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Comment by ams6110 | Hacker News Reader

High schools may have trouble finding teachers who are qualified to teach advanced subjects, also they may not have enough students to really justify a class at that level.

Whereas a Community College may have an easier time finding instructors, since there aren't licensing rules or a need to employ the instructor full-time. Also they draw from a wider student population so may not have as much difficulty filling a class.

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> High schools may have trouble finding teachers who are qualified to teach advanced subjects

One wonders about such teachers who have advanced masters degrees in education. Why are they not qualified to teach freshman college material?

Someone with a masters in education may or may not have the knowledge required for a particular subject, say a math or science. Or another way, just because someone has a masters in education doesn’t mean they can teach any specific class. Their background could be in counseling, administration, school psychology, or education methodology... not, for instance, typical high school subjects.

A degree in anything but the subjects they teach? Does that mean that a high school physics teacher knows nothing more about physics than high school physics?

> Does that mean that a high school physics teacher knows nothing more about physics than high school physics?

Probably not; the state policies adopted under the pressure of NCLB and it's successors put strong pressure on districts to hire teachers with at least a bachelor's degree in the field taught for secondary schools, and even teachers that don't will often have additional coursework as part of college breadth requirements.

A Masters degree is usually qualification to teach college in the field of the degree (regular faculty in community colleges, lecturers in major universities—though lecturers are somewhat rare).

A masters in education is qualification to teach education classes, not other subjects.

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