Swordfish and Tuna: May 2011

     Thank you for remembering teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

     You are correct in that we did not enter teaching for the money, but in spite of it. Teachers do make a difference in the lives of children, again, unfortunately, in spite of the current system as often as because of it.
      If you are sincere in your belief that teaching is an honorable and important profession, please use the power of your position to begin a national conversation on teaching and learning and helping kids that does not begin with the “failure” of public education or discussions about “bad teachers.”
     We need spokespeople who will point out that more students are graduating high school than ever before in our nation’s history, that many of our students are succeeding at high levels, that there are high school graduates that are prepared for work or college, and that our fascination with standardized tests serves a political purpose and not an educational one.
     We need someone to answer the finger-pointers who blame teachers for societal issues or who believe that public education is failing because every student does not succeed. That’s not true and every politician knows it.
      We can do better, but we certainly deserve credit for what we have achieved so far.
      There is no “failure of public education.” There is a leadership crisis of monumental levels that has allowed public opinion and a standardized testing mentality to dominate the discussion about what teachers and schools really do.
      There are “bad” members of every profession, and every true profession, including teaching, has a method, a means and a clearly defined set of professional standards that can be, and often is, used to remove those who do not need to be in the classroom.
      The process is there; we simply need enough administrators with the courage and tenacity to use it as it is designed.
      Remember, however, that just as we can never eliminate every poor doctor or every unskilled police officer or every below-average air traffic controller or every ineffective politician, we can never hope to have every teacher in every school performing 100 percent to expectations.
      The problem is twofold: Whose expectations are we judging them by and what is the environment they are attempting to overcome? Teachers, after all, are people, and have the same issues, problems and failings of every other segment of society.
      At least 50 percent of the membership of every profession — teachers included — graduated in the bottom half of their class.
      To blame the relatively small percentage of teachers who perform below expectations in the classroom for the enormous number of issues we have in our profession that are a direct result of things beyond their control seems to me to be nothing more than an effort to find a scapegoat in an ill-concealed attempt to redirect focus and attention away from the failure of leadership and the lack of political will in educational matters on the state and national level.
      No Child Left Behind is a case in point. Developed intentionally without input from educational leaders, the sweeping federal education law is borderline educational malpractice and in its implementation morally indefensible.
       Its ill-concealed purpose is nothing more than the furtherance of the national voucher issue at the expense of public education.
      The sham of “adequate yearly progress” has degenerated to nothing more than teaching the test, not just in low-performing schools but in every school.
      The longer this evil illusion is allowed to stand and lead us all toward the nirvana of 100 percent of anything involving children, the more we will have to struggle later to overcome its ill effects. Fix it quickly, and include teachers in the conversation of reauthorization.
      Yes, teachers are willing to be responsible for outcomes. Before you begin that “value added” process that will shape evaluations and salary, show us the research that says this is sound, justifiable educational practice.
      Show us the studies that validate this approach. Talk about replications of studies that show this idea will pay an educational return on an enormous investment. While you’re at it, explain how teachers of exceptional children, band, art, physical education, chorus and career and technical classes are to be compensated for student progress.
      Then we can begin to discuss parent involvement and student motivation and how those are conveniently omitted from the “data driven” equation.
      Doctors, dentists, insurance companies, lawyers and every other profession you can name are allowed to take into account pre-existing conditions, prior records and personal history of their clients when computing recommendations, outcomes, professional services, treatments and payment.
      If you truly consider teaching a profession, can you offer them less? To attempt to hold teachers accountable for things they cannot control is simply indefensible. As you wrote, teaching is indeed a profession of “nation builders and social leaders dedicated to our highest ideals.”
      Please do not confuse teaching, as has happened so often in our recent past, with social engineering and societal reform.
      We cannot fix everybody, but we still try to help every child we can. Teachers deserve better than they are getting.
      You must be the leader out of the wilderness of blame and the wrong-headedness of equating progress with a standardized test score.
      Be a teacher. Lead.