From President Obama's State of the Union address:
While all states did not apply for or win RTTT grants, many are applying for waivers from the penalties that will be imposed for failing to meet NCLB requirements. Those waivers carry with them many mandates that are the same as those imposed by RTTT.
The President cited a study that has been making the rounds that says a good teacher can add $250,000 to the lifetime earnings of a student. But as has been pointed out by economist Bruce Baker:
“Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.”Why does the President ask that people stop teaching to the test when his policies continue this mandate? In his signature Race to the Top program, states are required to create tests to measure student achievement and it is expected that those test scores will be used to evaluate educators whether they teach a tested subject or not.
While all states did not apply for or win RTTT grants, many are applying for waivers from the penalties that will be imposed for failing to meet NCLB requirements. Those waivers carry with them many mandates that are the same as those imposed by RTTT.
The President cited a study that has been making the rounds that says a good teacher can add $250,000 to the lifetime earnings of a student. But as has been pointed out by economist Bruce Baker:
“One of the big quotes in The New York Times article is: ‘Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000, the economists estimate.’ This comes straight from the research paper. BUT ... let’s break that down. It’s a whole classroom of kids. Let’s say ... for rounding purposes, 26.6 kids if this is a large urban district like NYC. Let’s say we’re talking about earning careers from age 25 to 65 or about 40 years. So, $266,000/26.6 = $10,000 lifetime additional earnings per individual. Hmmm ... no longer catchy headline stuff. Now, per year? $10,000/40 = $250. Yep, about $250 per year.”What continues to be ignored is that while teachers have a great impact inside of the school, what goes on outside of school has a larger influence. If we don't address the issues of poverty and the impact that it has on students coming in, we will see students who continue to struggle and the corporate "reformers" will continue to blame teachers and the unions.
No comments:
Post a Comment