Educational Reform

I have a job interview tomorrow. I know that it is one of those courtesy interviews and I really don’t think I’ll get the job even though I have been invited to interview for it. In education, hiring decisions are frequently made before the interview but hiring rules require that jobs be posted and that there are a certain number of candidates interviewed. The business of education is more about who you know rather than what you know. It is very political.

In the last few years I have seen signs that this is changing. To create serious reform administrators need to understand instruction and how learning takes place.

Most teachers work hard and they get little respect from administrators, parents or students. They don’t go to work thinking to themselves “well I think I’ll do a crappy job today.” They are caring and compassionate people who love kids, work to make a difference and go the extra mile. They use part of their pay check every month to buy classroom supplies, give students lunch money, buy performance rewards for their students etc.

Teachers are required to teach all students so that they reach the same level of achievement regardless of student ability level, regardless of whether students come to school or come to class if they come to school. This isn't always possible. Imagine being in a top chef competition and having to make a perfect meal missing half the ingredients while another chef has all of the correct ingredients. A teacher is evaluated based on whether his/her students reached grade level performance, yet the teacher cannot choose the students in his/her classroom.

What happens if one teacher gets all of the gifted students and another gets all of the students who are reading on a 5th grade level when they enter the 9th grade. The teachers are not evaluated based on making progress with students, only on whether the students can work at 9th grade level at the end of the 9th grade. On paper, the gifted teacher looks like she/he is a better teacher. This isn’t always so. Because of this merit pay based on students reaching absolute levels means that the principal’s pet will always have the best students, and ultimately will have the best test scores and with merit pay, they will recieve higher pay.

Schools are always being reformed but reform will fail as long as the people in charge of the “reform” don't understand the issues in the schoolhouse. Imagine if public school teachers made the rules for teaching law or medicine. It would be royally messed up. Truthfully, the people doing the work need to be making the rules. We are the only profession that is not allowed to regulate itself because of politics. Just because a politician went to school does not make him an educational expert any more than going to a doctor makes me a medical expert.