California Educator

OCTOBER 2010

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The blame game repeated on a blackboard that said: “We must fire bad teachers.” Next to that in big yellow text were the words “The Key to Saving American Education.” Recently the Los Angeles Times published sto- “Waiting for Super- man” ultimately fails as a discussion about the public school system because it spends hardly any time looking at tradi- tional public schools. ries about teachers deemed “ineffective” based solely on their students’ test scores, accompanied by an online data base with the names of thou- sands of teachers and their ratings based on those test scores. It was public humiliation so cruel that it reminded me of medieval times when people were put in stocks for villagers to gawk at. Now U.S. Education Secretary Arne Dun- can is calling for all states and school districts to make teachers accountable and reveal to the public whether teachers are raising students’ test scores — even though the “value-added” analysis of evaluating teachers based on test scores is flawed. (Editor’s note: A new Econom- ic Policy Institute report by leading testing ex- perts concludes that value-added methods are still inaccurate, so test scores should not domi- nate the information used by school officials in making high-stakes decisions about the evaluation, discipline and compensation of teachers.) The real question is this: Why is there so much teacher bashing? And why is it happening on so many levels and more intensely than ever before? Why aren’t teachers being given the support they need instead of being attacked? And why are we not focusing on what makes good teachers, instead of blaming everything on a few bad ones? These are complicated questions, but ultimately, I think, it boils down to this: Attacking teachers is a way of attacking unions. And once unions are de- stroyed, private enterprise can take over public educa- tion, running schools like a for-profit business. Those on the attack make it sound as if all of our schools are filled with incompetent teachers who would not have their jobs without union protec- tion. Most of the CTA members I visit in their classrooms are competent, hardworking and doing their very best. The fact is, every profession has some bad apples. There are bad journalists, accountants and doctors. But from my perspective, schools are not overrun with bad teachers who would be fired without union protection. As I see it, bad teachers are the exception and not the rule. And systems are in place to fire in- effective teachers. We are told that unions make it impossible to 26 California Educator | OCTOBER 2010 SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE fire bad teachers, but that’s simply not true. In fact, for the first two years of employment, teachers can be fired without any reason at all. Unions provide due process — the right to a hearing before being fired (see sidebar on page 29) — which keeps both sides honest and relies on facts, not accusations. Without unions, teachers could be fired for their politics, for their religion, or for being outspoken or gay. In the past, teachers were fired for such things as getting married or becoming pregnant; they were not paid a livable wage. Administrators are the key to determining good teachers and bad teachers in California’s current evaluation system. Evaluations take time, paperwork and meetings, but are essential to improving teaching and identi- fying those that are struggling. The current method of teacher evaluation admittedly needs improve- ment, and CTA has started a new workgroup on teacher evaluation to look at ways of improving the process. So why is it that teachers are being bashed on the one hand and seen as rescuers on the other? The trend of teacher bashing also seems to coincide with A closer look at Super Myth #1: Teachers unions are “bad” but teachers are “good.” While acknowledging the many issues facing public education in a sometimes animated and entertaining manner, Waiting for Superman concludes that teachers unions and teacher contracts are destroying the schools. Teachers unions are portrayed as “bad” and teachers as “good.” (Guggenheim fails to understand that the teachers are the union. They are the members. They elect the union leaders. They approve the negotiated contract.) Although the movie tries to divide teachers from the teachers union by portraying teachers unions as the root of all evil in public education, Guggenheim is, in essence, placing the blame on teachers. Those interviewed in the film are uniformly anti-union — mostly “reformers” who believe teachers unions are the main obstacle to great public schools. Guggenheim does not interview a single superintendent or politician who has a collaborative relationship with the union where real transformation has taken place (as in Chattanooga,

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