[Vision2020] AFT Responds to Time's "Rotten Apple" Story

[Nicholas Gier]

Randi Weingarten Responds to TIME’s Cover


Oct. 27, 2014
The president of the American Federation of Teachers responds to TIME's
"Rotten Apples" cover.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
<http://time.com/?p=3522438&iid=tabvidrecirc>UVA Student's Body is Found
<http://time.com/?p=3522438&iid=tabvidrecirc>
<http://time.com/?p=3395163&iid=tabvidrecirc>Besides Scotland, Where Else
is Secession Possible? <http://time.com/?p=3395163&iid=tabvidrecirc>
<http://time.com/?p=3502171&iid=tabvidrecirc>Malala Speaks on her Nobel
Prize <http://time.com/?p=3502171&iid=tabvidrecirc>
by Taboola
<http://www.taboola.com/en/popup?template=colorbox&taboola_utm_source=timeinc-time&taboola_utm_medium=bytaboola&taboola_utm_content=verticalx3:verticalx3:>

*This is one part of a series of readers’ responses to this week’s cover
<http://time.com/3533556/the-war-on-teacher-tenure/?xid=time_readnext>.*
MORE
Think You Can Cheat on the SAT? The College Board Says Think Again
<http://time.com/3551112/sat-cheating-scandal-china-college-board/>Science
Teachers Need Training Before Fiery Chemistry Displays, Panel Says
<http://time.com/3549145/science-teachers-fiery-chemistry/>Maine Judge
Rejects Ebola Quarantine for Nurse NBC News
<http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/maine-judge-rejects-ebola-quarantine-nurse-kaci-hickox-n238326?cid=par-time_20141031>Taken
by Surprise: Police Got Lucky Stumbling on Cop Slayer NBC News
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/captured-pennsylvania-ambush-suspect-eric-frein-charged-murder-n238226?cid=par-time_20141031>Ex-SEAL
Probed Over Best-Selling Book on Bin Laden Raid NBC News
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/ex-seal-matthew-bissonnette-probed-over-book-bin-laden-raid-n238161?cid=par-time_20141031>

America’s teachers aren’t rotten apples, as Time’s cover suggests, that
need to be smashed by Silicon Valley millionaires with no experience in
education. Far from it. America’s teachers are national treasures, doing
the most important job in our country—educating children for today’s
democracy and tomorrow’s economy. They are making the promise of public
schools a reality. Unfortunately, too often, they’re making it happen
without the resources, support or trust they need to get the job done.

<http://time.com/3547831/who-ebola/?pcd=pw-pas>
ubscribe
<https://subscription.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1019509.html>


Yes, there is a real problem facing America’s teaching profession, but it
has nothing to do with tenure. The problem is in recruiting, retaining and
supporting our teachers, especially at the hardest-to-staff schools.

Every time we lose a teacher, it costs us. Literally. More than one-third
of teachers leave the profession before they’ve taught for five years. The
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future estimates that the
high rate of teacher turnover nationwide costs more than $7 billion per
year. This only exacerbates the greatest challenges facing our public
schools: underfunding and inequity.

Our economy is changing quickly. Education funding in many states has been
diminished. Our student population is more diverse, yet our schools are
more segregated. Poverty is on the rise. For these reasons and more, great
teachers have never been more important. Yet, new research
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-the-american-dream-is-leaving-america.html?_r=0>
finds
that teachers in the United States earn less and work longer hours than
those in other nations.

So, how do we recruit, retain and support great teachers? Certainly not by
bashing them. There is no evidence that wiping out due process—more widely
known as tenure—for K-12 teachers is going to make a more effective
teaching corps. In fact, it will do the opposite. We know that the states
with the highest academic performance have the strongest due process
protections for teachers.
<http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/teacher-tenure-wrong-target-article-1.1983826>
Research
shows that our most at-risk kids need more-experienced teachers. But why
would these teachers stay at schools with few tools, little support and no
ability to voice their concerns?

As Dana Goldstein, the highly acclaimed author of The Teacher Wars, wrote,
“For high-poverty schools, hiring is at least as big of a challenge as
firing, and the Vergara decision does nothing to make it easier for the
most struggling schools to attract or retain the best teacher candidates.”

Tenure is not a job for life. It’s ensuring fairness and due process before
someone can be fired, plain and simple. Where it’s become more than that,
our union has worked to change laws and contracts. Because no one,
particularly not teachers, wants people in our profession who aren’t cut
out for it or shouldn’t be there.

Due process means the teacher at a high-poverty, low-resourced school can
fight for new schoolbooks or needed services for her kids. It’s a shield
for the teacher who tells her boss that her special needs students deserve
art and music. It’s a safeguard for the teacher who wants to get creative
and use “Mean Girls” to explain the power dynamics in Julius Caesar. It’s
what teachers—who aren’t paid enough or praised enough—need to do their
jobs well.

Even Campbell Brown—who is leading the fight to eliminate due process in
New York—when asked if she worried that “removing tenure might harm efforts
to attract high-quality teachers,” said “Sure.”

We know why teachers stay, and we know why teachers leave. They stay when
they’re well-prepared and supported; they leave when they’re not. They stay
when they have manageable class sizes; they leave when their kids are
packed in like sardines. They stay when they have effective managers; they
leave when management is inconsistent or incompetent. They stay when
poverty is counterbalanced by wraparound services; they leave when they
don’t feel their students are being given a fair shot.

Here’s what Time’s cover story didn’t tell you: Two-thirds of what affects
student achievement actually occurs outside the classroom. That’s why we
need to talk about poverty, about segregation, about violence in our
neighborhoods and in our schools.

We need to talk about the woeful lack of funding our schools receive.
Sadly, at least 30 states are funding education at a lower level than
before the recession.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/07/k-12-education-funding-mo_n_1000396.html>
 Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen recently noted
<http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/yellen20141017a.htm> that
America has “one of the few advanced economies in which public education
spending is often lower for students in lower-income households than for
students in higher-income households.”

Instead of hammering teachers, let’s smash inequality and underfunding.
Let’s work together to do what evidence and common sense tells us works to
help children succeed: Support and preparation for educators. Manageable
class sizes. Time to collaborate. Rigorous standards with engaging
curricula, including art and music. Early childhood education. Career and
technical education. More project-based learning, less testing. Wraparound
services to address kids’ social, emotional and health needs. Family and
community engagement. Let’s work together to reclaim the promise of public
education for all children.
<http://time.com/?p=3522438&iid=tabvidrecirc>
<http://time.com/?p=3395163&iid=tabvidrecirc>

*This is one part of a series of readers’ responses to this week’s cover
<http://time.com/3533556/the-war-on-teacher-tenure/?xid=time_readnext>.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20141031/22fcd961/attachment-0001.html>