The Teacher is the Key
Here is a pretty shocking statistic.
More than 40% of teachers today are disheartened and disappointed in their jobs according to a study just released by Learning Points Associates. It is hard to be an inspirational, caring teacher if you don't want to be there.
The study showed that seven in 10 teachers cited testing as major drawback and 61 percent also cited lack of support from administrators and nearly 75% cited "discipline and behavior issues" in the classroom.
This is a very challenging situation for policy makers because the solution to the education crisis in our country is the teacher. Last week Michelle Obama wrote an article in US News and World Report that was entitled "Teachers are Key to a Successful Economy." I couldn't agree more.
The Gates Foundation also came to the same conclusion after spending years focusing on small schools. They are now focusing on teacher effectiveness.
As a long time teacher at Palo Alto High in Palo Alto, CA and someone who has seen multiple education fads come and go, I think thought leaders have finally come to the right focus -- the teacher is the key. No matter what books are provided, no matter what curriculum is required ... the key is how the teacher feels about what she is teaching and how she treats her students.
I am sure everyone can remember a teacher they liked, but they can also remember a teacher they disliked because the teacher seemed to dislike students. Students know when a teacher doesn't want to be there; they know it just by being in the classroom. It's not fun. At one point these teachers probably liked students and teaching, but they now somehow feel trapped in a job that no longer provides the same pleasures it once did. These teachers actually don't dislike students; they dislike what they are required to do-- teach to a test, like NCLB tests, year after year and work with ineffective administrators.
Over the past eight years teachers nationwide have been teaching to the NCLB test which is why many of them are disheartened and burned out.
No matter what policy makers dictate, when a teacher closes the door and is the classroom alone with the students, he/she is in charge. If the teacher is well-trained, then the students will learn more. If the teacher is happy to be there, then the students will be more content in the classroom. The teacher sets the tone; the teacher provides the activities; the teacher plans the day. Happy students work harder. Happy teachers teach more effectively and that is what we need---effective teachers.
It sounds like an old adage, but what we need to do as a nation is to support teachers in the classroom and modify the NCLB Act which is now up for Congressional renewal. Supporting teachers is key to our success as a nation. Support means supporting increases in teachers salaries, respecting the role of teachers in society, donating money to foundations that support teachers, volunteering to work in the classroom, and modifying the NCLB Act to so that teachers are not motivated to teach to the test.
For further discussion of these issues join the education forum next week on October 27, 28 at Google using Google Moderator. The Forum is called Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age. The Forum will be webcast live on Tuesday and Wednesday. Click here for Tuesday and here for Wednesday.
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One frequent line is, "Let's run schools like a business." I always reply that I am good with that--but it means that I get to fire lazy or insubordinate workers and return defective parts.
I'm in my 23rd year as a public HS teacher in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. I've been promoting the concept of PARENTAL ACCOUNTABLITY for years. We keep getting hammered about teacher accountability....and I have no problem being held accountable for providing my students with a sound and rigorous education (in my case, high school Spanish). However, I refuse to be held accountable when so many of my students:
-don't do their homework
-(try to) sleep or zone out in class
-are absent often
-don't come to school prepared with books or supplies
-complain about or resist doing classwork that I plan for them
-are generally disrespectful and/or defiant
-don't follow county or school rules and regulations
- (fill in your own)
Where is the parental role in controlling the above mentioned behaviors? Kids will be kids and try to get away with as much as they can. But why do I have to expend so much effort and energy to deal with these behaviors and get little or no help from the parents of those students? We need to somehow demand more involvement and accountability from the parents. Then we will see FCAT (Florida's version of the NCLB testing) scores improve, graduation rates go up, respect for teachers exhibited, and teacher stress go down. We and the government are spinning our wheels and aiming our focus in the wrong direction. We need to aim at the home of our students and try to promote changes and improvements from that end.
Co-sign
What's the matter with kids these days? Their parents.
What obligations do our nation's schools owe to students who are not successful, who cannot pass a test? As I look around my town, I see those unsuccessful students going back and forth to jail and on drugs. Our country was founded on apprenticeships. There is a lot of disconnect between actual work and the lives are children lead today. Wouldn't it be better to have some of these students working with actual working men? The WPA and CCC helped a lot of young men find their way during the depression. Maybe there should be a basic proficiency test and the rest work experience.
