Opinion: What some teachers don’t want you to learn
By John Diaz, San Francisco Chronicle
Knowledge is power, but it is not always welcome. The Los Angeles Times just completed an extensive study of how individual teachers have fared at raising their students’ math and English test scores in the state’s most populous city. The raw data have been available to the L.A. Unified School District for years, but it never bothered to crunch those numbers, let alone share them with parents. The Times has pledged to publish its ratings of 6,000 elementary school instructors.
Reaction of the local teachers union? It has called for a “massive boycott” of the Times.
So it goes in California education, where even the most modest attempt to hold teachers accountable encounters fierce resistance from teachers unions. Earlier this year, the unions successfully leaned on their friends in the California Legislature to defeat a bill (SB955, by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Glendora) that would have allowed districts to consider factors other than seniority in teacher layoffs. Proposals to create merit pay, loosen tenure rules, expand inter-district transfers or allow more innovation through charter schools are reflexively denounced by the unions as attacks on a noble profession and the many dedicated teachers whose heroic efforts are underpaid and underappreciated.
Let’s get real. The teachers are for the teachers, the administrators are for administrators, the school board is for political power. Sure there are some great dedicated teachers, but the majority think only of their salaries and future fat pensions.
Like Humty Dumty it’s broken and can’t be put back together, kind of like our society.
Hmmm. It’s interesting how critical individuals can be when they don’t have the experience in the job. The absolute MAJORITY (as in all sorts of jobs) of teachers are there because they believe in what they are doing. It’s a difficult job with more demands as the years go on. Again, they sign up to “teach” and have found themselves needing to be so much more to all kids. I appreciate that they are there.
Doubleblack … do you have data to back-up your statement? Do you post this nonsense just to push buttons? Do you do anything to make what you complain about better? From what I’ve read, you offer nothing but hot air and opinions that are not based on fact.
….doubleblack is for doubleblack. All of the teachers I know or have known are dedicated professionals who are underpaid and underappreciated. Do you have even one constructive idea?
After going to the last 3 years of South Tahoe graduations it’s pretty obvious the kids run the school and it is nothing more than a day care service. I have never seen a more disrespectful graduation ceremony. It cracks me up when Tarwater say how proud he is of his schools achievements and then the rest of ceremony turns into a unmanaged joke. I’ve been told the new Tarwater Majhal will make for the perfect education. I’ll be there at the next graduation watching Tarwater be the puppet he appears to be.