Across partisan lines, strategies are being proposed to close our persistent achievement gaps; the issue here is not intention, but how we frame the problem. Unfortunately, the frame is so narrow that it obscures much of the problem.
When our children are not reaching their full academic potential, many assert that it's because their teachers have not truly committed to their success. This focus on teacher commitment or expectations, often in isolation, as the main driver of student failure and success, ignores the larger circumstances in which teachers work with students. As this year's MetLife survey demonstrates, a combination of policy pressures and budget cuts has made teaching harder and less attractive than any time in recent decades. When we blame teachers, we fail to address the roles played by budget cuts and by family and child poverty, and we fail to recognize those who are dedicated to student success in the face of great challenges.
Recent news reports suggest that it might be time to give teachers more credit and to reflect on how we can better support them. Challenging economic times and political brinksmanship have led to budget cuts that dictate large-scale teacher layoffs and decreased funding for educational programs in many districts. As low-income students, in particular, face the consequences of these budget cuts, teachers have been stepping up to bridge gaps.
This year in Gwinnett County, Georgia, school officials cut $89 million from the budget, leaving schools like Benefield Elementary in Lawrenceville, GA, unable to provide any summer enrichment programs. This concern prompted about fifty Benefield teachers to volunteer to offer free reading summer classes every week for their students. One teacher, Karen Stocks, "didn't want her students to forget what they learned over the summer break," and within 15 minutes of emailing co-workers to volunteer with her, "she had five people who'd already signed up."
In Pennsylvania, this year was particularly stressful for the Chester Upland School District. Statewide budget cuts put the small city's schools in danger of running out of funds, and the Corbett administration threatened not to provide needed financial aid. Teachers in Chester responded by passing a joint resolution to stay on the job and continue teaching. As one Columbus Elementary School teacher put it: "It's disturbing. But we are adults; we will make a way. The students don't have any contingency plan. They need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job."
In City Heights, San Diego, most of the teachers at Fay Elementary School have been laid off. Although many have eight-to-nine years of teaching experience, and could likely find good jobs at other schools, they have collectively decided to try to stay at Fay. The reason is simple: they are determined to not disrupt the support system that they have developed to ensure the best education for their students. "We built this school, and I take pride in that," said Rebecca McRae, one of many laid-off teachers at Fay. Over the years, they had built a cohesive system of close relationships, responding to one another's sick days and in-class struggles collectively, and pulling together to offer a valuable educational experience to all of the students, and to specific students with particular needs. Principal Moreno notes: "In communities such as City Heights, the kids have so many challenges. But these teachers don't want to go anywhere else. They've fallen in love with these kids."
In Philadelphia, when the state failed to meet the needs of the city's disadvantaged children by further constraining its education budget, community members intervened on their kids' behalf. Philadelphia's nearly broke school district could not afford to offer summer school programming this year, leaving many students without some much-needed academic support. In light of these circumstances, a group of parents, teachers, local organizations, and a principal worked together to offer a half-day summer school. These community members raised $6,000 to fund the program for their elementary school students, recognizing that children are, as Principal Ralph Burnley put it, "operating at a disadvantage if they go home for the summer months and forget some of what we taught them during the school year."
Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of teachers, all of these stories should provoke real concern. Sharp cuts in after-school and summer programs, personnel, and even (in Chester's case) entire schools are devastating. Good, committed teachers are being laid off to the detriment of children who already face serious needs as a result of high rates of parental unemployment, foreclosures and unstable housing, and the many stresses of living in and near poverty. And as a new paper commissioned for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education documents, many districts have been forced to make cuts to the very supports -- early childhood education, food services, health care, and especially afterschool and summer enrichment programs -- that low-income children need most, just as those needs are growing.
Americans know every child deserves a decent education and that our economy demands no less; we just have a hard time getting the framing right. To minimize the damage done to students by the recession, we need a Broader Bolder Approach to Education, one that recognizes the reality that all children need these supports, and that deprivation of them for low-income children exacts a heavy toll in school and throughout life. We should applaud teachers for their heroic acts. But we cannot afford, as a society, to depend on such acts or to substitute them for sound, holistic policy if we expect our children to thrive.
