Hechinger Report | Blaming U.S. teachers for poor performance of students is not the answer

Hechinger Report | Blaming U.S. teachers for poor performance of students is not the answer:

Blaming U.S. teachers for poor performance of students is not the answer

by Marc Tucker

To some, the Chicago teachers’ strike that ended Tuesday proves what they’ve been saying all along: That the teachers and their unions, when you get right down to it, care more about protecting bad teachers, seniority and pay than they do about what is good for kids. So it’s no surprise that people who hold those views also think the most important reform we should pursue is to use standardized test results to identify our worst teachers. And, of course, they will get behind any measure that will weaken the unions generally.

Marc Tucker

Those people are just plain wrong. Their “reform” agenda has driven our teachers into a bunker—a bunker that teachers have invited their unions to join because they now think the unions are the only friends they have left.
No nation has ever fired its way to a top-quality teaching staff. No nation has gotten to the top of the world’s education league tables by going to war with its teacher unions. And there is no country in the world that has produced a first-class education system by firing its worst teachers.
There’s only one way to catch up to the countries that are beating the pants off us in the world’s education