Teachers, and a Law That Distrusts Them [Or: NYT Ed Reporter Michael Winerip leaving NYT]

The NY Times ^ | July 12, 2006 | Michael Winerip

[summer]

THIS is my last education column after four years....

The columns about teachers generated the most mail...

As readers know, I’m not a fan of No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal law aimed at raising education quality. Instead of helping teachers, for me it’s a law created by politicians who distrust teachers. Because teachers’ judgment and standards are supposedly not reliable, the law substitutes a battery of state tests that are supposed to tell the real truth about children’s academic progress.

The question is: How successful can an education law be that makes teachers the enemy?

Even No Child’s strongest supporters acknowledge that one of the law’s most important provisions — to guarantee a highly qualified teacher in every classroom — has been the most poorly carried out to date....

A final concern with the federal law is that it is so driven by state testing that there’s too much time devoted to test prep, too much time spent drilling facts for survey courses, and not enough emphasis on finding something children will fall in love with for a lifetime — the Civil War, repairing engines, science research, playing the trumpet.

Fortunately, the remedy can be found ... [in] a quotation from William Butler Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”...

[summer]

Well, I don't know if Michael Winerip is leaving the NYT voluntarily, or got fired, or what. His column doesn't say anything about the why's of his departure, or his future plans.

I have a few thoughts on what he wrote, but I am not sure if I want to write everything I'm thinking. Maybe I'll just somehow compress and abbreviate my main points below...

[summer]

First of all, I personally find it incredible that in light of all the good Gov Jeb bush has done in education, Michael Winerip's last column finds the space to omit anything good BUT does find room to criticize him (for his concern over the high cost of the small classroom law that voters passed). Winerip should have noted that while this was indeed a Dem initiative, the voters did not trust the Dem candidate for governor to carry it out -- despite Gov Jeb Bush's opposition to it, the voters trusted Gov Bush to implement it.

[mvpel]

If teachers werre worthy of our trust, if they were not, with exceptions, the enemies of the education of our children as evidenced by the fact that vast swaths of said children are failing a 10^th-grade-level exit exam in the 12^th grade in California, then the No Child Left Behind Act would never have been proposed.

[summer]

Secondly, I wish Michael Winerip and other education reporters would take a much closer look at why it is so hard to implement the high quality teacher requirement of No Child Left Behind. Here are a few clues for those reporters who can't seem to figure it out, and I say this as a teacher who is in the know on this issue Big Time:

(1) There is no effort whatsoever by some school districts to hire highly qualified teachers, because these little fifedom kingdoms will hire their relatives and friends who are unqualified and uncertified over a highly qualified teacher anytime, so long as their relative or friend is the of the correct political persuasion and can show up most of the time in the classroom. Keep teachers a group of one belief system is of the utmost importance to some school districts racked by nepotism and their hiring practices are a total farce at best, and illegal and deliberately so at worst.

(2) Complicit with these school districts are university colleges of education which do absolutely nothing to infilitrate the unfair hiring practices of some school districts. New highly qualified teachers graduate and find they can not get jobs because they are competing against uncertified friends and relatives of district officials. This is absolutely true in some districts and may not be true at all in other districts.

(3) The state, especially here in Florida, is trying very hard to let school districts keep local control while providing more teachers to schools. Consequently, now, you can get a 5-year professional teaching certificate in FL without student teaching internships, without years of coursework, nothing like that is required anymore. Now they have "professional teacher preparation programs" that I think last all of one summer for people who already have a 4-year degree in anything. However, that doesn't mean the school districts mired in nepotism and corruption will change any. But, it will help the students in other school districts.

As for Michael Winerip, good luck to you. I can't tell if you got fired or not, or what your story is by what you wrote, but I did read your articles many times over the years. Maybe now is a good time for you to become a teacher, If you do, good luck with that.

[summer]

I think many teachers are good people and worthy of our trust, but some are not, just as in any field. And, NCLB is trying hard to raise the standards for all students, and all teachers should eagerly support it. You can be a creative teacher under NCLB. That is not prohibited. There is nothing wrong with measuring learning through standarized testing once a year. We did it when I grew up, and it was no big deal. It should not now be the big deal that critics make it to be.

