The Chicago teacher strike came and went, but it won't be the last time teachers, administrators, parents, students and politicians feel like they're being pitted against each other.
Teachers feel like they're being under attack! They are feeling the heat from their students, the parents, the administration, politicians and the general public.
But the general public is angry about the education results. Tons of money being spent, but the students aren't passing the standardized tests. The students are falling behind their peers in Asia and Europe. And the students in low-income communities are falling even further behind.
This is why there are much louder calls for accountability. There are proposals to evaluate teachers based partly on their student's test scores. After all, many workers in other occupations are evaluated and judged by their results.
This has got many teachers scared, especially those who work in low-income communities in which many students come from dysfunctional communities and even dysfunctional families. It is harder to get students up to standards if they're not from education savvy families.
However, this has brought the issue of "soft bigotry of low expectations". After all, don't we want students from the ghetto to graduate with the same level of academic knowledge as students from wealthy suburbs?
As you can see, this is an on-going debate that isn't going to be settled anytime soon.
------
However, certain things can be done.
No, we can't expect every student to be the next Einstein.
But we can and should reduce the number of students who leave the school system unprepared for the 21st century economy.
---
For one thing, teachers should be evaluated partly by their student's test results.
Yeah, I know, teachers don't have full control all the factors leading to test results.
But salespeople are judged by their sales goal, even though certain things that affect their sales score (ie. how many customers show up, etc) are out of a salesperson's control.
That's just life!
But I would NOT only just evaluate teachers on test scores. Other things, such as how a teacher interacts with students, classroom management, and other things will also be evaluated.
Teachers who are struggling which such things need mentoring. Those seen as hopeless even after mentoring shall be referred to a career counselor to help find the next chapter in life.
--------------------------
However, a MUCH BIGGER ISSUE that needs to be addressed is that the teachers and students need more help.
Expecting a teacher to control a classroom filled with 30+ rowdy students alone is unrealistic.
Expecting a teacher to effectively teach a large class filled with students of extremely varied academic levels alone is unrealistic.
That's NOT what happens in many of the private schools I subbed at!
But that is BUSINESS AS USUAL at many public schools I subbed at!
That needs to change!
In classrooms in which many students are disadvantaged, there needs to be more tutors/assistants/etc in the classroom. This helps with both behavior management AND with academic learning.
Also, the lead teacher need some hired help with paperwork and keep the class items organized. (This is NORMAL at some private schools but UNCOMMON at most public schools).
You can't expect a teacher to do everything expected all by oneself with facing some serious burnout! That's just not realistic!
Sure, having multiple staff members can be an issue if they don't get along. There will be some growing pains.
But if we expect our students to be able to effectively work in teams in their future workplace, then the students need to see a TEAM of staff members helping them INSIDE their classroom.
Will getting this done be easy?
Nothing is easy!
The money to pay for all that is hard to come by.
That should be the goal.
Our local government can stop their pie-in-the-sky rail plans. The governments in mainland cities can stop trying to bribe pro sports teams to come or stay. The feds could stay playing the global police!
But more importantly, the private sector can help too!
It could be from donations or even starting another private school to ease the burden on public schools.
Will my ideas solve everything?
No, but it solves some things, and that is what is needed.
