A hot button issue right now is this Chicago teachers' strike. I'd like to throw my two cents in and hopefully add some perspective on this from someone who's been in the trenches a while. Although my perspective is biased given the fact that I am a teacher myself, I'd like to think that I have a pretty broad and relatively objective viewpoint on the state of education in this country.
First, I'd like to make it known that I think some teachers' unions do indeed contribute to the fact that incompetent teachers not only have jobs, but are sometimes practically guaranteed to die in the classroom due to tenure. And not tenure that was earned through years of hard work and competency, but tenure just because it's a stipulation of a union agreement. This is most likely something that occurs largely in places like NYC where the union is pretty firmly implanted in the DOE. In this regard, unions blow. No teacher should get tenure without completing a requisite amount of time in the classroom nor without consistent, thorough evaluations that reflect significant student achievement.
Speaking of evaluations, this is something with which the Chicago teachers' union has an issue. They feel quite strongly about a teacher's ability to continue in a Chicago classroom being tied to an evaluation that includes student performance gains. There is some merit to this argument, though again, I believe teachers' evaluations should certainly include student performance. Consistently poor evaluations stemming both from observations by higher-ups and data that suggests poor student gains should be grounds for dismissal in this profession. Any teacher who is truly committed and wants to be good at this job will be excited to go into a value-added system, especially the ones like Houston ISD and Washington DC schools have. These evaluation systems do use a broader spectrum of criteria and offer those who are getting results pretty nice bonuses. I really believe those moves are taking evaluation in the right direction.
However, even that teacher who is excited to be evaluated more thoroughly and to receive that bonus pay will say that the system is not without flaws. In order to have a truly great evaluation, a teacher cannot only be judged on a value-added component. I think it's important to try to figure out where a student should get in a given school year, but that's not terribly reliable. First, the key method used to figure out a child's skill mastery, and this learning, is standardized testing that is done once a year. I've always likened this to deciding if a baseball player's true worth is measured in only one at-bat. A player could work very hard all through the off-season to come up to bat once to decide if he is a successful baseball player. Did this player truly acquire all of his expected baseball skills? Well, he didn't hit the ball out of the park in his one at-bat, nor did he even get a base hit, so he clearly did not master his baseball skills. How can a student's standardized test score be the end-all, be-all measure of whether he did or did not learn? Kids come to these tests tired, ill, carrying all of their home life baggage/drama, and so on. Some kids (and some of you reading this) really do get tremendously anxious when taking a test. So this one test score, or in HISD's case maybe two test scores, should not be the focal point of a student's gains.
Honestly, I haven't been able to get in the think tank enough to solve this problem, but I do have some ideas. One could be allowing a student to take a baseline test at the very beginning of the year that measures his or her current skill level in regards to the skills that are expected to be mastered. Items could range from knowledge and skills expected to be learned during that school year as well as items that could measure more advanced skills. This leaves room for improvement for those students who may be relatively accelerated compared to others. The students would retake the same skills test at the end of the year with similar items to what they saw at the beginning. This might really show a student's progress with one teacher for that school year.
Multiple observations by peers and administrators would be helpful. Teachers often get that quick little perfunctory observation by a harried administrator who pops in maybe twice during that school year. I think having a peer from the same subject area as the teacher being evaluated, plus a peer from outside of the subject area, to come observe the teacher would provide better feedback about the teacher's performance. Teachers ought to be trying to watch each other when they can any way, though most schools are not designed to allow teachers this truly valuable gift. Of course, the teacher would still be observed by the administrator, but that person needs to come in at least three times a year and none of those visits should be announced. A general window of time that frames by when the observations must be completed can be announced, but not the exact day or even the exact week. It's important to avoid the "dog and pony" show at all costs. I'll admit, as long as I've been doing this, I've dog-and-ponied it myself a time or two. Who wouldn't pull out all the stops on the day he or she knows the observation will take place? It's human nature.
Additionally, to prevent said dog and pony show, student evaluations should be factored in. Kids are going to be pretty truthful about the quality of their teacher. One kid here or there may have a personal vendetta against a quality teacher, but across the teacher's rosters of students the couple of kids who cannot score the teacher objectively will stand out as statistical errors. If a teacher is truly incompetent, kids will be more than happy to report that. Creating a questionnaire or survey that asks the right questions and can quickly be quantified would be the real trick here, but it can definitely be done. We all evaluated our professors in college, and I know secondary-aged students would love a chance to shed some light on their teachers. I would not feel threatened by a student getting the opportunity to report on her feelings about the education she believes that she received from me during the year. In fact, if a kid felt I fell short in any given area, I'd want to know! They are who I serve so I'd like to be up to speed on what they think.
