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Stop Blaming Teachers for Poor Student Performance
Educational activist says Baltimore City Council should be commended for supporting event that questions high-stakes testing
The Baltimore City Council, spurred by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, deserves praise for its resolution endorsing the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, to be held in Washington, D.C., on July 30. This march, and the national attention it brings to the plight of our public schools, is long overdue — especially as it falls on the heels of the mass hysteria around blaming teachers for the questionable lack of student performance on high-stakes tests.
This resolution comes at a very important time for education policymaking in Maryland. Gov. Martin O'Malley must appoint a new state schools superintendent, now that Nancy Grasmick is retiring. Perhaps the governor will take the hint from Baltimore City that we need to reverse course immediately.
Ms. Grasmick was a strong proponent of Race to the Top, which has been more appropriately labeled "Race to the Bottom" and even "Rat Race to the Top." The entire focus of President Barack Obama's educational policy is to replace public schools with charter and non-union schools; bust the teachers unions by stripping teachers of collective bargaining rights; rely on extremely nebulous, faulty and often fraudulent data to assess school and student performances; tie teacher salaries to standardized test scores; and ignore economic reality in order to shift blame for apparent failures.
The politics around blaming teachers is simple. If you're not going to go after the legitimate targets for educational "failures," then look for scapegoats. This approach is clearly bipartisan, as President Obama, the Democrat, chants a similar mantra to the likes of Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin — that all should share the sacrifices. In education, shifting the responsibility almost entirely onto the professional teaching class is their way of sharing sacrifices.
Our national focus on education is to turn it into a business with no input from its workers. Teachers are laborers, and students are the commodities. But consider this: The state with the highest state test scores, Massachusetts, is the most unionized state for teachers. Conversely, South Carolina, the most anti-union state in the country, shows the worst performance among its students but nary a peep from the "reformers." Yet it is somehow the unions' fault that students aren't performing well? Who is manufacturing failed "products?"
The data that back up the notion that students' failures are the fault of teachers are easily debunked. Diane Ravitch, the lightning rod for exposing the fraudulence of No Child Left Behind and its permutation, Race to the Top, posits that the success of Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the D.C. public schools, may be based on widespread fraud (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-29/michelle-rhees...). Unfortunately, Ms. Rhee, one of the heroes of the Superman syndrome and one of Mr. Obama's educational champions, is not alone.
Who is favored? Race to the Top certainly does not favor the student. It favors test makers and new assessment tools and their enormously expensive software, professional development gurus, young Teach for America recruits who quickly see greener pastures after toughing it out for two years, and six-figure principals of non-union chartered schools.
Merit pay — tying test scores to teacher salaries, a major part of the new Baltimore City teachers contract — is one of its "selling factors" that guarantees those with the most needs will be those who are least served. Hey, who wants to teach students who will likely bring down a school's scores and have a direct impact on one's paycheck?
Governor O'Malley, your former colleagues from the Baltimore City Council have sent you a message. Look for a state superintendent who does not see teachers as the problem, or pit teacher against teacher with wild schemes of merit pay for only a select group, or endlessly test students only to prove how well they can do on taking multiple choice tests. This is not education. The business model does not work — and replacing the superintendent with one who recognizes this will turn Maryland into the educational powerhouse it used to be.
When we march in Washington this summer for our schools, let Marylanders know that we are in the business of teaching and that pedagogy should not be based on the corporate bottom line.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllMany other countries, like Finland, Korea, and Japan have better schools than the U.S. Aren't those also public schools? In that case, how is a faulty U.S. education the fault of the 'public school' model? Clearly, something is failing. But, as this article indicates, we have given up searching for solutions, and are merely searching for scapegoats.
Lets turn our public schools into something like our 'for profit' healthcare system. What a model of efficiency that has been...
Not only are the schools in Finland public, they are totally unionized. Even the teachers' aides belong to unions.
But people in Finland are crazy foreigners!
And pinkos!
And they look kinda...,well, sissy, don't they?
You don't really expect decent 'Mericans to act like sissy-crazy-pinko-foreigners, do ya? ;)
Seriously, I'd say that the only real advantages Finland has on the U.S. for this kinda thing are a low population (5.6 mil I think? ) and a real Social Compact.
> Many other countries, like Finland, Korea, and Japan have better schools than the U.S.
