Since I frequently criticize Newsweek?s Jonathan Alter in this forum, I feel compelled to highlight the latest instance in which he succeeds (again) in identifying a key problem with American education.
Alter?s latest column includes this passage about President Obama and his education secretary:
They understand that the key to fixing education is better teaching, and the key to better teaching is figuring out who can teach and who can’t.
Just as Obama has leverage over the auto industry to impose tough fuel-economy standards, he now has at least some leverage over the education industry to impose teacher-effectiveness standards. The question is whether he will be able to use it, or will he get swallowed by what’s known as the Blob, the collection of educrats and politicians who claim to support reform but remain fiercely committed to the status quo.
Teacher effectiveness ? say it three times. Last week a group called the New Teacher Project released a report titled “The Widget Effect” that argues that teachers are viewed as indistinguishable widgets?states and districts are “indifferent to variations in teacher performance”?and notes that more than 99 percent of teachers are rated satisfactory. The whole country is like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon, except all the teachers are above average, too.
Why? The short answer is teachers’ unions.
If an effective teacher is especially important, then it would seem to make sense to devote education dollars to classroom teachers rather than nonclassroom school personnel, a point Terry Stoops makes below.