[summer]

Re Education ping.

[SuziQ]

A final concern with the federal law is that it is so driven by state testing that there’s too much time devoted to test prep, too much time spent drilling facts for survey courses, and not enough emphasis on finding something children will fall in love with for a lifetime — the Civil War, repairing engines, science research, playing the trumpet.

I've heard a lot of complaints about 'teaching to the test'. But the majority of these State tests are just variations on basic skills, so those should be being taught anyway, so if the teachers are spending a lot of time on that, isn't that a good thing?

As far as the emphasis on finding something children will fall in love with, what's up with that? I graduated from high school 35 years ago, and even then I don't remember anyone stressing anything like that. At that time, as now, the kids who were planning to go to college took college prep courses, the kids who didn't plan to go to college took courses that prepared them for the work world, going to school in the morning, and to work just after lunchtime. They got a headstart on the rest of us as far as earning money went.

I would venture to guess that most people don't 'fall in love' with a particular subject until they are in college and have spent a whole semester in intense study of it. Then they can plan the rest of their time in college around that subject. Or if they didn't go to college, they developed a liking for something in particular and taught themselves about it.

If there are not quality teachers in classrooms, four years since NCLB took effect, that's not the Fed. Govt.'s fault. It's the local folks who are in charge of hiring and firing, and if their kids, overall, are not doing well in school, it IS likely a problem with their teachers. Someone is not teaching them, or is not catching problems with the kids that keep them from learning. Either way, it's a local situation, and SHOULD be remedied.

[MortMan]

...and not enough emphasis on finding something children will fall in love with for a lifetime ...

Elementary education and most of high school is not supposed to reveal what the child will "fall in love with". It is designed to arm the child with the basic knowledge and analytical skills on which to base the rest of their lifetime of learning.

If 8 year olds are tasked with deciding what they want to be for the rest of their lives, my guess is that they will choose to remain children.

[mvpel]

You can be a creative teacher under NCLB. That is not prohibited.

What is prohibited, however, is paying the creative teachers more than the boring, the tedious, the drunk, and the incompetent teachers.

[ardara]

Mr. Winerip misses the real villain in the NYC school picture.It is the UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS.I say this after spending over 30 years in the system.The most powerful UFT will do anything to stop alternatives such as vouchers.Inthe Bronx there is a Catholic high school,Cardinal Hayes with many non- catholic students. Hayes sends about 90% of its students to college.There are public high schools in the same area that only send 10-20% of their students to college.But the UFT,which CONTROLS education in the NYS legislature will do whatever is necessary to stop voucher money from going to students in schools like Hayes.

[SuziQ]

Consequently, now, you can get a 5-year professional teaching certificate in FL without student teaching internships, without years of coursework, nothing like that is required anymore. Now they have "professional teacher preparation programs" that I think last all of one summer for people who already have a 4-year degree in anything.

That's interesting. I wonder if anyone has checked on how those folks do compared to teachers who went through 'Education school'. I know that when my cousin became a teacher, most of her education classes were 'classroom management' type classes.

When we were in NJ, I looked into getting an Master's in Library Science. At that point, I had a BA, but had not taken any education classes, and the state required, for public schools and libraries, that the Librarian be a certified teacher. In order to do that in the State of NJ, I would have had to go back to undergraduate school for at least two years to get an Education degree, and would have had to take classes sufficient to get a major in one particular subject. At the time, my major was Latin American Studies, and I had lots of History, Geography, Economics, etc, and could have taught Social Studies, but the state said that wasn't sufficient. Ironically, my neighbor was a teacher and she taught 'Social Studies'. There were no 'History' or 'Geography' teachers in the Elementary or Middle grades, so that two years would have been superflous, especially for a librarian! At that point, we had two young children, and I didn't want to have to spend another four years in college, especially since the closest one that offered an MLS was over an hour away, so I dropped the idea.

