General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 20-fold increase in standardized testing coming with Gates Foundation's "Common Core": [View all]knitter4democracy
(14,350 posts)There aren't that many ineffective teachers out there. They've been weeded out. I've been subbing in all the area schools for three years, and I've only know one I'd fire in a heartbeat out of more than 50 I have directly worked with and observed. Do you know any other profession with numbers like that?! I've been a long-term sub in three schools now, was a parapro/writing coach in an alternative charter, and have been in many classrooms, and seriously, I'd only fire one. One could have gotten better with help but was let go instead, and the rest vary from amazing to pretty good. Where are all these ineffective teachers? I sure haven't run into them, not in these last three years, and not since I started teaching in 1997. Bad principals, sure, ineffective superintendents, definitely, bad teachers, not many.
Saying that we can't fix the home/family issues is weak. We know how to fix those but would rather spend the money on defense and huge outlays to banks and multinational corporations. Take the money we're throwing into the pockets of the 1% for testing and curriculum materials that suck, and let's actually do something for our students.