Valerie Strauss: Tell Obama firing teachers won't work
3.2.10 – In the years that his classes were filled with kids from poor, broken homes who didn’t eat or sleep with any regularity, he worried that he wasn’t nearly as effective as he wanted to be. He reached some of the kids, sometimes, with some material, but not enough to his liking, no matter what he did or how hard he tried.
Blog: Tell Obama firing teachers won’t work
The Answer Sheet takes issue with president’s comments on R.I. firings
I have an uncle who was for years a Chicago public school teacher. Passionate and articulate about his subject, biology, Arnie cared a great deal about whether the kids learned in his class.
But here’s the disturbing thing he recalls about his career:
In the years that his classes were filled with kids from poor, broken homes who didn’t eat or sleep with any regularity, he worried that he wasn’t nearly as effective as he wanted to be. He reached some of the kids, sometimes, with some material, but not enough to his liking, no matter what he did or how hard he tried.
When he changed schools and suddenly was teaching kids from middle-class families who valued education, he instantly became a brilliant teacher. His students progressed at a fast clip, and everything he did seemed to work.
What some school reformers seem to forget is that the kids’ circumstances outside school affect their class performance: how much they eat, how much they sleep, how many words they heard when they were young, how many books were made available to them, the abilities and the disabilities with which they were born, etc.
What happens in the classroom is incredibly powerful, but it is not the only thing that matters.
This is why it was so disheartening to hear President Obama wade into a debate about last week’s firing of all of the educators at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
The firings by the Central Falls school trustees made big headlines, not because reconstituting a school is new, but perhaps because it is the only school in the state’s poorest and smallest city, and because it was not reported as being the consequence of years of calculated efforts to fix the school (even if it was).
Education Secretary Arne Duncan immediately applauded the move, saying the committee members were “showing courage and doing the right thing for kids.”
And today, Obama felt the need to jump in, saying in a speech:
“So if a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers to find a solution. We’ve got to give them a chance to make meaningful improvements. But if a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn’t show signs of improvement, then there’s got to be a sense of accountability.
“And that’s what happened in Rhode Island last week at a chronically troubled school, when just 7 percent of 11th graders passed state math tests — 7 percent. When a school board wasn’t able to deliver change by other means, they voted to lay off the faculty and the staff. As my Education Secretary Arne Duncan, says, our kids get only one chance at an education, and we need to get it right.”
One thing that Obama got right: the school board wasn’t able to deliver change, but, unfortunately, the school board didn’t fire itself. It fired all the administrators and teachers, as if they were the only things responsible for student failure.
I wish someone would tell Obama the truth about school restructuring.
What happened in Rhode Island was not unique; restructuring schools is a “reform” tool that administrators use after other attempts to improve student achievement have failed. It is the last resort in the No Child Left Behind law, which mandates that school systems meet specific student achievement targets. If they don’t, in the end, all the teachers have to be fired (though some get rehired, as is expected at Central Falls).
The overall problem with this approach is that there is no proof that it actually works for most of the schools that undergo the process.
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Comments
Ms. Strauss is or used to be a liberal ed reporter in the Washington Post box.
She seems unaware of the Harlem P.S. 201 study that indicated that NO MATTER WHAT is done to culturally poor and improverished children, a key factor is the cultural inspiration in the home; usually that is the mother, alone. But teachers are NOT underpaid given their modest intellects,abilities and fervor to teach the basics. They'll never be as good as the old nuns for myriad reasons, and firing is often a needed requisite. As Sowell notes, the main impediment to education is the NEA. To throw more money to the Ed enpire is to give money to the drunken sailor.
I do sympathize with teachers who are given difficult situations or curriculum/text books that are inadequate. Having said that, I also know the unions have gotten too powerful and it needs to stop.
When we pay teachers to sit in rubber rooms, when unions support gay marriage, when they push a political radical agenda rather than work to make the school atmosphere better, I part ways.
Get out of the business of politics and get back to bargaining in good faith. Seek a reasonable package but understand when we are in the worst economic crisis, compromise is needed.
The union is it's own worst enemy and I for one am glad someone is pushing back.
I do find it humorous that the NEA and the teachers supported Obama and he's stabbing them in the back.
Surely no one believes that firing the entire staff will fix the problem. But if the staff's union is not willing to work with the district in a renewed effort to give it a try, then another starting from scratch is the next logical move. I know $30 an hour isn't much to high paid Rhode Island teachers and edWeek writers, but you can bet that many Central Falls parents would be happy to work for such a wage.
I agree. Its not the teachers as much as its the educrats, the administrtators and ed schools that have runied this system. The NEA should distance itself from the eductaion establishment.
No, absolutely not a longer teaching day than teachers already had. As I have posted elsewhere, the countries that are leaving us behind in international testing are shortening the TEACHING day, not the work day. They are respecting and honoring that teaching is work and much of the work goes on behind the scenes.
It takes TIME to create good lessons, time to carefully grade work, time to do the record keeping, etc. never mind collaborating with peers, which also requires TIME. We do not create better teachers and schools by offering teachers $30 an hour for SOME hours spent in before and after school student programs that generate additional prep. work for teachers, and commandeer what little planning time they do have.
While building rapport with students is great, every adult who spends the lion's share of their day TEACHING young people deserves a 30 minute duty-free lunch every single day. It should be up to the teacher whether or not to give up their lunch time, as I choose to do on many days. Many teachers eat at their desks while they work, as I also often do. I actually take my 30 minute duty-free lunch 20-40% of the time (lately closer to 20) and when I am eating in my room I am always working with or without a student.
The district's offer was an insult. The teacher's union was right to refuse it. No working adult, or anyone else, should be REQUIRED to give up their lunch or to teach longer, and thereby have to plan and grade well into the evening (FAMILY) hours on a daily basis, just to barely keep up.
A steady diet of 10 hour work days is not acceptable and that is what seems to be called for.
When will Americans look around and say, as concerned above points out, that this is not the formula used by successful nations. America needs to place its priority on initial teacher training, double it at least, accept only A level students, give preference to master's degrees, cut class sizes but, after all of this do something about POVERTY which is the issue, not race. Poor white, and all other races do badly as well. Finland has less than 1/3 of America's relative poverty which is the #1 reason it leads the world in education.
Diane Ravitch has said, it makes as much sense to fire the teachers as it makes to fire the police dept in cities with a high crime rate. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Respect the job and the person doing it. That is the main thing that has changed during my 37 years of teaching.
I gave the wrong country in one of my replys. It is Finland who scores highest on the international PISA test.
Here is PBS link about that subject.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wherewestand/reports/globalization/finland-whats-the-secret-to-its-success/206/
I remain absolutely convinced that, as a whole,teaching has never been a respectable profession in America, that Americans do not value education (look around at the culture and the values that stand out), and that Americans do not really care as much about their children's schooling as they claim. Consider how Americans spend their time and money, for a start. If education were a priority, there are many things that would be different. But, they love to complain about teachers and teachers' associations.
WTF is wrong with Gy marriage. We have it in Canada, I've been to one wedding of 2 women. Who cares, opponents are so behind the times. I'm sure teachers unions and other unions for that matter would be happy to get out of politics as soon as corportions are banned from giving money to the Rs or the Ds. BTW didn't the Supreme Court just say unions had an absolute right to free speech?