Wednesday, January 11, 2012

It's the teachers fault

One sign caught my eye right away at the Neshaminy pep rally … er School Board meeting. It was the one that said “student achievement first – raises later.” It caught my eye because makes a connection that many folks, mistakenly, make. Many of the speakers at the meeting talked about the ridiculousness of teacher demands in light of student achievement, school rankings, and other measures of academic success. The idea is that if the teachers were doing a good job, one worthy of being fairly compensated for, the schools would be excellent. In the Neshaminy School District the idea is that if teachers were doing their jobs Neshaminy would be as good as Council Rock. The problem with this logic is that teachers are not solely responsible for student outcomes. Administration matters. Parents matter. Students matter. Money matters. Let’s face facts, Council Rock has more going for it than just excellent teachers. To hold the teachers accountable for aggregate student outcomes and to tie compensation to them is one of those notions that sounds good until you really think about it. That, of course, is the whole problem with the contract impasse in the Neshaminy School District. People haven't spent enough time really thinking about it.

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