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I totally agree with you. I retired a year ago, I am sixty one. The last post I held was a Consultant of English Language. I had been facing this problem. I think it is the system that is responsible for this, at least in my country. All that I was able to do was getting the teachers to attend regular training and refreshing courses. I myself shouldered the resposibility of teaching them.
I think it has to do with the people doing the hiring.
I doubt they are bilingual or familiar enough with the language to know the difference between a good teacher and a bad one.
beause spanish teachers and other language teacher are hard to find so they will hire people who can teach it even if they are no good. This is also true in other subjects like math.
Maybe she has improved since then...
With a minor in Spanish, I'm surprised they let her teach that, with the NCLB/highly-qualified standards.
But in any case, she was as least adequate enough to pass your state's Spanish exam, right? That's supposed to be the gatekeeper. If your state's exam is inadequate, maybe you should work on their review committee. They usually meet annually, and are always looking for extra readers, input, etc.
Did she have the same group of students all day? If so, she may have just been teaching her students some basic Spanish so they were at least exposed to it. My school district doesn't have Spanish on an elementary level, but I sometimes incorporate it into other subjects on my own (especially with cursive and holidays). Perhaps that's all she was really doing. If not, and it was a subject she was actually qualified to teach (legally, not necessarily well), she most likely got the job because of her Special Education degree more-so than her Spanish degree. It sounds to me like her particular case is a bit different from the norm. However, I agree with some of the other posters who said the people hiring might not really know how well the person can teach a foreign language if they themselves don't know the language.
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