No More Excuses!
Posted by: Scott W. Graves | 11/16/2007 6:13 PM
By Jim Gibson
Our public schools are failing our children. I am not saying that all children are failing; some are doing very well. Rather, overall, public education has some major problems. Consider that 30 percent of our children drop out and international tests prove that the United States seriously trails other developed nations in education.
Recently, Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Education, was quoted in the paper as saying, "I have begun an intensive effort to find ways to close the gap that exists between successful students who are often white or Asian and financially well off, and struggling students who are too often poor, Hispanic, African-American, English learner or with a disability." Rather than concern himself with ethnic or economic differences, the state superintendent of public schools must begin by holding public education employees accountable!
Mr. O'Connell is looking for an excuse rather than a solution. I have heard this excuse many times before in various forms from educators. One was so bold as to say "those children (referring to English learners and poor children) just can't learn; this is the best we can do". This is what is known as "soft prejudice of low expectations". What a sad state for our children if their teachers feel this way about them.
Public education's poor results over the years are not because of poor families. It is because public education is an organization that does not hold employees accountable for results. Jack Welch is one of our nation's foremost CEOs and the former leader of General Electric, an extremely successful large corporation. GE holds the philosophy that each employee needs to be evaluated on a regular basis. The top 20 percent of employees in an organization need to be rewarded, and the bottom 10 percent need to be let go.
This may sound harsh but this is the philosophy used in most successful businesses and corporations today. Those individuals who do not produce are encouraged to find work where they can be productive and successful. The basic problem with O'Connell and the education establishment's philosophy is that they blame children for the shortcomings of adults. They need to look at their own public education structure and the way it encourages mediocre performance.
When you do not reward high-performing employees, but rather you treat them the same as the poor performers, you discourage excellence and professionalism. Human nature also plays into this. When those who produce results are treated the same as their non-producing colleagues, they often lose their motivation.
At the same time, the teachers' unions refuse to allow school boards to reward the top-performing teachers financially. Then they make it difficult and sometimes impossible to let poor-performing teachers go. When an employee is never rewarded for results but is rewarded only for time in the job, excellence is not the result.
When administrators are not held accountable, they do not hold teachers accountable. When teachers are not held accountable, we get unprofessional and sometimes quirky programs that are foisted on children as creative teaching. One such quirky idea was the "environmental cheeseburger". A teacher once spent a whole year in math class talking about the environmental impact of a cheeseburger. Test results at the end of the year proved that all the students in that math class went backwards rather than make progress. And yes, some administrators in that district praised this as creative teaching.
Our job in education should be preparing students for real life and to be successful as adults. This requires teaching the core subjects of math, science, history and English by teachers and administrators who are held accountable for the results.
The California Teachers Union (CTA), with its large war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars collected from hard working teachers, is just as much to blame as Mr. O'Connell. The CTA works hard to elect education officials like Mr. O'Connell. They know they must control as many elected officials as possible and strive to elect candidates who oppose educator accountability. The CTA would never support a candidate for office that would require employee accountability. Mr. O'Connell would not have been elected as the state superintendent of public education without the financial power of the teacher's union. The CTA's main goal is power and money--not excellence in education.
Mr. O'Connell and those who agree with his philosophy become enablers of adult dysfunction and are the problem in public education. Mr. O'Connell is the proverbial turtle on the fence post. He could not have gotten there on his own--he had to have the financial might of the CTA. Therefore, he will not do anything that would require CTA members to demonstrate results or hold them responsible for the outcome of their actions.
Because of the CTA and its philosophy, leaders and reformers are often pushed out.
Those who disagree with the philosophy of the education establishment and the CTA are often labeled "anti-public education".
An Army evaluator, Col. Marshall, was asked to study the U. S. Army in combat and made several recommendations for improvements that were loudly criticized but later proved to be highly valuable to the military. His response to the criticism was insightful, "It is time to despair of an institution when those who serve it and profess to love it no longer challenge their own system, or become less critical than those who speak with the valor of ignorance."
It is not the children who are not learning, it is Mr. O'Connell and the adults who profess to love public education who do not learn. Public education is not a jobs program for adults; it is an organization that must be focused on educating our children.
The solution does not require spending money; it requires those paid to lead to hold the educators accountable for results with no more excuses--including Mr. O'Connell.
Most conservatives and elected officials have given up on public education and have allowed it to be overrun by the left and the labor unions. They have surrendered the territory for easier elected grounds. Some have even gone so far as to placate the educational establishment. However our children and tax payers deserve better. We know how to educate children. We do not need more study groups with special interest involvement and influence. What we need is leaders who are willing to take a stand and demand results.
