No Child Left Behind
Inspired by a post on Angie's blog, I had these thoughts to share:
For the most part, I think the public school system is broken. And frankly, I don't think much of it can be fixed on a large scale unless we can do two things: find ways to recruit and keep good teachers, and find ways to improve or, if necessary, get rid of bad ones. This comes down to two things: teacher pay and teacher tenure. I know some excellent teachers who have left the profession because they can make more money and take less abuse doing something else.For example, I know one who is leaving after this year to become a plumber. Especially in math and science, this is true...you can make a whole lot more doing just about anything else with a math or science degree than you can make teaching math or science.
I've heard a statistic that 50% of new teachers leave the profession by the first 5 years, and it's not surprising given the total lack of support that most new teachers have. I was very lucky to get a supportive team of people helping me and a great mentor, but many schools do not have any mentoring or support programs for new teachers. This year was really hard, and I don't think I could have gotten through it on my own.
Personally, I think more of a business model is in order here. How are businesses successful? They hire and keep good personnel, and fire ones who aren't doing their jobs properly. I grant that it is very difficult to come up with an evaluation process for teachers. You don't want to leave evaluation solely to administrators, or colleagues, or parents, or students or (God help us) test scores. But maybe some combination of these factors could help. And teachers should be given a chance to improve before they are fired/asked to leave.
If teaching were a more respected profession, I think good people would be more likely to become teachers and stay teachers. And if we can find and keep good teachers, I think the respect would come with the improvement in the profession in general. However... all of these issues require funding, which the current administration seems to think that public schools don't need. More tests, yes. More money, no. Study after study has shown that smaller class size makes a huge difference in how much kids learn, yet hardly anyone is willing to invest that money. I think that if we don't realize that our educational system is an investment, we won't be able to improve it. Yes, there are wonderful teachers making huge differences in students' lives everywhere. But the entire system has huge flaws (including enormous funding disparities) and I'm not sure that it will be fixed in its current state. Maybe we need more schools funded by private foundations and run like businesses, I'm not sure. Any thoughts?
For the most part, I think the public school system is broken. And frankly, I don't think much of it can be fixed on a large scale unless we can do two things: find ways to recruit and keep good teachers, and find ways to improve or, if necessary, get rid of bad ones. This comes down to two things: teacher pay and teacher tenure. I know some excellent teachers who have left the profession because they can make more money and take less abuse doing something else.For example, I know one who is leaving after this year to become a plumber. Especially in math and science, this is true...you can make a whole lot more doing just about anything else with a math or science degree than you can make teaching math or science.
I've heard a statistic that 50% of new teachers leave the profession by the first 5 years, and it's not surprising given the total lack of support that most new teachers have. I was very lucky to get a supportive team of people helping me and a great mentor, but many schools do not have any mentoring or support programs for new teachers. This year was really hard, and I don't think I could have gotten through it on my own.
Personally, I think more of a business model is in order here. How are businesses successful? They hire and keep good personnel, and fire ones who aren't doing their jobs properly. I grant that it is very difficult to come up with an evaluation process for teachers. You don't want to leave evaluation solely to administrators, or colleagues, or parents, or students or (God help us) test scores. But maybe some combination of these factors could help. And teachers should be given a chance to improve before they are fired/asked to leave.
If teaching were a more respected profession, I think good people would be more likely to become teachers and stay teachers. And if we can find and keep good teachers, I think the respect would come with the improvement in the profession in general. However... all of these issues require funding, which the current administration seems to think that public schools don't need. More tests, yes. More money, no. Study after study has shown that smaller class size makes a huge difference in how much kids learn, yet hardly anyone is willing to invest that money. I think that if we don't realize that our educational system is an investment, we won't be able to improve it. Yes, there are wonderful teachers making huge differences in students' lives everywhere. But the entire system has huge flaws (including enormous funding disparities) and I'm not sure that it will be fixed in its current state. Maybe we need more schools funded by private foundations and run like businesses, I'm not sure. Any thoughts?
posted by Suzy at 11:55 AM
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