Ironic Extremes: Lauding and Bashing Teachers

Valerie Strauss
"Ironic Extremes: Lauding and bashing teachers"Washington Post
March 17, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ironic_extremes_lauding_and_bashing_teachers/2011/03/17/ABlCnql_blog.html?wprss=rss_education
Topic: Teacher Motivation

More on the issue of judging and measuring what makes a quality teacher.

Key Points: This article does make a good point. As a pilot, I never had someone who was not a pilot, judge my performance. I never had someone who was not a pilot determine what my syllabus would be during flight training. Everyone is good at being a 20/20 hindsight armchair quarterback, but no one wants an armchair quarterback actually making the play calls. On the other hand, if your aircraft does not adhere to the flight plan or the football team consistently loses, well, don’t expect to be sticking with that career for too long.

I don’t mind being held to a set professional standard but, that standard must be set by someone who understands and has experience in the educational profession. And if the outsiders do not trust the professionals, well, then find someone you do…and then trust them.

I am still trying to understand the actual role and priorities of the teacher’s unions too. I hear loud and clear what they say but... I am posting this political satire video here to show some of the frustration that I have already witnessed from parents, teachers and tax payers. The video would be funny if it was not eerily similar to a conversation I overheard recently while eating lunch in an undisclosed teacher’s lounge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxc6kzH-uI
Relevance: This article highlights the challenge of this profession and I can see why some folks question sticking with it or even entering into it.

The Myth of Declining U.S. Schools

"The myth of declining U.S. schools: They've long been mediocre" by Jay Mathews

The Washington Post

Published online on February 11, 2011

Complete URL:  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/02/myth_of_declining_us_schools.html

Mr. Mathews' column is about a Brookings Institution study by scholar Tom Loveless that debunks the myth of U.S. schools being on the decline.  Mr. Loveless states the U.S. has never led or even been close to leading in international math and science tests - as far back as 1964.  Loveless' comments differ from those stated by Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education in the latest results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December, where Mr. Wise stated the U.S. scores had been declining for some time.  Mr. Loveless disagrees and states, "There was no sharp decline--in either the short or long run," he says. "The U.S. performance on PISA has been flat to slightly up since the test's inception, and it has improved on TIMSS [the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, another major series of tests] since 1995."  Mr. Loveless is also quoted as saying the stories of India, China and Finland having better school systems than the U.S. are a myth also and that Finland's students were actually doing better on international tests before standardized tests were instituted in their country.

Mr. Mathews then states every country has its problems with their schools and the U.S. is no exception.  We need to stop degrading our nation's schools when for the most part they have been doing a great job.  He finds it extremely ironic that the U.S. has become the most powerful country, politically, economically and militarily even though we have been among the lowest scoring countries in international tests for the last 47 years.

As new teachers, this article and the studies it quotes assists us in going into our new positions with a realistic outlook that our nation's schools are not horrible and we need not be on the defensive regarding our job or the system that employs us.  Are there problems?  Sure there are (standardized testing maybe one of them), but as we discussed in our Educational Psych Class this past Wednesday, it always seems as if we as a culture are like someone looking back at life and saying, "Wasn't life so much better then than it is now?".