Rotherham Watch.
Posted by: preaprez on: 11 Mar, 2008
I can’t quit him. Rotherham’s Eduwonk has been boring. But he ruined my coffee this morning. There I was, trying to get ready to face my classes for the day. Reading the Times. And there, next to Krugman and (appropriately) Kristol, was an op-ed piece by Rotherham.
While laws like No Child Left Behind take the rhetorical punches for being a straitjacket on schools, it is actually union contracts that have the greatest effect over what teachers can and cannot do.
And then:
Reformers have long argued that this (the bargained agreement) is an impediment to effective schools. Now, increasingly, they are joined by a powerful ally: frustrated teachers.
Only someone who has never walked into a classroom would dare claim that the greatest effect over what teachers can and cannot do is the bargained agreement.
One of the great things about the internet is the hundreds of blogs with first person teacher accounts of their professional day. Read them. See what role the bargained agreement plays, compared to the external, bureaucratic, politically driven demands on their teaching life.
1 Response to "Rotherham Watch."
1 | nyceducator
UFT bigshot Peter Goodman chimes in, seeming to agree with the contention that unions need to change:
http://edwize.org/picking-cherries-and-planting-orchards#comment-65362
Of course, he neglects to mention the planned obsolescence that allowed Japanese carmakers to produce a better product than we did. Frankly, I don’t think that teachers are trying to do a bad job.
But Goodman, Casey and company now embrace Green Dot schools, which openly reject both tenure and seniority. They say their “just cause” provisions are better than tenure, though I’ve seen no evidence it’s even been tested. Without seniority rights, Steve Barr can pretty much toss you on the street “just cause” he feels like it.
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