Sorry, but that's not true. Our schools rank lower than those countries because of our horrendous poverty. We are #1 in the world in the PISA rankings when you consider US schools with less than 10% poverty. Yes, #1. As you start looking at schools with higher than 10% poverty rate, our rank starts to go down. So with our 20% (some say even 40%) poverty rate for children in the US, we rank about in the middle of the PISA rankings. Not bad considering how many of our children don't get enough to eat in the morning, and and work to help support their parents. Plus there's something like 990,000 homeless children in this country.
Stansbuj,
I am quite interested in reading the study that you are quoting. Do you have a link, authors, etc. . . that you can share with us?
OYE
http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/2010/12/pisa_its_poverty_not_stupid_1.html
http://www.artofteachingscience.org/?p=3233
Jack
Blaming teachers is emblematic of America's cultural twilight and societal collapse. Even with mediocre teachers, students can do well, if there is enough societal interest in education. But there isn't -- our culture is almost completely consumerized and the classroom has to compete for the attention of its the poorly nourished, infinitely distracted, and increasingly hardpressed students.
Moreover, the corporate vampires are waiting in the wings to feed on public education as there is little else left to cannibalize. These two forces are colliding to dismantle the last legs of the American century, and with it, any hopes of averting a new dark age.
The research is very clear: unlimited television at home yields poor educational performance, and effective teaching decreases as class size exceeds 15. Lastly, despite the commitment to education, even the best of teachers have to leave the profession when they can no longer support their families. Union labor has always proven to be the best, whether it be carpenters or teachers. Pride in one's work yields better work. The right wingers WANT the destruction of education, in favor of training. Their corporate masters want serfs who will do what they are told for little money and be satisfied watching some body else live well on their idiot boxes.
Ironblood,
Could you please cite the research on your comments of the first sentence? I would like to read it.
Thanks,
OYE
Imagine if failing schools were treated as problems to be solved rather than indications of failed political perspectives. If they were treated as problems to be solved--the same as NASA would treat a manned moon expedition--these are the aspects of the problem that would have to be addressed:
1. Communication between parents and school.
2. Lack of financial resources as evidenced by large class sizes, deteriorated schools, lack of technology.
3. A vision of reform shared by all stakeholders.
4. A curriculum that reflects the interests and abilities of students.
5. A teacher training model that nurtures beginning teachers and exemplifies "best practices."
6. Implementation of reform that stresses participation of teachers and building administrators.
7. Special programs to help special populations: students not fluent in English, those with severe behavior problems, homeless kids, pregnant girls, those with learning disabilities, and so on.
8. Acceptance of innovation even if changes do not pay immediate benefits
Those eight points represent a beginning. Forget about "unions," salaries, and testing to reward and punish schools, students, and teachers--just make the changes needed to achieve success. And success should be defined in the broadest sense: graduation rates, acceptance into colleges, positive attitudes towards learning, participation in extracurriculars, and so on. Forget about comparisons to the poor souls in Singapore who drive themselves crazy practicing integration problems in calculus as tenth graders. Success for us may mean something different from what it means to them.
our educational system is designed to feed our industrial and consumptive systems...
it does not breed thinkers...
again, by design...
it cannot, without violating economic realities held in place by violence...
school can only, ever, work on behalf of our oppressors...it is their creation...
overcoming this programming machine can only happen as part of a larger overcoming...
the overcoming of property, electricity, monogamy...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...unanimous, planetwide rejection of the modern world...
Extremely broad statement. Many teachers are in fact working very hard to produce thinkers and attempt to preserve what is left of democracy. However, it seems that many people have suggestions on education because they have been to school. Does that mean that I should give suggestions to the pilot? I have been on many flights. I have several suggestions for doctors, I have been to many hospitals. Schools can be used to change communities and possibly the world. I believe that communities can be a reflection of their schools and not the opposite. Peace
Yes, bloodmeridian, education is the foundation of political power.
I’ve been quite noisy on the subject of education lately, but as any propagandist knows, the messaging requires repetition.
The DOE has always been all about dumbing down the population, squelching independent critical and creative thought and interest in intellectual inquiry, creating an incoherent curriculum that appears to have no practical value to the students' lives, and propagandizing. I’ve become increasingly convinced that we need to really look into issues of schooling as the crux of reforming our nation. The robber barons Carnegie and Rockefeller et al. certainly did, and their foundations continue their intent.
