Everyone who knows him thinks highly of him. When the rest of the teachers in the department need help, they turn to him. The school is struggling to achieve the state’s testing standards, and much hope rides on this guy.
So, yesterday in the staff meeting, when he complained the news media were aiming specifically at him, the generally noisy teachers fell suddenly silent.
Studies may be generally accurate, but they are, by nature and design, generalizations. Across Texas yesterday, good teachers in struggling schools took a hit they don’t deserve.
I’m sure that’s not what the authors intended.
See this story in the Dallas Morning News. Check it out in the Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Look at the report, from the Education Trust, here.
So far, I can’t tell if the study said anything about improving conditions for teachers to encourage the good ones to stay in the profession and take the tougher assignments. Conservatives will see this as a call to fire more teachers, I’m sure. Reaction will start any moment now.
Tip of the scrub brush to Aunt Betsy.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Maybe, maybe, but Kate’s experience and observations ring true. There may be districts that plan and organize for the needs of the students… but somehow in my 11 years of teaching and talking to other teachers, I haven’t heard about a whole lot of them.
Jonathan
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Moreover, how do you quantify “effective” teachers? That’s the biggest problem.
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@ Kate: There’s enough blame to go around. Blaming just the districts paints them as a robber baron with a handlebar mustache, determined to crush the spirit of their teachers and test scores of their students, all so they can swoop in and save the day.
Districts have arcane hiring policies, at times. Not quite that arcane.
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The study doesn’t speak about EFFECTIVE teachers… it speaks about EXPERIENCED teachers, and that’s not at all the same thing. One reason that there are so many new teachers is the turnover rate at the schools. Teachers with tenure tend to avoid the very classrooms (and students) spoken of in this article. New teachers get the toughest classrooms, and often very little support from the administration, who can turn around and say “look, this teacher isn’t a ‘good’ teacher, because these students haven’t made the benchmakrs” Never mind that the kids have NEVER made the benchmarks, or that they’ve improved.
One of the problems I’ve found in working in a number of states is the number of teachers coming in through alternative programs, buisness to teaching programs… learn as you go programs… despite there being qualified candidates. In some of the districts, I’ve noticed that friends and family of district employees with no background in education tend to get picks over new, degreed teachers coming in from other states or cities.
Rather than complain about teacher shortages, the blame needs to be laid at the door of districts and their hiring policies.
When I was a first year teacher, one veteran teacher confided in me that the wrong way of finding a job is looking at the students and their needs, the school performance, and the pay and benefits. The right way was to find out whether or not the administration was supportive and had an attitude that fosters learning.
I’ve seen excellent teachers behind the counter at Rite Aid and driving busses because they can’t find jobs, despite their excellent records as student teachers and high performance in college themselves.
I’ll tell you, if I weren’t too sick to work, I’d still take a second look at teaching. I generally asked for the tougher classrooms, but got zero from administration… I was assigned classes with large numbers of kids with history of disruptive behavior, which I could handle, but it was even tougher teaching in room approved by the fire marshall for 28 students… when I had 42. Having desks (and space to move around them) and materials would be a good thing (I was, in my first year, given three new classes with no budget, no books, and no matierials of any kind). I don’t suspect I’m the only teacher who has come up against conditions like that.
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