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Arne Duncan Says It Straight to the NEA
- 6-7-09
- Categorized in: Education
I applaud the Secretary for being sober, serious, and direct about needed reforms in his speech this week to the NEA, the nation's largest teachers' union. http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/07/07022009.html
While he offered up a fair share of platitudes and attaboys, which are understandable, especially in today's political environment, he showed some courage and conviction in his remarks.
Here are some of his messages I thought were particularly worthy.
1. He didn't sugarcoat the status quo. He made clear there are thousands of chronically failing schools and millions of children who drop out.
2. He made clear that a great amount of money is wasted in current professional development and credentialing programs.
3. He talked directly about the need to reward the best, most effective principals and teachers with extra compensation. While not based entirely on it, the basis for rewards for schools and teachers must be in part on growth in student learning. "Test scores alone should never drive evaluation, compensation, or tenure decisions. That would never make sense. But to remove student achievement entirely from evaluation is illogical and indefensible."
4. He went on to say that while policies that protect the rights of teachers are good, they have also unfortunately "produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets." If the adults in the schools are failing children, he said, "we have to find the right people" to be there, not letting "rules and regulations get in the way." These rules sometimes "place teachers in schools and communities where they won't succeed - and that's wrong." "(W)hen the tenure system keeps that teacher in the classroom anyway - then the system is protecting jobs rather than children. That's not a good thing."
5. He touted successful charter schools that had gotten great results and helped turn around failing situations.
Make no mistake: it's one thing to say words about reform. It will be another to implement real reforms that truly change the way people behave. The Secretary certainly has made good first steps. The $64,000 question is whether the Obama administration and the reform-oriented Democrats in the Congress will insist upon real change on these issues, or whether the forces of the status quo will prevail with same ol' - same ol'.
Sandy Kress--- knows how to forge change and his commments should be embraced-- along with the Sec.
We have to stop pretending that we are "reforming" education and get serious about real change. Having traveled to China numerous times over the last 20 years-- let me assure you-- they are not sitting ideally by waiting for us to get it right.
The 21st century will be about knowledge, talent, change, and China. We ought to be moving with a greater sense of urgency!
I am so pleased to see a note from my old friend, Tom Watkins, who has done such great work in Michigan and beyond. His energy and wisdom can make a huge difference. His warnings on how much we have to do and how fast we must do it should be taken most seriously.
When Sandy Kress applauds a speech, "Change we can believe in is a chimera.
1-2Â Wasn't NCLB going to provide these "reforms"?
3 What else is the evaluation to be based on? How much reliance on gain scores on standardized achievement tests is "sensible and reasonable"?
4 The Secretary talked out of both sides of his mouth. At this level of general rhetoric, few would disagree. Modifyiny tenure laws and union contracts is a whole different matter.
5 One can cherry pick charter schools and one can cherry pick public schools. But cherry picking is cherry picking. "
"Real reforms that truly change the way people behave" in the el-hi enterprise involve changes in instruction and in mechanisms for determining the consesquences of alternative instructional product/protocols. Treating instruction as a black box between "standards" and "standardized tests" will continue to bring same ol, same ol.
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I find it interesting that a person who never spent a day teaching or a day in the principals office can tell the entire nation what needs to be done to improve. This is the same man who headed up the Chicago schools which show 27% of the 11th graders passing the state exam. When will we learn that politians can not effect school change. It is amazing how educationally savy a person can become when given a title by some high ranking political figure. Such as the president of the USA or the governor of Texas.
We can't discount a person's reform ideas solely on the basis of whether they "never spent a day teaching or in the principal's office." Would 5 or 10 or 20 years in an elementary classroom alone qualify one to reform educational curriculum, funding, recruiting, training and administration on a national scale? Given the intractable, inflexible, entrenched thinking of many school district administrators and teachers that I've met, too much experience doing the wrong thing in a dysfunctional organization may not be a good qualification either, if the person is missing rigorous critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
As a parent standing on the sidelines and having made numerous unsuccessful efforts together with other parents to get rid of non performing teachers, it is clear to me that we need to do something to break the stronghold of the NEA and other similar unions. Here in Texas as in many other places, the viewpoints of the NEA do NOT represent the teachers I know, however, they remain members of the organization to protect their jobs. The quality of the teachers working with our kids remains the number one priority in my view if we are to improve the quality of education and compete in today's world. Until we can reward excellence and rid ourselves of mediocrity, our children will continue to suffer and efforts by parents to create a system or method which allows us to take our rather substantial tax dollars and spend them at a private school will continue to grow. If parents of moderate means are dissatisfied, which they are, then the voices for tuition credit or some other alternative will grow. If the current public school situation doesn't change or won't change, then public schools will eventually be left with nothing. Educated parents will not stand by and watch incompetent teachers year after year and accept the status quo.  They will either move their kids to a private school or become politically active to change the status quo.
Moreover, if the "rest" of us have no job security, why should teachers have job security? Shouldn't job security and compensation be tied to performance as it is in the rest of the free world?Â
Teachers need to stop focusing on security and start focusing on what's best for our kids; how do we assure that they can compete in the world of the future and survive. Job security for teachers does not contribute to excellence!