It’s not a secret that America’s public school systems are failing. I recently watched a documentary by John Stossel called ‘Stupid In America*.’ Stossel investigates the the American public school system, comparing it to other countries (among other things) and going into depth over the involvement of the Teacher’s Union and how it is actually the one of the biggest causes of the failure.
In the video he raises the question about firing bad teachers. Take a moment and see how many teachers you’ve had over the years that you’d consider bad. If you’re like most people you probably were able to name just more than a few.
He interviews various school officials that explained that due to the long and lengthy process most schools don’t even bother trying to fire bad teachers. One person in particular that he interviewed explains how the process canwe sometimes take several years. The Teacher’s Union contract has very strict guidelines when it comes to the firing process. Meant to keep the schools from firing teachers that wouldn’t deserve it, it actually protects those who do deserve it. He went on to explain that he couldn’t even get a teacher fired when it was found that he was emailing a female student and suggesting having sex together.
What is even more interesting is that teachers who didn’t “qualify” to be fired because of various contract rules, but were still found to be unfit to teach are put into something called ‘The Rubber Room.’ While not actually a rubber room, this is a building who teachers go to wait while they have pending charges against them. They still receive full pay.
The union contract also prohibits rewarding good teachers in forms of pay increases. One could argue that public schools turn good teachers into bad teachers.
HOW TO FIRE A TEACHER
Do you want to know why bad teachers never get fired? Check out this document that was featured in the documentary and you’ll quickly find out why.
Here is a Teacher’s Union Firing Chart in a PDF format (871 KB) if you prefer.
The flowchart is so long I split it up in seven pieces. If this was one document, it would be over 4ft. long.
Part 1: 
Part 2: 
Part 3: 
Part 4: 
Part 5: 
Part 6: 
Part 7: 
And lastly, if you’d like to have a copy of the whole document in a .jpg format, download this (1.69 MB).
*The documentary mainly focuses on the public school systems on the east coast. The document detailing what is involved when firing a teacher is from New York. I wasn’t able to find out if each state was different. One could probably assume though that if differences do exist, they are small differences.
I’m a teacher in the southeast. We do not have quite the same protections outlined in the report, but here’s the real deal: define a bad teacher.
You can’t, at least not based on performance. Just because a class underperforms, that may be due to the make up of the class. Last semester I had a class with three students who had parole officers (one passed, two failed). If I fail too many, I get reprimanded…if I fail too few am I really doing those kids a service? On a state test, teachers who “underperformed” were given an extra training class. I didn’t have to go. Why not? My kids were all advanced and so they all passed. Meanwhile, half the kids coming into ninth grade cannot read, and coincidentally half do not make it out of high school. This is a failure on the part of their parents, and the fact that in our system, teachers below ninth grade are not allowed to fail students. This is again largely due to parental pressure.
My state mandates observation of teachers in the classroom 1 to 3 times per year for 20 minutes per observation. Thats it. That is not really enough documentation to fire a teacher.
Also, lets look at salaries. If the salaries (and job conditions) were higher, more highly qualified people would enter the field. We could afford to fire bad apples. But we can’t, there is a huge shortage.
If you have a degree in math or science, or even foreign language, go to your local district. Even without a teaching degree, they will probably have you in front of students within days (you might have to pass a test in your field first). Trust me, thats how I got my job.
Just like any profession, you can find good and bad people. To me, the definition of a bad teacher is a teacher’s who classrooms constantly under perform.
You can say it was your students that didn’t want to learn, or you can blame school administration. You can blame the teachers who previously taught the students. Ironically, American school children while in grade school usually test up with other countries. It is when they move into middle school (if available) or high school is when you see the drop. I had some wonderful grade school teachers, but as I transitioned into high school I started to see the quality of the teachers dropping. Like any other job, however, if you continue to under perform, you should be fired. At my job, if I continue to under perform, I get fired.
Now, can there be exceptions? Is a high school teacher to blame if he gets a class full of kids who don’t want to do anything? I guess one could argue that it is “too late” for these kids.
Teacher’s have no incentive to excel. If you are the best teacher in your school, your students love you, your class performance is high, you are paid the same as a teacher who is hated with low performing classes. In the documentary I mentioned, that address this very subject.
You bring up the point of salaries. In non-public school’s where the Teacher’s Union has no influence, teachers DO get paid more. They know they can be fired at any time (again, like any job) if they under perform.
Thanks for the reply. If you can, take an hour out of your day and watch the documentary. My soon-to-be-wife is a teacher and really liked it. We need to get the federal government OUT of our schools. We need to allow parents to choose where they want their child to go to school. This, in turn, will increase competition between (much like businesses do) the schools. Attach the money a student costs a year to be schooled to the student.
(side note - Teachers in private schools actually get paid LESS than public.)
Teachers in the system know that the changes that go on in a student’s life, particularly among boys, happen right when people start blaming the school for the problem. About 6th to 8th grade, the middle school years, peer pressure kicks in and boys start dropping out. Our concentration on standardized testing rather than giving them the critical thinking skills doesn’t help, and we start “teaching to the test” which I personally refuse to do. Ironically, in our bid to find underperformance we are generating underperformers who won’t have the skills or experience for the job they want down the road. Search “John Paul Gatto” (former NY teacher of the year) for some interesting opinions on how the system should be run. Search for Negroponte’s (I can never remember if its Nick or John - the one that was at MIT, not the one in charge of intelligence) reasoning as to why the OLPC project won’t work in America - its all about our over-reliance on unreliable assessment. The system is screwed up and we have to fix that before we start blaming teachers.
I don’t think it’s blaming teachers as much as blaming the Teacher’s Union. There are tons of good teachers out there who get stuck in a broken system, and eventually turn bad.
Teachers who are not in the Teacher’s Union, from what I’ve seen and heard, tend to do better and have a better success rate. Because, you have to be good to keep your job.
Not to beat a dead horse, but in Georgia, we tend to compete for 49th place and feel proud when we aren’t last. No union. The states with high scores - strong union, low scores - no union. I am not saying that is causation, I think that there are two correlations: 1)southern states have a more rural, less educated population historically 2) southern states tend to be less unionized.
I think 1 is a stronger correlation over 2. I don’t think it is about the quality of the teachers, it is the quality of the kids. The system and how we measure the kids is still screwed up. Oh yeah, Ms Teen South Carolina who is all over YouTube right now - non-union
The difference is that kids are still forced into a school. If they were given the choice, you’d see better scores.
Imagine if you went shopping for clothes, and because you lived in a certain area you can only go to this one store. That store doesn’t sell anything in your style, or even in your favorite colors. Too bad, you have to shop there. No, that idea is ridiculous. You go where you want and has things you want. Going to school should be the same way.
If any kid could pick any school, that would create competition among the schools. They would hire better teachers, remove bad teachers, etc. The money is attached to the kid, not the school. Imagine the types of schools that would pop up. You’d get schools for people interested in computers. So, along with the normal material, they have a large focus on technology. We are one of the only countries that does NOT allow students and parents to pick what school they want to. All this of course without the Teacher’s Union.
So you’re right, getting rid of the Teacher’s Union alone won’t solve the problem. It isn’t that simple. But you can’t blame it on puberty, or kids being kids, because these low test scores and the low overall education is something around 25th in the world. So we know that children and teens, given the proper learning environment, with the qualified teachers can be pretty damn smart.
Chinese Math Test: (Pre-college entrance)
http://www.decimation.com/markw/images/teacher/math1.gif
English Math Test: (First year college test)
http://www.decimation.com/markw/images/teacher/math2.gif
The solution you espouse - school choice - may well work in certain areas of the country, or more specifically, certain portions of some states and cities. But the danger is that it will lead to a stratification of education with poorer (not financially) students congregating in poorer performing schools leading to those schools performing worse, etc in a continuing downward spiral leading eventually to a, probably very large and expanding, permanent underclass of uneducated adults with all that that implies - crime and civil unrest. (Denying the children of illegal aliens an education is a good start down that road)
I can’t speak for what may be happening today, but when I was in Germany in the 1960’s their students performed at an exceptionally high standard. However, at age 12, a child was placed on one of two educational paths - academic or technical. That was it. Your future was determined - College or ditch-digging (metaphorically speaking). Of course German high school “Students” excelled. The under-performers were culled at age 12. This was, and may still be, the norm in Europe and, I expect, in countries world wide where social class lines are strong and movement from the lower classes to the higher is practically impossible. Born a peasant, die a peasant.
Happily, the US is not as class-conscious as most of the world (not that we don’t have plenty of other problems). The US “IDEAL” (seldom realized) is “equal opportunity”. I believe that “School choice”, as it’s generally described, would be a step away from that ideal. Any parent that wishes to do so, may “Home school” their children (my youngest wouldn’t hear of such a thing) or may send their children to private schools (I had 12 years of private school, a did my 4 brothers and sisters).
