It’s perhaps the best opinion and summary I’ve seen so far on the situation, and the first one I’ve seen by a website other than this one that looks at the long-term causes so closely.
They took the chains off the schools and put them on the individual teachers.
They took the battery of high stakes standardized tests they use for math and ELA and are adding social studies, science, foreign language, art, music and physical education to the mix.
Here in NY State, we will give both state and local “assessments” in every grade in every subject at least twice a year not for diagnostic purposes but simply to to evaluate teachers, rank them on a bell curve and fire the “ineffective” ones.
Doesn’t seem very “freeing” to me.
How come you and I can see this pretty obvious fact, NYC, but the ed journalists can’t?
Larry Littlefield
The Economist likes charter schools. Because younger generations are screwed.
“In rich countries, this generation of adults is not doing well by its children. They will have to pay off huge public-sector debts. They will be expected to foot colossal bills for their parents’ pension and health costs. They will compete for jobs with people from emerging countries, many of whom have better education systems despite their lower incomes. The least this generation can do for its children is to try its best to improve its state schools.”
They forgot to add shifts in family structure, what older generations received and provided at home, to the list of differences. I don’t think charter schools can make up for all that.
Of course younger generations of teachers are likely to be screwed, too. I can’t wait for Bloomberg/the UFT to follow up 25/55 followed by Tier VI with a 40% pay cut for new hires (as for police and fire) to pay for higher salaries (and thus pensions) for those cashing in and moving out. “Everybody wins.” Which, of course, is part of the appeal of charter schools, at least until they get captured and end up exempted from accountability and acting the same way.
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator
In fairness, Gotham is quoting the Times, whose education columnists and reporters seem to change faster than the socks of the average person. You’re right, though, that they’re placing more of the burden on individual teachers. While we’re talking in fairness, you really do need to blame someone if you choose to neglect the root causes of the problem, and teachers are a handy scapegoat nowadays. I mean, racism is not as popular as it once was, and gay-bashing is way down in popularity, so I ask you this–if Obama and Duncan don’t blame teachers for their failure to improve education, who on earth can they blame?
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