Dropout Nation

3 Comments

1. David B. Cohen says:

   May 16, 2010 at 5:14 pm

   At first, I thought I was going to disagree with most of this podcast. The title seems like yet another “blame the teachers” piece is coming along, and those do get a bit tiresome. Then, in the opening minutes, there were plenty of adjectives – bad, awful, terrible, horrific – but not much substance. But in the long run, there were enough qualifiers and specific suggestions to make it worth a listen and a response.

   If unions are such a big part of the problem, (and if you accept test scores as a measure of quality) why are most top-performing states those with unionized teachers, while the “right to work”/non-union states tend to perform worse? The answer is that unions are not the problem. They provide a convenient scapegoat because they can be easily cast as bad guys in stories about the worst teachers. The problems we face are much, much broader than that.

   I appreciate that you noted part of the problem is administrators who, for various reasons, are unable to do proper evaluation. Also keep in mind that collective bargaining agreements can only “protect bad teachers” when districts and school boards sign the contract that offers what you consider too much protection. Those practices can be changed if you change the contracts, but few districts are willing to offer what it would take in teacher support, professional development, or higher pay, in order to effect any compromise with their unions.

   Ultimately, I think your podcast recognizes the systemic problems that must be addressed – and in a way, the title does the podcast a disservice, because you have specific ideas about improving the whole structure (not that I agree with all of them – but they’re worth discussing). There is no huge cadre of great teachers out there waiting to enter teaching but unable to wrestle jobs away from those bad, tenured teachers. The systems we have now need to do more to help all teachers improve continually – a focus on work conditions and professional development would help everyone, and would make it so that fewer teachers need to be removed, and fewer decent teachers slide in the wrong direction. The focus on “bad” teachers is misdirected and counterproductive – but even if that were *the* problem, it could be mititgated by a focus that helps all teachers do a better job.

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