Other information that is critical to factor in is student attendance. No teacher can be held accountable for a student's growth if the kid's not in the classroom. Let's face it, someone with serious truancy issues cannot fairly be included in a teacher's evaluation. In this fabulous age of technology, surely a computer program/application can be created so that the test scores of any student who does not meet a set attendance criteria would be automatically dropped from a teacher's evaluation. I can't add value to a kid who never sets foot in my classroom. Many urban schoolteachers face this issue and are unfairly held accountable for any child on their roster regardless of his or her poor attendance.
It is this issue that may weigh on the minds of the Chicago folks. I can understand that, and I can sympathize if that is a reason they fear the teacher evaluations being factored in to whether or not they continue to hold jobs. Before school districts can justifiably cut a teacher based on evaluations, they have to create a comprehensive and fair system with which to gauge the teacher's competency. Again, just go back to my baseball analogy. The attendance thing applies here as well. If a baseball player never goes to practice, it's almost a sure bet he didn't master his baseball skills. Still, though, I am a firm believer that a teacher should undoubtedly have to answer to his or her results. Many places with these value-added evaluation systems will not just drop a teacher as soon as the mediocre results come in. Often, the teacher will be offered a probationary year to prove that he or she simply needs more support and time in a classroom to be able to further hone the craft of teaching.
In truth, most first-year teachers who are in this for the right reasons will do well solely because they are earnest about the profession they chose. But most teachers you ask will tell you that they were probably a shit show their first year. I know I was. It's not something you go into out of college and just do perfectly. In fact, we will never really do it perfectly, but we will get to a level of mastery that ensures that we know how to get the job done with not only proficiency, but with excellence as well. Teachers develop systems, tools, and steal great ideas from each other to get into their grooves. Even master teachers continually tweak and refine their methods every year. In this profession, there is always room for improvement. Anyone who teaches and proclaims that they have attained perfection in the classroom need a serious ego check. There are certainly some Yodas in this profession who can offer great wisdom and guidance to others, but even they know their limits. Besides, you get about 100 new personalities to deal with every year, so this requires continual tailoring and fine-tuning of a teacher's skills and methods to achieve success.
The whole "state of education in America" topic continually keeps my blood at a simmer. Those of us who do care for children are working with them every day. We are often ignored when we want to dig in to help reform education. Typically those making the big decisions have never set foot in a classroom (I'm looking at you, George W. Bush) or did so for a hot minute before moving up in the world. The status accorded to most teachers now is that we could not succeed in any other profession, so that's why we are in the classroom. If that were true, we wouldn't be needed at all and everyone could just teach their own damn kids. We are often taken for granted. These Chicago folks are out on strike and now everyone is shitting their pants. And whoa, suddenly, it's about the children. Funny how politicians suddenly care about the children's welfare... No one saw the invaluable service these people did provide until they didn't. And it's really only because the bureaucrats in Chicago know what will happen when many of these kids don't have to be in school (just let your imagination run with that one).
To go a step further, the fact, too, that our country finds it acceptable to see free breakfasts and lunches at school as the norm is very disturbing to me. Remember when a parent would do anything to provide for their children and to take a handout was shameful? Nowadays, far too many people are all too happy to let the government feed their kids via the schools, even if the parents can damn well afford groceries or lunch money (because they sure did give the kids a nicer phone than I have!). There's nothing like reviewing a free lunch form to find that a kid's parents have zero dollars a week or month in income, multiple children, and the kids has on Air Jordans. This lazy parenting coupled with their attitudes that reflect how education is unimportant and/or believing the necessities should be provided by the government in our age of entitlement are other cancers in the educational system, but those comprise a whole topic unto itself (my friend just posted a parent letter on FB that was a prime example). Still, though, all these people with their bleeding hearts talking about how these kids won't eat because there's no school make me throw up in my mouth a little. I didn't have any kids starve to death on the weekends when I was at poorer schools, so they must get some food from somewhere! When I was a child, I don't remember summer food programs that turned public schools into soup kitchens. Again, a whole other topic, but one we have to sort out as well if we want to see the uptick in the quality of American education.
So that's my two cents on the current teacher strike in Chicago. I'm actually thrilled they went on strike. Anyone who knows me well knows I have lobbied for a nationwide strike. If we want to be heard, it has to be done with a scream, not a whisper (c'mon 80's music buffs, I had to do it). I go forward every year because I do love working with high school kids even though I want to shake a whole slew of politicians, and I am lucky to be at a school where I can actually develop a deeper rapport with kids, but other teachers are suffering mightily. It should not be that way. Free education is a privilege, really, though it's considered by many to be everyone's right in this country. I don't agree that everyone is entitled to free education in this country, but that's a tangent I'd have to elaborate upon elsewhere. No matter your view on the teachers' strike in Chicago, I think we all agree that the American public education system is an epic fail right now. I say that knowing it's not me or my fellow teachers at fault; American education is actually only still upright and breathing because of teachers. Otherwise, that movie IDIOCRACY would already be a reality here (it's not far off as it is). Thanks for tuning in again, and I hope you remember to thank a teacher for being able to read this post. :)
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