Excellent commentary from an excellent Missouri teacher. Based on my work in the city of St. Louis, I know much work needs to be done, but we need to partner with and support teachers, not reduce their role in the educational environment. We have plenty of schools in Missouri that are doing a great job, appreciate their teachers input, and, yes, have a tenure system. But we also have too many schools that are struggling. From my experience, this struggle is a byproduct of poverty and lack of sufficient community support. St. Louis, Missouri, the United States--we have to stop implicating teachers as scapegoats in order to avoid our fundamental inequality and poverty problems. Not saying that some reforms arent needed, but you will only get great results from teachers by empowering them and treating them like the partners they should be. We should be discussing our options as partners at a shared table. This November ballot measure just blows up the table and continues to avoid the real problems our kids need us to address. John Joseph Ryans comment: Dont forget the November election, MO voters. A ballot measure largely financed by billionaire Rex Sinquefield would significantly interfere with local control of public schools. 1) Hiring, firing, and promotion would be tied to student test scores. That is not a bad idea in theory, but in practice it is very messy; for example, teachers who teach classes organized around low-achieving or at-risk students might be punished/fired for low performance. Additionally, the tests themselves are an issue. What test results would be used? To what extent would test results be mitigated by other, more qualitative factors that teachers bring to students lives? And what entity would dictate those tests, the local school board or the state? 2) Teacher tenure would effectively be abolished in Missouri. Teachers would work to contracts of no more than three years. Tenure is NOT a guarantee of a lifetime job--unless the evaluators are incompetent or cronies. It is a guarantee of DUE PROCESS. Abuses of this procedure in some localities could harm teachers statewide if this measure passes. 3) Teachers would not be able to help shape the evaluation system to which they would be beholden. If teaching is a profession, then professionals enjoy some degree of self-governance and self-regulation. I will grant that public-school teachers receive public funding and are therefore held to the public trust; they should not operate completely independent of public oversight. But to shut them out entirely is insulting and damaging to the profession. OK, then! If youre still here, thanks for reading. Im happy to keep a conversation going about this measure, teacher evaluation, unions, tenure, whatever else. Im open-minded about ed reform. But I cannot countenance bad proposals potentially used to amend our state constitution, esp. when they serve the interests of one wealthy individual.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 17:54:35 +0000
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