With the teacher-tenure bill in the House this week, I wanted to make some room for those readers who disagreed with my support for the legislation. Their arguments were thoughtful and full of insight. Did they change my mind? No. I still believe the bill, which would tie teacher performance to measurable student achievement, is necessary. It is an inevitability.
Still, we generally agreed the current evaluation system doesn’t work, that bureaucracies, be they school districts or teacher unions, seek to perpetuate themselves at the expense of logic and, at times, of the students they should be serving. Most agreed the process to fire teachers is so time-consuming and rife with politics, it is nearly useless. While some lay blame upon reluctant principals, others agreed that teachers themselves know the worst among them. Yet the common response is to close the door and call it the administration’s problem.
The bill also assumes principals are well-prepared to “lead their student/staff/community to higher levels of achievement,” writes Allen Feldman, early-childhood special-education teacher at Helen Hunt Elementary in Colorado Springs. “This is a task that only a few principals have the skill set to carry out.”
Feldman made another astute observation: Underlying this debate is a deeply rooted lack of trust between teachers and administration. At its worst, I’d add, it creeps up among colleagues, sabotaging teamwork, shifting the focus from classroom to staff room, from the needs of children to the drama of adults.
Assistant professor Edward Janak, in the Educational Studies Department of the University of Wyoming, argues teaching has been neither a vocation nor a profession because both have some control over form and content. But what teachers do and how they do it has always been at the whim of “state agencies and the tides of public opinion,” he says.
“I’ll be the first to admit the tenure system is flawed. But please keep in mind that teachers in American 21st century classrooms are puppets with many masters, and the elimination of tenure is one more way of beating the puppet rather than looking up at who’s controlling the strings.”
Top concerns raised were: the use of standardized tests as part of the measurement system; holding teachers accountable for tests in which students themselves are not accountable; and last, the factors outside a teacher’s control. In other words, parenting, poverty, parenting, inadequate funding, district mandates, parenting … did I say parenting?
If “measurable student achievement” simply meant “CSAP,” I’d have problems with the bill. It doesn’t. As to the rest, I’m sorry. That’s the job. It’s a damn hard job. Perhaps we should be talking about high school exit exams. We definitely need to be talking more about ending social promotion, about funding, both the amount available and the quality of its use.
The question is straightforward: You get what comes in the door; what are you going to do with it? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a supportive, collaborative teaching environment. You should.
But if the chaos outside your classroom has led you, in its insidious way, toward resignation, to settling for less so that you are reinforcing your students’ narrowed horizons, it’s time to ask for help or to leave.
Yes, this should be a collaboration. I leave you today with this powerful reminder from a presidential commission’s 1983 report on American education, “A Nation at Risk.”
“To Parents: You have the right to demand for your children the best our schools and colleges can provide. Your vigilance and your refusal to be satisfied with less than the best are the imperative first step. But your right to a proper education for your children carries a double responsibility. Your child’s ideas about education and its significance begin with you. You must be a living example of what you expect your children to honor and to emulate. You should encourage more diligent study and discourage satisfaction with mediocrity; monitor your child’s study; encourage good study habits; encourage your child to take more demanding courses; nurture your child’s curiosity, creativity, and confidence; and be an active participant in the work of the schools. Above all, exhibit a commitment to continued learning in your own life.
“To Students: You forfeit your chance for life at its fullest when you withhold your best effort in learning. When you give only the minimum to learning, you receive only the minimum in return. Even with your parents’ best example and your teachers’ best efforts, in the end it is your work that determines how much and how well you learn. When you work to your full capacity, you can hope to attain the knowledge and skills that will enable you to control your destiny. If you do not, you will have your future thrust upon you by others.”
Amen.
Tina Griego writes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach her at 303-954-2699 or tgriego@denverpost.com.
