The Chicago Trib's Recipe for School Reform: "You're Fired."
The drumbeat of teacher bashing continues. Once again, the failure of the Bush reforms is being covered up, and teachers are once again targeted as the problem.
Now it is the Chicago Tribune. Of course, in the case of the Trib, hatred for teacher unions and contempt for the professionalism of teachers is a recurring editorial theme.
We haven’t fired enough teachers says the Trib in their editorial, “Protecting mediocre teachers.”
Most serious observers of the education crisis will tell you that NOT having enough teachers is the problem. They would tell you that the inability to provide fair compensation and an atmosphere of professional respect and autonomy has created a crisis in teacher retention. But not the Chicago Tribune.
Several years ago the Illinois legislature, responding to the teacher scapegoating by those like the editorial board of the Trib, increased probation from two to four years. That means that in every school district in the state, administrators can release teachers without cause at any point during the first four years of their employment.
Most research on the subjects suggests that teachers reach a solid level of instructional skill by the fifth year of teaching. Do the math. Any administrator can fire any teacher without even giving a reason for the first four years. If the administrator hasn’t gotten rid of poor teachers by then, what’s with that?
Recall also the problem of teacher retention. Of 100 people who enter a teacher ed program in a college or university, six are in the classroom five years into their teaching career.
Apparently that is not a low enough figure for the folks at the Tribune.
Read the entire editorial.
Now it is the Chicago Tribune. Of course, in the case of the Trib, hatred for teacher unions and contempt for the professionalism of teachers is a recurring editorial theme.
We haven’t fired enough teachers says the Trib in their editorial, “Protecting mediocre teachers.”
Most serious observers of the education crisis will tell you that NOT having enough teachers is the problem. They would tell you that the inability to provide fair compensation and an atmosphere of professional respect and autonomy has created a crisis in teacher retention. But not the Chicago Tribune.
Several years ago the Illinois legislature, responding to the teacher scapegoating by those like the editorial board of the Trib, increased probation from two to four years. That means that in every school district in the state, administrators can release teachers without cause at any point during the first four years of their employment.
Most research on the subjects suggests that teachers reach a solid level of instructional skill by the fifth year of teaching. Do the math. Any administrator can fire any teacher without even giving a reason for the first four years. If the administrator hasn’t gotten rid of poor teachers by then, what’s with that?
Recall also the problem of teacher retention. Of 100 people who enter a teacher ed program in a college or university, six are in the classroom five years into their teaching career.
Apparently that is not a low enough figure for the folks at the Tribune.
Read the entire editorial.
posted by Fred Klonsky at 12/09/2005
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