If we want to change the way things are done in this country, we have to start down at the school level. The whole system itself is so corrupt that there is no way anyone but the teachers and the students know what is going on within the classroom.
Reports the Washington Post,
"The president has said he wants to [achieve reform] in part by holding public school teachers more accountable for student achievement, something that may pit him against teacher's unions at some point, and allow more charter schools to emerge and experiment."
This addresses two of the major problems with reforming education. One is evaluation of the teacher. Now, from an objective standpoint, ignoring the workload and such from individual teachers, I have had a multitude of bad teachers and a handful of good ones. A vast number of teachers rely on making students read textbooks and make their way mechanically through the same series of questions or checking to see if their folder is in order an all the papers organized in the 'right way' to earn a grade. When they are going to be evaluated by external sources, they are made aware and they immediately, for as long as the person is their, become the best teachers in the world. They ask questions, they smile, they explain things. For many, that's the only moment they do this.
For evaluations to be valid, they need to both be tougher and more accurate. Too often it seems, these evaluations are lenient and essentially don't matter for anything. Here's an idea: get teachers to evaluate other teachers. I can't stress enough how hard it is for someone not in the classroom to really understand what that atmosphere is like. What it is like to go to Hialeah High School, or Hialeah-Miami Lakes, or Barbara Goleman. Each school is unique and has a different atmosphere and has to be evaluated with that taken into account.
The second problem with reforming education, in Miami at least, is the teacher's union. As a progressive, I am all for unionization and whole-heartedly support the Employee Free Choice Act, but that the United Teachers of Dade has overstepped themselves and become a greedy money-hungry organization led by demagogues is unmistakable. At a time when our economy is at it's worst since the Great Depression, you'd think teachers would be content in their relatively safe, relatively well-paying jobs. I won't disclose what my mother with two kids and two parents to support makes, but it's less than the starting salary of a teacher and we do just fine.
The UTD and unions in general would prefer to screw over the students to achieve their ends. Last August when the Secondary School Reform/Eight-Period Schedule fight arose Downtown, I was assured by UTD President Karen Aronowitz "as teachers, we too are concerned about the manner in which the money is trying to be found by district officials. We have taken a strong stand that cuts should not touch the classroom (or the students)."
However, former Superintendent Crew preserved the measure and protected it from being cut. A measure that was suggested and created by him, which would lead one to further question why he'd want to cut it after so staunchly supporting the failed School Improvement Zone project.
It was later revealed that the UTD had been questioning Dade County Public Schools regarding Secondary School Reform on a document meant to gather information on programs that could be cut to find money to fund teachers raises.
So in that respect, yes, I believe that teacher's unions are no longer representative of teachers and that we face a problem in differentiating between good teachers and bad teachers. To defend those who can not teach and pay them more and more amounts of taxpayer money while students suffer is simply wrong in so many ways.
And thus is the problem with reforming education. Lawmakers are looking in all the wrong places to find solutions- from irrelevant conservatives to radical ministers to "educational experts" who go years without stepping one foot into a school classroom. If and when true reform happens in this country, it will be when our elected officials realize this and instead start holding talks with teachers and students themselves, independent of unions and special interests. |
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