Randi Weingarten: Unions are in there fighting for all children to succeed
January 08, 2014 01:00 AM
WASHINGTON
Regarding Richard Berman’s Dec. 27 Commentary piece (“Kids can’t read? Blame union clout”): A deeper look at the new Program for International Student Assessment data Berman cites makes it clear that the results are really a rebuke of the market-driven education reforms we’ve had over the past decade.
Not only hasn’t test-based accountability, combined with competition and sanctions, helped our children succeed, these policies have simply created winners and losers. The New York Times deconstructed these results by saying “the United States can either learn from its competitors abroad — and finally summon the will to make necessary policy changes — or fall further and further behind.”
These international results make clear that the nations that outperform us take an entirely different approach, an approach I’ve seen first-hand while visiting places like Finland, Singapore and Canada.
Instead of testing, imposing sanctions and letting the market sort it out, those countries fixate on valuing and preparing teachers and giving them the time, tools and support to help kids learn and grow. They mitigate the impact of poverty through prekindergarten and provide multiple pathways to graduation, as well as tutoring and other services to address social, emotional and health needs. They don’t test every student every year; instead, they focus on an enriching curriculum with art, music and the sciences. And many have strong teachers unions.
These are the same policies the American Federation of Teachers has long championed