It is always a pleasure to hear other people say something you agree with (and already talked about), which is the case with this article on school reform.
My previous argument revolved around tenure for K-12 and the inability of principals to actually manage a school because they are not allowed to hire or fire. I dont care if it is lead by a Democrat or a Republican but I hope someone will lead real, not rhetorical, change in our ailing school system. Our kids need science and math, not prayer, if we ever hope to compete economically.
It's the Teachers, Stupid
April 6, 2006
Now a band of Democratic-leaning thinkers wants to reclaim the issue. Their proposal, unveiled yesterday, is simple: Get rid of bad teachers and reward good ones.
Simple, in this case, is significant on two counts. First, the proposal publicly confronts teachers' unions, an influential Democratic Party constituency, with the fact that bad teachers are part of the problem.
And, second, the proposal is the first from a well-funded new venture, organized by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and other like-minded wealthy folks, to bridge the gap between academics with sound, practical ideas to peddle and politicians (mainly Democrats, but moderate Republicans welcomed) desperately seeking same.
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The teacher proposal rests on several arguments: that the current practice of demanding certification based on teacher-training courses has outlived its usefulness, that routinely granting teachers lifetime tenure after two or three years is stupid, and that student test scores and other systemic ways to evaluate teachers are now good enough to act on.
The case is laid out in a 34-page white paper by economists Thomas Kane of Harvard and Douglas Staiger of Dartmouth, joined by Robert Gordon, who was chief domestic policy wonk for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. It cites research done in Los Angeles public schools that suggests that there is a huge difference in performance between students with the best teachers and those with the worst and that it's possible within two or three years to discern if a teacher has what it takes.
