Common Core dollars spent to
retain teachers – states still can’t identify failing teachers
Freedom Outpost – Karen Schroeder
– 1/8/2014
The significance of
subjecting teachers to failed teacher-training programs is lost on those who
influence education. Billions of dollars from the federal Common Core Standards,
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other sources will be spent to prepare
quality teachers; but those programs will use recommendations from the same
educational theorists who created those “failing” teachers in the first place.
It is time to stop spending good money on failed policies. Let’s face some
truths.
Research and logic indicate
that great teachers know their subject well and can simplify complex
concepts so children can understand. To achieve this level of skill, each
teacher must master the subject he / she will teach and be prepared to employ
whichever teaching method would be most appropriate and effective for a given
situation. Teachers fail when the educational system neglects to provide that
teacher with the basic knowledge needed to become an expert in a subject.
Basic math formulas simplify
math; they help explain the relationships between patterns, and they create a
universal language. Too many America
children and teachers have been robbed of this basic understanding of math.
Teachers are being labeled as failures when it is their K-12 and college
training programs that have failed them.
Teachers are beginning to revolt against being held accountable for failed policies.
They have been made invisible, and their involvement has not been sought while
policies are being created that will impact their success and that of their
students.
Every teaching method available
to teachers today was available at the time of Plato
and Socrates.
There are no new teaching methods. Some technologies have made the implementation
of those methods more effective, and current teacher-training programs do a
relatively good job of preparing teachers to implement teaching methods. The
problem occurs when federally aligned curricula requires teachers to use
teaching methods which are not appropriate for a specific group of students or
for a specific concept that is being taught.
Teachers who object to
federal interventions that limit their ability to help students succeed are
often threatened with suspension for insubordination.
Teachers need the right to
choose the teaching method most appropriate for any given class and for any
specific concept. A teacher who chooses a teaching method that fails students
is responsible for that failure. When teachers are forced to use methods that
are not best for their students, holding the teacher accountable is not fair.
That concept belongs in every new teacher- preparation program!
If teachers were required to
know their subject, lack of knowledge could be easily identified. If teachers
were required to convey that knowledge effectively to students, a five-point
quiz could determine a teacher’s effectiveness. Yet, state leaders are
complaining that after spending billions on teacher training, they can’t
identify ineffective teachers.
Perhaps the teacher is not
the problem. Teacher-preparation programs convince teachers to implement
federal programs that are morally or intellectually offensive to them.
Citizens, when your state
labels teachers as failures and wants more of your dollars to fund the same old
teacher-training programs, refuse to fund any program that fails to improve the
teacher’s knowledge of the subject(s) he teaches. Remind your state legislators
that Georgia recently spent more than $1 Billion annually on
teacher-improvement efforts with “little evidence of success.” The reason given
was that the state “hasn’t figured out a way to identify and remove ineffective
teachers.” Citizens must stop this misuse of funds. We must withhold support
for failed federal policies and insist that educational experts be responsible
for the failures they have created.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment