So-called accountability measures seek to compel incompetent or unmotivated teachers to be effective -- or to replace them if they can't or won't improve -- but anyone close to an actual classroom knows that the best teachers are the ones who compel themselves to serve their students and for whom such external accountability measures are obstructive and insulting.
Effective teachers are motivated by professionalism and a strong work ethic and a deep concern for the long-term well-being of their students.
The best teachers go beyond the requirements of their job. Their passion for the subjects they teach and their own self-motivation to excellence inspires students to love learning and work harder and achieve.
Anyone who has ever worked in a school knows this and many who try -- with good and bad intentions -- to fix schools from the outside, are frustrated by the impossibility of replicating the most effective instruction by external means.
And why shouldn't they be frustrated? The really effective teachers can help the students they teach and maybe influence some of their colleagues (those motivated to be better), but their effectiveness also shines a harsh light on the mind-numbing, oppression on that constitutes much of the school experience for our children in and out of the classroom.
Effective teachers are a school's most important assets and sometimes that makes them difficult to control and school districts and their administrators are not always comfortable with anyone or anything they cannot control.
Insightful administrators understand that they ought to give their best instructors autonomy and exert control only on those teachers who need it. But our education system doesn't support or encourage such differentiation.
Teaching our children is a profound responsibility and privilege, and any teachers who blatantly violate the trust of children, parents, and tax-payers are doubly destructive. They harm their students directly and they indirectly hinder the rest of us. They must be offered a reasonable amount of help but not at the expense of the children depending on them.
Therein lies the great challenge: How to protect children from educational mal-practice without creating a culture of regimentation and fear that stifles the individuality and creativity that make great teachers so effective or that frustrates the innovation and risk taking that can transform a classroom.
We know how oppressive schools can be when the rules of conformity are allowed to flourish.
Our hope, therefore, lies not in exerting more control over our teachers but in giving them more power to go along with the responsibility already inherent in their job.
In order to do that we need to rethink the organizational model of our schools.
It is a backward idea to impose a military/corporate style chain of command onto an education system. It represents the lazy thinking of people who believe that compliance is the same as learning and that bubbled in test answers can predict the future of our nation's economy.
In a factory, executives manage subordinates who manage their subordinates all the way down to the factory floor. Those workers understand their menial tasks and perform them. Their supervisors manage the production. Those at the top manage the relationship between production and distribution, marketing and sales, profit and investment.
The chain of command makes sense for the military as well for reasons just as obvious.
The idea that these principles can be applied to education is ridiculous. That intelligent people fail to question it is bizarre.
Public education -- most private schools too, for that matter -- treat teachers like factory floor workers. Paid a bit more, in most cases, but answering up the chain of command when they ought to in fact be the chain of command: novice teachers on up to master teachers.
Factory floor workers perform fairly narrow tasks. They are small cogs in a vast machine.
Teachers perform the only meaningful job in the school! What goes on in their classrooms is the school -- or ought to be. It is true that students receive health and other services (and sometimes their only solid meal of the day) through the school site but that is out of convenience; the only reason anyone else in any school or district ought to have a job is to support what goes on in the classroom.
We cannot begin to fix our education system until we get everyone in power to recognize the falseness of the military-corporate-education analogy, until we accept the absolute stupidity of executive-ruled schools.
Until we dismantle this faulty, ill-conceived education power structure, we will never really fix our schools.
Follow Larry Strauss on Twitter: www.twitter.com/larrystrauss
Some people seem to have taken offense at the notion that teaching is the job of schools, seems kind of obvious .....
The best teachers at every school have always been a thorn in the side of administrators, whose job is .... well, to administrate. They don't teach and many never have, so how can they possibly recognise excellence in a profession they have never done? The answer is clear and our children are losing the best, brightest, most effective teachers in record numbers.
I took a job at a local high school. I was barely competent. The daily routine allowed very little time to prepare. This meant hours at the expense of my family. The principal was the recently appointed basketball coach. (Affable, friendly, little academic achievement - his first letter to the staff included this memorable close: "I will keep in touch!!!") I digress.
One way to improve our schools is to insist on essay testing. Teachers would have to read the tests, of course. That time thing again.
In some communities the Superintendent of Schools is automatically the chairman of the School Board and sets the agenda for meetings. His air conditioned office is downtown. This supposedly facilitates administration. Maybe it does, but it certainly doesn't help teachers. ALL administrators should be made to teach every day. Let them pick a topic they are comfortable with -- or, better still, assign topics they are NOT familiar with. Take a bite out of their family life, things would change. NO administrator should be paid more than the best paid teacher, prorated for the summer months.
On her own, an English teacher directed a one-act play that took first place in state competition. She scheduled rehearsals around basketball practices (the makeshift stage was in the gym).She asked to be reimbursed for travel and costumes and such. The school board refused. She finished the year but didn't return. The school has never again won anything for theater.
Where have you been?
Have you sent this post to the POTUS or his "lap-dog-basket-ball-chum?" If not, please do. Please post this article on every blog possible. Please send this to EVERY teachers union around the country.
I could show off my verbal skills by compliamenting you ad nausium ... but, I'll just send you a big RIGHT ON and put you on my follow list.
I'm printing this so I can copy and circulate.
Thank you, thank you,. thank you.
OMT. I bet with your attitude you were a "heck-of-a-coach."
Thanks for the love.
I didn't write that. So what is the point of the rest of your comment?
Sorry if I didn't make my point clear but here it is, again: Effective teachers are the most important resource within a school (though parents and students themselves can make an equal or greater impact). The goal should be to make all teachers effective (who can disagree with that?) but current efforts to do so are often counter-productive. The leadership structure of schools prevents significant change. Administrators are NOT unimportant. Not at all. Effective administrators are the ones who support teachers and learning.
Sometimes they do applaud us but we care less about that than their efforts to ensure that we have what we need to do our jobs well.
"ogle a bit"? I'll take that as AC (attempted comedy)--nothing wrong with that. Thanks for reading and again sorry if I wasn't entirely clear.
I believe that what these unskilled and unmotivated teachers need to become good teachers--or even decent teachers--may perhaps be more important than what already extremely successful teachers need to be "the best." Standardization always carries a risk of lost innovation, but it produces consistent results that you can count on. Perhaps that is what the children and adults we are teaching need most.
That is the crux of the education reform, isn't it? We want to standardized to protect kids from bad teachers. However, we don't want to standardize the excellence out of good teachers. Tough problem, isn't it?
What an arrogant thing to say. In a healthy, effective school, every staff member contributes to the learning environment. Imagine trying to run a large school without support staff or administration. Their work is essential and meaningful.
I always remind my students that there is dignity and value to working for a living, that we should treat our custodial staff with respect - as vital, contributing components of our excellent school.
Your (valid) criticisms of the hierarchical approach of the military or corporations are weakened by such a dismissive, myopic statement.
Sorry about the arrogance -- I should have been clearer about what I meant. Thanks for the comment.
I admit to some sensitivity on the matter. I'm fortunate to be teaching in a successful, inclusive school where everyone contributes to the students' success. We're blessed with many hard-working, engaged teachers as well as dedicated teaching assistants, welcoming and diligent office staff, a thorough custodial team, etc. Together, we've established and maintain a healthy learning environment for our kids.
I can tell you understand that so please forgive my "arrogance" comment as I don't want you to think I missed the point of your well-written article.
PS Pretending to be better than a factory worker is not reasonable or kind or true.