2008 July 14 Archive at The Core Knowledge Blog

AFT president-to-be Randi Weingarten says No Child Left Behind is too badly broken to be fixed and will offer an alternative vision of public schools as “community centers that help poor students succeed by offering not only solid classroom lessons but also medical and other services,” reports the New York Times.

Weingarten is expected to be elected to the presidency of the AFT today in Chicago. The Times this morning publishes excerpts from her speech:

Can you imagine a federal law that promoted community schools — schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together under one roof all the services and activities they and their families need?…Imagine schools that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities, child care and preschool, tutoring and homework assistance. Schools that include dental, medical and counseling clinics.

There’s nothing wrong with the vision, which is thoughtful and humane. The devil, as always, is in the details. Too often in my South Bronx elementary school it felt as if education were an afterthought, and that we functioned as the social services agency of last resort. The resources required for all schools to function as community centers are daunting, to understate the case.

Aligning herself squarely with the “broader, bolder” ed reform group, Weingarten tells the Times in an interview: “We all have to work tenaciously to eliminate the achievement gap and to turn around low-performing schools. But the folks who believe that this can all be done on teachers’ shoulders, which is what No Child tries to do, are doing a huge disservice to America.”

I expect there will be lots more to say as the day goes on.

Newsweek pundit Jonathan Alter wants Barack Obama to call for a Grand Education Bargain—much higher pay for teachers in exchange for much more accountability for performance in the classroom.

“Good teachers need to be rewarded with more pay and respect for being members of our noblest profession, says Alter. “They need more resources. But they also need to be removed from the classroom when they fail to improve. Obama occasionally says as much, but goes fuzzy when it comes to how.” Here’s how it will work in this Alter-nate universe:

Obama should hold a summit of all 50 governors and move them toward national standards and better recruitment, training and evaluation of teachers. He should advocate using Title I federal funding as a lever to encourage “thin contracts” free of the insane work rules and bias toward seniority, as offered by the brilliant new superintendent in Washington, D.C., Michelle Rhee. He should offer federal money for salary increases, but make them conditional on differential pay (paying teachers based on performance and willingness to work in underserved schools, which surveys show many teachers favor) and on support for the elimination of tenure. And the next time he addresses them, he should tell the unions they must change their focus from job security and the protection of ineffective teachers to higher pay and true accountability for performance—or face extinction.

Love national standards, but Alter loses credibility when he grandly pronounces in the piece that “we know what works to close the achievement gap.” The answer, natch, is KIPP which, in Alter’s telling, has solved the problem of dealing with teachers unions–apparently the only thing standing between every kid and a Rhodes Scholarship. Don’t misunderstand me, I love KIPP schools. Love ‘em. Did I mention I love KIPP, because I do. But until we have a lottery for every school (act of volition=involved parents), compulsory longer days and Saturday classes, and expel kids who are not down with the program and the school culture, can we PLEASE stop saying KIPP is the true and only heaven. KIPP is a first-rate solution for motivated students and families. And that, by the way, is enough, even if it’s not The Answer.

Update: See Joanne Jacobs on all of this: ”Poor kids need good teachers in well-organized, safe schools using sound curricula. Measuring teacher performance fairly is very difficult. What about good teachers who can’t be effective because their schools are so horribly dysfunctional? What about good teachers who specialize in untested subjects such as history, science, music and art?”