Blog Post #14

Joel Klein was asked: If you could wave a wand and change one thing, what would it be?
Mr. Klein gave a list of things he would change, but if he had to choose one it would be "to professionalize teaching, making it like other well-respected professions, such as law and medicine". To make this change he pointed out a few flaws to the education system as well as some possible solutions.
1. Pick from the best
The problem he sees here is that students aspiring to become teachers are not being trained properly. The students who have been trained and recieved their degrees are being hired just because they have a degree, not necessarily because they are the most qulaified. Finally, the teachers who are working are not being rewarded properly.
The solution for him would be to give proper training to aspiring teachers, recruit from the top third of each graudating class, and to not base teacher distinctions on seniority but on performance.

I agree that their is a problem in the qualifications of teachers. I think that the best way to fix this problem is to start at the source. Every teacher learns how to teach in training obviously. So, if the training process was altered to a more appropriate standard then the teachers going into the workforce would be more qualified. If the students in training are more qualified with higher standards before graduation then there will be no need for weeding us out with recruiting from the top third.

I agree that teachers are not being rewarded properly. I think that seniority does mean something and needs to be recognized, but I also think that performance needs to be recognized as well. It is hard to say how to appropriately reward either side without having experienced it before, but I think that it is something that needs to be changed.

2. Seniority Distraction
The problems again begin with seniority and performance not being adequately addressed and professionalizing teaching. The solution for seniority would be removing incompetent teachers regardless of seniority. To create a proffesional learning place it would involve "Everything from education-school admissions, to course work, to
compensation and other employment rules, to self-policing would have to be realigned to this core principle".

I do not agree that seniority is a problem. Maybe this is because I have not been a teacher before, but the teachers that I have had who have "seniority" have always been some of my "better" teachers. I think any teacher that is lacking in performance should be addressed, but I just have not seen teachers with seniority having a problem in their performance. As far as teachers who have less experience, everyone has to start somewhere. Less experience may mean that the teacher is less effective, but it does not mean that this teacher will not become more effective with experience. Mr. Klein said: "high-quality, experienced teachers end up at schools in middle-class communities, while poor kids get lots of inexperienced teachers". I think that every student regardless of social class deserves to have the same opportunities. So, maybe this can go back to the training qualifications of students aspiring to being teachers being altered to meet higher standards.

3. Radical Change
The problem again is how to remove incompetent teachers. The solution was suggested by Albert Shanker and he suggested for teachers to have a board that will have standards and mechanisms for removing incompetent teachers, and to have opportunities for being promoted based off of specialty exams.

I agree again with Mr. Klein that there is a problem. If a teacher is incompetent and not doing their job adequately that the removal process needs to happen. I do not think that the removal process needs to be easy, and it needs to be a very thorough process but not an impossible one. I think having opportunities to be promoted by specialty exams is a very good idea. I think being promoted is always a good incentive and it will encourage teachers to work harder.

In conclusion I think that this article described some very important issues occuring in the education system that need to be addressed. However, in any profession there is always going to be flaws in the systems. The most important thing to me is making teaching a well respected proffesion. I think that teachers lay the foundations in life and it needs to be respected as an important career.