stock exercise athletics OakTech 11-13

A proposal to requite war machine instructors special authorization to teach physical education was defeated Friday. Credit: Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource Today

Over the opposition of its chair Linda Darling-Hammond and a positive recommendation from information technology staff, the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing narrowly defeated a proposal Friday that would have authorized military machine instructors to teach physical didactics as part of their armed services classes.

Later a heated public hearing, commission members voted 6-iv against creating a new category of concrete educational activity certification for Inferior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and Basic Military Drill instructors. The change would have allowed military instructors, who are typically retired military personnel and who are not required to hold a available'due south degree, to earn a "special authority" to teach physical education past passing a state examination in physical educational activity subject content.

JROTC and military drill are high school electives that utilise Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Declension Guard curriculum roofing fettle, leadership, civics and U.S. history, amid other topics. California has 350 JROTC high schoolhouse programs, each with a minimum of 100 students. The rule change besides would take affected instructors in the California Buck Corps plan who concord a credential to teach ROTC or military drill. The Buck Corps has 6,000 students in the land, according to a statement from the grouping.

Instead of agreeing to a rule alter, several commissioners spoke strongly in favor of having fully certified physical educational activity teachers following a rigorous country-approved curriculum.

Commissioner Richard Zeiger, chief deputy superintendent to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, said that salsa dance instructors and marching ring leaders too have argued that their classes involve energetic movement and should count toward fulfilling the high school graduation requirement of 2 years of physical education instruction.

"It's non that these programs aren't good," Zeiger said. "They're not physical instruction. We accept a set of standards for physical instruction."

Particular care should be taken to ensure proper teaching credentials, he noted, considering physical teaching is a mandated area of teaching, like to mathematics and English.

"We consider physical instruction a crucial part of a student's school life and academic preparation," Zeiger said. "We accept resisted the notion that physical teaching is somehow less important than other required courses."

Darling-Hammond noted that the legislature had decided years ago to allow school districts, at their discretion, to honour physical education credit to students enrolled in JROTC, drill instruction and other classes. Given that, Darling-Hammond argued that JROTC instructors would meet what she described as "a slightly higher standard or significantly higher standard" of expertise if they earned a special authorization to teach physical education.

But commissioner Alicia Williamson, an elementary school teacher in the Cambrian Schoolhouse District in San Jose, took exception to that line of reasoning. "We're maxim that considering information technology'due south already happening, we should brand it a little better," Williamson said. "But actually physical education is a serious required field of study and we should accept a credentialed instructor educational activity concrete education."

In making the staff recommendation to approve the regulation change, Tammy Duggan, a consultant to the commission, said that the special authorization would requite a military teacher "a little bit of an edge" in persuading an unsure schoolhouse board to grant concrete teaching credit for armed forces instruction. Offering concrete education credit would give students the flexibility in their schedules to enroll in JROTC and would help to avoid potential enrollment declines in armed forces classes, Duggan noted in her written report to the commission.

Among the remarks at the hearing was a fervent statement opposing the rule modify from Ken Burt, a legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association. The state Legislature decided years agonon to mandate physical didactics credit for JROTC classes, Burt said. The proposed rule modify created a perception that the commission was trying to do "an terminate run" around the Legislature by giving JROTC the ways to pressure school boards to grant the concrete didactics credit. "I believe the commission's brownie is at stake here," he said.

Lt. Col. Brian Anderson, chief of staff at the California Armed forces Department, spoke in favor of the rule change at the hearing, noting that military fitness programs have inspired some students to lose weight and become dedicated exercisers. "The physical educational activity customs is very passionate nearly physical education and wellness," Anderson said. "And then is the military."

Physical education teachers greeted the defeat of the rule change with delight, expressing particular pleasure in Zeiger's statement that the state superintendent values physical education as much as other mandated subject field areas.

Cindy Lederer, a high schoolhouse concrete education instructor in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, said the support was refreshing because concrete didactics classes were often at run a risk for losing students to schoolhouse assemblies or other electives.

"We seem to be the target," Lederer said. "If information technology's not ROTC, it's cheerleading, band or the music instructor who is after us. It makes united states feel devalued."

Jane Meredith Adams covers student health. Contact her or follow her @JaneAdams . Sign up hither for EdHealth, EdSource Today'south gratis newsletter on educatee health.

To get more reports similar this one, click hither to sign up for EdSource's no-cost daily electronic mail on latest developments in teaching.