This reader says, look around you.
I believe great teachers know their subject matter, know pedagogy, know child development, know classroom management techniques, know motivational strategies, are passionate about what they do, and are willing to try new things. Most of the teachers I have met and worked with in my 16 years of teaching have these qualities. Why is it so hard to believe that most of our teachers are great dedicated talented professionals? Don’t tell me that the key difference in student achievement between Hartford, Connecticut and Greenwich, Connecticut is that Greenwich has all the “great teachers.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just came from a conference in Memphis. Blown away by their principals. And teachers depth of understanding. Beaten down by their eval system.
I’m a great teacher. I’m waiting for the opportunity, at the ripe old age of 49, to switch careers. My heart is broken. I am deluged with PLC’s, SLO’s, dog and pony lesson plans that go nowhere, and impossible observations that require me to make my students lie through their teeth. I’m tired of the “idiocracy” that states things like “the SAT is an achievement test” and that “all children can learn” without providing qualifiers and quantifiers. I am waiting for the hammer to fall when I get caught not teaching the new Common Core Curriculum because I’m ignoring it and teaching to the curriculum I created that works VERY well. If I have to learn one new acronym I’m going to eat a bullet. Rhode Island is being run into the ground by a Broad Academy robot. Teachers in my district are running scared, the administrators are capos, the union has been neutered, and the school board couldn’t find it’s hiney with a flashlight. All of this “educational reform” is just making us chase our tails; it’s not letting us teach.
I’m a great teacher too. I also teach what works well for my students. I feel my job is to make them confident and perceptive readers and writers — and also to help them “fall in love” with at least one book, author, or topic. My heart is also broken. I am over 60 and close to retirement, but I see many young and middle-aged teachers so discouraged by the unjust public shaming they must endure, the immoral efforts to privatize education, and the abuse (yes, that’s what it is) that their students must endure. Who would choose teaching as a career in the current environment?
Lots of luck finding another career with a lousy economy and age discrimination.
This blog post is recycled from Sep 25, where there are some key observations:
“Maybe the whole system is corrupted, broken and irrelevant.”
” W.E. Deming used to tell a story about management using the exhortation to ‘work harder.’ Working harder is like the accelerator pedal on your car. One presses down and the car goes from 30 mph to 40 mph. Most people apply this learning and assume that working harder will produce excellent results without a change of inputs. Deming used to ask if one could win the Indianapolis 500 with their car.”
States have constitutions with ed clauses. Constitutional debates elaborate the intent of those clauses. State courts mandate that governors and legislators ensure monitoring so the intent of public education is fulfilled. The future of public education requires its governance structures function. The system must be fixed.
Anyone have alternatives to ALEC? “Fewer billionaires” is a bit broad and ambiguous. “Fix poverty first,” won’t happen without improved civics education.
As usual, Eric, you have left me scratching my head in bewilderment as to what your point is and why it is relevant to this blog post.
I provided the original context for the comment that is now the substance of this blog post. Is the system broken or not? If we have great teachers in a system that functions that works, all must be well.
“Fewer billionaires” and “fix poverty first” refer to Dr. Ravitch’s policy preferences. (Not to neglect improving teacher preparation and school curriculum.) I would hope that everyone would agree on addressing failed governance in public education (as well as teacher prep and curriculum). The National Council of State Legislatures gave some lip service to fixing governance in the late 90s, but no model legislation.
I’ve commented that ALEC seems to have a keen grasp on high school civics; Dr. Ravitch responded that ALEC is very well funded. Does the lack of union-friendly model legislation to address governance failures in public education really result from underfunded lobbying? Or from unwillingness to address the system?
According to reformers, the great teachers are located in high income schools and the ineffective ones are in the trenches at title schools. Let’s switch these teachers into the others’ workplace to prove that their philosophy on test scores are totally inaccurate.