Education at the crossroads
Careers in public education aren’t for wimps. Teachers have to try to teach armies of little citizens how to read, write, speak, do math, bake cakes, operate computers, make fiddle-back stools and cope with the painful process of growing up. Adminstrators have to try to keep sometimes obstreperous parents happy, willful faculty instructing and the buses running on time. Oh, and prepare annual budgets and deal with every manner of bureacratic nonsense that eminates out of Albany.
With all that, educating youngsters is still the primary function of our schools. And a lot of people aren’t all that sure the system is still doing that. The federal Race to the Top initiative, for example, is attempting to impose new standards on students by imposing new, stricter standards on teachers. One of the program’s assumptions is that rewarding teachers whose students excel — and thereby identifying teachers whose students don’t — will improve education.
I’m guessing you’re not going to be shocked if I tell you that teachers don’t much like this idea. Tying such things as pay and job security to the performance of the, um, little cherubs they teach is not what they signed up for. Carmine Inserra Jr., president of the Indian River Central School’s teachers’ union, told the Times his colleagues are concerned. “If a teacher would be getting extra pay based on how their students do, wouldn’t there be more of an incentive to put pressure on guidance for one student or not for another? ... If a teacher has a dynamite lesson, are they still going to share it with a colleague now?”
The question for Mr. Inserra’s staff apparently leans toward the economic incentive rather than the successful student incentive — aren’t teachers there to give their students the highest and best education they can achieve? In fact, wouldn’t lifting all boats by doing such things as sharing great lessons have sufficiently rewarding results that it would be an ingrained routine for teachers? At least Mr. Inserra didn’t bring up the specter of teachers holding annual student drafts that would be run much like those in professional sports — teachers who performed poorly last year would have first crack at this year’s crop of talented learners.
The public at large, and parents in particular, want effective school systems. Teachers are not going to get a sympathetic ear if they obstruct tying teaching results to pay and job security. Many, many people think the education system is bankrupt — poor student performance is rife despite ever spiraling costs of schools. It’s fairly obvious that throwing more money at the problem, despite its rich American heritage, is not making anything any better.
Education is at a crossroads. But it is an intersection fraught with peril, especially for teachers. They can obstruct and obfuscate and rail at the idea of changes, at the expense of the students. And if they do this, they’re going to get run over by a bus. Or they can put their considerable expertise and intellect into making changes work even better than anticipated, and earn a comfortable seat on the bus. It’s up to them. Based on early returns, they appear more likely to be in an ambulance than a victory parade.
