The changing education coalition

by David Safier

Nicholas Kristof's op ed in this morning's NY Times is a clear indication that the usual left/right, liberal/conservative lines in education are breaking down. Arne Duncan and Obama are part of a growing trend toward creating a new educational dynamic in the country, for good and/or for ill.

The wheel is still very much in spin right now. I'm both hopeful it will lead to improved education and fearful it will corporatize education while it takes hard earned rights away from strong, creative teachers.

Kristof is definitely pro charters, as am I. But I'm concerned he hasn't looked into some of the dangers of large, national EMOs (Education Management Organizations) which move educational control even farther away from communities, not to mention the fact that charters often operate under the radar, which allows for lots of potential financial and educational abuse. And he wants schools to have greater ability to fire bad teachers, but I don't think he understands what happens when the balance shifts to the point where teachers feel they have to suck up to the boss/principal/superintendent, at the expense of their students' educations, for fear of being fired. Some of the best teachers I know had regular confrontations with their administrators and were protected from disciplining and firing by active unions. Unions protect good teachers as well as bad ones.

These kinds of issues always arise when change is in the air. Will educational changes be on the side of the angels of our better natures, or will they be hijacked by the devils looking out for their limited self interests? It's a risk we have to take, but we need to be vigilant. Change can be good, but beware of hucksters bearing slogans. Kristof is no huckster. I just hope he pays enough attention to the issue not to be taken in by smooth talkers with bad ideas.

Here is the heart of what Kristof is saying:

Research has underscored that what matters most in education — more than class size or spending or anything — is access to good teachers. A study found that if black students had four straight years of teachers from the top 25 percent of most effective teachers, the black-white testing gap would vanish in four years.

There are no silver bullets, but researchers are gaining a better sense of what works in education for disadvantaged children: intensive preschool, charter schools with long hours, fewer certification requirements that limit entry to the teaching profession, higher compensation to attract and retain good teachers, objective measurement to see who is effective, more flexibility in removing those who are ineffective.