After following the situation in Washington, D.C., I can’t help but be an unabashed fan of the Chancellor of the School District of our nation’s capital.
This woman is the kind of driving force our children need in their corner, ready to do anything and everything possible to improve the system of education through sound practices.
As someone having had a few run-ins with the California schools, on behalf of my children, I have never been more sure that sweeping changes need to be made in the schools.
First, the idea of tenure is one that never should have been put into place, and needs to be removed immediately. Why should someone be guaranteed employment based primarily on their ability to “ride the tide”? As someone who worked many years in sales, I learned very quickly that the best way to ensure production is to introduce competition. The best teachers, after being judged in a manner without partiality, and with fairness should stay, those who don’t make the cut should be moved along, perhaps learning a valuable lesson from the experience. Why should this job be guaranteed more security than any other that might be chosen? For those who believe that we should all be in charge of our own destiny, what better way to assure it than by rewarding performance?
When someone is selling on commission the abilities, intelligence, and knowledge of the products are quickly honed, and the remaining salespersons are going to be the best of the best. As for performance based pay, I believe it addresses a few things. In teaching currently, the best way to increase your pay is to put yourself farther from the actual teaching, by becoming a principal, or someone who holds another executive title, and does little to no teaching. Where is the logic in this? The way to begin the journey is ostensibly by becoming a better teacher. So what happens is that a teacher works to become more proficient, and then gets removed from the place where that proficiency can be applied.
The executive path should be one chosen by those who are judged best at pushing papers, not teaching. Also, the best teachers should be able to easily exceed the pay of the executives.
Michelle Rhee seems to be on a path to weed out the deadwood, reward the best teachers, and fight city hall (literally) when necessary.
The situation in D.C. should be applauded, and copied all over the United States, as soon as is feasible.
Some articles to see what is being done are here, here, and here.
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Anyone who has a child attending school should be Mad As Hell, and Not Take It Anymore.
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