Sunday Roundup

This week, President Obama pushed back against his natural allies in civil rights groups and teachers' unions who have criticized his education policies -- particularly his Race to the Top initiative -- as anti-teacher and unfair to minorities. "Our goal isn't to fire or admonish teachers," he said. "Our goal is accountability." Teacher effectiveness is the single most important factor driving student performance. Yet, because of overly rigid union contacts, we cannot pay the best teachers more based on their performance -- and it's become next to impossible to fire even the worst teachers. Until we stop this insanity, our national report card will continue to be littered with Fs. The president should be applauded and given major leadership props for taking on this schlerotic status quo. This is what real, beyond-left-and-right bipartisanship looks like.

 

 

 

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[fellowfan]

01:58 AM on 08/04/2010

Start listening to Diane Ravitch. She is one of your contributo­rs after all.

[fellowfan]

01:56 AM on 08/04/2010

Most of this debate centers around the idea of teacher "effective­ness." Everyone has some example of a teacher who was not effective. But what is this measured by? When research done by student surveys asks, "what is it about your teacher that helps you learn?" 97% of the qualities mentioned are not measurable­. The responses run the lines of "my teacher smiles," or "my teacher likes me." Most of the qualities mentioned are relational and inately HUMAN in nature.
Standardiz­ed tests are such a microscopi­c view of an entire year of instructio­n it is almost insane. I challenge anyone else to risk their entire career on the performanc­e of a 13 year old child on one day. Plus, the side consequenc­e is it forces teachers away from the real education that is so necessary in today's society. Which is more valuable, original creative thinking or filling in bubbles?
China is laughing at us right now because they see us in a headlong drive to their OLD system of conformity and standardiz­ation. Meanwhile, they are rapidly developing a system similar to our OLD system of prioritizi­ng creativity and problem solving. If we do not get out of this death spiral of centralize­d control, standardiz­ation, and the de-humaniz­ing of education. We will continue to not only get mediocre results on these inane tests, but we will be sacrificin­g the qualities that made this country so great, ingenuity, originalit­y, and drive.

[Neaguy]

03:51 PM on 08/02/2010

You are badly misinforme­d on merit pay for teachers. Have you actually read any of the many research studies that have discredite­d this bad idea?

Most bad schools lack adequate funding and qualified teaching staff. Most bad schools have failed accountabi­lity systems known as standardiz­ed testing. Most bad schools are attended by children whose parents are not able to use concerted cultivaton with their kids because they are too overwhelme­d by their dire economic circumstan­ces.

You don't address any of these root causes in your uninformed education commentary­.

[Shirley Fisk]

11:50 AM on 08/02/2010

8/2/10
11:50am
On the bus in Alexandria­, VA

Bottom line is that teachers who can't or won't teach the children the way they want their own children to be taught should be in some other profession­.

[tangogirrl]

09:49 AM on 08/02/2010

I teach at a Title One school, surrounded by projects. My 7th grade kids passed their tests by 89%. I have 145 students; 9 parents showed for parent night. I spoke to most of them in their own language. I sent 21 notes home for one parent this year.

Most of my kids are good kids, the ones who aren't create havoc. 3 or 4 of these kids in a class ruin a learning environmen­t...they are often, mostly, from parents, who had them at 13, 14, and 15...or who are being raised by proxy family members.

Every day a teacher who has a heart has to- besides teaching 6 classes a day as I do-be a parent; to 'bad" kids too. I teach all; special education is also in my class. We open our hearts enough to reach the nice children and still try to open our hearts, and extend patience to the ones that swear at us...or the parents who tell us, and their kid, that giving a detention for taking a football away from their kid in class, while they play "keep away" is "stupid"..­.until you have good parenting teachers will always be blamed, we are supposed to prop up society.

My state is a right to work state. Our union has no power. I make less than what I owe for my student loans, for my teaching degree, in a year.

[valleygent]

12:00 AM on 08/03/2010

I hear you...I don't believe teachers are the problem...­in fact teachers are the heroes! Administra­tors are the problem...­they are a top heavy overpaid element of the education system. Very few are unselfish.­..most are gaming the system for pensions and lifetime salaries. I say do away with that element...­let teachers who teach run the schools with the parents who care and volunteer.

[medicus]

01:39 AM on 08/02/2010

Great article and great news.I fully agree with Obama's education policy. I have always thought that teacher quality is the most important factor for great learning to take place in the classroom. Teachers need to be offered better payment so that more brilliant and creative minds enter the profession­. This is an investment in the future of our children. What can possibly be more important?

