Really, blame the teachers and the teachers’ unions?

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People are realizing that the “reform movement” dedicated to improving America’s public schools usually begins on the right track, but often gets derailed as evidenced by student outputs. As a result of these outputs, teachers are often left shouldering the blame for underperforming students. Reformists should realize that teachers and teachers’ unions ought not be the sole target of those driving the “reform movement”.

In any given educational system, there exist areas that could use some improvement; however, it does not mean that the entire system is broken.  That said, there is no one solution to fix everything, which is why making correlations between the characteristics of a community, its residents, and performance of the schools is a viable step towards achieving real solutions. The teacher horror stories that evolve from isolated situations make for good sound bytes and headlines, and as reality TV has shown us, drama does sell and captures the public’s attention.  Unfortunately, blaming teachers has become much easier than addressing sociological and economic problems beyond the walls of the schoolyard.

From one Ward or Barrio to the next, the same curriculum standards are required to be taught just as the same standardized tests are administered.  The system lags in exposing students to appropriate grade level content at the appropriate time, and provides no real alternatives to address educating some of the neediest children.  There is a great propensity for students from disenfranchised communities, with low employment and high crime rates, showing up on the first day of school unprepared, and who have fallen behind academically, through no fault of the teachers or the teachers’ union. The inability of the teacher to get such students to perform at grade level, will result in them not passing the standardized test, and the school in turn ends up receiving a negative report card, and the teacher eventually bears the brunt of the blame.

The tendency to cast aspersions on teachers totally misses the mark. Looking at today’s 21st Century STEM curriculum, as compared to the questions asked on standardized tests; it is clear the academic system is missing the mark.  One observation is the standards set for underperforming schools are higher than people realize, and students are being challenged significantly more than when you and I were in grade school. In an era when our schools were regarded as competitive, great places of learning, teachers were afforded the opportunity of being the best they could be without cumbersome testing requirements or classes full of unprepared students from disconnected parents.

2 replies added

  1. Erika January 25, 2013 Reply

    I completely agree with this article. I currently work at a school in a low socioeconomic area and we are challenged with the same problems. I have discovered through a variety of community development research is that we have to consider a holistic approach. If we are unwilling to deal with the community, family and other components we will continue to go in circles.

    By the way, I was a student when you started teaching at Yates. I’ve followed you through the years and I am glad to see how successful you are and your passion towards education.

    • drreaganflowers February 23, 2013 Reply

      Hello Erika,

      Thanks for taking the time to comment and your kind regards.

      Reagan Flowers

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