There's much to read over at Change.gov about Obama's policies on Education, but among all the good stuff, there are some items that veteran public school teachers are very uncomfortable with.
We have serious doubts, for example, about these:
Support High-Quality Schools and Close Low-Performing Charter Schools: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the creation of more successful charter schools. An Obama-Biden administration will provide this expanded charter school funding only to states that improve accountability for charter schools, allow for interventions in struggling charter schools and have a clear process for closing down chronically underperforming charter schools. Obama and Biden will also prioritize supporting states that help the most successful charter schools to expand to serve more students.
Anything relating to increasing the funding for and the expansion of charter schools is more or less a swipe at public education. Why do we have to hand over tax dollars to corporations? It's not that they do the job any better. Cut class size first, improve the facilities, give the kids the services they need. It's not that it's a charter school that will educate them better. It's more a question of finding the political will to reduce the numbers of kids we teach each period and address the social issues in certain communities that keep kids from succeeding.
Prepare Teachers: Obama and Biden will require all schools of education to be accredited. Obama and Biden will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama and Biden will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
There isn't any performance assessment, voluntary or not, that can ensure that every new educator is ready to start teaching effectively. That's because assessments leave out the most volatile factor in the classroom: real children. Assessments will always be arbitrary. Experience and hard work make teachers effective. Why do you think an assessment at the very beginning of a new career is going to get you a good teacher?
Reward Teachers: Obama and Biden will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward with a salary increase accomplished educators who serve as a mentors to new teachers. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.
Increase my pay when I teach more hours. I will not teach better, harder, more intelligently, or with greater adaptability if you pay me more money. Where do you get that idea from, the business world? Cash bonuses might get you better scores or graduation rates, but not necessarily better educated students. There are plenty of people who will take the money and fix the grades, or make the tests easier, or pass more people if they do a couple of hours Credit Recovery over the summer. Human greed has produced some pretty horrendous results in the past decade. You should have learned by now that more cash can only produce better scams. Bonuses for taking positions in inner cities might work, but only with longer hours. First lower class size, then give the kids all the support services they need. No one's trying much of those things in our biggest cities these days.It's crucial that you put together a program for America's children that comes from true blue educators — not corporations, think tanks, financial institutions or testing companies. You have to learn how to walk away from anyone wanting a piece of our education dollars. These people are in the "business" of education all right, but few of the manager types have spent much time educating.
A comment showed up in a NYC ed blog about the failure of the chancellor's reforms. Joel Klein — a veritable darling of educorp — has certainly been around long enough for us to see something he's done work, if it were there to be seen. Instead, she says:
Klein has drained our schools of life, energy, experience and money.
That's worth repeating:
Klein has drained our schools of life, energy, experience and money.I cannot imagine being a new teacher now in a NYC public school. Even if you come in with exquisite preparation, nothing works the way it did in your classes or your student teaching experiences. Yet, whole schools are now comprised of brand new faculty and administrators. And in every new small school which I have visited I find student artwork done with primitive materials -- construction paper, oaktag and markers. This is true for all of their assignments in every field of study. Students are creating charts by hand in a world where their counterparts in private schools can devise charts with computer programs and with the internet at their fingertips. They are producing hand drawn, stick figurines with magic markers and often, sadly, the writing on the posters they create is filled with errors of which a first grader should be ashamed. The flagships of the Klein administration are schools in which 30 or more children surround a 22 year old teacher who is working with little more than chalk and talk. And they are housed in old school buildings and forced to compete with other schools for classroom space. In the 21st Century. In The United States of America.— Floraine Kay
Senator Obama, you who are right now planning the nation's future at the highest level should take her words very seriously.
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