Yep-- this ridiculous and defeating notion that all can or should go to college has done more to "dumb down" the whole system through making a whole generation of kids who are not strong students feel very disengaged from American life. There has been something fishy going on in government concerning vocational education. Here in Colorado, the current govenor campaigned on beefing up our vocational system that helps ALL kids to find a place in the world---only to have him not say ONE SINGLE WORD on the subject since his election but rather promote this pre-school through college academic deal. While we struggle as teachers and parents to make all these assorted pegs fit into just one sort of hole, the rest of the world allows for folks to determine their path in ways other than "strictly college-bound" and has passed us by not just in the reading and math of the education sorts but in the advancements in the other avenues of work as well---like building more efficiently, manufacturing better and faster...and in short, growing self-sufficiency in all areas. We will continue to struggle till we tell and accept the truth.
The alleged "failure" of or education system always amuses. Sure, we send a larger percentage of students on to and through college than any other country... but we are "failing" them? Yes, the G8 study on education shows our elementary kids doing at least comprable with every other industrial nation, we are "failing" them. Sure every other country weeds out the non-college material students so their scores in high school (of their top students, the only ones allowed to be on the academic path) score higher than our (100 percent tested) students, but we are "failing" them.
The failure is NCLB. There is no doubt in the research that "prep school" (the prep means prep for SAT scores to get admitted to higher schools) DID raise SAT scores, but those students did significantly POORER in college. Now our schools have become the model of wretched excess in the prep school model. Think we are "failing" our students? We are. When these students, subjected to this failure of education, are tested in high school the results will be dismal and the "failure" of the American educational system will be a reality.
Allowing a politic.cal party opposed to public education set up the system to failure is madne.ss.
You nailed it.
Thanks for commenting. And fanned.
Thank you for this wonderful article. As an elementary teacher of thirty plus years, I could not agree more. I have mostly taught in independent and international schools where teachers do not teach to the test. Children learned and were excited about their education. Now as a reading specialist who is working with struggling readers and writers in schools where testing is mandatory, I spend weeks after the tests trying to boost the self esteem of these children who know they did badly on the test. They basically read what they can and fill in bubbles randomly. Whether the answer is right or wrong, they do not feel successful. They know they cannot demonstrate what they know in this environment. It is self-defeating. So much of learning depends on the motivation and confidence of the children. A good teacher understands this and would never put children in a situation where they are guaranteed to be unsuccessful. Please help to repeal this stupid stupid policy.
NCLB is a lofty goal. However, it is myopic in scope and that's what needs to change. Some states have set high standards for which the students of that state must pass in order to be "Proficient". Other states have "lower" standards and students are "Proficient" at levels which would be "Basic" or "Far Below Basic". The test is given from booklets with page after page of questions. Students have what is known as "Test Fatigue" and often become careless as they move on to latter questions EVEN though they may KNOW the answer. NCLB is not fully funded yet the sanctions for non-compliance are fully enacted. It must be revisited, reworked, and revised.
Here is a good glimpse as to what a regular high school class looks like in 2009. We are not talking about an Honors, Gifted or Special Ed. class. Insightful article
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/oct/20/tough-to-teach-students-who-dont-want-to-learn/
I am always amused by the prescriptives noneducators bring to the discussions on education.
This works, that works, my kids, my experience, testing, religion, male teachers, single gender classrooms, NCLB, unions bad, unions good, technology, so on and so forth. A little of everything works somewhere in some instances, but education remains complex and challenging. For our best, brightest, and well-adjusted students, more often than not, it's a piece of cake. For our special needs and challenged students, it is not so easy, for them or the teachers. Like it or not, kids bring a lot of baggage to school. Because a good education is offered by loving and caring educators doesn't mean a student has to like it or want it. I wish every student could read, write, compute, and reason well, but the reality is a significant number cannot, and it's not from lack of trying on the part of the teachers. By no means should we abandon these children, but as a society, we better smarten up and recognize that bromides, testing, and a one size fits all education do not address the complexity and realities of education.
Well said. Fanned.
