One way to hold teachers accountable is to simply fire the bad ones.
To focus on this kind of Test and Punish form of high-stakes accountability places far too much emphasis on a reactive kind of educational reform.
As a classroom teacher, I teach my students everyday how collaboration is far more productive than competition. I think all good teachers promote a classroom environment that believe that no one is as smart as all of us, and it is amazing how much we can get done when we don't obsess over who gets the credit.
What's good for the students is good for teachers. Educational reform will never succeed unless teachers are bought in - this is no more or less true than to say good learning will never succeed unless students are bought in.
At the heart of the problem are the policy makers driving educational reform by 'teacher-proofing' education.
They don't trust teachers.
John Merrow offers this way of rethinking the 'teacher problem' in America:
Progressive education advocates such as Pasi Sahlberg help to explain how Finland has done educational reform so differently, compared to most other European and North American countries.
Finland understands the following paradoxes to be true:
These paradoxes at first glance seem counter-intuitive; but sometimes common sense doesn't make sense, and is all too common.
Rather than simply doubling the current dose of high stakes, test and punish accountability, which only serves to scare off teachers and treat children as drop-outs in waiting, we need to rethink educational reform.
We can start by closely examing educational systems in Finland and even some of the changes that Alberta, Canada has begun to institute. (Alberta has eliminated their Accountability and Reporting Division and are eliminating the grade 3 Provincial Achievment Test)
Only then will we attract the best and the brightest teachers to teach our children to become the best and the brightest who will grow up to teach their children to be the best and brightest so they can grow up and...
To focus on this kind of Test and Punish form of high-stakes accountability places far too much emphasis on a reactive kind of educational reform.
As a classroom teacher, I teach my students everyday how collaboration is far more productive than competition. I think all good teachers promote a classroom environment that believe that no one is as smart as all of us, and it is amazing how much we can get done when we don't obsess over who gets the credit.
What's good for the students is good for teachers. Educational reform will never succeed unless teachers are bought in - this is no more or less true than to say good learning will never succeed unless students are bought in.
At the heart of the problem are the policy makers driving educational reform by 'teacher-proofing' education.
They don't trust teachers.
John Merrow offers this way of rethinking the 'teacher problem' in America:
We don't have a teacher shortage problem. We treat them so badly, they leave. We have a teacher leakage problem.Other countries like Finland have an immense amount of respect and trust for the teaching profession, and so teaching is usually in the top two in Finnish opinion polls of desirable professions and is among the hardest to break into.
Progressive education advocates such as Pasi Sahlberg help to explain how Finland has done educational reform so differently, compared to most other European and North American countries.
- Teach Less, Learn More
- Test Less, Learn Better
- The better a high school graduate is, the more likely she will become a teacher
These paradoxes at first glance seem counter-intuitive; but sometimes common sense doesn't make sense, and is all too common.