Unfortunately, not all children are endowed with equal intelligence, equal motivation and/or equally motivated parents, but the public schools are charged with educating them in any case.
And a word about teachers unions… There is an ABSOLUTE necessity to insulate teachers from the vagaries of local school boards. “Tenure” is an absolute necessity to maintain educational integrity. Where teacher’s unions may have gone too far, they should be reigned in, but in most cases, that “going too far” is in response to school boards “going to far” (e.g. Kansas vis-a-vis evolution).
It may well be that many unions - of all strips - in America have “lost their way”… that they have forgotten that they were born of a necessity for social justice for workers. But take a look at the history of the rise of the industrial unions in the 1930’s or the rise of teachers unions in the 1960’s(?). You may not be so dismissive or critical of them.
Actually, using systems like seen in other countries, it doesn’t hurt poorer students, it helps them.
In America, each school spends x number of dollars per student, per year. This money isn’t attached to the student, it is attached to the school. I’m saying we reverse that. We attach the money to the student. That way, they can choose where to go to school, and the money follows. Since the money follows the student, and schools want money, they compete.
When you attach money to the student and give them (the parents) the freedom to choose a school that best suits the child. An example would be a student who is skimming buy with C’s and D’s. Is this student stupid? Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe all he needs is a different environment that will help him focus on the areas he struggles in. Maybe that student learns best in an more interactive environment. If the money was attached to the child, he/she would be able find a school that suits his/her needs.
Not all children do have equal intelligence or equal motivation, but every child should have a chance to develop his or herself.
I have no problems with unions, in theory (and sometimes in practice) they work great. Unfortunately, like anything, you can’t plan for human greed/selfishness/etc. In theory, the Teacher’s Union is a great thing. I’m sure it has saved many good teachers their job. But now, they have policies and rules, mixed with politics, that it is now harming the education of students.
But, even before doing any of this, if you want to make any progress you need to remove federal government from policing the education system.
I think that people need to look first to a child’s home. I’m not saying that Unions are not to blame, but if parents were more involved in their children’s education, maybe the US success rates would rise a little.
Schools often assume the parents are unable to help the child, why is that? After all, most of them went through school themselves. Making parents accountable may pressure them to follow their children’s academics with more interest.
Laura wrote:
That is a huge factor. It doesn’t matter how good the education system the student is in if the parent(s) don’t care.
Not sure you could ever counter that. Nothing will be perfect. But if you make the learning environment the best it can be, regardless if the parents care or not, that child will have a better chance.
The majority of the failure in students lies with the parents.
Private school teachers make significantly less than public school teachers. In many cases, less than half.
…and hence my decision to homeschool. I can’t blame my children’s success or falure on anyone but myself…but seriously, I just got back from the Middle East where after making the first foolish mistake to teach Middle-School kids, I flat out refused to teach above sixth grade. It had nothing to do with my ability as a teacher, I just didn’t like playing police woman, then being blamed when their children didn’t succeed with flying colors.
What saddens me is that so many students don’t really have ANY sort of choice. In America today, almost everywhere you live the schools available to you are determined by your zip code. If you can’t afford private/parish schools and the parents don’t have the time and effort available to homeschool…you’re stuck.
Many single parents and even married ones are in just this awful situation, and it is a direct contradiction to the ‘American dream’. If you’re born in a poor neighborhood today, you have no recourse but to attend the run-down mess that is your local public school. For your money it’s the only game in town.
In essence we are sentencing young minds to hellholes where gangs are worshipped, classes are large, unwieldy and noisy
(which can be murder for some students that simply NEED a quiet class), and teachers are lemons passed from another school.
The education situation has become such a nightmare that some parents have resorted to breaking the law, lying about where they live so that their children can go to a better school.
That, my friends, is the ultimate shame to our nation…when a desperate mom and dad deliberatly lie to government officals so that their kids can be educated in a safer and saner environment. 
This has to stop. Public schools have a virtual stranglehold on educating American kids - and their teachers unions make it all but impossible to fire deadwood.
How long before we realize that a monopoly on telephone service (the bad old days of Ma Bell and high bills/lousy service and illegal answering machines) is every bit as bad for us as a monopoly on schooling? How long?
this website is awsome i might use it !!!
stupid website i luv all of my teachers