The battle over treating teachers as professionals
Should teachers be treated as professionals? The question may seem easy enough to answer—most people in education, whether they are union representatives or reformers advocating for more charter schools, say “yes.” Yet the question is in many ways at the heart of the raging debate–currently boiling over in New York–over how to improve struggling schools. How should the education field give power, respect and autonomy to teachers while also ensuring they are accountable for results?
Education reformers argue that teachers have not been seen as professionals in the past, pointing to union rules that limit how many hours a day they can work