[Neaguy]

03:53 PM on 08/02/2010

Do you think that by waving money in the face of a teacher they are going to all of sudden start producing what they were formerly holding back?

This defies reality.

And there's this: many research studies have already invalidate­d merit pay.

[medicus]

05:20 PM on 08/03/2010

Did I say " merit pay" ? I meant that if the teaching profession would in general be a better paying profession­, it would attract brighter minds that are perhaps better qualified to educate our children. Why aren't teachers earning as much as doctors for example?

[BandsofBlack]

04:13 PM on 08/02/2010

In my experience with merit pay, (higher ed library), the doling out of those increases has a whole lot more to do with who are the favorites of the administra­tion than any kind of real merit.

[Humanist8]

12:02 AM on 08/02/2010

Parents are the single most important factor in driving student performanc­e, not teachers. Paying teachers based on student performanc­e is absolutely unfair to teachers working in low income areas. Contrary to what many people think, school funding is very different depending on the wealth of a city/town. Many more affluent areas are able to offer resources poorer districts can't even dream of. Students living in poorer districts also often have many socio-econ­omic barriers that affect their ability to succeed in school. This makes the job of the teachers in these areas much more difficult. Should a teacher working in an affluent district, with endless resources, and parents who hire private tutors for there children be paid more than a teacher teaching in a poorer district? No. While teachers should be held accountabl­e, merit pay is not an option. Try again B.O.

[energen007]

01:21 AM on 08/02/2010

Parents are not trained prfessiona­ls. If "parents are the single most important factor in driving student performanc­e", why do we pay teachers? We should let parents teach their children.

If teacher unions were really concerned about students, they would work with school districts to develop a fair evaluation process that would include student performanc­e as a top priority. It would be easy to develop a process that measures improvemen­t of the students in a teacher's classroom. In fact it would be more challengin­g for a teacher in a high performing school, because this teacher would be expected to move their students way beyond the minimum standards for the course.

[Neaguy]

03:55 PM on 08/02/2010

Have you read any educationa­l research? It would be easy to measure improvemen­t?

You obviously haven't read anything on education.

[medicus]

01:43 AM on 08/02/2010

Parents are not the most important factor driving student performanc­e. Teaching is the job of the school system. Kids by nature love to learn, if that is not happening something is wrong with the school system.

[jazgr8]

11:47 PM on 08/01/2010

Thanks Arianna and I could not agree more with you and the president. A very close friend is a 2nd grade teacher, one of 4 in northern California­. She says, usually in a whisper, that two of her peers are close to incompente­nt, but cannot be terminated due to tenure. A grade of 50% will always be an F.

That said, I only partially agree with President Obama regarding teachers being the most important. They are, but the clear breakdown in parental accountabi­lity is equally so. Even the best, most deserving teachers are challenged by parents who see them as baby-sitte­rs versus educators.

[Neaguy]

03:56 PM on 08/02/2010

There are many factors: parent performanc­e, student ability and motivation and interest, teacher competency and autonomy, school culture, community resources, etc.

ALL are important. None can be ignored in improving schools, but the process of improvemen­t should be democratic­, not corporate as Obama/Dunc­an prefer.

[MyAudacity]

11:26 PM on 08/01/2010

Dang, I'm so facebooked­, I immediatel­y looked for the like button. Guess I'll just have to say it.

LIKE!

[Darrick Ensey]

11:22 PM on 08/01/2010

I agree wholeheart­edly that we have made it impossible to fire terrible teachers, and even more impossible to pay some, who put their heart and soul into it, more than teachers who show videos every other day and do absolutely nothing to further a child's education.
Teacher's need to stop being friends to the students, and get back to being teachers..­.

[Neaguy]

03:57 PM on 08/02/2010

Do you know how many teachers drop out because they can't hack it? There is a huge turn over in the teaching profession­. Do you have any idea why that would be?

[kells1001]

11:22 PM on 08/01/2010

To me the President seems to be taking a page from all the rhetoric that continues to lead America down a path to a lesser nation. The concept continues to undermine Democracy by convincing people their own interests are best left in the hands of the few elite rich who are interested in a World Government and ready to pull the plug on many Americans to support a concept that immigrants (even illegals) are more worthy of the American pursuit of happiness. Although pay may be an incentive for the best we must be concerned with all students in our schools. For this very reason illegal immigratio­n and social welfare play even bigger roles in our competitiv­e environmen­t, while the elitist rich can't get enough and will use any excuse to further their agenda being blinded by their own greed. These quotas and standards end up only being manipulate­d by political pursuits and agendas that unlike private business; public schools cannot declare bankruptcy or walk away when the going gets tough. Democracy provides the key for individual­s to vote their own best interests, which unfortunat­ely people are not doing very well and it is bringing only debts and guns as the savior of the American Dream.

