A few months ago I was tweeting about educational policy. Some folks starting chastising me for “making excuses” concerning student achievement. I contended that teacher quality is not the problem that the education reform movement advertises. I argued that ignoring poverty and focussing entirely on teachers undermines our expertise and is detrimental to student learning.
I wrote about poor students not receiving proper eye care, and that improving this epidemic should not be ignored. The education reformers chimed in that I do not do anything to improve our failed education system. I was lectured that the US needs to get BACK to number one in the world in student achievement. Fixing our teachers is the way to “return” there. Finally, a “reformer” suggested that I quit whining about eye glasses and run a glasses drive at a supermarket. I informed her that I have a mobile eye clinic come to my school, and that a “glasses drive” at a supermarket is not a solution.
Are kids’ pupils able to be dilated at a supermarket eyeglasses drive? How does one tell which prescription a child needs? Like the status quo of incessant testing, teacher accountability based upon false metrics, and the billions of dollars raked in by foreign companies such as Pearson – the current reform movement doesn’t make any sense. However, it does make a lot of cent$. Students should be put first, no excuses.
Such encounters are exhausting, but point to how misinformed, brainwashed, and incompetent policy makers and their privileged minions can be. The US was never #1 in education, and, in fact, have never ranked higher on international tests than we do today. Poverty matters and should be dealt with as a matter of public policy if this country truly wishes to close achievement gaps.
The children in the neighborhoods of Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury face a child poverty rate of 44%. These are my students. To their credit Boston Public Schools have offered some programming to help alleviate this dire situation. However, a renewed insistence of blaming teachers for persistent gaps has never been more strong. Are police officers responsible for crime? Are Firefighters responsible for fires? Yet, it’s the teacher who is responsible if a child does not pass a test, regardless. Teachers need to be supported, not scapegoated by “reformists” who either never spent a day teaching in the classroom, or retired at the age of 25. Patricians all.
A real no excuses solution would be to actually admit that poverty is a problem and something CAN be done about it. Our accountability system based upon high stakes tests has been the status quo for over a decade. As policy the incessant testing, scripted curriculum, teacher firings, school closings, school mergers, and flavor of the month fads contribute nothing to improving educational outcomes. Many people are profiting from this madness. Indeed we have a problem.
If you are interested in not making excuses about poverty by blaming teachers who educate poor children, then please research epidemiologist Dr. Charles Basch. He makes sense. Better yet, contact me: columwhyte@yahoo.com or cwhyte@boston.k12.ma.us
Colum Whyte
Teacher
Joseph Lee School
Dorchester
hell, Colum.