NON UNION TEACHERS LEARN A TOUGH LESSON
Teachers, administrators and staff at four Chicago charter schools are being laid off because test scores didn’t “measure up”, and the New York based company that manages the schools is being replaced. Supporters of the publicly funded, privately run charter schools say the overhaul shows the flexibility of charters, which can hire and fire staff quickly when scores don’t measure up because teachers aren’t members of a union.
I’m sure at least some of the fired teachers were hard-working, young idealistic people who were shocked that they didn’t get the job done despite working as hard as they could. The sad fact is that these teachers probably felt that a student’s test scores really were the sole responsibility of the teacher. They probably felt that if they worked hard enough and were inspiring enough, the test scores of their students would have to make the grade.
Veteran teachers who have worked for years with inner city students can tell you that no matter what you do, there will occasionally be a class of students that just aren’t going to make the grade. Unless you are willing to be a Jaime Escalante, if you put in 35 years of teaching, you will almost always have a group at some point in your career that will fall short of expectations.
Most veteran teachers know there are dozens of factors that determine whether a student will make the grade or not. Many of those factors ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF A TEACHER’S CONTROL. Tenure and teacher unions
I’m sure at least some of the fired teachers were hard-working, young idealistic people who were shocked that they didn’t get the job done despite working as hard as they could. The sad fact is that these teachers probably felt that a student’s test scores really were the sole responsibility of the teacher. They probably felt that if they worked hard enough and were inspiring enough, the test scores of their students would have to make the grade.
Veteran teachers who have worked for years with inner city students can tell you that no matter what you do, there will occasionally be a class of students that just aren’t going to make the grade. Unless you are willing to be a Jaime Escalante, if you put in 35 years of teaching, you will almost always have a group at some point in your career that will fall short of expectations.
Most veteran teachers know there are dozens of factors that determine whether a student will make the grade or not. Many of those factors ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF A TEACHER’S CONTROL. Tenure and teacher unions