I absolutely agree. Great post.
If it doesn't work fix- if it does leave it alone. We’ve seen new math come and go, teaching to testing, rather than teaching students to think, etc: railing back at us. Discipline in the classroom suffers from societal breakdown in the family unit, stressed out parents who give in to whims rather than disciplining the child, to excessive violent video games, and disrespect in all areas of life: from the presidency to family portrayed on TV. We are raising a generation of kids who expect it all...and are 'mad as hell' if they don't get it.
So what is a teacher supposed to do in disciplining kids? "Peace Smarts" a curriculum by MerrieWay Community gives teachers tools for setting up a peaceful and respectful classroom. The solution for burned out teachers is complex to tackle here. Pay good teachers what their worth and entice more of the best. It’s madness to downgrade a profession that influences our greatest asset - our children, our future.
.
I think that we need a lot more male teachers. Boys, especially teenage boys need strong discipline. A female teacher many times just doesn't have what it takes. I'm not saying that this is how it should be. I'm just saying that it is often the case.
So true Ron! Boys being raised by single Moms, often with absentee Dads need male role models. And, during adolescence when they are trying to be cool, only Mother at a baseball practice can be embarrissing, when other Dad's are there too.
Hillary had it right, "It takes a villiage to raise a child." Male mentors are also a solution to learning respect that can translate into the classroom.
I am a graduate of Palo Alto High School. I had good teachers and bad, and NCLB had nothing to do with it (unless NCLB existed in 1960). Using NCLB as an excuse for poor teacher performance or for teacher burnout is lame. Try again to explain why there are so many poor teachers failing our children and grandchildren.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Pub.L. 107-110,
115 Stat. 1425, enacted January 8, 2002).
I fit in the 61 per cent.
I loved my students and they seemed to enjoy my class.
The administration didn't. According to them learning is
NOT fun! Period.
Your premise is faulty.
Student failure across the country is affected more by student attendance, attention and motivation than by any teacher or school factors.
Teachers were students, too. We all went through the system and had teachers of all kinds, just like you. (A few we didn't like, a bunch we did.) And we did okay, didn't we? Didn't you?
Excellent article.
Exciting and additive commentary.
Some observations i have made:
1. state govt. using teachers as pawns in their budget problems.. for example - Hawaii - union either vote for furlough or face layoffs..(teachers voted for 3 fridays furlough per month thru end of year - now that leaves the students to fend for themselves..as well as the parents.pathetic.)
2. Teacher unions are not at the table with school administrators, and i mean principals and vice principals when evaluating teacher performance w/o prejudice but with observable, measureable documentation
3.performance reviews should include teachers submitting their own accomplishments each month along with their monthly schedule (current and forward month) - then there are no surprises when a teacher finds themself on a failing teachers list..
Final analysis seems to indicate there are alot of entities that we can point a finger at - state govt.. teacher unions..parents - and teachers... peel back the onion in all categories - get to the root cause have all parties at the table and fix the damn thing..
state-stop taking days out of student education - teacher unions - stop taking days out of student education.. teachers - stop taking days out of student education - parents - get involved.. my children experienced montisorri throughout their education - all children do not learn at the same pace and no child should be forced to wait or be left behind..
- i'm not a public or private school instructor (my son is) but a corporate adult educator -
State Governments should look at getting rid of administrators. It's funny in France where we lived for some time, the principals were also full time teachers. They had no secretaries in the school. They had this neat contraption called an answering machine.
BTW, the teachers in school still spanked the kids. This was about 5 years ago. Didn't see many disciplinary problems even from inner-city youths.
