[Editor’s note: Peter Goodman blogs at Ed in the Apple, where this post originally appeared.]
You can’t go home, again
~ Thomas Wolfe
With outposts in New York, Washington DC and Baltimore and the Education Equality Project Joel Klein is poised to move his brand across the nation.
Based upon the writings of Sir Michael Barber and Bill Ouchi he rejects the traditional view of school improvement. He sees schools of education, curricula, the range of math and reading programs as distractions.
His is a market-based approach.
- The principal is the key player and should be invested with as much power and authority as possible – with clearly enunciated carrots and sticks, and a vigorous recruitment/training program to plug in new principals as others are discarded.
- Recruit the best and the brightest teaching candidates, Teacher for America, Teaching Fellows, etc., and accept a rapid turnover rate.
- School success/failure measured by test scores, the heart and core of a school, with both teachers and principals futures at stake. Salary and further employment solely based on student achievement measured by test scores, not seniority or longevity.
- A firm stick: teachers who do not succeed, in the opinion of the principal, or, in any way challenge the authority of the principals can be removed and dismissed. The function of tenure is to defend incompetence and insubordination, and impedes the effectiveness of the principal.
- Weighted Student Funding, Pay for Student Performance, rigorous evaluation of teacher, principal and school performance are all the bedrock of the project.
- The traditional District Office bureaucracy is generally useless and must be as small as possible, the use of technology can replace bureaucrats.
Washington DC is in the midst of contract negotiations with the teacher union. Michelle Rhee, the superintendent and Klein accolyte, according to the Washington Post, is offering a dual system: large raises for teachers who chose to forgo tenure, and, smaller for those who chose not to opt in.
Watch the Merrow Report: features interviews with Rhee and Washington Teacher Union president George Parker, as both sides warily joust.
In an op-ed piece Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut supports the Rhee/Klein agenda.
Many New York City teachers see the Klein brand fading as mayoral control sunsets. Unfortunately they delude themselves.
In Congressional testimony last week Bloomberg couldn’t resist.
In his testimony before a U.S. Congressional committee on Education and Labor on July 17, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised UFT President Randi Weingarten for working with his administration to negotiate school-wide bonuses and other financial incentives for educators. However, he criticized “inflexible union work rules” as obstacles that keep the school system from getting rid of “ineffective teachers.”
In Los Angeles the worst high school in the city, Locke High School, opted by a vote of the staff, to become a charter school under the direction of Green Dot.
We are tip toeing into an uncertain future … we are not returning to the past …
Memories can be illusory: the size of the “fish,” the “comfort” with the centralized school system of Koch and Guiliani grows.
Unless teachers and their union seize the agenda of reform/change, the Kleins and Bloombergs and Rhees will mold the future.
3 Comments:
1 Phyllis C. Murray
· Jul 28, 2008 at 11:24 am
Re. “Recruit the best and the brightest teaching candidates, Teacher for America, Teaching Fellows, etc., and accept a rapid turnover rate From: “Klein Inc., Spreading the Brand Across the Nation “Filed under: Education by Peter Goodman @ 8:03 am “Edwize re. Bloomberg & Klein
The rapid turnover of temporary teachers, like the opening and closing of schools, is disruptive and has a
very negative impact on the students who need stability in their lives. Certainly, stability is one thing that many of today’s students do not find in the New York City public schools (or at home). Teachers are here today and gone tomorrow. And this is a sad situation. Furthermore, lest we forget, no matter how bright the neophyte teacher may be, it takes years to become an effective teacher. Thus, a revolving door approach to education can be quite disruptive. It is not even cost effective.
Each year, a new set of teachers requires staff development, mentoring, supervision, and resources. This investment is fine for teachers who earnestly wish to remain in the New York City Public School System. However, when there is a “rapid turnover rate,” taxpayers are losing the tax dollars which were earmarked for an investment in a viable workforce. Furthermore, whenever students witness a rapid change of staff from year to year, the students begin to view all teachers as temporary teachers or expendable. And eventually, they lose respect for the teachers who remain.
Years ago, the union advocated for: Resources, Respect, and Retention. Today, more than ever, we need resources for all teachers, respect for all teachers, and a retention of teachers who are willing to invest in a future that is not their own.
2 Geof Sorkin
· Jul 29, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Klein & Bloomberg are just doing a wonderful job (that is sarcasm).
I just noticed this on the Daily News website at http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/07/29/2008-07-29_audit_hits_educrats_87g_spree.html
Audit hits educrats’ $87G spree
BY ERIN EINHORN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Tuesday, July 29th 2008, 10:23 AM
Taxpayers shelled out more than $87,000 to send educators to spas, hotels and conference centers without any official explanation, an audit has found.
Included in the spending spree was $33,000 for an unexplained stay at the LaGuardia Airport Marriott, city Controller William Thompson said yesterday.
The junkets may have been appropriate, said Thompson, whose office conducted an audit of Education Department travel expenses – just undocumented.
“You just don’t know,” Thompson said. “That’s the problem. … There was a lack of documentation, a lack of oversight.”
The controller’s audit also found the department often ignored bidding rules meant to lower travel expenses and paid $10,000 more than allowed for meals at four conferences scrutinized in the audit.
Though city rules limit per-person meal expenses to $7 for breakfast, $8 for lunch and $30 for dinner, school officials paid $32.45 per person for breakfast at one multiday retreat, including $7.50 per person just for coffee.
Other examples of wasted money included the $12,000 the city paid to a Catskills resort for 30 employees to attend a two-day training session. When only 18 employees showed up, the city was out $4,788 for the missing 12.
The overall taxpayer tab included a stay at the Mineral Resorts and Spa facility in New Jersey for a workshop.
“You would think they would pay attention to every dollar,” Thompson said, noting that schools nearly faced severe cuts to classrooms this year.
School officials agreed that more oversight is necessary and say they’ve already implemented a better system to track travel expenses. eeinhorn@nydailynews.com
3 jd2718
· Jul 29, 2008 at 9:06 pm
“Years ago, the union advocated for: Resources, Respect, and Retention. Today, more than ever, we need resources for all teachers, respect for all teachers, and a retention of teachers who are willing to invest in a future that is not their own.”
Thank you, Phyllis. I think even just saying/writing these words is an important – it sends a message to both experienced members and new members. Remember, the respect for experience, the respect for enthusiasm, these are an important piece.
Jonathan