Feb 19 2009
Relocated: Break from election, let’s talk education
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Break from the election, let’s talk education
I’m going to take a break from talking about the election for a moment here. At least from talking about the candidates specifically.
Instead, I’m going to comment on an issue recently discussed in Time Magazine. The article was on merit pay, and was interesting. What was more interesting was people’s responses in the next issue.
People saying “merit pay doesn’t make sense,” “teachers shouldn’t be judged on test results,” “teachers need more freedom.” In theory, I agree. All teachers should be paid more, and get more support, and more independence. They shouldn’t be teaching to the test, but should be focusing on individuals.
Although there do need to be standards. Granted, I’ve never taught in a classroom. I have, however, trained employees in the event industry, and taught lifeguarding certification classes, and, most relevantly, swim lessons. I know what a pain it is when a previous instructor says, “You know, maybe this stroke isn’t perfect, but this kid has learned a lot, and her other strokes are way above the level they should be at. I’ll make her a level X anyway.” Even with four students, this creates problems.
Imagine a class with 2o or 30 kids. If each of them was given more leeway in the previous class, and were taught by a teacher with a lot of independence, imagine the difficulty being a new teacher in a class where one student can do long division, but doesn’t know basic multiplication, one is a master of fractions, but doesn’t know what a percent is, etc.
Good teachers can overcome this. The real issue, in my mind, is this, though. Teachers are unionized. They still get underpaid (good ones included), but it’s hard to get rid of the bad ones. Bad teachers, who have lost their passion, or who are simply incompetent, make it hard to give good teachers more freedom. A woman said that teaching is interrupted by too much observation and paperwork. Is this the school’s, the system’s, or the state’s fault?
I would argue it’s not. It’s the Union’s fault, as well as the fault of every teacher who is not doing the best they can be. If every teacher was passionate, focused on individual students, reached out to parents, and reached out to other teacher’s or the administration to get new ideas, new methodology, etc. and took continuing ed seriously, and as an opportunity to improve their own subject knowledge, we wouldn’t need so much observation and paperwork.
Don’t get me wrong. 98% of teachers have the best of intentions. With coaching, resources, a little leeway, and better pay, they could be great teachers. The other 2%, however, make it so that resources are spent babysitting and punishing teachers, and rewarding those who manage even to meet the minimum requirements of their job. That 2%, and the cities and Unions that keep them in their jobs, are the real problem.
Until there is a way to get rid of poorly performing teachers based on subjective opinions of their superiors, students, and parents, we need an objective measurement. Even though everybody could probably name their worst teacher, as could that teacher’s boss, they’re still teaching, becasue a principal can’t say “You’re a bad teacher, you’re fired.” without somehow proving that the teacher is bad. Although they may be flawed, standardized tests are the best objective measure of teaching that we have right now. And they are needed.
Posted by Zach at 11:18 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: education, merit pay, standardized test, teachers, union
