The current conversation regarding the rather dismal state of our nation's public schools is focusing heavily on the role of ineffective or inadequately-trained teachers. I come from a family of teachers and, while I agree that the education and performance of teachers is one of many areas requiring study, investment and reform, I can't help but feel that educators are unfairly coming under fire in many cases.
While the push to root out and fire "under-performing" teachers is well-intended, I think it's somewhat misguided. Yes, there are more than a few bad teachers in our public schools and their unions have fallen prey to corruption, but the fact is that teachers nowadays face unprecedented challenges in trying to do their job.
We already know it's an historically undervalued profession (despite the ferocious harrangues by some on talk radio regarding "exorbitant" teacher salaries, etc.). Add to that ever-expanding class sizes; disruptive and disrespectful behavior by students down to the earliest grades; a system that has not coped well with integrating kids whose first language is not English; drastic budget cuts that force teachers to pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets; apathetic parents who do little to discipline their children at home or demand that they take their studies seriously; and, generally, a culture of functional illiteracy (that is to say, most people who can actually read nowadays choose not to) being instilled in children, to their great detriment, by their intellectually incurious parents who themselves can't be bothered to pick up a book or a newspaper from time to time.
Something has radically changed in our culture, and its not just an issue of state and national budget cuts or the distractions posed by technology. I think it has to do with the loss of parental discipline, the attitude that children shouldn't be made to learn certain things that supposedly stifle their creativity (i.e., diagramming a sentence -- a skill once considered paramount in mastering good grammar but which is today thought "too boring" for kids. Could it be that the abandonment of this type of traditional instruction is, in part, responsible for the fact that most college students write such poor quality papers as to be barely legible?)
I, too, believe that education reform is one of the critical issues of our time, but I'm alarmed by what strikes me as the unfair demonization of many a hard-working teacher.
I've included below an article (taken from a Wisconsin news site) on a recent event concerning a teacher who killed himself after his name was published by the L.A. Times in a list of "ineffective" teachers -- was he really to blame for poor test scores at his inner-city school, or was he up against an almost impossible situation?
The Associated Press is reporting that a Los Angeles teacher apparently jumped to his death from a bridge in a national forest, reportedly despondent over his "ineffective" rating as a teacher. The body of Rigoberto Ruelas Jr., 39, was found Sept. 26 at the foot of a bridge in a remote, forested area according to sheriff's investigators, the AP reported. Ruelas' rating of "ineffective" was published and posted online as part of a Los Angeles Times newspaper series on teacher quality in August.
The Los Angeles teachers' union is now asking the L.A. Times to remove the teacher rankings from its website.
According to the AP, Ruelas was a fifth grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School, a large, impoverished Los Angeles school in a neighborhood plagued by gangs.
Although few of his fellow teachers on the large staff at Miramonte were rated as "effective," colleagues reported that Ruelas was known for his willingness to take on tough kids as a mentor, and had a reputation as being an especially conscientious teacher. He was particularly hard hit by the public humiliation caused by the Times' article, colleagues said in the AP story.
Both nationally and across Wisconsin, there's been a lot written about the pressure students, teachers and administrators are under when it comes to judgments about school or teacher quality that rely primarily or exclusively on standardized tests to assess performance.
Unfortunately, an ability to help steer vulnerable kids away from gang life by offering a nurturing environment at school isn't something that's measured on a standardized test.
In a touching epitaph for Ruelas, the AP quoted one of his former students, now 20 years old: "He took the worse students and tried to change their lives," said Ismael Delgado. "I had friends who wanted to be gangsters, but he talked them out of it. He treated you like family."
While the push to root out and fire "under-performing" teachers is well-intended, I think it's somewhat misguided. Yes, there are more than a few bad teachers in our public schools and their unions have fallen prey to corruption, but the fact is that teachers nowadays face unprecedented challenges in trying to do their job.
We already know it's an historically undervalued profession (despite the ferocious harrangues by some on talk radio regarding "exorbitant" teacher salaries, etc.). Add to that ever-expanding class sizes; disruptive and disrespectful behavior by students down to the earliest grades; a system that has not coped well with integrating kids whose first language is not English; drastic budget cuts that force teachers to pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets; apathetic parents who do little to discipline their children at home or demand that they take their studies seriously; and, generally, a culture of functional illiteracy (that is to say, most people who can actually read nowadays choose not to) being instilled in children, to their great detriment, by their intellectually incurious parents who themselves can't be bothered to pick up a book or a newspaper from time to time.
Something has radically changed in our culture, and its not just an issue of state and national budget cuts or the distractions posed by technology. I think it has to do with the loss of parental discipline, the attitude that children shouldn't be made to learn certain things that supposedly stifle their creativity (i.e., diagramming a sentence -- a skill once considered paramount in mastering good grammar but which is today thought "too boring" for kids. Could it be that the abandonment of this type of traditional instruction is, in part, responsible for the fact that most college students write such poor quality papers as to be barely legible?)
I, too, believe that education reform is one of the critical issues of our time, but I'm alarmed by what strikes me as the unfair demonization of many a hard-working teacher.
I've included below an article (taken from a Wisconsin news site) on a recent event concerning a teacher who killed himself after his name was published by the L.A. Times in a list of "ineffective" teachers -- was he really to blame for poor test scores at his inner-city school, or was he up against an almost impossible situation?
The Associated Press is reporting that a Los Angeles teacher apparently jumped to his death from a bridge in a national forest, reportedly despondent over his "ineffective" rating as a teacher. The body of Rigoberto Ruelas Jr., 39, was found Sept. 26 at the foot of a bridge in a remote, forested area according to sheriff's investigators, the AP reported. Ruelas' rating of "ineffective" was published and posted online as part of a Los Angeles Times newspaper series on teacher quality in August.
The Los Angeles teachers' union is now asking the L.A. Times to remove the teacher rankings from its website.
According to the AP, Ruelas was a fifth grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School, a large, impoverished Los Angeles school in a neighborhood plagued by gangs.
Although few of his fellow teachers on the large staff at Miramonte were rated as "effective," colleagues reported that Ruelas was known for his willingness to take on tough kids as a mentor, and had a reputation as being an especially conscientious teacher. He was particularly hard hit by the public humiliation caused by the Times' article, colleagues said in the AP story.
Both nationally and across Wisconsin, there's been a lot written about the pressure students, teachers and administrators are under when it comes to judgments about school or teacher quality that rely primarily or exclusively on standardized tests to assess performance.
Unfortunately, an ability to help steer vulnerable kids away from gang life by offering a nurturing environment at school isn't something that's measured on a standardized test.
In a touching epitaph for Ruelas, the AP quoted one of his former students, now 20 years old: "He took the worse students and tried to change their lives," said Ismael Delgado. "I had friends who wanted to be gangsters, but he talked them out of it. He treated you like family."
