It is wrong to cast teacher unions as the default scapegoat in the controversy surrounding Race to the Top. The unions are simply attempting to fulfill their mission of improving teachers' wages, hours and working conditions. However, unions’ refusal to allow student performance to factor in teacher evaluation is not the best expression of support. It comes across as a blatant attempt to dodge accountability. That is not something good teachers want or need.
If unions really wanted to do right by their members, they should be using every means at their disposal to guarantee that teachers receive the proper training. Schools of education and staff development professionals have proven woefully inadequate in that respect. School improvement is a shared responsibility. Let’s make everyone accountable. http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/43647802.html
Tony Pedriana
Author, Leaving Johnny Behind
leavingjohnnybehind.com
If teachers are to blame, who is teaching them?
The following letter appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday, April 11, 2010:
The front-page story on Race to the Top ("Our $250 million weak spot: Weeding out poor teachers?,'' April 4) highlighted the collective failure of state agencies, school administrators and the teachers union to agree on ways to remove under-qualified and incompetent teachers. The point is well-taken, but the story misses a key constituency in that failure: those responsible for training teachers in the first place.
All too often, teacher preparatory centers have omitted critical elements from their core curricula. This is especially true in the area of literacy training, where a recent study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that only a fraction of education schools even bothered to teach their clients all of the components of the science of reading.
Yes, teachers must be held accountable. But it is a cruel hoax when those whose job it is to prepare them steer them along ill-fated tangents and leave them hanging in the wind when things go terribly wrong.
The front-page story on Race to the Top ("Our $250 million weak spot: Weeding out poor teachers?,'' April 4) highlighted the collective failure of state agencies, school administrators and the teachers union to agree on ways to remove under-qualified and incompetent teachers. The point is well-taken, but the story misses a key constituency in that failure: those responsible for training teachers in the first place.
All too often, teacher preparatory centers have omitted critical elements from their core curricula. This is especially true in the area of literacy training, where a recent study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that only a fraction of education schools even bothered to teach their clients all of the components of the science of reading.
Yes, teachers must be held accountable. But it is a cruel hoax when those whose job it is to prepare them steer them along ill-fated tangents and leave them hanging in the wind when things go terribly wrong.
Our Kids are Worth the Trouble
President Obama knows a good idea when he sees it regardless of political affiliation. He is not departing from the educational policy set forth by George Bush which attempts to steer schools and districts toward methods of teaching reading that have been validated through scientific inquiry and clinical trials. That is precisely what Race to the Top attempts to do. Yet some are complaining that retooling to meet federal guidelines in order to qualify for funds under Rtt is more trouble than it's worth. They just don't get it. This is true reform, the kind that can make a difference in a kid's life. That's worth all the trouble in the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/opinion/08thu2.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/opinion/08thu2.html
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