The Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein blog today (Mar. 13) on The Huffington Post calling for basing teacher pay and tenure decisions on performance.
Sharpton and Klein say that "the shortage of effective teachers in high-poverty schools" stems less from the deficiencies of teachers than from a failed system for encouraging teachers to improve and retaining effective teachers. "It's the system, stupid--and it desperately needs reform."
Sharpton and Klein point out that throughout a teachers' career, that teacher's ability to boost student learning "is poorly assessed (if at all), and virtually never linked to consequences--either positive, as in the case of awarding merit pay, or negative, like being dismissed for poor performance."
A similar problem exists with tenure decisions by school districts:
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality reports that "only two states require any evidence of teacher effectiveness to be considered as part of tenure decisions. All other states permit districts to award tenure virtually automatically."
Since 2006, two of the nation's most populous states--California and New York, home to more than 600,000 teachers--have even enacted laws that effectively bar school administrators from considering a teacher's impact on student performance in teacher pay and tenure decisions.
Sharpton and Klein quote Bill Gates:
It is astonishing to me that you could have a system that doesn't allow you to pay more for strong performance, or for teaching in a particular school....That is almost like saying "Teacher performance doesn't matter"--and that's basically saying "Students don't matter."
Thank you for the post!
ReplyDeleteThe Reverend Al Sharpton and Chancellor Joel Klein (along with many signatories) have a blog over at the Education Equality Project:
http://www.educationequalityproject.org/blog/
I tried to leave a comment about mathematics education. (Only one comment has been a keeper so far!) I said that we will begin to see improvement in mathematics education when we start focusing on CONTENT, rather than mediocre NSF programs.
The National Mathematics Advisory Panel laid the groundwork for success. Once again, we are in the position to "follow through" on what we know will effective. Our children are counting on us to do it - now more than ever!
Business Week has a recent article linking innovation with math and science education:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2009/gb20090316_004837.htm?campaign_id=yhoo
This is a very urgent need. We cannot continue to allow mediocre math programs to be widely used in our nation's schools. We must stop setting our children up for failure and ensure that they are ready for success.
I believe that the presence of high quality CONTENT is the real barometer of equity in our schools. Without it even the best teaching methods will not prepare students for a successful future.
A wise person said, "children tend not to learn what they are not taught"
I need help in my son's 7yrs school and can't get help from nowhere they psychological abuse my child let him pee on himself several of times, beat him up on the school bus,don,t give him any lunch time, don;t let him take part in any school programs/activities, his grades were 80,90,100% now it's 20,& 0% they put a RED FLAG against my son now that i move him from a gifted talented school to a public school it's even worst. I NEED HELP
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ReplyDeleteSharpton and Klein say that "the shortage of effective teachers in high-poverty schools" stems less from the deficiencies of teachers than from a failed system
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