| Read a Post for Why Teacher Quality is a Local Issue (And Why Race to the Top is a Misguided Flop) | | | | Reply to this Post | | | Naive Academic Discourse | | Posted By: Gerry Meisels on August 13, 2010 | | | Anyone who thinks that " .... legislators ... must be students of, rather than monarchs over, school culture" hasn't been around congress and state houses very much, and doesn't understand the political process. This opinion is a fine academic point of view to be respected and debated, but includes an unfairly polemic judment about an arena with which the writer is clearly not familiar. RTTT is the result of a political process. It may not be the best way to spend $4.35B, but much of the money will be spent usefully even if perhaps not best in many people's opinion.
Improved student learning is essential to our country's future, and we are running out of time in getting it if we want to remain the affluent nation we are. The classroom is the central part of any change program. Steps necessary to achieve change will require commitment and resources to assist and support teachers. It will not happen bottom-up within a reasonable time frame. Generating political will and the support of non-educators such as legislators, business, industry, the media, etc. to create it must use the language of those cultures. "Soundbytes" and sales rhetoric are necessary to get attention. So is use of concepts business and other non-educators understand.
In the end, we need to make teaching into a high prestige profession and provide pay scales that reflect it. We will not get there unless we can defeat current negative rhetoric. That is one place where accountability comes in. |
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