I respect Tom Horne. After all, the guy was a classroom teacher before . . . Oh wait, he wasn't a classroom teacher. He's never taught.
Okay, but I respect the guy. He was a principal and understands . . . Oh, it turns out he wasn't an administrator at all.
No, but I still respect the guy. He was a school board member who led a low-SES, largely minority student population. Oops, got that wrong as well. It turns out he was superintendent of the wealthiest, highest achieving district in the state. He has no experience with minorities, ELL students or students in poverty.
Well, perhaps he has executive experience? Nope. Maybe he worked a blue-collar job and understands the difficulty of living in a down economy? Wrong again. Tom Horne was a wealthy lawyer who became passionate about "fixing" Arizona's educational system and eventually marketed his way into the state legislature. At least he attended a public university? No, he's a Harvard graduate who was born into privilege.
At least Arizona hasn't dropped in our educational rankings? Wrong again. If we're judging by the standards he uses to judge teachers, we've moved from 48th in the nation to 50th. So, while he has certainly earned the years in tenure, lets hope the voters base their decision next time on achievement levels.
Incidentally, Vermont, which kicks Arizona's ass in achievement, is led by a former middle school teacher who attended (gasp!) a public university. I don't live in Vermont and I don't know what it is like there, but I have a hunch their approach might be a little different from our state.
picture taken from http://cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/hornedebate.jpg
13 comments:
It is impossible to know what it's really like to teach unless you've been there. Also, being there sometime in the last decade helps. One of my worst administrators was a librairian in a former life and based all of his decisions on research studies. He never even tried to see the real picture and get to know the teachers and students. I feel your pain.
Anyone who has taken the time to learn the Dewey Decimal System should be barred from administration.
he looks like he could be related to Rush!
I love when you get perturbed. It's endearing.
Have you in my reader and enjoy over half of what I get.
However, this post really confuses me. You mean someone finally saying that a teacher who has been here for 10 years isn't automatically better than a teacher who has been here for 5 years, is bad?
@ Anonymous
No, that's not the problem at all. The problem is that school districts operate on market norms. For all the talk of being student-centered, they are corporations under a budget crisis.
What this means is that they reward teachers based upon seniority with a salary schedule. My concern is this:
1. Electives and "non-core" teachers will be considered superfluous. If a district needs to cut $200,000, one option is to fire eight of their veteran elective teachers and replace them with new teachers.
2. Tenure comes with a certain leverage for teachers. They have more of a potential to criticize top administrators through the use of the union. I fear that active union members will become targets.
3. The current system has a method of firing bad teachers. It's the improvement plan / evaluation process. Truly unethical things are already grounds for being fired. So, why not continue to use this process?
I write this as a guy who is far from veteran in my status. However, I can see why a lack of consideration of seniority can be a real problem.
John, love your emotion & an interesting read. Of course i'm sure we disagree here, but tenure, while well-intended, is an absolute joke in practice. Sarah has a tenured coworker who literally has a recliner in his room that he teaches from. One guy sleeps during meetings, and another swears and turns red with anger, and oftentimes flat-out refuses to participate in initiatives. Fired, fired and fired in the world I work in. Regardless, I get a kick out of learning more about the differences between teachers in the workplace and the rest of the world in the workplace. And of course, I have a great respect for teachers, as my wife is one... just bizzare to me how the expectations are so drastically different between teachers and everyone else I know. in my opinion, there is practically no where else to modern non-unionized workers have any expectation that their seniority matters for jack anymore. not saying it should or shouldn't either way, just the reality of the workplace that I have experienced. Of course, I've heard the arguments for tenure as well, and I get the underlying idea, but it has certainlly gone to far in its modern implementation.
On a related note, I think a lot of your teacher readers "get" where you are coming from, but for us non-teachers, it can be somewhat difficult to grasp from time to time. To that, i have an idea for a book I want you to write for non-teachers about what the solution to the problems with standarazation and scoring actually is, and how it could be practically implemented in today's globally-competative economy.
After reading your book, I think get your sages & lunitics thing for teachers recapturing a more personal and perhaps Socratic view toward their vocation (which i know is a very important word/idea to you in and of itself). And I think I somewhat get your frustration with the autocratic nature of your business. But I want to understand how this translates to society, all the pragmatic implications, how it is sold to voters/taxpayers, and why it creates a better "product" for lack of a better word. (My apologies for using it.) So bottom-line, what is the solution, exactly?