It’s pretty clear to me that hoping for reform of our public schools is a lost cause, and the ongoing perfection of a federally centralized curriculum doled out by obedient pedagogues will be taken to the next level. The most cost-efficient means to a most profitable end is a bipartisan goal. I have to laugh at the idea that this Corporatocracy really wants highly educated workers to any large extent—the world has plenty of those to satisfy the corporations' needs. At present, US citizens are comparatively spoiled and demanding, plus too expensive; this will have to change, and to effect the change, you start early, at age three or four. Look at what kind of work will be required of our children in the unfolding future if you want to know where the schools are headed. We're after compliant workers who let their frustrations out on each other, who'll fight tooth and nail for that Walmart job without benefits and bend down for the daily anal search to ensure we aren't stealing any salt shakers. The "better" jobs will be in oversight/surveillance, the military, and the police state.
Some here talk about growing our food ourselves. How about growing our children ourselves? If you’ve already read this part of a prior rant, sorry for the redundancy. If not, think about it:
I've floated the idea of groups of parents do some research into educational philosophy--John Taylor Gatto, Ivan Illich, Marie Montessori, as well as Zoe and Alfie Kohn--and set up cooperatives to work with the children in small, mixed age groups, with parents with certain interests, areas of expertise, and all sorts of skills take turns educating the children when they’re available, and the idea that retired persons might welcome watching the children in an educational home environment while the parents work. In other words, a do-it-yourself group home school that could be pliable enough to accomodate working parents. No fundamentalists allowed. I will just keep putting out the idea as often as appropriate, hoping someone might think about it and get back to me with ideas.
By the way, I recently found a very good documentary that talks to the issue of social control called "Social Engineering: Human Resources": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJiCmcdELQ
Great idea. I hope you get parents to join you.
I think your post summed up a lot.
Good luck, Elizabeth in your idea for collective home schooling.
OK, teachers, you're off the hook. Now who do we blame?
Why don't "they" just make it illegal to teach anything to anyone under a certain income bracket. Then all the problems of underperforming schools will be solved b/c only 1% of the population will be able to go to school in the first place. @@
Can you imagine Paris Hilton as president?
That's hot...
I'm glad to hear the Baltimore City Council is taking a stand, but I'd like to hear more about the so-called merit pay agreement that the BTU has signed on to. One step forward, two steps back?
BTW, Paris Hilton can't possibly be any worse than Michelle Bachman or Sarah Palin! I fear that the upcoming presidential race will be truly cringe-worthy with any R up against our hero Barack, that champion of the working class, peace, and civil liberties. Keep hope alive!
I had some teachers who were great and really inspired me. I had others who were DUDS. We need to go on a case by case bases. There are certain teachers that have no business teaching they include:
The teacher who lectures on one topic and gives the tests on the textbook which is never covered in class
The teacher who gives the student with a 100% class average a "B" because he/she does not give out "A"s.
The teacher who feels that he/she must fail a certain per cent of the class, no matter what
The teacher who decides that he/she doesn't like a certain student after seeing him/her for 1 microsecond.
By the way, my cousin home schooled her son and it worked out well. She lived in an area thatt had lousy public schools.
I agree with your pointers on what kind of teachers shouldn't be teaching and I've seen some of those when I was in school but I'm still with the "mend it don't end it idea" of fixing public schools. We're all paying taxes of which some of it goes to funding public education for now. Part of the solution will require increasing teachers' salaries and the rest will have to go beyond the money. By the way, more power to your cousin who succeeded but I'm afraid it won't work for most families.
I agree with "Mend it, don't end it". But my cousin couldn't wait for it to be mended. I also agree with you that home schooling isn't for everyone. My cousin prepared each lesson. She also lived in an area where many people home schooled their children. When she got to high school courses, she felt that she couldn't teach certain ones because she didn't understand the topic. She and several parents pooled teasching.
I also know of cases where home schooling was a flop. I was a classmate of Marshall Fritz, founder of "Separation of School and State". Even he agrees that home schooling isn't for everyone.
In the public schools we are taught government lies such as
The USA was never an agressor nation.
Policing the world is defending America's freedom
Communists never win elections
Marijuana should be outlawed because it leads to addictive drugs
Just a few comments.
Kid's behavior in class began to deteriorate in the 60s.
The 60s kids were some of the best students I ever had.
Teaching is a joy when students do their part.
I asked, "any questions or comments" thousands of times. Mostly none.
Not even, "Why?" which is one of the best questions.
Blacks have a problem called, "acting white."
Whites have a problem called, "acting bright."
HS seniors come into the classroom declaring, "I am so tired."
Discipline is the worst thing about teaching. Parents could tell you that.
I taught 33 years. Retired in 92. Loved teaching. Mostly loved the kids. Burned out at the end.
That's interesting to note and would explain part of why online/distance education has been catching up even with its flaws.