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Negotiate student achievement goals into teachers’ contracts
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Collective bargaining lends itself to lots of different conversations, but it’s hard to talk about what matters most: how spending money will or won’t make education better. An illustration: Jacob Adams, a Claremont Graduate University colleague, has edited a new book, Smart Money, which shows that effective school districts spend their money differently than those with lower student achievement gains. In the book, and in an Education Week commentary, he argues for a “simple, powerful principle,” linking collective bargaining and other forms of resource allocation to student achievement. The smart-money approach is to adopt cycles of continuous improvement — goal setting, instruction, assessment and analysis — to tailor resource allocation to classroom needs. But where, in a school system filled with large and small interests, including … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teachers
What culprit-seeking ‘Superman’ lacks: complexity
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Teachers union members last week leafleted outside the Oakland movie house where I saw Davis Guggenheim’s film Waiting for Superman. And no doubt there’ve been countless protests elsewhere. The film, “and its unprecedented hype (and) … misleading or factually incorrect claims,” said the leaflets, “risk leading us dangerously astray from real solutions to real problems.” No surprise about that. The movie makes teachers unions the prime culprits standing in the way of decent schools for nice (mostly minority) kids and portrays charter schools as their greatest hope. But conservatives like New York Times columnist Ross Douthat who read between the lines of Guggenheim’s film can easily come to a more radical conclusion: The only real answer is vouchers. The movie’s strongest complaint – the problems caused by rigid seniority-and-tenure provisions … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Commentary, School Choice, Teachers
‘Waiting for Superman’ exposes grim reality that many children face
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) I recently attended a screening of Waiting for Superman, the new documentary about public education by Davis Guggenheim. This is a terribly important movie. Anyone with an interest in education reform should make arrangements to see it soon, bring friends, and pack tissues. Not everyone wants you to see this movie. If you can, I encourage you to watch it, as I did, with a mixed audience of parents, teachers, community members and union leaders. We sat together. We all watched the same screen – but based on the discussion afterward it seems that we each saw a very different movie. The film introduces five children who, on present course and speed, will soon attend an ordinary public school in their neighborhoods. None of these schools has a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Teachers
Bring in new faces and voices to Sacramento for real change
October 31st, 2010 | 1 Comment
By Arun Ramanathan / commentary ~ EdSource Extra
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Our electorate occasionally acts schizophrenic. Take the call for change. In the midst of one of our country’s longest running economic downturns, there’s a palpable anger against politicians and the political system. According to the rhetoric, they got us into this mess, and the answer is to boot them out. On Tuesday, this anger is likely to force a change of power in Congress – with Republicans taking over from the Democrats. Outside of California, the role of the Tea Party in this process has been the focus of massive attention from the press and the political system. Longtime elected officials in other states lost their jobs to challenges from political novices channeling the anger of their constituents. Yet, the “change” promoted by Tea Party and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary