Since GWB’s brilliant move (sarcasm) to enact No Child Left Behind (Ted Kennedy had a big part of the law to!) there has been a huge federal and state push to reform education. From tying test scores to teacher performance to removing tenure these reforms have been proposed and sometimes enacted in school systems across the United States. Mostly these proposals and opinions from the people trying to reform our schools are just plain asinine. It seems like the people who run the education system have never been or forgot what it is like to be a teacher. People like Arne Duncan , Michelle Rhees, and Tom Horne may have the best intentions but their ideas in my opinion are not conducive to reforming education. Recently Mr. Bill Gates, who is a great philanthropist, activist, and leader has funded a program that would install video cameras into teachers classrooms to further evaluate their performance. Not only is this a huge invasion of privacy but again does not solve the problem of reforming education (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?ref=education).
The problem with some of the reforms like videotaping classes and having test scores factor into teachers evaluations is that they only measure a small part of the role of a teacher. There is more to teaching than what happens in the classroom. In fact I find what happens outside the classroom to be far more important that what happens inside the classroom. The role of a teacher is a leader, a role model, a support system, counselor, ally, and innovator. They should not only encourage critical thinking and analysis in the classroom but should be someone the students turn to outside the classroom. Test scores don’t measure critical thinking skills and videotaping inside a classroom doesn’t show how involved the teacher is outside the classroom. Is it more important to have a student answer a multiple choice question correctly or have them learn how to solve problems and issues that arise both in and outside the classroom. I know many teachers that work tiredly at their job. They are at school an hour before the day begins and at school two hours after the day ends. They are there for students wanting extra help. They stay after for clubs, grading, and advice. Sometimes they just stay because they love the students. They attend sports events, even the less glamourous sports. They attend sparsely attended student art shows and performances. They give up their weekend to volunteer at a club activity or school event. Many people will say that this is the job of a teacher and I agree, however this effort beyond the classroom should be recognized and rewarded. Teachers can not and should not be judged by test scores or video cameras. So how do we fix the education system in the United States. I find it to be a simple solution and if a peon like myself can propose such a simple idea I don’t see why these Princeton educated morons who are trying to reform education can’t figure this out.
First of all please get rid of No Child Left Behind, it has put way to push pressure on school systems across the United States to “teach to the test”. We have gotten away from critical thinking skills and analysis because we as teachers and administrators are too worried about our students failing a state wide mandated test. These test scores show us very little about student and teacher performance. These tests have dumbed down curriculum and watered down higher level thinking skills amongst students. When I have a week and a half to teach my students about Rome and Greece, the students are forced to memorize rather than absorb and analyze about one of the most important civilizations.
Second raise the pay of teachers. Its criminal that I get paid 33,000 dollars a year with an advanced degree and four years of experience. Its more than criminal that my pay has actually decreased in the four years I have been a teacher rather than increase. Its beyond criminal that I get paid less than some old curmudgeon of a teacher that plays videos and flicks his boogers in class all day rather than teach. I know the critics say teachers only work 3/4ths of a year and they only work 6 hours a day. But the teachers day does not end at 230, if your a good teacher your day ends many hours beyond that. I think we should weigh a job on how hard someone works not how many hours. An office turd may work year round from nine to five, but he stares at a computer most of the time and goes on illegal websites when he should be working.
Third not only should you raise the pay of teachers significantly but you should have raises and pay increases that are based on teachers performance. There is no incentive for teachers to do their job well. This encourages many good teachers to leave the job or become lazy. As a teacher I not only do a fantastic job in the classroom developing dynamic lessons and encouraging higher level thinking but I do one better outside the classroom. I sponsor two clubs, stay after school one a week for extra help, stay after frequently to be a counselor for my students, I attend sporting and arts events. I support my school at functions and in the community. Does this affect my pay, not in the slightest. I would get paid the same for playing sudoko at my desk all day while my students text on their cell phones. One must really love their job to be a good teacher because that is the only incentive. Its saddening to see teachers who work so hard have to get second and third jobs to support their family, to have to leave the profession because the pay is too little. Not only do you lose good teachers because of this but you don’t attract good teachers. The best business students at colleges are destined for high paying jobs in business, the best science students desire jobs in large labs, the best math students want to be engineers. They don’t want to become teachers. Why? because their is no incentive for good performance. To add to this schools should develop and help fund teachers who desire to further their education. As I history teacher I know very little about history that I did not focus on in college. I learn what I teach from the book and if I have the time outside sources. This is no way to further my knowledge as a teacher. I would love to take more classes on the Renaissance, Modern Middle East , Communism etc. But the cost to go back to school is an entire years salary. Now I dont think school systems should foot the bill for a college education but they should make it easier and encourage teachers to further their education.
Fourth: REMOVE TEACHER TENURE. This idea is ridiculous and its actually something that Michelle Rhees and I have in common. The idea that after I teach for a couple years by job is safe for the next thirty years is beyond dumb. If a teacher has tenure it is very difficult for them to be fired. It doesn’t matter if they receive poor evaluations, fall asleep during class, fail to manage their classroom, show up late, leave early. They will be reprimanded but not fired. Again this leads to lazy and bad teaching. Beyond a teacher committing a crime their job is safe. I am a good teacher and I am not worried about being fired or let go, only bad teachers are. Which leads me to my last reform...
Fifth: Remove seniority laws. The way it works is if a school has to make cuts the young teachers or teachers with the least amount of experience are the first to go, no matter how good of a job they do. So again some old curmudgeon gets to keep his job while a young motivated teacher is let go. When a school makes cuts it should be about performance not age/years.
So how do we measure teacher performance, well I don’t have a good answer yet. What I do have is an idea of how to remove bad teachers from the system and encourage goods ones to stay. Teacher performance whatever the correct formula is should measure a variety of factors including but not limited to
- involvement in the school community
- ability to develop curriculum and dynamic lessons
- observations
- test scores
- work outside the classroom
- professional development
- further education
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