Some governors and legislatures look on Teach for America
as a way to save money, because most leave after two or three years
at the bottom of the salary structure and never collect a pension.
This teacher has a suggestion for them:
“Governors who feel 1 and 2 year turnover of Teach for America teachers is the way to
excellence should resign after 2 years to let someone else take over.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, and they should decline to take a pension or any other post-governorship benefits.
Diane you will appreciate this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/four-decades-of-failed-school-reform/2013/09/27/dc9f2f34-2561-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
Wow…..love the closing:
What works?
More than four decades of education reforms didn’t make me a better teacher and haven’t made T.C. Williams a better school. Rather, the quick fixes promulgated by headline-seeking politicians, school administrators and self-styled education gurus have in some cases done more harm than good.
I found that the most helpful professional-development experiences involved fellow English teachers sharing what worked in their classrooms — always with the caveat: “This works for me; it may not work for you.” Being with people who loved doing what I did and exchanging ideas without any professional jealously was always reinvigorating.
A passion for communicating one’s subject matter to the next generation isn’t among the 74 items on Alexandria’s Curriculum Implementation Walk-Through Data Collection list, which Sherman, who left Alexandria schools last month, used to evaluate faculty. But it’s what all great teachers have in abundance. And it’s what will keep them going when the next wave of reforms comes rolling through.
Gee, sounds like the Sarah Palin model of being governor. Resign halfway through your term.
Oh, SP is sooooo yesterday!! (said in my most valley girl voice).
Too bad the governor of Michigan doesn’t take this advice. He’s planning on running again.
I would suggest that all legislators follow this advice. And CEOs, too.
I would definitely add more to what these governors should do… they need DATA DATA DATA and to be ACCOUNTABLE ACCOUNTABLE ACCOUNTABLE. So there should be statistics on every angle of governing. Maybe Charlotte Danielson could have a new series and create an FFG .. Framework for Governing. Each year let the governor be ranked and rated for his every move. He/she will have to do CLO’s – at least two per year (citizens learning objectives) and must select a sub group within hisher population to target for the CLO’s and cannot create two CLO’s with the same subgroup. He/she must keep hard data on the subgroup. He might not have time to do much governing for all his citizens but at least he/she will have DATA! And that is just the beginning!
A wonderful idea, artseagal.
And what are some of the “domains” by which our elected officials could be evaluated?
Has the unemployment rate declined or increased?
Has income inequality declined or increased?
Have life expectancies (which, btw, are collapsing at rates never seen before for white working class women), infant and maternal mortality rates declined or increased?
Has the US made advances, relative to other nations, in social indices?
Are young people gaining access to higher education or training at affordable levels, without taking on unsustainable levels of debt?
Are families and individuals able to secure adequate housing without spending more than 30% (the traditional benchmark prior to the onset of the neoliberal regime of asset inflation) of their income on rent or mortgages?
Do people have access to health care, so they needn’t fear illness wiping them out financially?
Is the incarceration rate increasing or decreasing, and are there rehabilitation and job programs for those leaving prison?
And, last but far from least, does every child have access to a fully-funded neighborhood public school that provides them with a broad, rich curriculum, taught by well-trained teachers who are allowed to teach without interference from arrogant know-nothing’s pursuing a venal agenda?
Hmm, based on these criteria, it’s obvious that our political class must be rated Disgracefully Ineffective.
Given that, it’s time for the 99% to initiate a democratic Turnaround or Re-Organization of American society, before we’re all reduced to being post-industrial, heavily indentured serfs, scratching for subsistence in the Electronic Dark Ages.
Excellent comment!
artseagal, Michael Fiorillo, and Yvonne Siu-Runyan: the Data Driven Decision Making of the High Holy Church of Testolatry and its underpinnings—the Sacred EduMetrics of Assessment—is a double-edged sword.
If you go from their narrow use of imprecise, extremely limited measurements of very little and just extend it a bit to include other [IMHO, more important] metrics, by their own Most Ineffably Sacred and Infallible standards they are found wanting.
It is merely a slight of hand trick employed by beginning magicians: while they get you guessing where the little tiny EduMetric is [in their other hand? up their sleeve? down their pants? in their smelly socks?] you take your eyes and attention off the glaring Elephantine Metrics that fill the room.
Child poverty? Segregation? Class size? Teacher turnover? Income inequality? Unemployment? Underemployment? Hypercentralization of media and government? Just because they can be measured doesn’t mean they’re important—so saith the High Lords and Ladies of EduMetrics!
I will decisively hammer this point home with the words of “America’s Most Trusted Educator” [honest—go to his website; it’s right there in capital letters, and trust me, capital letters will never lead you astray], Dr. Steve Perry:
“Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.”
The only trick lies in picking the numbers you want, not the—er—other, wrong, ones. And using them in the approved, I mean, correct way.
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts – for support rather than for illumination.” [Andrew Lang]
🙂
Since so many states are now suffering from the crisis of maladroit governing, perhaps we should start Govern For America. In five weeks, you can be trained on how to manage a state full of unruly citizens for a two year hitch, as you pad your résumé for more meaningful work (like teaching). There is no time to waste!
Could I get all of my debts cancelled???
Let’s found Govern For America, no particular education is required, we’ve proven anyone can do it if they have the right attitude. We will have to have summer institutes to rid members of their honesty and integrity though, that may be a problem. We will also have to get rid of the voting process once we are in, the current regime is working on that problem.
Well said. When money supplants people in importance a society is in dire straights but the bottom line from our politicians now is money, not the basic needs of our citizens – including our children.
It worked for Sarah Palin.