From the News-Democrat.
Throughout East St. Louis Senior High School, Principal Ethel Shanklin has been known as “Dr. Shanklin.”
At numerous online sites connected to School District 189, Shanklin has been referred to as “Dr. Shanklin,” a reference, she says, to a doctorate in education degree or its equivalent, which she claims to have received from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in May 2007.
But no more.At the request of the News-Democrat, District 189 Superintendent Theresa Saunders checked Shanklin’s personnel file. Saunders said to her surprise, she found no proof of a doctorate degree or its equivalent.
She said she believes that Shanklin does not hold a doctorate degree and ordered her to tell her staff that she is not doctor.
“She told the staff today,” Saunders said Wednesday.
Saunders said Shanklin also planned to tell an assembly of high school students that she would no longer refer to herself as “Dr. Shanklin.”
Shanklin said she mistakely thought that a two-year “education specialist” degree she completed at SIUE was the last step for a doctorate in education.
But Shanklin could not have received such a degree from SIUE because the university’s School of Education does not offer a doctorate in education, spokesman Greg Conroy said.
A check of the university’s computerized records showed that what Shanklin received was a two-year “education specialist” degree, which Conroy called an “advanced degree” but not a doctorate. This degree stated she majored in “education administration.”
Conroy said a person holding this degree, “should not be calling themselves a doctor.”
Shanklin said, “I don’t have a piece of paper stating that I have a doctorate,” but insisted during a telephone interview last week that what she received from SIUE allows her to refer to herself as “doctor.” She said her salary is not based on having a doctorate.
Saunders said after investigating, she believes Shanklin was confused and did not intend to deceive…
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https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=118359 Responses to “High School Principal Doesn’t Know What a Doctorate Is”
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April 20th, 2009 at 10:07AM
"Where Dreamers Become Leaders." That’s the motto of her school.
April 20th, 2009 at 10:41AM
[…] Margaret Sultan passes along the story of East St. Louis Senior High School principal Ethel Shanklin, who has been referring to herself as “Dr. Shanklin” for two years. It turns out, she only completed a two-year “education specialist” degree which she thought was a doctorate. Shanklin said, “I don’t have a piece of paper stating that I have a doctorate,” but insisted during a telephone interview last week that what she received from SIUE allows her to refer to herself as “doctor.” She said her salary is not based on having a doctorate. […]
April 20th, 2009 at 11:30AM
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Doctor
And Doctor when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al
(with apologies to Paul Simon)
April 20th, 2009 at 1:07PM
What annoys me about these sorts of stories isn’t just their alarming regularity but rather the fact that many, MANY extremely bright, highly qualified people went to grad school, some actually HAVE doctorates, and we cannot get a job in primary or secondary ed because we’re content specialists instead of education specialists.
Who are the new education specialists? Undergrads in the bottom 50% of their class. Careerists who see credits as the avenue to higher income instead of paths to provide better education. And last but not least, the complete and utter dumbasses who never, ever learned about the hierarchy of higher ed because they were too damn busy maneuvering their way into positions of power in their communities. These are the sorts like Shanklin. Why do so many high school principals think they get to call themselves "Doctor"? One of my professor-mentors even noted how obnoxious it is when professors demand to be addresses that way too. It’s bad enough when these principals don’t even know what plagiarism is…
April 20th, 2009 at 1:41PM
> "many, MANY extremely bright, highly qualified people went to grad school, some actually HAVE doctorates, and we cannot get a job in primary or secondary ed because we’re content specialists instead of education specialists"
Cassandra, I made a very similar point a few days ago that you might find of interest: How to sharply improve the quality of residence life.
As in primary and secondary ed, many highly qualified people are locked out of student-service and co-curricular positions in universities because they have PhD’s in an academic subject rather than MEd’s in "student personnel administration." Are jobs of this kind suited to every academic? Of course not — that isn’t the point. The point is that the real academic professionals are locked out in advance from what should be important educational positions. (And that’s why, in practice, these positions don’t really have much educational value any more.)
April 20th, 2009 at 5:02PM
"Where Dreamers Become Leaders." – I believe it is now officially changed to "Where Dreamers Become Doctors" – I mean it is possible, if you dream long enough, right?
April 21st, 2009 at 7:41AM
In the meantime, people will continue to wonder why East St. Louis is a basket case that makes Detroit resemble Shangri-La.
The Dr. This / Dr. That ethos now pervades high school administration. We got a good giggle last year from a communique sent by a Dr. Whoosit, Ed.D. at a local high school: two pages with about ten misspelled words and enough comma splices to send a freshman comp instructor to the whiskey bottle.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:56PM
I foresee widespread usage of the expression "S/He pulled a Shanklin" in the not-so-distant future.
🙂
April 21st, 2009 at 9:59PM
The sad thing is that there are a couple of "real" doctors – sorry UD – out teaching high school. One of my friends has an undergrad degree in engineering from MIT and a PhD in ChemE from the U of M. She is teaching high school science in the Minneapolis public schools and is doing a wonderful job.
One of my high school science teachers had a PhD and he was a hellluva good teacher.