You remember them well. Maybe they had just the right way of introducing algebra or convincing you that poetry was cool. Maybe they quietly found a way to help with a sticky peer problem.
This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and across the country children will bring hand-drawn cards and maybe even a nostalgic apple to their favorite teachers.
Kids are great judges when it comes to weighing in on educators charged with teaching them. A study by Harvard University professor Thomas Kane found that student evaluations were good predictors of teacher success. As adults, however, we have to do better when it comes to fairly evaluating the nation's teachers, and fairly compensating them.
Most teachers are evaluated inconsistently, going without the feedback and professional development that can help them excel. The need for change is basic and glaring, and that's why StudentsFirst is urging states and districts to replace outdated, weak evaluation systems with rigorous ones that can strengthen the profession.
Good evaluations must be accompanied with good pay. The average teacher salary in the United States is estimated to be around $55,000. Surely your favorite teacher is worth more than that. What's more, teachers tend to earn minimal increases in lockstep with each other and without regard to how well they are actually doing. Excellence goes unrewarded. We should instead value teachers by better compensating them for helping kids make gains and for teaching hard-to-staff subjects in hard-to-staff schools.
It's difficult for me to pick just one teacher to say thank you to this week. I've met so many great educators as a one-time student, a mom to school-aged kids, and as a teacher and administrator. But Eric Bethel is among those who stand out from my time as chancellor of the Washington, D.C. school system. Eric, who taught at a high-poverty elementary school for eight years, loved working with his students but left the classroom somewhat reluctantly this year to help evaluate and mentor other teachers.
Why Eric was tapped for this new role is pretty clear. Last year about a third of the fifth graders who arrived in his class at the start of the year were proficient in math. But by the end of the year, about three-fourths of Eric's students were working at that level or beyond. Eric worked so hard to achieve that success. He often tutored kids before school started and spent hours working with other teachers to learn from their experiences and perfect his lessons.
Sadly some highly successful teachers, maybe even those who perform as well as Eric, are facing the possibility of losing their jobs this year due to the economic downturn. It's estimated that more than 160,000 teachers will be laid off due to the budget crunch. In most districts, these decisions will be made based on seniority, not effectiveness. That means a favorite teacher could be forced out simply because she isn't as senior as some of her colleagues. If we truly value our teachers, we should replace outdated personnel rules with fairer, more sensible ones.
Bringing about change is rarely easy, but it's certainly worth pursuing. I can't think of a better way to show my support for the terrific teachers who shaped my life and experiences.
Follow Michelle Rhee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@m_rhee
Teacher Appreciation: National Teachers Appreciation Week and Day ...
TEACHER APPRECIATION: teacher appreciation week - Teacher ...
this is well stated and oooooooooooh so true. they are bringing business school leadership agenda's to the field of education as it has worked so well on wall street, big banks, and the big three auto lets apply it to our teachers. sad day in america and our kids will suffer the most for it.
I do know that her program and advocacy is easily co-opted by the less well intentioned- like those who think public education is an abomination, waste of money, socialist training camp, want to bust unions, etc.
Heck, union busting is the trend de jour and there is apparently no shame by those doing it, so that will be the minimum that can be expected for adoption of Ms Rhees plans.
Here in Idaho, the State superintendent is using the name “Student's Come First” as his education reform- er, union busting program. It is also a means to force Idaho school districts to utilize his cronies "educational services" for on-line education.
Idaho teacher moral is in the toil-ette and young teachers are well served to bale out while they can still change their career.
Besides, who wants to work 12 hrs a day, supply the materials, in some cases supply food, and get disrespected by children and adults.
Teachers, because you have loved what you do, and THEY have made it all about money(instead of working conditions), there is NO FUTURE for you here.
So many in a schools administration from the superintendant to the principal are so afraid of the parents who protect their little johnnie or janie that they will allow the teacher to be thrown under the bus.
There is no coaching or development or mentoring with first year teachers in so many schools they are so often set up for failure - schools dump students into classes where they do not belong (creating a classroom size +45)- they compromise the integrity of the program because they don't have any other place to put the students...there is no accountibility for the behavior of the students.....there is no discipline in so many schools....but, when a principal can show they have reduced $$ in teacher absence - that is rewarded.....pathetic - yet, the school is still performing below average and the principal continues to dictate - fear instead of trust - a Napolionic my way or highway methodology....
What's really needed is financial support from the government for the arts, sciences, math, English, enrichment and other educational curriculums. Giving teachers financial incentives to "teach better" is at best, a wrongheaded way of doing things.
I would appreciate our mono-cultural (90% White) teacher workforce breaking up the club and starting to police their own.
Teachers can show appreciation for teachers by getting rid of the bad ones.
It is a shame. There are thousands of amazing teachers in America who work their butts off for the youth of America. Most of us aren't even asking for more money, we just want to do our job and stop being blamed for all the ills of the economy and society.
Geesh, this competent teacher is just about fed up with ignorance and misinformation.
Just to compare, take a look at the US military: for every soldier that actually fights in a battle, there are 3 to 4 soldiers working in the support role. They are the support staff, and are essential to the success of the US military. During World War II, Germany had the best soldiers, but the side that had the better logistics (the Allies) won the war.
she has made the critical error of thinking there is a quick and easy way to evalutate teacher performance. it is a muddy and complex road and to put most emphasis on student test scores has been her downfall. teachers know how to teach to tests. no child left behind was and is a huge failure.
obama has not done much better. business school agenda's have not worked and will not work. wall street is living proof of this unawareness of leadership principles being taught in our universities.
pay for performance with ranking individuals included has been a huge failure but yet the rhee's of this nation want more of it. it fails on so many fronts it would take a book to explain them all. now I have this book, ok just kidding. no one would read such a book, american universities already think they know in spite of the evidence.
rhee did not get these ideas all on her own, someone has taught these ideas to her and you can bet it was university professor or professors. wanna bet. the guy that came up with this pay for performance agenda as a leadership principle was even given a white house medal but then so did a guy that got the freedom award for helping to start the iraq war. insanity american style. :-)