In a recent opinion piece for Education Week, Arthur Wise of the Center for Teaching Quality writes that current mainstream ideas on how to improve American public schools will result in “at best, a marginal improvement for small numbers of students.” Teacher effectiveness is worthy of increased research, but the proposals for value-added evaluation measures “will work only if schools do not change.”
In short, Wise argues, the problem is not evaluation methods, unions, or school boards that are preventing change. The primary force resisting change is the self-contained classroom. Continued adherence to the “egg crate” school reinforces the status quo, retarding any attempts at transformation. Additionally, when teachers are absent for other activities or responsibilities, a substitute must be found, who is also fully qualified (by whatever measure the state chooses to recognize as “fully qualified”).
Technology has “failed to transform the way schools operate.” It does not substitute for labor, and efforts to improve the distribution of human capital have not been successful overall. Wise cites examples such as the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which was created to certify accomplished teachers who would then share their expertise; however, those certified by the NBPTS have reported they have not had opportunities to mentor. Additionally, tenure is generally awarded “too easily and quickly…[usually] the tenure decision is made by default.” Firing poor performing teachers is difficult, high-quality, individualized PD is hard to come by, and teacher preparation by and large is lacking in practical, longer-term classroom experiences.
Wise encourages every educator to imagine a system that is “free of the tyrannical hold of conventional, self-contained classroom thinking…schools that can responsibly and effectively use short-term teachers, part-time scientists, and community members…with differentiated staffs carrying out roles and responsibilities commensurate with their knowledge and skills…free to devise human-capital strategies that achieve instructional goals at lower costs…and accomplished teachers free to share their expertise with other teachers.”
Wise ends his piece with emphasizing his number one reason for “ending the tyranny:” the student. As Americans we have a choice between stretching the self-contained classroom paradigm “to sizes that are unacceptable to parents, teachers and students.” Or, we can develop teams of teachers and technology that can deliver individualized instruction to meet the needs of each student—to “finally begin to prepare all students for the demands of the 21st century.”
To read the full article, please visit http://tinyurl.com/7bjz498
