Five Thoughts on Randi Weingarten's AEI Remarks
by Frederick M. Hess • Jun 20, 2014 at 8:35 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareOn Wednesday, AFT president Randi Weingarten joined me over at AEI to share some thoughts about teacher evaluation, tenure, the Common Core, testing, and more. Here, I offer five thoughts sparked by Randi's remarks and our conversation. If you want more, you can watch the event or check out an event summary here.
One, when discussing Vergara v. California, Randi said good and smart things about tenure. She said tenure shouldn't be a shield for incompetence or an excuse for managers not to manage. She flatly said that, if teachers can't teach after they've been helped, unions need to say that they can't be in the profession. The problem, of course, is that plenty of us are skeptical of the nice words--because we feel like unions have generally not stepped up on this score and because union leaders like Mike Mulgrew in New York and Karen Lewis in Chicago are declaring "war" on reformers and giving no indication they've gotten Randi's memo. This helps explain why unions feel like they don't get any credit for their good efforts, while reformers distrust the AFT's commitment.
Two, in arguing that the distrust is misplaced, Randi pointed to developments in places like New Haven and Baltimore, where AFT locals have partnered with districts to police the profession and to reward excellence. Union advocates are frustrated that they don't get credit for such developments, while critics say, "Sure, a handful of districts are inching forward, but those are outliers." This is, as Randi noted, very much a glass half-full or a glass half-empty kind of exercise. Neither side is necessarily "wrong" or malicious, but we all bring experiences, expectations, and world views to this debate--and those on both sides of the divide feel like they've got plenty of cause for suspicion and bad faith.
Three, those feelings tend to deepen, ripen, and congeal because most individuals in each camp spend their time conferring with the like-minded. While education isn't partisan per se, it features something that looks like a partisan-style divide. This is a particular problem for schooling because, as John Chubb and Terry Moeso powerfully argued a quarter century ago, and as most people in both camps believe, the defining Five Thoughts on Randi Weingarten's AEI Remarks :: Frederick M. Hess:
