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Nope, there are plenty of problems with the system. Unfortunately the unions will not allow the system to be changed. No choice, no merit pay, no changes to tenure, it goes on and on.The teacher want the status quo.
You didn't mention traditional education vs progressive education.
That is one change that has happened over the last several decades.
You don't think that effects the outcome ?
Of course parents bear some responsibility in educating their children. The problem is, the parents and the children are held hostage by an education monopoly. There is no incentive for teachers to teach better, to get superior results. They get paid the same regardless of how good or bad they are. If families were given choices, the poor performing schools would close tomorrow, teachers would lose their jobs. What do you think the effect would be? Schools and teachers would compete with each other to be the best. there is no incentive for excellence under the current system.
Tell you what: Go to any urban school system and swap the faculties of the absolutely bottom ranked school and the top of the heap ranked school for one year. I'd bet good money that at the end of the year, the bottom ranked school would still be on the bottom and the top school would still be on top.
Close the poor performing schools and where do you think the students who attend those schools are going to go? I'll tell you where, to those lovely top performing schools that I guarantee will stop being top performing when they have to stop teaching to deal with the myriad problems their new students bring with them.
Only the simple minded propose simple solutions to complex problems...
Tell you what: Go to any urban school system and swap the faculties of the absolutely bottom ranked school and the top of the heap ranked school for one year. I'd bet good money that at the end of the year, the bottom ranked school would still be on the bottom and the top school would still be on top.
Close the poor performing schools and where do you think the students who attend those schools are going to go? I'll tell you where, to those lovely top performing schools that I guarantee will stop being top performing when they have to stop teaching to deal with the myriad problems their new students bring with them.
Only the simple minded propose simple solutions to complex problems...
Lol, how about let those inner city kids go to suburban schools, and I'd take he bet. But of course the unions woud never allow it. By the way the simple solutions I offer are the ones that make countries with top schools successful.
Nope, there are plenty of problems with the system. Unfortunately the unions will not allow the system to be changed. No choice, no merit pay, no changes to tenure, it goes on and on.The teacher want the status quo.
The teacher's unions are against stripping teachers of their benefits. That's their job. The union has little to do with the actual education system. You need to look elsewhere to lay your blame than on teachers and their representatives. This is simple union-busting in order to disenfranchise the working teachers of this country.
Let's attack the problems with the education system before attacking the teachers who work their asses off to impart knowledge upon our children.
The teacher's unions are against stripping teachers of their benefits. That's their job. The union has little to do with the actual education system. You need to look elsewhere to lay your blame than on teachers and their representatives. This is simple union-busting in order to disenfranchise the working teachers of this country.
Let's attack the problems with the education system before attacking the teachers who work their asses off to impart knowledge upon our children.
That's single-handidly the most objective website I've ever seen.
Teachers unions are also against choice, merit pay and eliminating tenure. Teachers do not bust their butts to educate our children, there is no incentive for them to do so. The hard working teacher and the lazy teacher make the same money, and you can't fire the lazy one. Unions h ave a huge influence over the educational system due to their enormous donations to the Dem party.
Well, a biased website should be easy to refute, have at it!
You can't blame doctors practicing their trade for poor health coverage, just as you can't blame teachers for poor education. Our teachers do their job fantastically. There is a systemic problem with the educational system, how the job is to performed. The policies, the deluded funding schemes, NCLB, etc.
If the educational system was designed with education being between teachers and students, I imagine we'd be doing as well as if our health-care system is designed to be between the the doctor and the patient--assuming we can treat them both same way.
Currently, teachers are bogged down by a lot of administration oversight--like "teaching to the test," and funding is--peculiar--for departments in a lot of districts. Imagine if money went towards instructing the students. There are infamous stories of repositories of unused textbooks, purchased for the sole purpose of using the budget.
So, you can't blame teachers for doing the job they are given, just as you can't blame doctors for doing the job they are assigned. There are systemic problems.
Well then why do the teachers' unions keep bribing politicians to kill any educational reform?
The school voucher program that was such a huge success in DC that Congress reinstated it after Obama killed it? Remember that from a few years ago? Well his 2013 budget kills it. Again.
And virtually every teacher union in the nation supports him.
So if what you say is true, why aren't teachers pressuring their unions to be fighting FOR reforms instead of AGAINST them?
Teachers unions are also against choice, merit pay and eliminating tenure. Teachers do not bust their butts to educate our children, there is no incentive for them to do so. The hard working teacher and the lazy teacher make the same money, and you can't fire the lazy one. Unions h ave a huge influence over the educational system due to their enormous donations to the Dem party.
Well, a biased website should be easy to refute, have at it!
You offer three solutions. You'll have to explain how any of them improve the educational system.
We are at tremendous odds with a system which "teaches to the test." Our teachers are governed by a policy to teach students to a set standard which requires only rote memorization, not critical thinking, which is important to an education.
Merit pay actively encourages teachers to compete against one another, not necessarily to improve their teaching abilities. That, combined with the difficult of measuring teacher performance in the first place, is going to create interesting problems. One of the greatest problems our educational system faces is teaching to the test, bolstered by NCLB. Teachers will be looking for ways to improve test scores, not to improve an undefined measurement of teaching, and we can't determine that by student test scores.
Oh, and let's not forget, we'll be stiffing innovation in the classrooms too. Merit-pay is based on results, just like NCLB, instead of education. Teacher's find interesting ways to do things on their own. We can't simply pay people based on how well their students test, it'd be ridiculous. We have to spur innovation and creative & critical thinking in the classroom. Merit-pay doesn't do any of that. It just creates competition between teachers for whomever can get the most money.
And I don't understand how someone can be against tenure in the educational realm. Teachers have to teach often unpopular ideas. If we were allowed to fire educators for teaching the ability to think "outside the box," we'd undoubtedly lose most of our teachers. Tenure is a necessary protection in academia that applies rarely to other places.
To claim you can't fire a "lazy teacher" is absurd. Not performing your duties is justifiable cause for being fired from any position. If my job is to sweep floors, and I'm not sweeping floors, the union won't support you.
Lol, how about let those inner city kids go to suburban schools, and I'd take he bet. But of course the unions woud never allow it. By the way the simple solutions I offer are the ones that make countries with top schools successful.
I'd take the bet - keep the teachers in place and swap the students. It's a more expensive way to do it, but the results would be the same. The union would have no problem with it - the experiment would support their point of view.
You offer three solutions. You'll have to explain how any of them improve the educational system.
We are at tremendous odds with a system which "teaches to the test." Our teachers are governed by a policy to teach students to a set standard which requires only rote memorization, not critical thinking, which is important to an education.
Merit pay actively encourages teachers to compete against one another, not necessarily to improve their teaching abilities. That, combined with the difficult of measuring teacher performance in the first place, is going to create interesting problems. One of the greatest problems our educational system faces is teaching to the test, bolstered by NCLB. Teachers will be looking for ways to improve test scores, not to improve an undefined measurement of teaching, and we can't determine that by student test scores.
Oh, and let's not forget, we'll be stiffing innovation in the classrooms too. Merit-pay is based on results, just like NCLB, instead of education. Teacher's find interesting ways to do things on their own. We can't simply pay people based on how well their students test, it'd be ridiculous. We have to spur innovation and creative & critical thinking in the classroom. Merit-pay doesn't do any of that. It just creates competition between teachers for whomever can get the most money.
And I don't understand how someone can be against tenure in the educational realm. Teachers have to teach often unpopular ideas. If we were allowed to fire educators for teaching the ability to think "outside the box," we'd undoubtedly lose most of our teachers. Tenure is a necessary protection in academia that applies rarely to other places.
To claim you can't fire a "lazy teacher" is absurd. Not performing your duties is justifiable cause for being fired from any position. If my job is to sweep floors, and I'm not sweeping floors, the union won't support you.
Absolutely correct. Before merit pay, teachers shared materials and best teaching practices. Not any more, they know the teacher next door is competing with them for the few bonus dollars that exist in the system - they share nothing. Great way to improve student learning....
Nope, there are plenty of problems with the system. Unfortunately the unions will not allow the system to be changed. No choice, no merit pay, no changes to tenure, it goes on and on.The teacher want the status quo.
Have you been keeping up with DC school reform? Michele Rhee ring a bell? The "Queen" of school reform in DC? Rhee had complete control to fire who ever she wanted with no union interference.
What you failed to research are the states that already got rid of unions & do not have tenure. By the way, I haven't seen a teaching contract with "tenure". What they have is Due Process and some states are getting rid of due process now. Blaming unions is old and misguided, get something better.
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