Education Solution: Get Rid of Bad (Kids/Teachers)?
Arts and Letters Daily had teaser for a New Yorker article that got my attention today: “Academic performance of kids in U.S. schools would be enhanced by getting rid of the worst 10% of teachers. How do you know who they are?” My response: academic performance of kids in U.S. schools would be enhanced by getting rid of the worst 10% of students.
Let’s look at a few things. In 2006, state graduation rates hovered between 50 and 75% Sounds high, but not unbelievable. Something else we know: back in the day, not everyone had access or opportunity to education. Today, it’s demanded. Back in the day, the people who were afforded access to education probably came from an educated family and more favorable circumstances than those who were denied access.
That said, I’m not suggesting that we bar struggling students or those from disadvantaged backgrounds from our educational system, I’m just trying to make the point that these outrageous goals and expectations (NCLB, close the achievement gap, every fourth grader on reading level in math and English by 2012, etc. etc. etc.) are just that. Outrageous. And in everyone’s desperate attempt to find out why 100% of students don’t graduate and read at a fourth grade level by their ninth birthday, they scratch their heads and look at every possibility (it’s the seating arrangement, it’s the books they’re reading, the cirriculum doesn’t reflect the multimedia world they’re used to, it’s the shitty teachers, etc.) no one ever considers the one logical possibility: maybe, when we’re talking about an entire nation of people, millions of students, from every corner of the country, living in every type of environment, under all sorts of circumstances, not everyone is going to pass, or graduate. Period. Is that such a disgusting unbearable thing?