As the son of a teacher I have always been acutely aware of the strong emotions and often harsh debate that surround any discussion of education reform. Whether someone is trying to push a new method of teaching or a new standardized test, there are always those who are vehemently for and those who are just as vehemently against.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the current push for teacher accountability. On the one hand, we have parents and politicians pushing to make it easier to remove bad teachers from our school systems and reward good ones to improve the educational standards of our children.
On the other hand we have the teachers, who stand firmly against tying their own salaries and their continued employment to the academic performance of their students. Their reason, primarily, is that they feel they cannot-and should not-be held responsible for things which they have no control over: The readiness of their students to learn.
This is, of course, an oversimplification, and a rather large one at that. However, it serves to sum up the main thrust of the debate rather nicely. And while I can certainly understand the desire to improve our educational system, punishing teachers who cannot get their students to do well is not the answer. You cannot get blood from a stone. What follows is my analysis of an argument as to why this is so from one of the teachers I respected the most when I was in school, who has since (most unfortunately for my hometown's students, I feel) retired.
I graduated from the Gilbert School in Winsted, CT. My senior year I took an advanced level English class taught by one Mr. Thomas Cangelosi. Since I gratuated Mr. Cange has retired, though he still writes the occasional opinion piece for the Hartford Courant, a Connecticut newspaper. I found an article in today's paper written by him that I think shows the main flaws in the current administration's plans to reform the country's educational system. The title of the piece is, "Don't Blame Teachers for Family Failings." It opens as follows:
The latest flavor of the month in educational reform ties teacher evaluations to student performance on annual standardized tests. This, like most of the educational reforms over the past three decades, is just another political red herring distracting us from a more fundamental and more effective reform we'd rather ignore: family reform.
This is the primary issue that I and most teachers have with the initiative to tie teachers' pay and employment to student test results and academic performance. As any teacher will tell you, it doesn't matter how much special attention you give a child, nor how much effort you put into giving them remedial instruction. If the child wants to learn and is willing to work, they will do better. If not, then they won't, and there isn't all that much you can do about it:
Now, some are advocating using business model incentives in the schools; namely, holding teachers accountable for student performance. Just as business managers are held accountable for employee productivity, teachers will be responsible for student learning. If the manager/teacher fails to produce measurable results, he can be demoted, reprogrammed or terminated.
But this neat analogy fails to mention that managers can fire unproductive employees. Students, on the other hand, cannot be fired. Further, although employees understand the huge stake they have in their performance; students know their scores on most standardized tests affects neither their grade nor their promotion.
Finally, while the business model aims to maximize productivity and motivate adult employees who have freely chosen a career, public schools mandate that relatively immature children and adolescents learn material in which they may or may not have an interest. Holding teachers accountable for student performance not only misplaces responsibility but won't significantly improve student learning. Teachers may lead students to educational waters, but they cannot make them drink.
Teachers are not managers. The children in their classes are in no danger of being fired or reprimanded in any serious ways if they do not adequately perform. They may be held back in school a year (rare) or more (even more rare) in extreme cases, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Mr. Cangelosi goes on to argue that the decline in student performance has been going on despite improvements in our nation's teachers:
Perhaps one benefit of school reforms is that more stringent requirements, preparation, monitoring and mentoring have made today's teachers better prepared to teach than any time in history. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the children teachers face in the classroom. Although the overwhelming majority of teachers already deliver sound lessons to their students, far too many students are unready or unwilling to learn.
It is not that our teachers are worse today, quite the opposite. But there has been a continual decline in the last few decades of the quality of students coming in to the schools in this country. Even over the last ten years, I have heard my mother-a fourth grade teacher-opine each year that the number of children who come in without knowing what their own responsibilities are as students is slowly increasing. Lack of motivation, of desire to learn, and of a sense of responsibility is becoming a major epidemic among America's students. Without these three key things, students cannot learn:
...teachers universally agree that students who do their assignments learn. Students with a strong work ethic learn. Motivated students learn. The decline in education may say more about the character of our children than the quality of our teachers.
Mr. Cangelosi goes on to argue that changes in the structure of American families over the last thirty years, as well as changes in attitudes towards raising children, have been somewhat responsible for these losses.
Whether or not a child likes his teacher has become more important to some parents than the responsibilities and self-discipline of the child. All too often, self-esteem trumps real character.
It is most unfortunate that those in power do not seem to have noticed that our teachers are already doing almost everything in their power to help our children to learn. They work long hours writing lesson plans, developing projects for their students to do, and setting up alternative assignments for students who might not necessarily be up to par with the rest of the students but who have been kept in the mainstream education system at the request of their parents who don't want the stigma of special education or special needs attached to their child, or
were unwilling to allow their child to be retained.
We need more parents in this country to take a step back and look at what is really the best thing for their children. Without support from parents at home, the best efforts of teachers will go to nothing.
Educational reform may have improved teachers over the decades, but if we want significant improvement in student performance, parents need to show the necessary resolve for instilling in their children the work ethic, responsibility and motivation essential to a lifetime of learning. Real educational reform starts in the home.
Family reform is not something that can be legislated into being. It requires a coordinated effort across the nation by many groups: teachers, parents, students, community leaders, and many others. Legislation can help, creating programs which will encourage the necessary action, but it cannot be mandated. Parents cannot be forced to give their children quiet time to get homework done, nor can they be required to provide support to teachers, despite the fact that they should do both. Until and unless the lack of caring on the part of too many parents can be changed, we stand little chance of improving the performance of our educational system. It's a harsh truth, but something we need to accept if we are to get anywhere with education reform.