http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9754202proud2BlibKansan (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-11-10 04:09 PM
Original message
Confronting the Myths About Tenure and Teachers' Unions
Saturday 11 December 2010
by: Ellen Dannin, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
Current American education policy is built on these assumptions: The quality of American education has plummeted because our schools are filled with teachers who can't teach. Teachers' unions and contracts tie the hands of school administrators. And teachers' unions protect bad teachers. Here are a few reasons why these conclusions are leading our educational system in a bad direction.
First, these policies ignore the effects of poverty on educational outcomes. Given the increasing number of children growing up in poverty, we ignore its effects at our peril.
I know something about poverty and its effects because I grew up in an impoverished, single-parent home and attended a low-quality school through eighth grade. Despite those beginnings, I graduated from one of the top US law schools and am now a law professor. If I could make it, then poverty must not matter, right?
But not all poverty is the same. My mother had a nursing degree and our home was filled with books. We lived in rural, small-town poverty near my farmer grandparents, who made certain we had good-quality food. Crime in our area was almost nonexistent. I am white, and my family has spoken standard English for generations. And there wasn't much of a gap between the poorest and the richest in that area.
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It is a myth that tenure means lifetime employment and makes it impossible to fire bad workers. What tenure does is require an employer to have cause to fire an employee. Union contracts require the use of a fair process to determine whether there is cause to fire an employee. In other words, schools can already fire teachers if they have good cause - so all getting rid of tenure would do is let schools fire teachers when they do not have good cause to fire them. It's hard to see how firing good teachers would improve our schools.
more . . . http://www.truth-out.org/confronting-myths-about-tenure...
In other words places that haven`t been turned into urban war zones of animals who have no idea who their father is thanks to the "war on poverty" money doesn`t really matter yet the left tells us that is the problem.
CTyankee (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-11-10 04:29 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. This is an attempt to break the unions, one by one. Pure and simple.
The right wingers who are crying crocodile tears about the poor children are determined to bring the union movement in this country to its knees...
Union first,teaching somewhere down the line.
proud2BlibKansan (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-11-10 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Yep. Sure is.
We've already lost most of the protections tenure provides. Mine used to mean I was only evaluated every couple years. But I've been evaluated 4 times in the past 3 years. And for those who think an evaluation is just a sit down with the boss to discuss your work, it's not. It's a very involved months long process that includes formal as well as informal observations of my teaching and multiple unscheduled classroom visitations where every detail in my room is scrutinized, from what I put up on my bulletin boards to how I have student work areas organized. Then a multi page document is filled out by both my administrator and myself. Last year's eval form was 20 pages. This year I hear it's down to 17.
This is obviously a completely unnecessary yearly process for experienced teachers. And a complete waste of time. The other gem is we have been told that if our school's most recent test scores are poor, then we won't receive good evaluations. Since I wasn't even on staff at my school when the most recent tests were administered, it doesn't seem fair to tell me I can't expect a good evaluation. But that's how it works.
So since we have already lost tenure privileges, this is definitely an attempt to break the unions. Glad you get it.
Here is a thought you vile piece of crap...maybe they evaluate you so often because you are the worst excuse for a teacher one can find.
Btw...why no mention of the violent student (s) that disrupt your class every year as you claimed out of nowhere a couple weeks ago?
One would think it would fit in perfect with your tale of woe here if they really existed.
RaleighNCDUer (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-11-10 04:55 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. OK, who is the better teacher? The teacher whose ethnically homogenous
class has zero failures and zero dropouts in a well-funded, parent supported suburban school? Or the teacher whose class had 3 dropouts and four failures, and several students who often didn't show up for class because they were afraid of having to walk through gang territory on their way to school - but whose last year's class had 8 dropouts and seven flat out failures out of 35 students?
Teaching is a challenge under the best of circumstances (teacher A) but is damn near impossible under other circumstances - I guarantee, Teacher A's class tested out much better than Teacher B's class did. It is the teacher's fault if his school is impoverished? Should the teacher whose class tests well, with no societal challenges, be paid better than the heavily challenged teacher who must work twice as hard to get half the result?
If you can come up with an answer, please let your local teacher's union know - they'd be VERY interested.
You can thank the destruction of the urban family and generational poverty and hopelessness on liberal dependency programs.
Pisces (1000+ posts) Sat Dec-11-10 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
12. There has also been a lot of blame placed on parents who don't participate in their childrens
education. This is not just about the teachers. I sure wish union advocates would at least open themselves up to the fact that some change must be made. There is a growing segment of the population that is becoming throw away kids. Not the rich kids, or middle class kids, but the poor ones. Schools where good teachers refuse to teach. I know teachers that will only work in certain areas and districts ( they fear for their lives and worry about the conditions and equipment at these poor schools) I don't blame them but guess who gets shuffled to these schools, the so-so or poor quality
teacher.
How about schools not be held to budgets set by crazy Republicans that keep cutting the education budget.
You brain dead idiot,the school you describe is found in places that Republicans have not governed since the 60s,you can lay the blame for that squalor at the feet of dem city machines.
Once more Ann proves what is wrong with our educational system,stupid leftist "teachers" that worry about unions and politics before ever thinking about how to educate.
