Listening to Donald Trump, Jr.’s speech makes my blood
boil.
There are a few points that need our attention.
Browse Diane Ravitch’s blog
post about the competition that has run rampant in Detroit Public Schools. She
references Donald Cohen’s post,
where he debunks the myth about competition increasing student achievement. Cohen concludes the following: “If charter
schools were systematically outperforming DPS schools, these lessons would be
easier to stomach in Detroit. But the city’s charter schools are rife with
wasteful spending, double dipping, and insider dealing, and many have
been allowed to operate for years despite terrible academic records.”
And let us not forget the Detroit Free Press’ exposé
on charter schools. Many do not disclose how they spend public dollars, and the majority underperformed when compared to traditional public schools. Quoting
the Free Press, public dollars were
misused in ways such as:
- A Bedford Township charter school spent more than $1 million on swampland.
- Two board members who challenged their Romulus school’s management company over finances and transparency were ousted when the length of their terms was summarily reduced by Grand Valley State University.
- National Heritage Academies, the state’s largest for-profit school management company, charges 14 of its Michigan schools $1 million or more in rent — which many real estate experts say is excessive.
- A charter school in Pittsfield Township gave jobs and millions of dollars in business to multiple members of the founder’s family.
I know The Hill School, which Trump, Jr. attended, is
nothing like traditional public schools where I work and serve on a board of
education, but his statements are misguided in purporting the myth of the self-serving
teacher.
As my colleague on the board of education, Martha Toth wrote
about
teacher motivation, noting that most teachers go into the profession for altruistic
reasons. She references the most recent study about teacher performance and motivation:
The National Center for Performance
Incentives at Vanderbilt University (funded by a $10M grant from the U.S.
Dept. of Education) employs “specialists in social and behavioral science,
statistical analysis, economic theory, and policy analysis” to conduct
“randomized field trials and evaluations of existing pay-for-performance
programs” in public education. The report
on one such study, the Project on Incentives in Teaching, or POINT, was
released last week. This five-year study and analysis of a three-year
randomized trial examined the effects on student outcomes of paying eligible
Nashville teachers bonuses of up to $15,000 per year for increasing their
students’ scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests.
The bottom line? “We sought a clean
test of the basic proposition: If teachers know they will be rewarded for an
increase in their students’ test scores, will test scores go up? We found that
the answer to that question is no.”
I don’t fear teacher tenure or my teacher’s union. Both were
designed to protect teachers from political whims, to ensure equal and adequate
professional compensation, and to allow academic freedom.
The public only needs to look at the advocacy work that’s
taking part by teachers around the country—and especially locally, like the
sick-outs in Detroit to protest the terrible conditions of many public school
buildings—to see that the needs and demands of teachers are often with the best
interest of students in mind.
Thank you for sharing your clear, logical and factual response. You are a true advocate for public education.
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