When an Explosive Decision Shakes Up Everything
on March 9, 2010
Policy & Technology
Comment
Having spent a decade in one of "those" schools I can see both sides.
Here is one perspective not considered in your article:
Holding a teacher accountable...
Having spent a decade in one of "those" schools I can see both sides.
Here is one perspective not considered in your article:
Holding a teacher accountable for the success of all students is like holding a lawyer accountable for winning all cases, even the ones they would normally reject. These schools are schools full of all of those type of cases and teachers are expected to win all of them. On top of that, the teachers are not able to attempt to win with the best methods or tools at their disposal, but only the ones that they are told are acceptable...which haven't been working in the school for years.
So imagine that a partner in a law firm, gave a nearly impossible to case to win to an attorney, and only gave the attorney methods and evidence that proved to not be successful in the past? How accountable should that losing attorney be held?
But even after having written the above...I still can totally agree with your post.
on Mar 9, 2010
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I'm sure you could here the rumblings for miles around. I mean, when the New York Times and the president of the United States mention this as a major event, you know that either some points have been scored or some fouls are going to be called.
And that is exactly what is happening after the Rhode Island education board fired 74 teachers and 19 staff members from Central Falls High School. The school had a track record of poor performance over the past several years with dismal test scores from high school students. The results were so low that school officials decided to terminate all of the faculty members to shake up the system.
President Barack Obama supported this decision, but you can imagine that members of both the local teachers' union and national unions are in an uproar. That in itself is unfortunate, but not surprising. In what other industry is there protection for poor performance? Insurance salesman don't get to file suits if they are held accountable. Attorneys have little recourse for not being made partners in their firm. So someone please tell me why teachers believe THEY HAVE SOME RIGHT TO CONTINUE TO BE BAD!!
I heard this quote which makes so much sense: "Bad teachers can use really bad skills and get away with it for years as long as they have good kids in their classrooms." Isn't that true? Good kids hardly need our help. They will be compliant and will do their work. It doesn't matter how good or bad the teacher is, or whether or not they even show up for that matter. What we need is really GOOD TEACHERS WORKING WITH ALL KINDS OF KIDS. We need support systems that won't make excuses, but will instead set new and higher standards for success.
I have to applaud the school administration in Central Falls. You can imagine the criticism they have received. I have to applaud the president as well. Offering support to the school officials of Central Falls has started a brief rift between this administration and teachers' unions.
But that might not be a bad thing. In fact, this might just be a catalyst for more schools to make drastic personnel changes. Leaders shouldn't be afraid. They have a responsibility to the local community, school alumni, school families and most importantly, the kids.
If teachers don't want to get it together, then let's have some leaders who can get it together for them, pack it up and ship it out. Bravo Central Falls, bravo!!
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Comments
on Mar 9, 2010
Having spent a decade in one of "those" schools I can see both sides.
Here is one perspective not considered in your article:
Holding a teacher accountable for the success of all students is like holding a lawyer accountable for winning all cases, even the ones they would normally reject. These schools are schools full of all of those type of cases and teachers are expected to win all of them. On top of that, the teachers are not able to attempt to win with the best methods or tools at their disposal, but only the ones that they are told are acceptable...which haven't been working in the school for years.
So imagine that a partner in a law firm, gave a nearly impossible to case to win to an attorney, and only gave the attorney methods and evidence that proved to not be successful in the past? How accountable should that losing attorney be held?
But even after having written the above...I still can totally agree with your post.
on Mar 16, 2010
Not all teachers in this school or any under-performing school are bad teachers. In addition, there is no other profession that is expected to get all children to succeed regardless of the fact that they don't get support from home, may not speak English, have any sort of disability (whether identified or not), and a number of other myriad problems that they bring to the learning environment. If legislators and the government are going to hold teachers accountable, then they need to hold themselves accountable as well, since the funding is not nearly enough to provide for all the needs of students that teachers are required to provide at a salary much less than any other field requiring at least a 4 year degree.
on Mar 16, 2010
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that 74 teachers are all bad teachers? Offering support to administrators to do their jobs is a responsible move, but don't you feel that teachers deserve the same type of support to do their jobs as well?
If a school was failing for years, and the administrators were, as you think, that good, why couldn't they get it turned around? Are they bad administrators? Maybe, maybe not, but this is a systemic problem, not just a teacher problem.
If my car's engine needed to be fixed, I would not expect my mechanic to change the tires and say everything was okay now. Getting four new tires may make it seem like the car would run smoothly, but if it is the engine, the darn thing will still not work. We need to look under the hood and take a look at the engine.
Unions don't harbor bad teachers. They just protect people's rights on the job. Teachers get observed, are given prescriptions, warnings, reprimands, support and professional development. If this was all happening, how come it took years to let them go. Ummm, maybe administration wasn't on top of what they were suppose to be doing.
on Mar 17, 2010
To Paul: You gave such a compelling argument and then you lost it. That's exactly why teachers are in this predicament because they have no concept of the outside world. People should be kissing our feet for what we do for kids and what we have to work with! Stand tall and be proud! We do a fantastic job. I challenge anyone who complains about teachers to stand in a classroom for two weeks and see how fast they change their tune. We are set up to fail with NCLB and with all the restrictions and no money! Shout it from the roof tops--we are GOOD. It is not the teachers who failed in CT, it is a broken system to begin with!