MARK TRAINA'
www.marktraina.webs.com
FatuousCRA@aol.com
Chapter 7 of my new book "THE REALIST" Educational Facts Essential to Parents and Educators
The most dangerous profession on planet Earth.
Teaching in a blighted and impoverished inner city urban environment! The most dangerous profession in America is not, and I repeat not, working on some offshore fishing or crabbing boat.
In far too many cases, it’s simply being an American educator in just about any blighted and/or impoverished inner city urban community. Therefore, “I am demanding from the President of the United States of America and every single member of Congress that a camera monitoring system similar to the ones used by Wal-Mart be placed into the middle of every American classroom, as well as, throughout the entire school setting.
Teachers are labled as "heroes" or--I get this one a lot, being a special ed teacher--"angels", but those are not compliments; they are platitudes. What people are really saying is, "Oh, good, they'll do it so we don't have to, or have to pay for it." Can anyone imagine a business company's employees coming in on a regular basis to work for free if they are laid off or if a company decided to close a department? Would any of those people say, "Oh, it's okay, we'll work for free"? Most people would call that crazy.
Too, if some teachers do it, all will be expected to do it--and criticized if they don't. I can hear it now: "Those teachers are willing to work for free, so why can't our teachers do that? Don't they care about our kids?"
Maybe it's time for teachers to just teach--not buy things, not offer free lessons, not parent other people's children--just to teach and do their jobs well (which would be more effective and productive if we could focus only on teaching). What would happen? Would the world end or would parents, who are often too comfortable neglecting their responsibilities, start parenting so teachers can get back to teaching?
The cold hard facts about publicly funded schools throughout America today.
Publicly funded schools come in all shapes, sizes and colors, just like the students, teachers, school administrators and support personnel that attend, teach and work in them each and every day. When I use the term “publicly funded schools,” These are the cold, hard facts about working in and sending your children off to publicly funded schools in America today. In 2010, 358,600 U.S. students were assaulted on public school campuses, sadly over 91,000 of these students’ sustained “serious bodily injuries!” During that same time period 276,700 public school teachers, administrators and school support personnel had been threatened with injury by one or more of their students. 145,100 public school teachers, administrators and school support personnel had been physically attacked by students enrolled in their schools.
These numbers come out of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.
MARK TRAINA
fatuous1
www.marktraina.webs.com
FatuousCRA@aol.com
"We should applaud teachers for their heroic acts. But we cannot afford, as a society, to depend on such acts or to substitute them for sound, holistic policy if we expect our children to thrive."
The trouble is, people do expect it. They expect teachers to buy for the classroom (hence, the $250 deduction already printed on tax forms), they expect teachers to fill in where parents don't do their jobs, they expect teachers to essentially raise their children for them. The more teachers are willing to do--for free and at the expense of time with their own families--the more people will expect them to do.
What I wish someone could explain to me, if teachers are so intelligent, so skilled, so hard working, and yet so underpaid and underappreciated, why don't they seek employment more commenserate with their true worth.
Could it be they would have to work more than 9.5 months a year, and would likely take employment that doesn't provide life time tenure, or which would require some showing of productivity?
But think of the advantages, no more undesirable kids, no more undesirable parents, no more undesirable principals, no more undesirable administrators.
Oh to be Free at Last.
they're dedicated to their work.
Corwin.( Being Cruel to be Kind.Doing the tough thinking for you)
We don't seek other employment because we are doing exactly what we want to do - teach. We do our best using that intelligience, skill and work ethic that could translate into a better paycheck and working conditions other places because we love what we do and believe it to be a contribution to society. However, loving what we do does not mean that we cannot see the flaws in the educational system and feel the desire to help correct them, if only by pointing them out to those who can affect change.
I work in the classroom 10.5 months a year (not 9.5), and take classes/workshops during the summer that I can't attend during the schoolyear, because teachers do work in and outside of the classroom during the schoolyear. Not all primary and secondary teachers have what you call "tenure" - in my district, our contract is for 1 year and we are re-hired if we meet the "productivity" requirement set down in the contract.
