada, Le Rosey in Switzerland, you would be marketable at a lower tier school for admin, but if you had a position at one of those places youd be doing SO much better than an admin at a lower tier school, why would you leave (burnout maybe).

I wouldnt disagree, UWC is a strong second tier IS, theres nothing wrong with that, as a domestic school they would be near the top.

There are 5 ways to be an admin:

1) Find a school your happy with, and stay, 4-6 years (or more) later working your way up from teacher to admin.

2) Just like noob ITs start at the bottom tier schools, and move your way to higher responsible positions and to better schools.

3) Have something prestigious, maybe you taught at an elite school with overseas sister schools, or your school has an amazing reputation. Maybe you want to an Ivy University.

4) Management experience, and by that I mean you ran a division at a fortune 500 company and decided to become an educator.

5) Have a a relationship with ownership. Maybe your their friend, or your sleeping/married someone who has a school. Ive seen lots of schools whee the leadership has their position because they are part of ownerships family, and thats their only qualification for having their position.

A third tier junior admin has GREAT prospects, mainly because senior admin is going to be exiting as soon as they can to a better school, leaving a potential void for junior admin to fill.

Decent salary is subjective, you will be making more than the teachers with comparable years of experience.
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