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Teachers to Obama: We’re Ready to Work with You |
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Last week, President Obama unveiled a $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” fund to help states finance improvements in public education. The final rules for the program won’t be released until late August, and that’s when the AFT will be able to fully judge the initiative, says AFT President Randi Weingarten.
We are going to use our own four criteria when reviewing the department’s plan. They are: Does it help kids? Is it fair and helpful to educators? Is it transparent? And does it require shared responsibility? If the answer is “yes” for each, then we have a real chance of improving the quality of teaching and learning and raising student achievement.
The Race to the Top fund will provide grants to encourage and reward states for plans in four core educational reform areas aimed at improving teacher and principal quality, academic standards, data collection and turning around low-performing schools. The money is part of the nearly $100 billion set aside for education in the economic recovery package passed earlier this year.
Weingarten, several local and state AFT leaders and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel and other NEA leaders attended the Department of Education ceremony Friday when Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke of their shared commitment to improving public education.
Weingarten and Van Roekel say that when the final rules are issued, there may be some disagreement on the details, but thet pledged to work together to improve student and teacher achievement. Says Van Roekel:
While we may not agree on every tactic or proposal the department puts forward, our commitment to the end result could not be clearer. We want a great public school for every student in this country, and we know that it will take serious measures to achieve this goal.
Jean Clements, president of the Hillsborough (Fla.) Classroom Teachers Association, a joint affiliate of the AFT and the NEA, told the gathering:
There is no “one thing” that will improve teacher quality or student achievement. So much is said about teacher quality and the need to improve it—and, clearly, there is room for improvement. But in all of this discussion, I don’t want any of us to forget the women and men—the public school teachers—who do an outstanding job of educating our children every day. Listen to them and work with them. We’re ready to work with you.
Weingarten said she was encouraged that Obama realizes the important role teachers unions will play in achieving student and teacher improvements.
President Obama emphasized the importance of working with teachers and their unions to implement successful education reform, saying that “collective bargaining can be a catalyst—not an impediment—to reform.” He recognizes that this work must be done with teachers, not to teachers….
Teachers are essential to education reform, and their voices need to be heard as we launch this major offensive to improve public education.
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if merit pay is going to be based upon student test scores, then what about schools that serve a high level of special education or ELL students? What about schools that teach in impoverished neighborhoods? What about schools with a low level of parental involvement? Many students from poorer neighborhoods have parents who must work two jobs to make ends meet or come from single parent households where the single parent is working a a low wage job. Some students come from families where one parent may be in prison or have a substance abuse problem. All of these factors play a role in student achievement. There is only so much a teacher can do. I would look more at growth than test scores. Not all students learn at the same rate and to base teacher effectiveness upon test scores is a very short-sighted way of rewarding teachers. I have seen teachers who refuse to alter their curriculum or teaching style to accommodate special needs students. This practice is illegal. but seldom enforced. I think that teachers who accept special needs and ELL students into their classroom and have success rates with these students AND have taken district sponsored (and paid for) classes in teaching methods for said populations, should receive merit pay. With inclusion becoming more and more the norm, teachers are required to do so much more than they were even 20 years ago. Yet teacher wages have stagnated. The so-called stimulus money should be used to improve teacher pay, hire support staff to help struggling students, and to decrease class size. It should also be used to buy materials such as computers and software and books, among other things so that teachers don’t have to pay for classroom materials out of their own pocket (I’ve seen this done time and time again).