I think it's good that someone who has a college degree can get a teaching certificate, without jumping through a lot of hoops. Give them some courses in grading, maybe some Child Psychology, and let them go. In most cases, I don't think they could do any worse than many teachers.

[mvpel]

I think many teachers are good people and worthy of our trust, but some are not, just as in any field. And, NCLB is trying hard to raise the standards for all students, and all teachers should eagerly support it.

The fact that many don't support it, or actively oppose it, should tell you something important about where their priorities lie.

[mcvey]

Education ping.

Let Republicanprofessor, JamesP81, eleni121 or McVey know if you wish to be placed on this ping list or taken off of it.

[mcvey]

Which leads to my second proposal. We need a No Family Left Behind Law. This would measure economic growth of families and punish politicians in charge of states with poor economic growth for minority families. FOR example, in Ohio, black families earn only 62 percent of white household income, one of the biggest disparities nationally. So every year, under No Family Left Behind, Ohio would be expected to close that income gap. If it failed to make adequate yearly progress for black families’ wealth, the governor and legislators would be judged failing, and after five years, could be removed from office. This way public schools wouldn’t be the only institutions singled out for failing poor children.

It is interesting to see that the writer does not believe in democracy, since he would send the jackboots marching into states to remove officials who do not live up to his views.

McVey

[mvpel]

Elementary education and most of high school is not supposed to reveal what the child will "fall in love with". It is designed to arm the child with the basic knowledge and analytical skills on which to base the rest of their lifetime of learning.

And if someone who has been reporting on education for as long as Winerip has doesn't grasp this essential, fundamental point, then what hope is there for government-run education?

[mcvey]

You can have all the airy dreams you want "to fall in love with," but unless you know something, you are really building castles in the air.

Until you actually work hard at a subject, you don't know what it takes.

The author has a gauzy romantic notion of what "falling in love" means.

McVey

[mcvey]

SuziQ:

I agree. Education is about bricks. If you have a lot of bricks, but no idea how to build a house, you have a lot of bricks.

If you have a lot of house plans and training in skills, but no bricks, you have a lot of plans and training.

To build a house you need all sides of the equation: bricks, plans and skills.

Or, if you will, to build an education you need content, structure and methodology.

McVey

[WesternPacific]

the kids who didn't plan to go to college took courses that prepared them for the work world, going to school in the morning, and to work just after lunchtime

As an educator, I see this as a main reason for our failed system today. When we decided every student will go to college and began demonizing academic tracking, the system of old disappeared.

[summer]

RE your post #7 -- If there are not quality teachers in classrooms, four years since NCLB took effect, that's not the Fed. Govt.'s fault. It's the local folks who are in charge of hiring and firing, and if their kids, overall, are not doing well in school, it IS likely a problem with their teachers. Someone is not teaching them, or is not catching problems with the kids that keep them from learning. Either way, it's a local situation, and SHOULD be remedied.

That's right, it should be remedied on the local level, but, like I said -- these local districts often act like little fifedom kingdoms. What I have seen happen most often on the local level is this: if there is a crisis of any kind in education, then, the superintendent asks for a raise at that moment. He does so to take action not to remedy the problem, but to publicly "prove" the school board and community maintains their trust in him. I have seen this happen several times in a number of different districts. First defense for the one in charge on the local level: Get an increase in salary (and head off any firing of the superintendent).

Too many people in high level positions on the local level are not held accountable by anyone -- except parents, when they yank their kids out of public schools. It would be helpful if local media were more of a watchdog than a lapdog, and I have seen local media struggle with this role, because they know that in criticizing the school district they risk bringing down property values. But, someone has to speak out.

[summer]

If 8 year olds are tasked with deciding what they want to be for the rest of their lives, my guess is that they will choose to remain children.

LOL.. some of them. But, some of them have other ideas, even at age 8. I think it was very smart of FL to try and convince more kids to stay in school and graduate by requiring a "major" of some sort now in high school. Most kids have likes and dislikes by that time. Even if they change their minds later.