Obama’s No-Brainer on Education

Jonathan: Why are we discussing such mundane things as education when there are more important religious issues to address. So stop it! There are those who feel Sen. Obama even believes the earth is older than 6500 years. And here you are writing about education. Your priorities are obscenely out of line. And don't you dare call me cynical.

I post commentary on two blogs, and have further dissected this column on the San Francisco Education Examiner:

www.examiner.com/x-356-SF-Education-Examiner

Alter,
Your worst work in a long time.
If you believe teachers unions are the predominant obstacle to quality public education, you need to get out more. When was the last time you set foot in a public school?
If you think charter schools are an answer, you are hopeflessly out of touch.
If you promote accountability for teachers (which I would, if there were an effective and unbiased metric), I hope you would do the same for accountability for 'journalists', whose role as 'educators' far eclipses that of public school teachers. Will you stand up and call out your fellow reporters?

Alter,
Your worst work in a long time.
If you believe teachers unions are the predominant obstacle to quality public education, you need to get out more. When was the last time you set foot in a public school?
If you think charter schools are an answer, you are hopeflessly out of touch.
If you promote accountability for teachers (which I would, if there were an effective and unbiased metric), I hope you would do the same for accountability for 'journalists', whose role as 'educators' far eclipses that of public school teachers. Will you stand up and call out your fellow reporters?

I am a teacher, age 62, who was educated in the schools of the 1950's and 60's. I taught in the state of WA for 12 years, and I agree totally with you assessment of the unions. However, I now teach in North Carolina, and have no union - thank goodness!

I disagree with one point though. You cannot hold teachers accountable unless the curriculum is good. At my school in NC we have what I would call "wacko" math curricula and "whole language" reading programs, all of which have been p;roven not to work. Let's go back to the curriculum I had in the 50's where English was taught, drill and practice were part of the curriculum, and geography was taught instead of social studies. Until that happens, you can't hold teachers accountable.

Go to India and find out how they teach math. I bet it's not with all the games and group work that we use in "Everyday Math," the chosen curriculum of my school!

Mr Alter, show us that "performance based pay" can be divorced from NCLB-type standardized testing. We have seen across the country, time and time again, standardized test score going up *because the teachers are now teaching to the test*. Is that what we want? Students that are good test takers? That will get us ahead in the world? (Answer: Nope.)

As Alter would say, it is "fashionable" to decry the "tyranny" of teachers' unions. Alter assumes that tests are a good way to discern the good teachers from the bad ones- and as evidence that this is true, cites the opposition of educators! Folks are so invested with the idea that teachers are divorced from reality that they supported NCLB for the same reason- the teachers didn't like it , so it must be good. Sad. Standards-based assessment is an abysmal failure- not an "unfashionable" development. A union guy rephrasing an absurd argument makes it no more credible.

The real problem in public education is that administrators won't do their jobs and evaluate teachers in the proper manner. Too many of them just pass the teacher's along until they receive tenure and then have to "prove ineptness" while giving them good evaluations. It comes down to "just cause" in the teacher contract. I've seen too many "bad" teachers get good evaluations because they were "buddies" of the administration or were not evaluated properly. Same with merit pay. The administrators decide who gets merit pay based on which teachers they favor, not on their ability to teach. If subjectivity can be removed then merit pay may work but not when principals reward their "buddies." There are too many variables in each classroom to base teacher pay on student performance.

Alter gets the number of KIPP graduates who have gone on to college juuust a bit off. He gives the number as 12,800 (80% of 16,000). But KIPP itself gives the actual number as 447 (that's four hundred forty-seven). My blog post on that and Alter's other misconceptions about KIPP is at www.sfschools.org

Unions have outlived their usefulness. They were only necessary in the early days of mass production companies with large workforces. Today , unions are ineffective and corrupt. They can't represent the worker the way they should for the simple fact union reps are inept and incompetent. Unions main goal these days is to collect dues to sustain their establishment for their little cliques so they can enjoy perks like conventions in 5 star resorts , golf tournaments and also to pad their union rep pensions along with their company pension they belong to. These unions are like bloodsuckers. I

Jonathan Alter repeats the well-worn right wing mantra of "ironclad job security" for teachers as if such a thing ever existed. Teacher "tenure" is simply due process. It means you can't fire a teacher once she achieves tenure without proof. In Illinois, a teacher does not achieve tenure for four years. That means she can receive excellent evaluations based on her teaching for four years and yet still be fired for any reason or no reason at all. Why would Alter be opposed to teachers or any employee having due process in their employment. That's why workers need unions. As to what Andy Stern says, who cares. Real unions pay attention to the voice of their members, not their new-found corporate patrons.

Jon Alter needs to get his fat ass out of the talk show circuit and into a high school classroom. And Jon try researching your subject beyond putting your ears next to the radio when Rush Limbaugh is broadcasting. If you denote some anger you're not mistaken. I teach high school and battle the forces tearing down the hope of children every day in a broken down ,poverty riddled community. The guns, drugs, and violence that accompany single parent homes in the hood are part of my job. The stupidity of an uninformed lazy ass journalist is not. You think there aren't great teachers that teach their hearts every day only to be met with the
futility of low test scores in those schools you so knowingly write about? Well there are. And they do it with little or no support.
Imagine the brass balls you must have as a journalist after kissing up to an administration that's ruined the country for eight years taking your incompetence out on teachers. By the way what is an example of the criteria for classroom effectiveness that you refer to. Name one! Now go into a classroom and see if a teacher isn't doing that. Then look at the test scores. Exactly how do you assess a teacher? And don't say test scores because that doesn't address the question.
By the way is truth supposed to be a requisite writing skill? Because if it is then let it be noted that a union is not a retrograde liberal interest group, ***! You may recall how working people no longer make a decent wage and health care is a thing of the past because of the deterioration of unions. And the stranglehold you write about doesn't exist. That makes you a liar!
And one more thing. How come people who can afford to send their children to private schools where class size is invariably small are the first ones to cite bogus, bullshit research claiming class size is irrelevant?

It is hard to "fix" education because it involves what people value most - their money and their children. Most parents give a pretty good rating to their local school. In spite of that kids in poor areas with broken families usually have more problems in school. Some teachers do a better job than others with these students. Some schools are better places to learn. We need those teachers and schools available to those who need them most.

I'm a high school math teacher in a racially mixed blue collar community. At least half of my students are poor and the other half are lower middle class. Test scores for incoming students are among the lowest in the nation. Teachers unions are not the problem. Focusing on this will waste more time and money. I employ teaching methods that are the same as those used in public schools with high test scores with quite different results. The union I belong to has been powerless for years. School management has been able to impose whatever directive its wanted to with little or no effective resistance. As they have ,I'm sure, in
most other school districts. Little has changed in student test scores. This frustration inevitably manifests itself in cries for breaking the hold of the teachers unions. As if that would solve anything. Its painful to see Newsweek succumbing to union scapegoating. Its all part of the intellectual bankruptcy rampant in education, symbolized by NCLB. Ironically the only concept as yet to be tried by almost any school district in the nation is the actual implementation of any and all suggestions put forth by teachers. Its the one thing thats never been tried: listening to the teachers.