Teachers are heroes, not villains, and it"s time to stop demonizing them.
It has become fashionable to blame all of society"s manifold sins and wickedness on "teachers unions," as if it were possible to separate these supposedly evil organizations from the dedicated public servants who belong to them. Collective bargaining is not the problem, and taking that right away from teachers will not fix the schools.
The fact is that teachers are being saddled with absurdly high expectations. Some studies have shown a correlation between student performance and teacher "effectiveness," depending how this elusive quality is measured, but there is a whole body of academic literature proving the stronger correlation between student performance and a much more important variable: family income. Yes, I"m talking about poverty. Sorry to be so
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, but when teachers point out the relationship between income and achievement, they"re not shirking responsibility. They"re just stating an inconvenient truth.
According to figures compiled by the College Board, students from families making more than $200,000 score more than 300 points higher on the SAT, on average, than students from families making less than $20,000 a year. There is, in fact, a clear relationship all the way along the scale; Each increment in higher family income translates into points on the test. Sean Rcardon of Stanford University"s Center for Education Policy Analysis concluded in a recent study that the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students is actually widening. It is unclear why this might be happening; maybe it is due to increased income inequality, maybe the relationship between income and achievement has somehow become stronger, maybe there is some other reason.
Whatever the cause, our society"s answer seems to be: Beat up the teachers. We tend to believe that most of the teachers in low-income, low-performing schools are incompetent—and, by extension, that most of the teachers in upper-crust schools, where students perform well, are paragons of pedagogical virtue. But some of the most dedicated and talented teachers I"ve ever met were working in "failing" inner-city schools. And yes, in award-winning schools where "all the children are above average", I"ve met some unimaginative hacks who should never be allowed near a classroom.
It is reasonable to hold teachers accountable for their performance, but it is not reasonable—or, in the end, productive" to hold them accountable for factors that lie far beyond their control. It is fair to insist that teachers approach their jobs with the assumption that every single child, rich or poor, can succeed. It is not fair to expect teachers to correct all the imbalances and remedy all the pathologies that result from growing inequality in our society. Portraying teachers as villains doesn"t help a single child. Ignoring the reasons for the education gap in this country is no way to close it. And there"s a better way to learn about the crisis than going to the movies. Visit a school instead.