One of the best articles that I have recently read on teacher training was a feature article in the New York Times Sunday magazine last Sunday. It detailed two different approaches that have resulted from skilled observation and research of real teachers in their classrooms. This article advocated training and retraining teachers instead of firing experienced teachers wholesale solely because they are earning a higher salary or because the NY DOE wants to save dollars by hiring new teachers at half their salary in order to save money. (In fact, a friend tells that Klein was on television news show this past week advocating firing ATRs, teachers on reserve, because he said that they were “bad” teachers. I know one teacher who is an ATR that is a great teacher and if I know one, then there are probably countless others sitting in rubber rooms under trumped up charges.) Veteran teachers have not succeeded with today’s students on a whim or without gains in students’ performance and achievement. And, for the students who do fail, the blame for their failure does not rest with the classroom teacher alone. As for teachers, ongoing professional development, skillfull observation by supervisors and thoughtful advice as well as computers and books, books and more books for students would go a long way towards helping students succeed academically. Add to this academic rigor, clear expectations, and sound curricula informed by grade-level standards would complete the picture.
For now, in New York it seems that Chancellor Klein wants to label certain tenured teachers as “bad.” Well, let’s look at the new teachers who teach in urban schools for maybe two or three years and earn their free master’s degree and then leave. Some “teaching fellows” leave before their two years, but many just put in two years and then leave. I know at least two who taught for two years and one left to go to law school and the other left when she married. Others leave after two years to teach in Scarsdale or Westchester where they can earn a higher salary. They take their “S” annual ratings because they are the favored group which impresses suburban districts and leave. Meanwhile, the tried, true and tenured teachers remain in New York helping our urban students.
The exit of these “teaching fellows” from the classrooms leave the students abandoned or with a new inexperienced recruit facing them in September. There has to be a mechanism to reinvigorate the teaching staff like ongoing professional development with new technology that keeps these and other teachers in the classrooms. I recommend that anyone interested in educational leadership or teaching to read this article. Within its pages are several good recommendations to bolster the level of instruction in urban classrooms.
By Jeanette Toomer
