Substitute!

Substitute teaching has been called the Rodney Dangerfield of occupations - it's a profession that just doesn't get any respect.

Students throw things, switch seats, pester for library or bathroom passes, or simply disappear out the door - never to return - when the sub's back is turned.

It's enough to make a substitute want to scrape his nails down the chalkboard.

"In the [armed forces], I taught classes of 500 men," says Leon Greenberg, who fills in for absent teachers in several northern New Jersey towns. "Believe me, it was much easier."

There's something about the presence of a substitute, an adult whom many children view as almost powerless, that can bring out the worst in a classroom. But with today's focus on standardized test scores, and a heightened recognition of the need to make the most of classroom time, many educators are urging a closer look at substitute teaching.

Students in the United States receive, on average, one full year of instruction from substitutes before graduating from high school, a recent study shows. But the quality of that instruction can vary wildly, influenced by everything from low pay to a lack of training for substitutes.

The challenge for educators is finding out what works and what doesn't - and figuring out how to tip the balance in favor of the former. To that end, the tales of substitutes themselves may suggest some places to start.

George Takis, a retired research engineer, particularly relishes rolling up his sleeves and diving into the challenge of teaching upper-level math.

He seldom struggles with a disciplinary problem. On the contrary, Mr. Takis says, the high school students he teaches in Fulton County, Ga., are generally glad to see him and eager to learn.

"I love the work," he says. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't."

A group of calculus students recently took him out to lunch to thank him for his teaching.

Many schools would love to replicate Takis's experience, but how? For every substitute who has a positive experience, there is another who can tell a tale of horror. One woman who asked not to be identified recounts abuses such as being bitten and spat at by emotionally disturbed children while serving in a classroom she was unprepared to handle.

Training can make an enormous difference, experts say.

Students say "they can tell right away whether the substitute is an educator or not," says Geoffrey Smith, director of the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University in Logan. "Immediately they know if someone is comfortable in the classroom."

Many techniques that make the difference between success and failure can be taught, says Professor Smith. But few subs receive training.

In Utah, only about 7 percent of substitute teachers receive three or more hours of training before landing in a classroom, according to a study by the institute. Nationally, Smith estimates, the figure is about 10 percent.

But is better training enough to make up for what some in the profession say are deplorably low qualifications and even lower pay?

Utah is one of 28 states that require only a high school diploma to work as a substitute. Only two states - Oregon and Iowa - require teacher certification for their substitutes.

As for pay, it averages about $65 to $70 a day nationally. In some parts of the country, it's as low as $45 a day - about what a salon stylist would make for taking a few inches off the bottom of a customer's hair.

Despite the poor pay, unruly students, and lack of respect, substitute teachers with dazzling résumés are not a rarity in the nation's schools.

"We have among our workforce PhDs, college faculty, poets, scientists, military retirees - all kinds of people," says Shirley Kirsten, a concert pianist who works as a substitute teacher in Fresno, Calif. "When I was growing up in New York, the subs were often more interesting than our regular teachers."

Ms. Kirsten is frustrated, though, by a system that she says seems to work against subs rather than for them.

She remembers one of her own early experiences, when she was asked to teach math and science for 30 days in a troubled urban middle school. She arrived to find no lesson plans and no one to answer her questions.

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