Bad apples? Yes, but some just aren't ripe.

Image by Matt Grigsby, Willamette Week

The writing is on the wall. It's time for bad teachers to be kicked out of their positions. Though Oregon doesn't have tenure per se, in most places it's still unlikely that the "bad" teachers will lose their jobs any time soon. As a newly minted teacher who's looking for a position, it may seem self-serving for me to wish for people to lose their jobs, especially in an economy such as this, but I have some thoughts on the concept of "bad apples."

1. Yes, they do exist. One example of such a poisonous apple was a teacher that I worked with in my student teaching who went out of their way to badmouth other teachers in front of students, yell at her students and demean them, and then have the gall to feel like she was being mistreated. This woman was toxic, and quite obviously needed to not only have her contract not extended, encouraged to quit, etc, but to be out and out FIRED.

2. There is room for improvement. This is the case for any job, and everyone needs to be on board. I recently listened to a segment on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," where Neal Conan was interviewing an author that said that performance reviews were detrimental. His belief was that when managers (principals for this conversation) have a set of benchmarks that they expect an employee to meet, it's a dodge to absolve themselves of responsibility. His belief is that the mark of an effective manager is to help your subordinates be successful, rather than to be a cop who cites the employee when they are committing an infraction. There are teachers who see the principal in their classroom once every two years. That is inexcusable. Also, it's incumbent upon the teacher to be always working to up their game. They need to work with other teachers, to share ideas about how to be more successful. And talking isn't enough. If possible, a principal needs to find a way for teachers to be able to observe other effective (or ineffective) teachers in the school to learn from them. The relationship between the teacher and the principal should not be adversarial, but more as a student/teacher relationship. We're all in this together to make learning more effective for the children.

3. Don't confuse earnestness with effectiveness. I am learning how to play the guitar. It is my sneaking suspicion that I will never be great, despite my earnest interest in the instrument. There are teachers out there that just love being in a classroom, sharing knowledge and seeing a child's eyes light up when they get something. That's great. But it doesn't mean that those are necessarily great teachers.

4. Standardized testing as an assessment isn't unfair, so long as the test makes sense. As much as teachers complain about standardized testing, it's a measure of how well students have done in the classroom. There must be some kind of objective measurement of student progress, it's that simple. A good teacher teaches to the test. "WHAT?" they ask. A good teacher will figure out what the student needs to know, makes the test, and then teaches to that the student will be able to pass the test. If they pass the test well, that means that they know the content that the teachers deemed important. I believe that part of the reason that teachers are so incensed about standardized testing is that they have no control over the content of the test and feel out of the loop. Like their opinion isn't important. Maybe so. Teachers should have more input into what goes into the standardized tests. Then when they have buy-in, they can teach to the test. Finally we can use that as an objective measure to gauging not only the students, but the teachers progress against themselves.

5. The younger generation doesn't "get" why losing your job is a bad thing. I'm not young at the age of 38, but I've worked in the private sector. I've survived layoffs, but also been affected by them. I also know that in the private sector (in the ideal company) results matter. I don't get why this is a tough concept for some people who shall remain nameless to get. It's even more important that results matter when it comes to school, because a degree is one of the better predictors of earning potential in the future. If a teacher is ineffective, people talk about how it is hurting the children, but here's something that I don't think that they think about. If you are ineffective in your job, despite the fact that you may like it, are you really doing what's best for yourself? Are you achieving to your fullest potential. I know that if I wasn't great at my job despite an earnest desire to be great, I should probably move on. Quit trying to be a professional guitarist, and do it as a hobby if that's what makes me happy. But leave room for the talented professionals.