A New Effort to Remove Bad Teachers

 
Three cheers to Bloomberg and Klein for having the guts to tackle this supremely important issue.  Every study shows two critical things: A) Teacher quality matters far more than anything else when it comes to student learning and achievement (see <http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Teacherquality.pdf>  for my slides on the importance of teacher quality, how and why teacher quality has been declining for decades, and what can be done to improve this); and B) Low-income and minority students overwhelmingly get the least effective teachers (see:
 <http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Ineffectiveteachers.pdf> ).

To get a sense of the magnitude of this problem, see the 4th slide (page 3) at (www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Teacherquality.pdf <http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Teacherquality.pdf> ), which shows that 1/3 (!) of the teachers in Boston, according to a 1998 Bain study, failed to impart any knowledge to students over the course of an entire school year.  This is consistent with the many answers I've gotten to a simple question I always ask of people who've taught in an inner-city NYC school: "If you were to group the teachers at your school into three categories: good/great, OK and awful/beyond any hope of redemption/you'd rather stick hot pokers in your eyes before putting your own child in this teacher's classroom, what are the rough percentages?"  
 
Without much variation, the answers are generally 1/3 in each category, and regarding the last category, I've never once heard a number lower than 20% (just last week, the answer was 50% from a teacher who taught in a South Bronx elementary school 10 years ago -- hopefully it's gotten better since then!).  Keep in mind that these are not all NYC schools, but rather the toughest ones (with the students who most need -- and show the greatest progress with -- the best teachers (see slide 9/page 8 of the presentation).

These estimates aren't very scientific of course, but it's 100% certain that the problem of highly ineffective teachers in urban schools, esp. those with a high proportion of low-income and/or minority students, is a massive one -- orders of magnitude larger than the 0.5% or 1% mentioned in the article below -- and dealing with this problem is fundamental to reforming schools and closing the achievement gap.

Of course, there is no issue -- not vouchers, not charter schools, not pay hikes -- that the teacher unions will fight harder against, which is why what Bloomberg and Klein are doing is so revolutionary -- and courageous.  Check out Randi's quote:

Randi Weingarten, the president of the city’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, called the  lawyers a “teacher gotcha unit” and said she found it “disgusting” that the Education Department would issue such a memo after the release of new school report cards that bluntly grade schools A through F.
 
“We’ve always been concerned that the first thing that would  happen after somebody put out progress reports would be principals would go  after teachers,” Ms. Weingarten said. “Basically, it’s signaling to principals that rather than working to support teachers, the school system is going to give you a way to try to get rid of teachers.”  

Let's be clear: the only disgusting thing here is that tens of thousands -- and probably hundreds of thousands -- of NYC schoolchildren (and millions of other students nationwide), right now, today (and every year for the past few decades) are suffering in classrooms headed by ineffective, incompetent, barely literate, and/or burned out teachers, who are protected by their union and its onerous contract, kids be damned.  This is more than disgusting -- it's a complete, total, utter disgrace and positively un-American!

As I've said before and will say again: some will choose to interpret what I've written here as anti-teacher, but the reality is completely the opposite.  I'm proud to be against crappy teachers, but am even more proud to be a huge champion of the majorty of teachers who are dedicated to their craft and are effective at it -- and one of the most important things we can do to attract and retain good teachers is get rid of the bad ones who bring shame and disrepute to an honorable, critically important profession.

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November 15, 2007
A New Effort to Remove Bad Teachers
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/education/15teacher.html

The Bloomberg administration is beginning a drive to remove unsatisfactory teachers, hiring new teams of lawyers and consultants who will help principals build cases against tenured teachers who they believe are not up to the job. It is also urging principals to get rid of sub-par novices before they earn tenure.