I wouldn't presume to know your job, as I have never done it, so don't presume to know the inner-workings of mine.
We. as a group, seem to want to cut off our nose despite our face and not all of us see that! When did a school district pay for "nobility"? NEVER and they never will. We impoverish ourselves for the students we teach.
I know how hard it is to stop doing this BUT it is important that we do so that school districts recognize our importance in society. We allow ourselves to be denigrated and wonder why they don't hold us in more esteem.
We've committed political "Hari-Kari".
We must not assume schools are holding tanks away from the 'real world'. They are the real world and they need more from any government budget. They should have smaller classes, more resources, more games and outings,sports equipment, guest speakers. science equipment, arts and hiring enough teachers so each can do their specialty.
We need fairer taxes so families can spend more time together, and more money for schools. It's not about teacher salary. It's about grounding kids in 2 messages - you are loved, you are smart.
As children, we were enrolled in a Catholic school ( now defunct) from K-8 in what is now considered to be an inner city area of Brooklyn.
We had over 30 children in each class, yet we all learned to read, write, spell, do arithmatic, etc.
None of us could be considered to come from affluent families. Many of us lived in the housing projects, or lived in modest private homes. Those that went to public schools also emerged from those schools knowing what we did.
What's happened since that time ( the 60's) that it appears that many of the students of today ( particularly in the inner cities) DON'T appear to be learning what those of my generation did?
With data reviews, documentation, paperwork, meetings and so-called PD, the average teacher in my district probably spends at least 4 weeks of the school year out of their classroom. Yet we are responsible for what happens in the class whether we are there or not (and don't think all subs follow the lesson plans we slave over because many don't). How can I teach if I'm not there? And how can anyone expect one person to be the parents, the teacher, the nurse, psychologist, advocate AND disciplinarian? It's impossible.
It's just easier to blame teachers because we're on the front line. You are more than welcome to spend a month in my inner city classroom with me. I'd be willing to bet by the end of the first week, your thinking would be entirely different.
Our society has changed. I had 43 students in my 3rd grade class in the 60's. We behaved because we were expected to respect our elders, and our parents ALWAYS believed whatever the teacher said. If we were not doing well, our parents demanded that we stop horsing around, pay attention, and learn whatever the teachers were teaching. In today's society, teachers are at fault if the child misbehaves, is bored, receives a low grade, and/or doesn't pass the standardized test.
Students will not learn concepts unless they individually put forth the effort to do so. Parents and teachers cannot do the learning for them. Students need to make those personal connections to the curriculum and give up the expectation of being entertained.
We cannot go back to the 60's; however, we need to reinstate some of the values from that era.
Why?
Teachers bear the brunt for systemic issues starting with educational policy and flowing through bloated administrations, painful budget cuts, infighting, fiscal mismanagement and more. Instead of focusing on systemic problems--which require thoughtful, long-term solutions--the recent focus has been on blaming teachers for what's wrong with education. This focus is short-sighted and will not result in the kinds of changes that will serve our students and generate an educated, competitive workforce.
As educators, parents, community members, we need to look more closely at what's happening to our public education system instead of aiming at the easiest target. Sure, every district needs mechanisms to oust truly bad teachers. At the same time, we need to demand that policymakers and local decision-makers to a good, long look at themselves.
Are you aware that outside of government work and universities, lifetime tenure is a rarity?
If you read the newpaper, you may have learned that there are a lot of people who have lost jobs they had for twenty years.
What are you, three years old? Your argument is "That's not FAIR!"
And this issue about "poverty" really confuses me. I've seen kids in some of the poorer areas (I live in the Bronx) getting dropped off in brand new cars, often luxury vehicles. In fact I know one mother of FOUR (someone needs to explain to me how a single woman can afford four child) who doesn't have 2 nickles to rub together and she spent almost $500 a month to get her daughter to school in a CAB in Soundview.
I don't buy the "poverty" claim - not when I know too many of these folks w/money for nonsense and their priorities totally backwards.
When will it end?
What other profession allows you to work 9 months a year, with little fear of getting fired, with pensions, and healthcare when you're retired.