"No one wants bad teachers," Weingarten said. "In terms of bad teachers, both the Secretary and myself are one-note about changing the evaluations systems."
Posted on 08/29/2010 8:46:15 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Education secretary says schools have been lying to children and parents By Gautham Nagesh - 08/29/10 11:02 AM ET
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the Obama administration's Race to the Top contest has reversed the trend of officials lowering educational standards and misleading students into thinking they are prepared for college.
"As a country we've dummied down standards. We've reduced them due to political pressure and we've actually been lying to children and parents telling them they're ready when they're not," Duncan said on Sunday during ABC's "This Week".
He also argued the educational system in America has reached a crisis point that threatens the nation's long-term economic stability.
"We have to educate our way to a better economy. In this country we have a 25 percent dropout rate," Duncan said. "That's economically unsustainable and morally unacceptable. We have to get the dropout rate to zero as quickly as we can. The status quo is not going to work for the country, we have to get better."
Duncan said there are no easy answers to improving American schools, but recognizing good teachers with better pay and increasing parental involvement are two of the most crucials steps. He said there are currently 300,000 teachers in California but no one can identify which are the top ten percent and which are on the bottom.
"We have to elevate the status of the profession. We can't do enough to recognize great teaching," Duncan said. "Great teachers are the unsung heroes in our society."
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said both sides share the goal of improving teacher performance, but the issue is how to evaluate which teachers are successful and which aren't.
"No one wants bad teachers," Weingarten said. "In terms of bad teachers, both the Secretary and myself are one-note about changing the evaluations systems."
She also took issue with the notion that teachers' unions are a source of the problem, pointing out that states with larger unions tend to have higher levels of academic success.
"The issue is not a teacher union contract or a teacher union management contract," Weingarten said.
District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee said her district has re-negotiated its contract with teachers to emphasize merit pay. Rhee said her district will soon announce its highest performing teachers, who will receive almost twice as much pay as their lower performing colleagues.
Weingarten pointed out that the Race to the Top and other such programs are promising, but only target a small portion of the overall student population in the U.S.
"I give the secretary a lot of credit, but we have to help all kids. Some of these programs, particularly the ones that are collaborative, we're going to have to see how they work going forward. The goal is to help not just some kids, but all kids," she said.
He is right about what has been happening, but I bet the solution will be doing the same thing that has been done, only louder.
I predict they will want- more money, more administration, after school programs, welfare checks at childrens’ homes, nutrition standards applied to their homes, and elimination of private or home schooling (except for special DC private schools where politicians send their kids.)
Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money for the rest who are not at the top campaign startup.
"No one wants bad teachers," Weingarten said. "In terms of bad teachers, both the Secretary and myself are one-note about changing the evaluations systems."
No, there shouldn’t.
Does the Constitution list "education" as one of the responsibilities of the Federal Government?
What? The hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars spent has done nothing to improve education? Education has gotten worse since the creation of the Department of Indoctrination, errr, I mean Education. Who’d of thunk it? Conservatives, perhaps? Can we try something new now? Because the only ideas I ever hear from liberals is SPENDING EVEN MORE MONEY AND GIVING THE FEDS EVEN MORE CONTROL!
You got that right.....
I'll add to my prediction above that they will make evaluations and tests more 'culturally sensitive', in other words, they will lower expectations for certain classes of people.
So this is a “we can’t hide the fact that we didn’t get the job done anymore so we’ll confess and promise to try again as long as you give us even more money”?
Insanity is leaving the usual suspects in the usual place.
I agree that the Dept of Education should be disbanded....it’s a union job security and political indoctrination scheme.
The ‘solution’ is to dumb-down colleges even further than they already are at now.(/sarc - I guess)
Teachers in NYS are overpaid part time employees ..working 7 hrs a day ..with an hour for lunch and an hour classroom prep time.. so 4 or 5 hours in the class room ...all holiday weeks and summers off
The problem is not teacher pay or teacher competence, it is parents that do not care about their kids, and do no school readiness or encouragement or school help.
I will bet the 25% that drop out are 90% black and hispanic
people are always looking for someone else to blame ..it is not the teachers
The teacher’s Unions protect bad teachers. Tenure allows college level teachers to be as bad as they choose and still not lose their jobs. Arne Duncan is a Socialist who will protect the teachers who teach Socialist principles. God help the youth of America. They will not have the opportunities nor the foundation to achieve the American Dream. More’s the pity.
Let's start by canning all of the union officials who can't even speak the language properly...
You can’t put the cart before the horse and make it work.
This is not a teacher issue, it’s a family issue.
Education starts at home.
They want bad teachers.
They pay union dues, and funnel the propaganda to the kids.
He’s right, but it was done to lower some standards to allow others to catch up.
I graduated in the 60’s from university. There were no remedial classes and definitely no hand-holding guides. You swam or sank quickly.
When I returned to university in the 90’s for a different degree, I was shocked by the inability of the students to read and understand the material, to listen and take notes, and to completely disregard any semblance of respect and co-operation in the classes.
There were remedial classes in everything from basic writing skills to math.
There was also rampant dishonesty and cheating.
I have no idea how this can be fixed. It won’t be fixed soon.
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Department of Endoctrication. I think that describes the mix they're serving these days.
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