patrick.net

kentm says

Absent from basically ALL of the posts from the ‘conservative’ members on this list is the context provided by a comparison to what works in other places. But the realities of any situation, in this case the US education system, are not nearly as important to them as the opportunity to launch another of their endless factless attacks in support of whatever bug happens to be in their bonnet at the moment, always in the service of wanting to break down whatever public support system remains in the US in favor of some mythical ‘free market’ private for profit replacement. In this case its Clarence’s continuing creepy obsession with unions.

Lets just say we remove the bottom 6% from their positions and alleviate tenure for poor performers altogether.

In the end good teachers will not make up for bad parents. A good student will perform regardless of who you put in front of them to guide their journey because they will go home and commit to their homework assignments. A good student with the proper parenting will be actively engaged in the classroom and will aggressively study for their exams. You can put a good student in a so-called “bad” school and they will still perform well. It’s the parenting skills that actually need the most work as a good teacher cannot reverse the bad habits being taught at home and in the streets.

That being said, the Teachers Union would win 100% support if they stopped blindly supporting “lemon” teachers and started holding them accountable for their misbehavior in the classroom. The unions have created a win at all cost brotherhood/sisterhood that has actually worked in reverse to create an environment where it is easy to stigmatized teachers as holding the key to all single students future when in fact it is the parents that hold the key.

I think the reason we see so many students doing so well in elementary is that they have not developed opinions, attitudes and cultural preferences until middle school where they may choose to hang with other disengaged students at school. Often times, a student is not engaged in school as a result of a poor, disengaged parent that is either mentally ill, addicted to drugs or outright uninterested in their childs future. No political party will ever openly hold parents (they account for too much of the voting population) accountable for their actions so the teachers are next easiest target. If the teachers unions want to get that target off their back they will need to pull the plug on tenured teachers that have been proven to have poor performance (Sleeping, Reading Newspaper, etc.) alleviating the bottom 6% (worst performers). This gives the naysayers no room to speak negatively.

I am not sure we can judge a teacher on a student’s test scores as test scores are a direct link to student motivation and motivation is linked to the parents ability to steer their children in the right direction. If test scores were a factor then we would be forced to remove even good teachers in poorer neighborhoods of their jobs.

Ronnie Honduras says

marcus says
Another education expert has the easy answers. The idea that the whole thing is broken is insane.
People, please read this.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/09/27/100927taco_talk_lemann

I think it was a good article, however, we should still remove the bottom 6%.