The Long History of Blaming Teachers First
A high-ranking school official in a major U.S. city feverishly argues that schools should be operated like businesses. Unapologetic about identifying and firing ineffective teachers, the official pushes for an evaluation system that is rooted in student test scores.
You’re right if you think this sounds like Michelle Rhee, the former DC schools chancellor, circa 2009. But this description also fits William McAndrew, Chicago schools superintendent. The year? 1924.
The scapegoating of teachers and the championing of misguided “reform” policies has a long and exasperating history, chronicled by journalist Dana Goldstein in her new book, The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession. Anyone who wonders “How did we get here?” - the divisive and polarizing rhetoric, the mystifying staying power of discredited reform ideas and the recent raid on teacher’s collective bargaining rights - will find the answers in Goldstein’s engaging and valuable book.
Goldstein recently spoke to NEA Today about the origins of some of the most contentious education debates, the players in politics and media that have heightened the teachers wars, and how a greater teacher voice can help move the national dialogue in a more constructive direction.
The combination of a feminized teaching profession and unionism in the early 20th century triggered a slew of politicized attacks and what you refer to in the book as “moral panics” across the nation. To what extent does that fact that the profession is roughly 80 percent women today still make it an inviting political target?
Dana Goldstein: We tend to have more of a public debate over teacher pay, teacher job protection, and the cost of teacher health care plans than we do about policemen or firefighters. Teaching is a larger profession, so it’s more expensive – because there is more of them. But I do think that, because this is a job done by women, it makes it easier to vilify.
When I was working on the book, I went back and watched videos of Chris Christie yelling at teachers, which are really difficult to sit through. It’s always a middle-aged woman that he’s yelling at. The condescension is seething out of him in these confrontations! It’s like this concept of “mansplaining” – I think that happens a lot to teachers. Their expertise as the practitioners in the classroom is often not respected.
Probably the most contentious issue in education right now is teacher due process or “tenure.” What do you think is most important for people to understand about tenure and its origins?
DG: We have to understand why we have tenure in the first place. At the turn of the 20th century, teachers got fired very often for very stupid reasons. They were pregnant or they were black. Or they disagreed about the mayor about something. Seeing how politicized these firings were, good government reformers and teachers unions agreed about tenure. It was the consensus position in 1909 when New Jersey became the first state to pass a comprehensive tenure bill.
Secondly, like we do today, at the turn of the 20th century we looked to other countries for ideas about how to improve our schools. People wondered how to make teaching a more respected profession and a more attractive job, considering the low pay, and tenure or due process was something that was going to help. The idea came from Prussia, where teachers had more job security.
There’s no evidence that suggests ending tenure will lead to student improvement, so why are we talking about it so much?
DG: Yeah, I agree with your take. There is nothing magical that would happen for kids if we ended teacher tenure. That’s partly because recruiting teachers to work in the neediest schools is so hard. Turnover is just as much a driver in poor student performance than those ineffective teachers who are stuck in those schools. There’s a lot of research on this that I cite in the book.
Why is everyone talking about this so much? I use a term in the book that teaching is seen as a somewhat “peculiar profession.” Only 7 percent of private sector workers are in unions. So when we see that teachers have fought and won for themselves a due process right, people ask ‘Why? I don’t have that. Because teachers are different from other workers, the way they are different is a source of debate.
There have been many eras in which teachers have been targeted, but this particular wave of concern has a The Long History of Blaming Teachers First | NEA Today: