Current American education policy is built on these assumptions: The quality of American education has plummeted because our schools are filled with teachers who can't teach. Teachers' unions and contracts tie the hands of school administrators. And teachers' unions protect bad teachers. Here are a few reasons why these conclusions are leading our educational system in a bad direction.
First, these policies ignore the effects of poverty on educational outcomes. Given the increasing number of children growing up in poverty, we ignore its effects at our peril.
I know something about poverty and its effects because I grew up in an impoverished, single-parent home and attended a low-quality school through eighth grade. Despite those beginnings, I graduated from one of the top US law schools and am now a law professor. If I could make it, then poverty must not matter, right?
But not all poverty is the same. My mother had a nursing degree and our home was filled with books. We lived in rural, small-town poverty near my farmer grandparents, who made certain we had good-quality food. Crime in our area was almost nonexistent. I am white, and my family has spoken standard English for generations. And there wasn't much of a gap between the poorest and the richest in that area.
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7 comments:
.........our schools are filled with children who can't learn because they are too busy dealing with abuse, single parent homes, drugs, poverty, etc.
We cannot fix the educational system until we fix the family and/or community issues that impact the daily lives of these children. Some parents must realize that children need structure and stability at home. (Others already know this!) When children come into the learning environment without the skills necessary to adhere to the classroom structure or expectations, how can we expect this child to perform the same as the child that comes from a supported background? Moreover, the children with little to no structure at home are often the children who disrupt the learning environment for others. As the author of the article stated, "not all poverty is the same." This statement is certainly true when you look at disciplinary referrals from homes with little to no parental involvement or consistency of structure with those that do.
Just saying...
Joe,
Thanks, for posting this. There are so many out there that think tenure means a job for life, in fact, as the author says, "What tenure does is require an employer to have cause to fire an employee. Union contracts require the use of a fair process to determine whether there is cause to fire an employee. In other words, schools can already fire teachers if they have good cause." But, I am sure there will be comments from the income, benefit, and education envy crowd that will fail to believe the truth.
1:17:
Wait until your child is subjected to abuse by a teacher, YES ABUSE! both physical and verbal. It was reported and confirmed, yet nothing, NOTHING, was done about it. Oh, and that teacher has had other complaints over several years.
The author suggests we should solve the poverty problem. What, I wonder, is his suggested method? Much has been spent since Pres. Johnson declared the "War on Poverty" and it is my understanding that the percentage of those living below the "poverty line" has not changed. We are running out of money (make that have RUN out). There is a good argument for every dollar the government spends but there is nothing for which someone will not make a good argument. Spending money we don't have will drive more into poverty, so probably not a good idea. So again, what should we do?
3:27 If your child was physically abused, and the school administration (all the way to the state level) refused to do anything, you could always file criminal charges (since you had proof). If you did that and all refused to do anything then there might be another side of the story we need to hear.
Think about this...Maryland is getting about 250 million in Race to the Top funds from the federal gevernment. About half of that money goes to the MD dept of Education to administer the program. That is the problem with education funding, so many positions have to be created to oversee all these programs. When in fact that money could be better spent on instruction. What a waste.
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