For John, BLUF: This could spark a revolution. Nothing to see here; just move along.
"California court rules teacher tenure creates impermissible unequal conditions". Ouch!
The article linked to here is by Reporter Lyndsey Layton, of The Washington Post, datelined June 11, 2014
A Los Angeles judge Tuesday struck down teacher tenure and other California laws that offer job security to educators, a decision that is expected to trigger widespread challenges of teacher job protections nationwide.Here is a link to the ruling itself.Plaintiffs in the case argued that California children who are poor receive an inferior education because they are saddled with the weakest teachers, who are entrenched in their jobs and are difficult to fire. Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu sided with the plaintiffs against some of the most powerful labor unions in the country, striking down California’s teacher employment laws because he determined that they violate students’ civil rights.
There are a number of challenges ongoing to our current way of doing schooling. Even the Catholic Worker, earlier this year, had an article against the current system. The author off that article asserted literacy rates have been down hill ever since our current system of education was instituted here in Massachusetts before the Civil War. Recently one school system abolished its schools and went for vouchers for all.
I have seen this ruling mentioned in several places, including postings at Althouse and Instapundit. And it isn't like the larger issue wasn't touched on by City Life this morning.
Regards — Cliff
1 comment:
Good on CA!!!!!! I can finally applaud something that the Golden State has done. Teacher tenure has been an obscenity with absolutely no relationship to teaching quality. If a teacher is good, longevity in employment is simply not a problem. It is the slugs that need "law" to guarantee their job....and it is the slugs who are ruining American education. You ALWAYS get more of what you reward.
Education....learning....knowledge...has never been a priority for the masses in America. Thus, in far too many instances, teachers were given a sort of niche place in the community but not paid much as it was viewed as a calling rather than a job...almost like becoming a nun or a nurse.
If we reward excellence in teaching, we will get more excellence.....and to achieve that...we need to consider teaching a PROFESSION and develop REAL standards of performance and preparation. Too often in today's education community, preparation follows the old axiom for surgical medicine...."See one, do one, teach one."
Simultaneously, we need to remove non-educators from the development of curricula and employ true, verified subject matter experts to provide subject matter materials. Today, what is taught is far too often the articulation of someone's agenda. At the very least, students need to be exposed to all the possibilities in a particular aspect of a subject....and then given the tools to decide through analysis of that information what is truth and what is trivia. In almost no instance today are secondary school graduates able to employ analytical thought in order to synthesize conclusions that are valid and work. This is largely the fault of our assembly line education system in which memorization is essential to passing the vaunted standardized test...which is used more to assess teaching "effectiveness" than learning outcomes.
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