Every once in awhile I hear of a substitute who actually does a better job in the classroom than the regular teacher. Here's an example: A high-level math teacher at Lebanon High School recently didn't want/know how/care to explain a concept that many students in the class weren't grasping, yet the teacher elected to just "move on" to stay on a teaching timeline rather than back up and explore different options for explaining said concept. Fortunately the teacher was absent soon thereafter, and the substitute happened to know math and how to teach it. The sub backs up and takes time to explain this apparent hole in our students' prior math learning, until these bright students grasped the concept! Success!
Then there was another recent sub who lacked knowledge of a speciality subject area where the sub was assigned. This sub just let the class hang out and talk the entire period, wasting valuable educational time. If a subject is too specialized for regular subs to follow a lesson plan (do teachers at the high school level do lesson plans?), say maybe band, choir, French, Spanish.... couldn't there be a quality DVD on hand that would enrich the students? A play in French? A concert by a famous choir or symphony orchestra? I'd say a substitute teacher should be able to teach (or at least play a teaching DVD), or we are not only wasting our students' limited educational hours but paying way too much for a sitter.
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Unfortunately, many subs are not qualified to teach the subjects they are assigned. A recent sub for a math teacher was not a math endorsed person who couldn't present the lessons even though the teacher left detailed notes. The students complained that they were not explained, just written on the board. Another sub, PE endorsed, subbed in a class with few students and left for ten minutes. Played movies even though the students had an assignment to do. He said he didn't want to be bored. There is no standard for subs other than the fact that they have a license.
I do not know about the math teacher you write about, but the students may or may not have been given instruction, I don't know. Having dealt with several teachers, very few would move on without recovering material if necessary. There are classes where a few students complain when the rest understand. Maybe that is the case here. I don't know and would not personally trust an isolated report or few, I would have to personally observe the situation or have continual reports to come to a conclusion.
As far as I know, the standards for subs are set at the state level. It's probably possible for the LCSD to set stricter standards, but they would almost certainly be left with too few subs to fill classrooms - and state laws requires that someone with a license be in the room. There's no getting around that one.
It's a tough situation, to be sure.
And I can think of three examples of subs who are at the least decent, if not good, yet who aren't really qualified in any meaningful way (and yes, I include myself in that list). Paper standards really do only go so far. I'd be far more impressed if the LCSD actually interviewed the sub applicants in some meaningful way - and then offered SOME kind of training to those who were accepted into the system. But that's a funding issue....
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