Jim Gibson is the President of the Board of Trustees, Vista Unified School District.
Our public schools are failing our children. I am not saying that all children are failing; some are doing very well. Rather, overall, public education has some major problems. Consider that 30 percent of our children drop out and international tests prove that the United States seriously trails other developed nations in education.
Recently, Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Education, was quoted in the paper as saying, "I have begun an intensive effort to find ways to close the gap that exists between successful students who are often white or Asian and financially well off, and struggling students who are too often poor, Hispanic, African-American, English learner or with a disability." Rather than concern himself with ethnic or economic differences, the state superintendent of public schools must begin by holding public education employees accountable!
Mr. O'Connell is looking for an excuse rather than a solution. I have heard this excuse many times before in various forms from educators. One was so bold as to say "those children (referring to English learners and poor children) just can't learn; this is the best we can do". This is what is known as "soft prejudice of low expectations". What a sad state for our children if their teachers feel this way about them.
Public education's poor results over the years are not because of poor families. It is because public education is an organization that does not hold employees accountable for results. Jack Welch is one of our nation's foremost CEOs and the former leader of General Electric, an extremely successful large corporation. GE holds the philosophy that each employee needs to be evaluated on a regular basis. The top 20 percent of employees in an organization need to be rewarded, and the bottom 10 percent need to be let go.
This may sound harsh but this is the philosophy used in most successful businesses and corporations today. Those individuals who do not produce are encouraged to find work where they can be productive and successful. The basic problem with O'Connell and the education establishment's philosophy is that they blame children for the shortcomings of adults. They need to look at their own public education structure and the way it encourages mediocre performance.
When you do not reward high-performing employees, but rather you treat them the same as the poor performers, you discourage excellence and professionalism. Human nature also plays into this. When those who produce results are treated the same as their non-producing colleagues, they often lose their motivation.
At the same time, the teachers' unions refuse to allow school boards to reward the top-performing teachers financially. Then they make it difficult and sometimes impossible to let poor-performing teachers go. When an employee is never rewarded for results but is rewarded only for time in the job, excellence is not the result.
When administrators are not held accountable, they do not hold teachers accountable. When teachers are not held accountable, we get unprofessional and sometimes quirky programs that are foisted on children as creative teaching. One such quirky idea was the "environmental cheeseburger". A teacher once spent a whole year in math class talking about the environmental impact of a cheeseburger. Test results at the end of the year proved that all the students in that math class went backwards rather than make progress. And yes, some administrators in that district praised this as creative teaching.
Our job in education should be preparing students for real life and to be successful as adults. This requires teaching the core subjects of math, science, history and English by teachers and administrators who are held accountable for the results.
The California Teachers Union (CTA), with its large war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars collected from hard working teachers, is just as much to blame as Mr. O'Connell. The CTA works hard to elect education officials like Mr. O'Connell. They know they must control as many elected officials as possible and strive to elect candidates who oppose educator accountability. The CTA would never support a candidate for office that would require employee accountability. Mr. O'Connell would not have been elected as the state superintendent of public education without the financial power of the teacher's union. The CTA's main goal is power and money--not excellence in education.
Mr. O'Connell and those who agree with his philosophy become enablers of adult dysfunction and are the problem in public education. Mr. O'Connell is the proverbial turtle on the fence post. He could not have gotten there on his own--he had to have the financial might of the CTA. Therefore, he will not do anything that would require CTA members to demonstrate results or hold them responsible for the outcome of their actions.
Because of the CTA and its philosophy, leaders and reformers are often pushed out.
Those who disagree with the philosophy of the education establishment and the CTA are often labeled "anti-public education".
An Army evaluator, Col. Marshall, was asked to study the U. S. Army in combat and made several recommendations for improvements that were loudly criticized but later proved to be highly valuable to the military. His response to the criticism was insightful, "It is time to despair of an institution when those who serve it and profess to love it no longer challenge their own system, or become less critical than those who speak with the valor of ignorance."
It is not the children who are not learning, it is Mr. O'Connell and the adults who profess to love public education who do not learn. Public education is not a jobs program for adults; it is an organization that must be focused on educating our children.
The solution does not require spending money; it requires those paid to lead to hold the educators accountable for results with no more excuses--including Mr. O'Connell.
Most conservatives and elected officials have given up on public education and have allowed it to be overrun by the left and the labor unions. They have surrendered the territory for easier elected grounds. Some have even gone so far as to placate the educational establishment. However our children and tax payers deserve better. We know how to educate children. We do not need more study groups with special interest involvement and influence. What we need is leaders who are willing to take a stand and demand results.
Jim Gibson is the President of the Board of Trustees, Vista Unified School District.
