For all the euphoric dust kicked up by the dancing feet of education reformers at Edustat in Charlottesville, there were one or two cold-water splashes that should have gotten everyone’s attention. We wouldn’t be doing ourselves any favors by ignoring the reality of NCLB and how entrenched it’s become in the way that State and Federal legislators divide the beans. More alarming is the current tenacity with which Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has sunk his teeth into the idea of pay-for-performance and his more recent remarks that “performance” means standardized test scores. All of us in the “authentic learning” choir are aware of the shortsightedness of this plan. We talked about it for 72 straight hours and the consensus was clear: measuring content standards is, at best, an incomplete picture of how much our students are learning. So how can anyone accept the claim that it’s an accurate measure of effective teaching?
If we, as teachers, chafe at the idea of our art being reduced to training kids to take flat tests on dead presidents, shouldn’t we be a bit more anxious than we seem to be about the very real possibility that our paycheck may soon depend on this routine? One of the surprising outcomes of my participation in EduStat was that I’ve moved onto the fence in regard to the idea of merit pay. Who wouldn’t want to be rewarded for working harder, smarter, and providing a better service than someone else who started phoning in lesson plans by their third year of teaching? What better message could school boards and superintendents send to teachers about how committed they are to becoming world class schools then rewarding teachers who embrace world class curriculum and practices? But if Secretary Duncan gets his way, the measure of a teacher will have nothing to do with preparing kids for the 21st Century, but instead making sure they remember the 19th.
We, as a collective of teachers, are not powerless to prevent this mistake. We are professional educators after all, and if we can do nothing else, we have an obligation to teach others what we feel so strongly to be true. NCLB has served its purpose. It’s uncovered our shortcomings and inequities and forced us to take ownership of a deeply flawed system. And we have. And now that we own it, we’re responsible for repairing it in more meaningful and lasting ways than politicians are qualified to do, no matter their good intentions. There are simple things that we can and must do:
1. Join your local union or education association. However you may feel about the unionization of teachers, nothing gets the attention of elected officials faster than the collective body of teachers speaking out together on issues. The money raised by Political Action Committees sponsored by teacher unions goes a long way toward lobbying our representatives to make the right choices on education policy.
2. Contact your local school board representative and ask them to clarify their position on NCLB and pay-for-performance plans. A visit from a school board member to your next department or PLC meeting might help them see where we stand on these issues.
3. Write letters. Lots of them. Editorial letters, letters to State Representatives, letters to Governors and Superintendents, letters to Santa Clause if you think it will help. As educators, one of our skill sets is to be effective communicators. Now is the time to use that skill set outside of your classroom.
4. Educate your friends and neighbors. Everyone has an opinion about teachers and education, whether they have kids in the schools or not. And they should - the success or failure of public education affects everyone in the community. Share your feelings and attitudes with whoever wants to hear them (and even those who don’t).
5. Be an activist for the movement. As teachers, we’re supposed to be apolitical in our classrooms, and for good reason. Outside the classroom, however, is another story. This is not just your paycheck at issue here but your profession, your art, and the future of the kids you teach. If you can’t get up for that, you can’t get up for anything.
I greatly enjoyed listening to the learned men and women who came to present their ideas at EduStat. I’m also getting a kick out of analyzing all of these thoughts and writing for an audience again (something I haven’t had much occasion to do since I became a teacher of writing). But I can’t help feel like thinking time is over and a time for action has come. I have no doubt that most of us have taken this calling for more authentic teaching to heart, but whether that calling will be validated by the powers that be is another question. So in the words of one of my great teaching mentors, Mr. Vernon Mimms, “Do it, or get it done to you.”