At Peach Pundit, Rep. Buzz Brockway presents a provocative thesis. We have very low teacher turnover in this state, less than 2% per year. Given the shocking APS scandal and interim Superintendent Errol Morris' continued struggle to rid the rickety system of the rot, that incredibly low number seems to indicate the root problem lies in the contortions required to rid ourselves of bad teachers..
What if the answer lies in the other direction? Is that low number due to too many protections for public school teachers or could it be because it's difficult to find replacements for bad teachers? Do administrators keep below average educators because they know they can't find anyone better?
I do not know the answer but I suspect my hypothesis has some weight. We've all heard the difficulties in finding new teachers - low pay, stress, few rewards. Doesn't it follow that these factors would limit the labor pool thereby limiting turnover?
Perhaps, we should start looking at the front end of this pig instead of always looking at the back end.
Showing posts with label Atlanta Public Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlanta Public Schools. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
In The Trenches Of Public Service
No one pulls the heart strings like Doug Monroe.
For the past three years, he has been doing God's work in one of the toughest schools in New York City. His stories of Ann, the bright kid limited by a poor test score, and the "peanut butter kid" will bring many a tear to many an eye. And I'm sure that's partly what Doug intended.
They also expose an oft neglected standard for judging the performance of our children and how they are taught - context. As Doug notes, we have become seduced by the hard numbers. The only results we accept are those that place our most precious resources in silos of data points.
Data does not always tell the story and context matters.
However, as much as we want to empathize with these two wandering souls, context doesn't scale.
We cannot judge our schools on the individual stories of every child whose talents do not fit neatly in a box.We still need some firm way to judge thousands of students spread across patchworks of school yards and districts.
Between the obvious failures of the cold hard numbers mill of the Atlanta Public School system and the poor child quietly munching a PB&J, the solution must lay. It is time to explore that unknown territory and discover if we can bridge the two.
For the past three years, he has been doing God's work in one of the toughest schools in New York City. His stories of Ann, the bright kid limited by a poor test score, and the "peanut butter kid" will bring many a tear to many an eye. And I'm sure that's partly what Doug intended.
They also expose an oft neglected standard for judging the performance of our children and how they are taught - context. As Doug notes, we have become seduced by the hard numbers. The only results we accept are those that place our most precious resources in silos of data points.
Data does not always tell the story and context matters.
However, as much as we want to empathize with these two wandering souls, context doesn't scale.
We cannot judge our schools on the individual stories of every child whose talents do not fit neatly in a box.We still need some firm way to judge thousands of students spread across patchworks of school yards and districts.
Between the obvious failures of the cold hard numbers mill of the Atlanta Public School system and the poor child quietly munching a PB&J, the solution must lay. It is time to explore that unknown territory and discover if we can bridge the two.
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