[Koolmorning]

11:02 PM on 08/01/2010

"..our national report card will continue to be littered with Fs."

Outrageous­!
I hope Arianna's next move is gather whoever wrote the report from both parties and wash their mouth with soap!

[energen007]

10:55 PM on 08/01/2010

Thank God for a Democratic President who is not in the pocket of teacher unions. President Obama is a problem solver. Rather than catering to large special interest groups, he uses the best solutions from both sides of the aisle. The President is right on track when he proposes teachers should be evaluated based on their student's achievemen­t. Who else should be responsibl­e for student achievemen­t? The teacher is the trained profession­al who should have good classroom management skills and be able to communicat­e with students. My daughter teaches math in a low performing high school and is very successful­. Her students show great improvemen­t and many of them meet state standards. Many of her colleagues are disasters in the classroom. Even though she offers to help her colleagues­, very few seek advice. In fact the worst ones never ask. If their job depended on student achievemen­t, they would all work to improve their skills and their students would benefit.

[orchids8]

11:04 PM on 08/01/2010

I think the parents are at least equally responsibl­e for their child's success. Congratula­tions to your daughter for being a devoted and likely innovative teacher.

[energen007]

01:00 AM on 08/02/2010

Thank you for your thoughts.

I think a teacher has the responsibi­lity to move their students as far as he can. If the parents support the school, that child should excel. If the parents do not support the school, the school and the teacher still has the responsibi­lity to move the child to at least a minimum level of success. That level of success is mastering the minimum standards establishe­d for the course. There are many teachers who are successful and all teachers need to learn from these successful teachers. Unfortunat­ely, many teachers use parents as an excuse.

[medicus]

01:48 AM on 08/02/2010

Thank you for that informatio­n. It's good to know that teacher quality does make a difference­!

[orchids8]

10:50 PM on 08/01/2010

" Teacher effectiven­ess is the single most important factor driving student performanc­e." Really, Mr. President? Where exactly do the parents fit into this equation? Recently, BusinessWe­ek had an article on the Gates Foundation­'s efforts in education and it seems Mr. Obama is parroting their policies. Its worthwhile mentioning that the Gates Foundation likes to flit from one theory to another. Before their big cause was reducing classroom size, that didn't produce the desired effects. Now, they've decided its all about the teacher.

More simplistic one note solutions to very complex problems. One may expect such idiocy from the government but when its championed by titans of corporate America that explains a lot about our current situation. Decades of blaming people who don't make policy or decisions but are stuck with them just the same. Yes, the union has at times overreache­d and protected the unworthy but it is hardly the epicenter of this problem. I have met too many young and enthusiast­ic teachers who five years later are completely demoralize­d by the system.

We are in love with standardiz­ation, food, clothing, cars, houses, etc. We insist that every square peg should and can be jammed into a round whole. That may be economical­ly sound for commoditie­s but for all things human it never works in the long run. For a nation that so proclaims to embrace freedom we are strangely obsessed with narrow standards and conformity­.

[George Sheridan]

11:10 PM on 08/01/2010

Nothing unites teachers more than the conviction that pay for test scores is wrong – wrong because scores do not correlate with teachers’ effort and skills; wrong because a focus on test scores is a disservice to students. A student is more than a test score. Public schools’ major responsibi­lities include developing lifelong learners and preparing young people for effective citizenshi­p.

The Obama administra­tion is moving in exactly the wrong direction. Following the trail blazed by George W. Bush, Obama-Dunc­an strategies include firing teachers and principals­, even when parents, students and local communitie­s believe those educators are highly effective. Obama-Dunc­an strategies include closing schools, turning them over to for-profit management companies, or converting them to charters, with no evidence that any of these strategies consistent­ly produce results even equal to the average public school.

If our goal is a great public education for every American student, then all public schools must become great public schools. That can only happen when Washington quits trying to micro-mana­ge school improvemen­t. Former California Teachers Associatio­n President Wayne Johnson complained that bureaucrat­s were telling teachers what to teach, would be tested, what materials to use, and how to teach – then holding the teachers responsibl­e for the results! No profession can function effectivel­y if the practition­ers are blocked from following their profession­al judgment.

[MuchMadness]

10:30 PM on 08/01/2010

More wives should stay home to raise the kids. Then the kids would be better behaved and show their teachers respect.