Why Is It So Hard To Make Teachers Better?

A couple of lines from the article.

A major focus of K-12 education reform should be placing a highly effective teacher in every classroom.

In the last four decades, student-teacher ratios and class sizes have fallen dramatically. A majority of teachers now have master’s degrees. Spending per student has quadrupled, after allowing for inflation. Teacher experience is at postwar highs, and few teachers lack formal certification.

Despite all this, student performance today is roughly the same as it was in 1970. This is in large part thanks to the inability to improve the quality of our teachers

The magnitude of the differences in effectiveness among teachers is impressive. For example, looking at the range of quality for teachers within a single large urban district, teachers near the top of the quality distribution elicited an entire year’s worth of additional learning out of their students (during a single academic year) compared to those near the bottom

Teachers respond to incentives. But the current incentive systems used in public education do not make student achievement the chief objective.

If we could replace the bottom 5 to 10 percent of teachers with an average teacher—not a superstar—we could dramatically improve student achievement.

From the Hover Institution Journal

"Why Is It So Hard To Make Teachers Better?"


UNION LEADERS & democraps!

Because under the current plan, you are paid more not based on effectiveness but only based on how long you have been there.

We need to rethink the whole system. Schools today are baby sitters. There is no incentive for students to learn no matter how good the teacher is. There are teachers who should have been fired years ago still teaching and no incentive for teachers to get better. Discipline can't be enforced as it needs to be. To many students have the attitude that they don't need to learn because the government will take care of them. We need to reward the students that exceed and fail the ones that do not try.

eaglebear wrote: We need to rethink the whole system. Schools today are baby sitters. There is no incentive for students to learn no matter how good the teacher is. There are teachers who should have been fired years ago still teaching and no incentive for teachers to get better. Discipline can't be enforced as it needs to be. To many students have the attitude that they don't need to learn because the government will take care of them. We need to reward the students that exceed and fail the ones that do not try.

Well, I take issue with that. Conifer High School was just ranked 434 out of all High Schools in the country. It has more advanced AP students than just about every other school in the state. For it to be that good, the teachers have to be that good. For it to be that good (again) then the feeder schools (elementary and middle) have to be good.

We have a damn good school system up here. I know many of these students that are in our system, and many that have graduated, and I am very positive that our future is in capable hands. These kids are bright and smart.

Blanket statements like yours really upset me. Can you back up your words with facts?

Stop bailing out Wall Street and pay teachers more to attract better talent. At the rate they are paid now, you will really mostly get baby sitters. Educating the next generation should be a priority for those who care about America. Without an educated next generation, America will fade and become another civilization that is relegated to the history books.

I believe not only the teachers need to be part of the solution, but so do parents, school administrators, and the students. One of the best things I did with my boys when they were in high school was empower them to choose and when they reached an age, to make, their own decisions after weighing the pros and cons. My eldest took complete control of his last year and a half of school and graduated with a "B" average...even after the principal called him into her office, put a form in front of him to sign and told him to drop out...that at his age he'd never graduate.

After realizing that he'd have to complete another semester of high school if he couldn't get enough credits, my youngest worked with the teachers and administrators to take on-line classes so he could graduate on time...and he graduated with a "B" average, too.

I don't know that any one teacher either of the boys had was fantastic...there were some that were certainly better than others, but it was a combination of me, my boys, their teachers, the school counselor, and the administration to include the school psychologist, that helped my boys graduate...and it was all of the schools they attended in Washington State, DoDDS in Italy, and in Texas that empowered them and taught them as well as the people they were around.

It does take a village...

eaglebear wrote: Schools today are baby sitters.

Wardens

eaglebear wrote: There are teachers who should have been fired years ago still teaching and no incentive for teachers to get better.

TOTALLY AGREE!

eaglebear wrote: Discipline can't be enforced as it needs to be. To many students have the attitude that they don't need to learn because the government will take care of them.

TOTALLY AGREE!

eaglebear wrote: We need to reward the students that exceed and fail the ones that do not try.

TOTALLY AGREE!The very same method that the government uses reward failure, and punish success.

If you want to look at education logically and not as a hot button political/partisan issue (is that even possible anymore?) education in America is damned good- if you are white and wealthy. Schools in wealthy neighborhoods that are homogeneous perform at the top of the pack. Massachussetts boasts scores as good as those in Finland and Japan.

TPP wrote:

eaglebear wrote: Schools today are baby sitters.

Wardens

Are you saying that the only reason we have schools is to babysit kids and keep them out of trouble? If so, please provide a source.

TPP wrote:

eaglebear wrote: There are teachers who should have been fired years ago still teaching and no incentive for teachers to get better.

TOTALLY AGREE!

Teachers work for the love of teaching (and money.) To make a blanket statement that teachers have no incentive to get better just shows the ignorance of you both. Go talk to a public school teacher and read them that sentence above. See what they say.
I do agree that if a teacher is not performing, they should be let go. Are you saying that there is no mechanism in place to fire a teacher? If so, please provide your source. I'm fairly sure that teachers can be fired or reassigned if they are not performing. Again, go talk to a teacher and ask them if they are worried about performance reviews. They are.

TPP wrote:

eaglebear wrote: Discipline can't be enforced as it needs to be. To many students have the attitude that they don't need to learn because the government will take care of them. TOTALLY AGREE!

I would suggest that you visit a school and discuss with the principal the procedures they have for disciplining students. I can assure you that they do have discipline (or else chaos would reign - which it does not.) I would also encourage you to call the local High School and ask them about their discipline procedures, but then, you probably mean that since faculty are not allowed to strike students, there is no discipline. If I am incorrect in my assumption here, please enlighten me.

TPP wrote:

eaglebear wrote: We need to reward the students that exceed and fail the ones that do not try.

TOTALLY AGREE!The very same method that the government uses reward failure, and punish success.

They do reward students that succeed. (I assume you meant succeed?) Schools have these things called grades, by which students' progress and competence is determined. At graduation, the really successful students, with high grades, usually get scholarships that help them to pay for furthering their education.

Those that do not succeed do not graduate.