Lately much of the education news seems to focus on the issue of teacher quality. Teachers, we're often told, are the single most important factor in student achievement. While I agree with the need for a high quality instructor in every classroom, I'm frustrated - if not annoyed - by the tone of some of the discussion on this issue. In some urban schools like the one in which I teach, I don't believe that the problems can always be reduced to issues of teacher quality.
Are there some poor quality teachers? Absolutely. I certainly had some, and I'm sure most readers did as well. Should they be removed? Sure. Is the mere presence of those instructors the reason why an achievement gap exists between lower and upper-income students and other countries are producing higher test scores? Absolutely not.
I don't disagree that teachers are a critical factor in students' educational outcomes. But even if it's true that they're the most important factor, that doesn't necessarily mean they're the proximate cause of bad results. There are so many possible factors affecting students on any given day. Parental involvement, social climate, school culture, perception of teachers' authority, prior knowledge, internal motivation, and problems at home are only a small portion of the many variables in play.
I never understood this until I had my own classroom. Before I began teaching, I believed that students who did poorly simply had low-quality teachers. It's what I read in newspaper articles, editorials, and education policy papers. And it made sense. After all, the teacher is responsible for instruction and works directly with the students.
It didn't take me long to realize, however, that problems can't always be reduced to issues of teacher quality. There have been times when I've spent hours preparing in-depth, high quality, rigorous science labs that were really quite fun, only to have them ruined by a handful of students who would throw supplies or destroy equipment. I've had the experience of going above and beyond to give students a "real" science classroom, spending hundreds of dollars on aquariums and terrariums, only to have the same handful of students destroy equipment and torture the animals. I've watched as students are distracted from an excellent lesson by three or four of their classmates who refuse to stop yelling across the room, and I've seen them miss additional instruction as those students have threatened physical violence and acted even worse when simply asked to go to another classroom (we aren't allowed to send students to the office).
At first I believed I was doing something very wrong. After all, a high quality teacher alone should be able to fix that, right? I'm not so sure. Teaching summer school changed my mind. I taught at a different school, and I received full support from my principal with discipline issues. The students knew it. There were few issues, and it was a joy to be in class every day. We accomplished far more than I had originally expected, spent nearly 50% of our time working through experiments, read books by one of my favorite authors who later wrote a letter to the students, and I received compliments from administrators and other teachers nearly every day. One of my favorite students, who initially behaved badly until my principal threatened to send him home for good, told me that I was the best science teacher he ever had. He asked me to come back to his regular building. It was the way school should be.
Fast forward to this year which is far worse than anything I've ever seen. Some students roam the halls, refuse to come to class, threaten staff, push staff, destroy equipment, refuse to complete classwork, and a whole host of other outrageous behaviors which go largely unpunished. This is not to say that I've been without some success - I did coach two wonderful young scholars for three months on research which took top honors at the Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair (see picture below) - but it's not what it could have been.
And this is why I have problems with relentlessly blaming teachers. Sometimes it really isn't their fault.
So what's the solution? In schools like mine, how can those problems be fixed? While I don't pretend to have every answer, there are two steps which would be a welcome start.
First, give teachers more authority with regard to school discipline. If a student is preventing his classmates from learning, and the teacher wants him out of the classroom, then take him out of the classroom. If he continues to prevent learning day after day, and the teacher feels he needs to go to another school, then perhaps he needs to go to another school. Or at the very least, follow the district-approved Code of Conduct when disciplinary problems occur. Second-guessing staff, preventing teachers from sending students to the office, and refusing to engage in disciplinary consequences only creates problems.
Second, hold school leaders accountable. For all the talk of accountability, it seems very little is being done to hold those at the top accountable. If schools are allowed to become out of control, then how can it be said that school leaders are doing their jobs? It starts at the top. If the expectation is that students will follow the Code of Conduct, then you can bet schools will be more orderly. If the expectation is that discipline will not occur and teachers must use alternative strategies, then don't be surprised when things get a little crazy.
Although I write from a teacher's perspective, the truth is that it's the students who lose out in situations like what I've described. And that's wrong. Every child deserves to attend an orderly school that's free from disruptions, one which has an environment conducive to learning.
But maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps a high quality teacher could go into any environment, no matter how dire, and produce significant results. Perhaps a high quality teacher could simply trick the students into learning by swapping lyrics from popular rap songs with math formulas and scientific laws - or some other technique reminiscent of the teacher-savior films. Who knows. What I do know, however, is what it feels like to have a great lesson - one which impressed my administrator at another school - to go to waste because of a handful of chronically disruptive students. I think every columnist, reporter, and expert who writes about education should know that experience as well.
Above is my students' science fair project from the Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair which was held at Union Station. I coached them for three months, from 3:30 - 5:30 three to four days a week after school. They received perfect scores on their grading rubric and an award from the Linda Hall Library. As a result, they attended a special awards ceremony at a downtown convention hall. They're also invited to an upcoming reception at the Linda Hall Library, and their achievements were honored at a recent school board meeting. I am so proud of their hard work and success!
