Reply #57: ... [View All]

[YvonneCa]

"I believe we need to work hard to rid the educational system of teachers and administrators who do more harm than good."

We should, but that problem is overstated. The educational system has bigger problems than that...and we'll fail if we don't focus on the right things. Remember how GWB took his focus off Afghanistan and took us to Iraq? Same thing.

"We are having a flood of threads on DU that seem to advocate teacher tenure, seniority and salary trump everything else."

True...hear teachers, not unions.

"I think President Obama and Arne Duncan are engaged in an honest faith effort to improve American education for our kids."

So do I...and I want him to be the President that gets it right. He's not hearing from enough stakeholders.

"Some teachers may have to lose their jobs to achieve that."

ONLY the bad ones. We need the ones who are dedicated...many of whom work in low-performing schools.

"Evaluating teachers is hard, but evaluating many occupations is hard."

True. No one is making the case to not evaluate teachers. Just do it right, with GOOD data as a very small part of a teacher's worth.

"I happen to believe that students and parents have some valuable insights into whether a teacher is effective."
They do. So do teachers. And teachers also have VALUABLE INSIGHTS into what is wrong in schools.We spend a lot of time there. ;)

"What do we do with the bad principals and teachers?"

Counsel them out...but use fair evaluations to do so. That is NOT what is happening now. If it was, I'd still be teaching.