The Every Student Succeeds
Act (ESSA) is now law. Once again the
Congress and the Federal government is going to fix schools. They have been trying to do this
unsuccessfully for the better part of half a century. ESSA is going to improve education by
lightening up dramatically on the reins the Secretary of Education has over the
public school systems of our nation. Now
the U.S. Secretary may not prescribe goals for students, neither long nor short
term. It cannot tell states how to fix
failing schools. States cannot be
rewarded nor punished in order to get them to use a particular curriculum,
including Common Core. By the way, this
NEVER was a federal curriculum but we won’t go there. The feds cannot tell states what parameters
to use to evaluate teachers, so that means test scores can go for teacher
evaluations, only IF states choose. States
can’t be forced to use a specific measure of accountability. Test scores are supposed to be used for
accountability but the feds can’t say how.
I think you get the picture. This
is a state’s rights law. No Child Left
Behind left heavy paw prints on everyone’s behind. ESSA not so much. NCLB didn’t improve our
education system, and truly I doubt ESSA will either. I have been in education long enough to see
the winds blow in multiple directions.
OK, if I am such a hot shot,
what would improve our nation's education system?
In my view the biggest
impediment to having a top education system is the heavy weight of mediocre and
plain bad schoolteachers. School
systems either won’t or can’t get rid of them.
Union rules set up more hoops than a circus acrobat that administrators
much jump through. Few administrators have the stomach or the energy to do
so. We need great teachers for differing
groups of kids. Some teachers do really
well with kids who are smart and into the liberal arts; other teachers are
great in the STEM subjects. Some humans
love to work with kids who are learning challenged. Other people like to teach the average
Joe. Why don’t we let teachers teach
the kinds of kids they like to teach? We
already know that children learn more from teachers they like than they do from
the ones they don’t like. I am betting
it works that way for teachers too.
Secondly, if we can get the
best teachers in the classrooms with the kinds of kids they like to teach,
could we please get out of the way and let them do their jobs!!? Ditch the pacing guides and the
one-size-fits-all curriculum. Doesn’t
work in dresses and doesn’t work in curriculum. Algebra 2 is great if a kid is going to
college in one of the STEM fields, for others they will never use it
again. Why are we wasting the time of
those kids?
While we are at it, let’s stop
stereotyping low achievers. Tell the
truth, when you read about high risk kids and low achieving kids, how often does the image of a poor white kid
come to mind. And when you think of a
gifted and talented student, do you see an African American student or a student with a disability? We have these images in our minds of what
these kids look like and it is not fair to anyone.
That’s it. Clean and simple. Hire (or fire if needs be) the very best
type of teacher for every kind of kid.
Let teachers participate in the groupings. Let’s not make it a sin to not enjoy working
with a particular kind of learner. Then just
give them the materials they need and get out of the way.
I think that might work. At least it is something that hasn’t been
tried yet; and we don’t need a new law to do it.
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