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<div class="timestamp">September 17, 2012</div>
<h1>How to Fix the Schools</h1>
<h6 class="byline">By
<span><span>JOE NOCERA</span></span></h6>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
No matter how quickly the Chicago teachers’ strike ends, whether it is
this afternoon or two months from now, it’s not going to end well for
the city’s public school students. Yes, I know; that’s the hoariest of
clichés. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. </p>
<p>
It’s not just the school days that are being lost. Far more important, the animosity between <a href="http://www.ctunet.com/">the Chicago Teachers Union</a>
and Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration will undoubtedly linger
long after the strike ends. The battle will end, but the war between
education reformers and urban public schoolteachers will go on. </p>
<p>
Teachers — many of them — will continue to resent efforts to use
standardized tests to measure their ability to teach. Their leaders —
some of them — will denounce the “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/michelle-rhees-backers-in_n_1300146.html">billionaire hedge fund managers</a>”
who are financing many of the reform efforts. Reformers will continue
to view teachers’ unions as the greatest roadblock to higher student
achievement. How can such a poisonous atmosphere <em>not</em> affect
what goes on in the classroom? Alienated labor is never a good thing.
“It is not possible to make progress with your students if you are at
war with your teachers,” says Marc Tucker. </p>
<p>
Tucker, 72, a former senior education official in Washington, is <a href="http://www.ncee.org/about-ncee/our-people/leadership/marc-s-tucker/">the president of the National Center on Education and the Economy</a>, which he founded in 1988. Since then <a title="A pdf" href="http://ebookbrowse.com/marc-tucker-standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants-an-american-agenda-for-education-reform-pdf-d381288002">he has focused much of his research</a> on comparing public education in the United States with that of places that have <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/sep/11/education-compared-oecd-country-pisa">far better results</a>
than we do — places like Finland, Japan, Shanghai and Ontario, Canada.
His essential conclusion is that the best education systems share common
traits — almost none of which are embodied in either the current
American system or in the reform ideas that have gained sway over the
last decade or so. He can sound frustrated when he talks about it.
</p>
<p>
“We have to find a way to work with teachers and unions while at the
same time working to greatly raise the quality of teachers,” he told me
recently. He has some clear ideas about how to go about that. His
starting point is not the public schools themselves but the universities
that educate teachers. Teacher education in America is vastly inferior
to many other countries; we neither emphasize pedagogy — i.e., how to
teach — nor demand mastery of the subject matter. Both are a given in
the top-performing countries. (Indeed, it is striking how many nonprofit
education programs in the U.S. are aimed at helping working teachers do
a better job — because they’ve never learned the right techniques.)
</p>
<p>
What is also a given in other countries is that teaching has a status
equal to other white-collar professionals. That was once true in
America, but Tucker believes that a quarter-century of income inequality
saw teachers lose out at the expense of lawyers and other well-paid
professionals. That is a large part of the reason that teachers’ unions
have become so obstreperous: It is not just that they feel underpaid,
but they feel undervalued. Tucker believes that teachers should be paid
more — though not exorbitantly. But making teacher education more
rigorous — and imbuing the profession with more status — is just as
important. “Other countries have raised their standards for getting into
teachers’ colleges,” he told me. “We need to do the same.” </p>
<p>
Second, he believes that it makes no sense to demonize unions. “If you
look at the countries with the highest performance, many of them have
very strong unions. There is no correlation between the strength of the
unions and student achievement,” he says. </p>
<p>
Instead, he points to the example of Ontario, where a decade ago, a new
government decided to embrace the teachers’ unions — to treat them as
partners instead of as adversaries. The result? Ontario now has some of
the best student achievement in the world. (Alas, relations between
teachers and the government have recently deteriorated after a two-year
wage freeze was imposed.) </p>
<p>
High-performing countries don’t abandon teacher standards. On the
contrary. Teachers who feel part of a collaborative effort are far more
willing to be evaluated for their job performance — just like any other
professional. It should also be noted that none of the best-performing
countries rely as heavily as the U.S. does on the blunt instrument of
standardized tests. That is yet another lesson we have failed to learn.
</p>
<p>
The Chicago teachers’ strike exemplifies, in stark terms, how misguided
the battle over education has become. The teachers are fighting for the
things industrial unions have always fought for: seniority, favorable
work rules and fierce resistance to performance measures. City Hall is
fighting to institute reforms no top-performing country has ever seen
fit to use, and which probably won’t make much difference if they are
instituted. </p>
<p>
The answer lies elsewhere — in a different approach to teaching
education and to dealing with the unions. It won’t be easy, but it is
not impossible. It’s the way forward. </p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>