Every time a local chamber of commerce or radio station wants to push the easy publicity, feel-good button, they mount an essay contest for local kids to describe, “Why I Love My Teacher.” Then there’s the Center for Union Facts in Washington, DC. They’re asking kids, parents and even other teachers to nominate “the worst unionized teacher in America.” Those teachers will then be offered $10,000 to quit.
If there were a $10,000 prize for understatement, it would be won by Rick Hess, of American Enterprise Institute, who has been critical of the difficulty in identifying ineffective teachers and removing them. He tells USA Today, “that kind of stunt is not what I have in mind when advocating a more informed and honest debate, or seeking to raise the level of debate.”
the difficulty in identifying ineffective teachers
Once at work it was layoff time; three out of seven of us had to go. My boss asked me who should get the ax, and I swore at him and said no way, that’s your job! And he said, well, let me put it another way: you can have three people on your team. Pick them. Needless to say, I meekly did. And “seniority” and “unions” had nothing to do with it, only talent.
Want to identify the best teachers? Give the customer the responsiblity (in this case, the parents). No effort required. Merely provide the data they need (the teacher’s year-by-year test scores versus his average student IQ, a webcam on each teacher, and an annual Q&A interview) and then most importantly…a choice. You will find ineffective teachers simply have no students. Overnight.
Can you imagine offering a reward for “worst employee” among different private companies? Heck, CEO’s would pay for the service. But the edusphere, where the teacher is more important than the customer, is offended. This is a classic example of hard America versus soft America, and education, driven by unions and political favors, falls firmly in the latter camp.
Comment by vital core — March 11, 2008 @ 11:38 am