In this recent op-ed, Nicholas Kristof revises his opinion as to what is currently our greatest national shame, deciding that though health care is a very pressing issue, the current state of our education system is unacceptable.
Among the many important changes must occur, the quality of teaching is crucial. The current system of certifying and evaluating teacher productivity has been a failure. It has been shown that there is essentially no correlation between elementary school teacher performance and graduate degrees, college quality, or SAT scores, suggesting that current conceptions of evaluation are neither adequate nor appropriate.
There is hope, however. In what Education Secretary Arne Duncan terms a “staggering opportunity”, the new stimulus plan promises to allocate $100 billion dollars to our education system, which does seem quite immense given that this year’s current budget for the education was $59 billion.
Education, especially early education, has been proven again and again to be one of the most important factors in determining the opportunities a child will or won't have in the future. As Kristof and others say, teachers need to be held more accountable for their performance and replaced if need be. Moreover, given that the nation’s best teachers are disproportionately prone to be in the schools of already privileged children, educators shouldn’t be punished for teaching in the schools of low-income cities and neighborhoods, but rather rewarded for their efforts.
Our Greatest National Shame
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The "face of the economic crisis"
Thanks to Jodi for pointing out this article!
At a recent rally Obama was holding in Florida to promote the economic stimulus package, a newly homeless woman named Henrietta Hughes went up to the microphone to ask for help, to which Obama responded he and his staff would do whatever they could, though he also noted, significantly, that there were a lot of other people like her out there as well.
Hopefully the stimulus package Obama is trying to push through now will work towards alleviating the hardships Henrietta and all the millions others like her are facing.
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