"Give Me A Chance"...Improving Teacher Quality Cannot Be Rushed

Motivation is what get you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Rohn

I woke up this morning, and after counting my blessings, two questions popped up in my mind. These questions blew my mind and excited me to ponder further. Later this afternoon, I came across an excellent article; while it stressed the need for village accountability, this article also help me to appreciate my epiphany questions even more. So, what were those questions? They were these:

Can a teacher become "effective" overnight? If so, how?

Apparently, the so-called experts and fans of the movie, Waiting for Superman, believe teachers have one shot only to get it right. If they don't, then they will be out of a job. Also, they believe effective teaching equates in being strong in content knowledge only; in one cartoon scene in the movie, it shows a teacher, in a schematic sense, open the minds of each of her students and pour alphabet soup, representing knowledge, in their minds. Wow! I wish I knew teaching would be that easy!

Those of us who know better believe otherwise. Teaching can be so rewarding and fulfilling. However, teaching is a tough job; ask Tony Danza. Or better yet, ask Geoffrey Canada, who was profiled extensively in the movie. In the movie, Mr. Canada, a former teacher, stated his first two years of teaching were the hardest, but during his third year, he began to show growth and progressed into a Master Teacher some years later. Yet, he is one of the main one pushing for this "one shot" teacher evaluation process in an effort of removing ineffective teachers. Oh the irony! Surely, as an educator, he forgot where he came from.

Indeed, there are some teachers who don't care to improve in their craft; they have no sympathy from me as they should be removed from the classroom. However, most teachers want to improve in their pedagogical skills and enhance their content knowledge. This requires an personal investment of time, effort, and finances from the teacher, along with support, patience, and resources from the school leaders. While time is of the essence, good things come to those who wait. While I am not condoning experimenting with children's lives and risking school progress, teachers, especially novices, need time for professional growth; one school year isn't enough.

I can't tell you the countless stories I've read and heard from teachers who worked hard in preparing their students for these mandated, high-stakes tests to only see a small percentage of them pass these tests. How demoralizing and heart-breaking it is to be in that type of situation? If the so-called experts have their way, those teachers would be fired at the end of the school year. These teachers wouldn't be given a chance to grow and improve in their craft. All of the years of pre-service training and attaining their teaching credentials would have been done in vain. What a waste of potential...

Nonetheless, the excellent article I touted earlier made several important points about the emphasis of improving teacher quality:

• Teaching quality is the most important IN-SCHOOL factor in improving student achievement
• Other in-school factors e.g., quality of school leadership, quality of the curriculum, and teacher collaboration efforts, are also influential in improving student achievement
• "Decades of social science research have demonstrated that differences in the quality of schools can explain about one-third of the variation in student achievement. But the other two-thirds is attributable to NON-SCHOOL factors."
• "...test scores can be influenced by so many other factors besides good teaching."
• "Even the highest-quality teachers cannot fully insulate their students from the effects of" POVERTY as well as family issues and other societal ills.

One of my earlier blog entries criticized these so-called experts on education reform for rushing in finding solutions to a very complex problem that involves multiple factors. In one of my more recent blog entries, I further accused these so-called experts of treating student learning as a mere product to market to parents. Nonetheless, the propaganda of scapegoating teachers and their unions being pushed by these so-called experts, like the most recent publication of their "manifesto", has greatly hindered education reform, not progress it. Yet, the public and other high-prolific personalities continue to eat this up.

Educators, we TRULY know what will it take to improve the learning process in our schools; yet we continue to be ridiculed and minimized to anything but the professionals that we are. We must continue to combat the propaganda and educate the public on our take of the debate by being vocal and sharing our perspectives and expertise with the public. One way of doing so is to participate in the upcoming Education Communication Day on October 29, 2010, spearheaded by SOS Million Teachers March. Also, don't forget to vote on November 2!

In closing, if a struggling teacher shows potential in becoming more effective, give him/her a chance to grow and learn the craft. In the midst of teacher shortages in critical areas like secondary math, secondary science, and special education, as well as the recent budget cuts in education and layoffs of thousands of teachers, it would be prudent and more cost-effective in finding ways to retain the teachers they have. These growth habits in teaching should be allowed to blossom, not destroyed with the weeds. Using the so-called experts' approach of removing teachers may include losing potentially effective teachers. There is always room for improvement in teaching quality, but these improvements were not meant to be rushed and should not be rushed. Teachers, like every other professional, need time to crawl before they walk, during pre-service and especially in-service.

The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live. ~ Mortimer Adler

But, hey, what do I know?