I know its complex and not looking for an answer in a blog comment, but I think it would be a really interesting read if you had the time and ability to oranize you thoughts around this. Especially, I think it would be really great for us non-teachers to get an idea of how you would create the "system" if you were given absolute power and a blank slate. Since we (the non-teachers) are the dummies who elect the politicians that ultimately control a good portion of what you do for a living, I would love to see some practical, intricate, perhaps even pithy explainations. How would you make things better, specifically and systematically?
I can think of many places where laziness goes unnoticed in corporate America - where it is all about who you know rather than how well you work. There is often a good-old-boys club that exists. When I worked for an insurance company that was the case as was the case at the grocery store. You've worked in a workplace environment that tends to be incredibly globalized. Not every place is.
I would argue that thinking well about life, being a better critical thinker, etc. do translate to the workplace. It's why many of the best innovators came from Montessori schools, Waldorf academies or a parochial environment. All of those implement a more authentic approach.
With that said, I don't have the "big ideas." In fact, I've really considered writing a book about solutions within the notion of paradox:
1. Teaching to the student but knowing the reality of the test
2. Helping students connect locally and teaching them the reality of the global society
3. Getting students to think critically while also helping them think humbly about what they don't know
4. Preparing students to think well about life (a very classic view) and preparing them for jobs (a vocational view)
To me, that's where I'd like reform. At my heart I am a centrist, not in the sense of being "in the middle" as much as holding two opposite sides in constant tension.
In that sense, the book would probably be irrelevant to reform, since the solutions would all be both/and rather than either/or
What do you think, Dan?
Makes sense, and I tend to agree with you in many regards. At the same time, I think that is exactly why we will continue to face frustration as a nation when it comes to our collective education (or the education system we collectively support, depending on how one looks at it.) People want quantatative feedback on their investments - I think that is just human nature - but perhaps some of our best ideas, and the results thereof, are more qualitative in nature. And of course, with education, results are not always necessarily immediate, but we (tax-payers, non-teachers) expect them to be. And as our world becomes increasingly connected, competative economic forces tend to demand something other than what you posit, at least to some regard. This is especially true in the sciences.
Its something I certainly don't have the answer for, but I guess I was hoping you had some concrete ideas floating around your brain that I could coax you to codify. I still think it would be a valuable, albeit lofty, exrcise for you to sit down and try to propose some sort of holistic solution. I wonder what the result of doing so would be, but I think it could be valuable.
And in terms of laziness in the workplace and what have you, you'll have no argument from me. I just think the expectations are a little different between sets of workers. For instance, if I wrote a public blog calling Francisco D'Sousa, the CEO of the company that I work for, and idiot, I would absolutely expect to get let go for it. Its just weird to me to see teachers get away with some of the things that they do. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't get away with them, mind you; its just that the expectations for actually being able to are drastically different between anywhere I've ever worked, and "teacher world". Of course, I don't expect to have a whole heck of a lot of people chime in and agree with me on your blog, and I'm definitely not trying to incent an argument.
Disclaimer: my wife, sister, sister-in-law and 2 aunts are teachers. I love teachers and am greatful for the teachers I've had in my life. I swear i'm not trying to be a jerk. you guys are just sort of weird, is all ;)
... oh and I think that this should go with out saying, but just for the record: I have a tremendous amount of respect for you personally, John, and think I would have been lucky to learn from you as a student. I might be a little broken-hearted if you didn't tell me what percentile of the class I ranked in at, but I think i'd learn to deal with it.
Thanks, Dan.
Incidentally, I wouldn't criticize my superintendent or my principal. However, Horne is an elected official who doesn't directly control my teaching contract.
If you wrote a blog post insulting a publicly-elected lawmaker in your industry, I would consider it a part of the democratic process.
Great post, John!!
I'm helping Jason Williams fight for that office next election cycle. Want to help with either human capital or financial capital?
Shoot me an email!
i can't believe you have over twelve comments on something so political and then when you go philosophical and poetic no one responds
you're best when you're personal
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