I could tell you are not an instructor, and what your son does is nothing like what a public school teacher does. We have to teach all comers - no picking our students. Some want to be there, some not. I am a long time happy teacher - I strive to be the teacher you always remember. But even I am getting disheartened, never with the kids, but the system. I watched six excellent teachers lose their jobs last year due to budget cuts. More will go this year because they plan to raise class size to thirty, way higher than that in high school. My students have lost 20 hours of instructional time this month, due to mandated testing, We have another mandated test next week in language arts, the week after that a mandated test in mat. somehow they found the money to buy a brand new math series. They could afford the tests, and the books, but not the teachers? People are always pointing at unions as if we are the problem! We want those dollars in the classroom. We want to attract smart, hardworking people to our field. We want our students to have decent class sizes and services. Without the unions, the conditions would be even worse. Nobody would do it. I encourage everyone to go to their local school. Ask to observe. Join the Parent Group. Get to know what is going on. You will be amazed and what teachers do with what they're
I would encourage any teacher who is becoming burned out to look into the Waldorf movement. Not only is it a system that is developmentally appropriate and teaches to all aspects of the child, but it is very teacher friendly. A teacher stays with the same class for many years, usually all eight. The teacher knows all of the children, and their families, very well, and can help each of them personally. Decisions about the school are made by the teachers themselves. New teachers have a mentor to help them out, and there is always support if a teacher is having trouble. Waldorf schools are a community, where teachers are loved and appreciated. Many of them aren't able to pay as much as the public schools, but the benefits are wonderful. If you're a teacher because you love to teach, please, come join us.
The Waldorf movement is indeed very good. I am an old waldorf teacher having taught two rounds of eight grades and founded three different schools.
But it , too, has serious, serious problems. It's not an answer either.
BUt it has a place at the table, no doubt , for education only.
It's the way it treats adults that is not appropriate. Infact, it's reprehensible.
I dont' know how it reconciles that part. I never saw it happen and I saw just as much corruption.
But the philosophy of ed is very good. The adults need to be monitored, though. They are just as bad as any public school system.
As with all jobs, there are good places and bad. My friend is a Waldorf teacher who has had incredible experiences and bad. The concepts are really good, but people are people everywhere.
Teachers have to be held accountable for the product that they produce. That is they need to be held accountable to how well the children learn the material and can use it. It's not a difficult situation.
Bull.
As hard as it is for the likes of you to comprehend, education remains a two-way street whereby students and parents need to assume their own responsibilities in the learning process, otherwise even a conglomerate of the best teachers in the world won't make a difference.
If mishandling by the user results in a destroyed or damaged product without the fault of the manufacturer, the user in question has nobody to blame but themselves, irrespective of your own perspective which will fault the manufacturer regardless of the circumstances.
Bull,
I don't for a second believe that a child can't be taught if the right motivation, discipline, and educational environment can be provided. Granted, sometimes the correct application of the required techniques may be more involved and sophisticated than can be normally provided by the standard teacher.
For example, misbehaving boys can be often dealt with by a strong male teacher.
There's a difference between a damaged product and a child. A child can think and understand. They can overcome adversity given the right intensity.
and how many children ahve YOU taught in a classroom? Seriously.
I substitute taught several weeks in a high school for advanced algebra and calculus. I also taught classes in the military.
This is a wonderful piece; journalism could really benefit from more education writing. Well done.
NCLB should be put out of its misery. I hear story after story about how it's interfered with educators' ability to be effective, including by the experienced educators and administrators in my circle of family and friends. The public education system has been designed well, and any problems that occur should be addressed within its original model, not by radical changes and gimmicks.
One of the more problematic aspects of NCLB is the allowance for religious groups to be Supplemental Educational Services providers. With this setup, even religions that could be seen as quite fundamentalist are receiving public funds for tutoring public students. The unfortunate extreme outcome of this arrangement is that the Scientology group "Applied Scholastics" is in use in 11 states. Unfortunately, California is one: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ti/fnl09provlist.asp
Thank you for bringing my attention to the fact that NCLB is up for renewal.
That's it!!! GIMMICK is totally the right word for what has been happening-- as a teacher of 33 years in rural, suburbs and inner city, I can say that NEVER have I seen so many poor and unfortunate gimmicks thrust on educators and parents many with the cool lable of "RESEARCH BASED". Even the so-called administrators have abdicated their responsiblitiy through merely HANDING OVER the brains of all the children (particularly the struggling ones) to seriously greedy publishing companies with a single-minded agenda that has nothing to do with the enhancement or enlightenment of a generation but rather greed with a side order of "dumbing-down" of the "little people".
Fight for gimmick-free education by allowing quality teachers to be paid well to think and understand their learners and be free to choose from a variety of materials to accomlish the goals of our democracy.
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