I have read so many misguided and ignorant newspaper editorials about education in the past few decades (including some in our leading newspapers) that I am always surprised and delighted to read an editorial that shows a deep understanding of the challenges of teaching and learning.

 

I hereby put the editorial board of the Utica, New York, Observer-Dispatch on the blog’s honor roll for sanity and clear thinking.

 

In this editorial statement, the newspaper writes that the politicians, policymakers, and pundits should stop blaming principals and teachers for low test scores. If they want to pin blame on someone or something, the editorial says, blame the state.

 

It says:

 

One can’t help wonder whether the powers that be in the state Education Department and Legislature have a firm grasp on reality. Do the bureaucrats and politicians who write the education policies and approve the laws ever step inside a classroom? Do they ever visit the troubled schools they pass judgment on?

 
They most certainly should — and not just for a photo opportunity. They should spend some serious time in the classrooms of these struggling schools and shadow the principal and other school staffers for a few days to see what issues might be contributing to the “underachievment” other than nebulous scores on half-baked standardized tests.

 
They’ll most likely see that the school’s problems aren’t due to the principal, teachers or other educators involved in the process.

 
But, hey, somebody has to be blamed, right? It certainly couldn’t be the state’s fault, could it?

The latest scarlet letter has been scribbled on the blackboard at Utica’s Kernan Elementary School, which has been downgraded to “priority” status after dropping from “good standing” to “focus,” last year. Under state law, Kernan is now required to implement a Whole School Reform model, which can be implemented several ways (options mandated by the Legislature), ranging from replacing the principal and half the staff to converting it to a charter school or closing the school entirely and sending students to higher achieving schools.

 
Really? The people who hand down these silly mandates are the same ones who won’t allow struggling schools to apply for additional aid until they become “persistently struggling.” That’s like telling a struggling student they can’t get any help until they fail the course. And they’re the same ones who hold back Foundation Aid to schools — Utica is owed $47 million, but who’s counting? — that has resulted is barebones staffing and slashed programs year after year.

 
Unbelievable. Do these people really think that changing the school staff will turn things around at this inner city school in one of Utica’s poorest neighborhoods? Or do they just not get it?
How do you spell ‘poor’?

 
News flash: Utica is a poor district. That doesn’t mean we should ignore schools that struggle to provide our children a basic, sound education. What it means is that the powers that be — starting in ivory towers in Albany — need to stop using educators as scapegoats for a failing system.

 

Read on.

 

Really, how is it to declare that you can’t get any extra support until you fail? How dumb is it to think that the way to help a struggling school is to fire people?