http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/duncan_teacher_salaries_should.html
On Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for higher pay for teachers, more accountability, and higher entrance criteria at education schools. And in order to make this happen, he stressed, the nation is going to have to think critically about our current hiring practices, job security, and benefits in the field.
In other words, we need to raise the stakes for public school teachers.
About a month ago, I would have seen this news, reported in Education Week, as purely positive. But the class on school reform I am currently taking makes this news more nuanced for me. It’s not that I do not want stronger teachers or incentives for hard work. I truly believe that these measures will do good things for our nation’s students. Still, I think we need to consider carefully how we evaluate our teachers and structure compensation modules.
When we place a disproportionate focus on test scores in a school environment – and then award money accordingly – we can create a climate that does not focus on complex and meaningful learning. As Alfie Kohn argues in a recent opinion piece featured online in the Washington Post, some teachers in struggling schools that aggressively and sometimes obsessively pursue gains on standardized tests reduce their classrooms to relentless test-taking drills. There is little room for a constructive approach to education in these settings.
It’s just something to think about.
1 comment:
I agree that from an outsider’s perspective Secretary Duncan’s ideas about accountability, pay, and entrance criteria to education schools would look like a no-brainer. However, as a teacher it is easier to understand how what is on paper doesn’t always translate well to real life. If what Duncan’s initiative really means is even more high stakes placed on testing with punitive punishments rather than support then maybe this new plan is not so great for education reform. A good teacher is so much more than just a producer of test scores and I worry that the recent direction of ed. policy ignores this.
I don’t think the problem is evaluating and holding teacher’s to high expectations…I just don’t think there is yet a good measure to do this. Standardized test scores don’t seem to be the way, as Kohn notes, and this might even prompt more cheating incidents like those in Atlanta and more recently Pennsylvania. Perhaps the IMPACT model used in D.C. is the way to go. The part of IMPACT that seems most practical is that support is actually provided to struggling teachers rather than an immediate dismissal. I would not mind getting a not-so positive review if I knew it actually meant I was going to get support and mentoring so that I could improve. Some people have a problem with firing teachers that still do not improve but I see this as a positive thing. I would not want to be kept in the classroom if I knew I was continuing to fail my students even with help. People in other professions get fired all the time for simply not being good enough compared to others in their profession…perhaps it should be the same for teachers without so much backlash? Again, I think the current backlash comes from not having an evaluation that is agreed on as being effective in measuring teacher quality.
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