Teacher Aaron Pribble wrote a critique of high-stakes testing for “Edutopia.”
He explains how high-stakes testing warps teaching and distorts the educational process.
When teachers get rewards and punishments tied to test scores it ruins education.
He has a simple idea: Raise the standard for entry into teaching. Then give teachers the freedom to teach. Treat them as the experts they are.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As long as teaching as a profession is underpaid (I’m taking across the board, not some goofy merit pay system), then raising the standards will only produce a teacher shortage that will need to be filled by “provisionary” entrance into the profession.
One cannot just “raise the standard for entry” without raising teacher pay.
If American doctors only peaked at five-digit salaries, you better believe American medicine would be eyebrow-raising for the increased risk of putting one’s well being in the hands of a doctor.
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Yes, if the country wants better teachers, it will have to pay higher salaries, improve working conditions and guarantee professional autonomy. The days of women without options offering to teach for modest pay and less prestige, are over.
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Diane, I’m glad you mentioned Edutopia. I’ve been browsing that site for a while, finding some good things there yet suspicious of something that’s come from a rich person’s foundation. It seems to be building a positive model of education without explicitly criticizing school reform. What is your impression? Do you know anything more about Edutopia? Who pays its bills? Thanks!
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I think Edutopia is funded by George Lucas, the film maker. I haven’t read everything they publish but sense that they are staying above the fray.
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“Staying above the fray” means being too chickened-assed to take a stand.
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Perhaps we have more fear than raising teaching standards, and that is lowering them through teacher preparatory academies which are not affiliated with a university: Growing Excellent Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals (GREAT) Act
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I still think ED Hirsch makes a good case that teachers’ individual control of curriculum works in systems like Switzerland where there is little student mobility. In America, where students often change schools, we should have a common curriculum. I totally agree with raising the standard for entry into teaching and would add to that the need for a second tier of teaching professionalism through National Board Certification.
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“In America, where students often change schools, we should have a common curriculum.” Sheer nonsense! Common = Standardized = Mediocre = Worthless
“the need for a second tier of teaching professionalism through National Board Certification.” Utter nonsense! Pay through the nose to become National Bored Certified-rrrriiiigggghhhhtttt.
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You don’t have to pay anything besides a small fee. Many states offer grants to teachers who apply for them. I am paying nothing and will get a stipend when I am finished. It should be better funded. I’d respond to what you said about common curriculum, but I am not seeing an argument there.
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