Will holding teachers accountable really improve student learning?
Some links are provided so you can gain a better perspective on the issue:
The Indianapolis Star has a commentary about rewarding teachers based on student success. You’ll need to click on the quotes in order to read each person’s thoughts.
The following is an excerpt from Channel 8 News giving a summary of Tony Bennett’s strategy to improve education for Indiana schools along with a teacher’s view of his plan.
New York Daily News has an article about a teacher who followed up on the success of his students from 2002. See what he concludes. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/09/14/2010-09-14_teacher_says_system_failed_his_students.html
Connecticut’s paper challenges Obama’s plan to hold teachers accountable.
Want a different perspective? Here’s an article supporting teacher accountability in Syracuse, New York.
Will holding teachers accountable improve student learning? How can we improve education for students?
Like some of professionals in the articles cited, I have mixed feelings about teacher accountibility plans. I am especially skeptical of plans that base the evaluation of a teacher's effectiveness solely or predominantly on test scores. Much research has shown that other factors influence test scores beyond classroom instruction. Not to mention this might discourage teachers from working in schools that traditionally have lower test scores, such as urban schools or schools with high levels of poverty.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that there should be some means of evaluating teacher performance. Students are entitled to qualified and effective educators. However, rather than focusing on sanctions. I believe the focus should be on better teacher preparation, better professional development, and more mentoring for new and struggling teachers.
Ultimately, the greatest way that we can improve education for all students is to ensure that ALL schools are equipped with what they need to succeed. Quality teachers are the most important piece, but equitable resources, reasonable class sizes, and community support for the schools are also important.
Now accountability sounds like a great idea on paper, but then what government initiative doesn't? The problem comes in the practicum. When you suggest teachers post child progress assessments on a daily basis that takes hours of work after the school day is over. For those of you who think teachers have it easy with all those paid days off in the summer, you obviously have never known an actual teaching professional. Teachers work year round on lesson planning, professional development, grading, testing assessment, student outreach projects, parental communication development plans, peer assessments and administrative duties. My mother is a teacher and she works fourteen hour days during the school year as well as bringing home work to do on the weekends. During the summer she takes three weeks of professional development and two weeks of lesson planning meetings not to mention tearing down and setting up her classroom every year, which takes about a week. So the eight weeks kids have off in the summer my mother is working seven of them. As a gifted and talented teacher, my mother is already expected to do individualized lesson plans for each one of her 34 students, which are updated daily and charted weekly for assessment purposes. At this point my mother spends 90% of her time doing paperwork and only 10% actually teaching. Now we want to add additional duties to assess accountability? It seems to me the accountability issue should be focused on parents NOT teachers. Parents who don't show up to mandatory meetings, parents who use school as a form of daycare, parents who can't be bothered to buy supplies for their children, so the teachers pay out of pocket to buy their supplies, parents who have never attended one field trip, family night, or student play. Everyone is always yelling about teachers being the problem in education but the fact is the administration and the parents are the ones to blame. Piles of useless paperwork on one side and uncooperative, uninvolved parents on the other, I would say that it's amazing we have people who still want to go into the teaching profession at all. It seems to me that the fear of inappropriate behavior aggrandized by the media has fueled this witch hunt against educators, but the fact is most of these teachers are public servants who do thankless jobs for nowhere near enough money. So back off of teachers folks, take some personal responsibility parents get involved in your child's education. Administrators you would do well to allow teachers to do what they do best....teach. And worry less about your numbers, the numbers will fall in line if you encourage a healthy educational environment fueled by passionate educators. The strangle hold administration has on teachers pensions is already oppressive, if you don't stop subjugating the educators through veiled ideology like accountability you really will only have a group of bitter masochists as your disciples and really is that who you want teaching America's children?
ReplyDeleteThis is so troubling to me. Yes, teachers should be held accountable, should be expected to do the job they were hired to do.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't everyone?
When did our society become so un-trusting?
One doesn't become a teacher for the money. A teacher doesn't have a stress-free job. A teacher is a teacher because they believe that education is the key to human progression, to creativity inspiration, and a more harmonious existence.
Learning is the most important part of a person's life - young and old. We are learning all the time, and we spend more time learning new facets of "life" and "living" than we do anywhere else.
So shouldn't we start asking what kids and adults want to learn, and not dictate it to them and their teachers? Shouldn't we allow teachers the ability to facilitate that dialog, to inspire kids to seek out their interests, and explore "life?"
Imagine the possibilities, if we gave teachers the job they were born to do? We need to trust our teachers.
"Trust but verify" was Ronald Reagan's view of accountability when it concerned the Soviet Union and nuclear arms reduction.
ReplyDeleteUnverified "trust" brought us the ENRON debacle, not to mention the most recent financial disaster and recession.
Public education in America is weighing our whole economy down and we taxpayers are paying a freightening price that will only escalate in the years ahead.
Accountability is only one piece of the solution. "Good" teachers have nothing to be concerned about. Certainly everyone knows there are "slackers" in the teaching profession. Some are bad from the start but never get weeded out, others have turned bad over time.
Nearly every occupation I am aware of has a process for judging performance. Why should one of our most important occupations be exempt from an honest account of performance.
Certainly an honest and fair process might be difficult but as Chelsea says, teaching is hard. Why would one expect "accountability" to be easy.
hot issue - and the subsequent discussion leading to the issue of trust is really interesting. it is true - the accountability movement is in some ways a way of influencing the degree of public trust in the public education system (for better or worse is debatable)...but an unintended consequence is likely teachers trust of administrators, each other and the public as well.
ReplyDelete-scribner