The Washington Teacher Appears On This Week's News Hour With Jim Lehrer
In a series titled Well-Known Nationally, Struggling at Home, The Washington Teacher appears on the News Hour With Jim Lehrer this week. Some have asked me to post this link here on my blog.
Finally, after covering DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee for an entire school year, Jim Lehrer and his team from Learning Matters responded to requests to tell more than just Rhee's version of the story. Even though this segment was a much longer interview, I am happy that at least viewers will get to hear another perspective than just Chancellor Rhee. Here's the link:
http://learningmatters.tv/blog/current/michelle-rhee-in-dc-episode-9-well-known-nationally-struggling-at-home/1525
The Washington Teacher
Interviews with Candi Peterson, George Parker and others.
Warning: John Merrow is funded by Gates, etc and has openly taken anti-teacher positions.
(Search the Ed Notes blog for Merrow to read more.)
3 comments:
I watched the clip you mention above.
There was union pres. George Parker (towards the end) advocating Pay for Performance ("It's time has come.") Weingarten, too. Both of them.
Here's what I posted over there in a comment:
If Weingarten, Rhee et al. are heading for “pay for performance” rather than to give up tenure, we’re in big trouble.
“Performance” has not been defined anywhere, and the fact is it CAN’T be defined. Reasons include
— different goals for different subjects,
— disparate factors affecting outcomes (the nature of the student population, teaching styles, parent involvement and support, etc.),
— whether tests exists for a subject and whether these should be included in the assessment of some subject teachers and not others, and most importantly
— whether there are checks on a principal’s ability to intimidate, punish, or malign a teacher in retaliation for outspokenness and union activity.
You can talk about what you’d like to see a math teacher achieve, but you can’t define it in stone.
And if you can’t define it in stone, you certainly shouldn’t be thinking about paying extra for it.
You can’t even tell when a “merit pay” scheme even works. Take the one the UFT installed in some NYC schools. Is it working? Most doubt it. Many good teachers won’t see any extra money and many of perhaps lesser “quality” (in quotes) who will get some extra cash. But as a system, it’s by definition a minefield of inequity, fake accountability, and erratic outcomes. A pretty stupid way to turn things around.
Thanks for the post. I really bugged the Learning Matters Crew into telling the other side of the story for almost 1 year. As I am sure that you know- Jim Lehrer News Hour has been following both Chancellor Rhee and Superintendent Vallas for some time. Many of these shows have been one sided with only Chancellor Rhee being fetaured.
Finally after a year- the Learning Matters Crew decided to include some teacher segments from DC teachers. Unfortunately a great deal of what teachers discussed was cut. At the very least, we got some air time in presenting another perspective for the listening audience.
I think the only way that we can get our voices heard will be to continue to advocate that teachers and related school personnel must be at the table especially on topics involving education reform. I had frankly given up on the Jim Lehrer news show but I think that the turning point for Lehrer and other reporters was the Time Magazine story in which Rhee was featured on the cover as a witch. Even Lehrer could not continue to support Rhee publicly after a failed publicity stunt like this.
Thanks for the post. I really bugged the Learning Matters Crew into telling the other side of the story for almost 1 year. As I am sure that you know- Jim Lehrer News Hour has been following both Chancellor Rhee and Superintendent Vallas for some time. Many of these shows have been one sided with only Chancellor Rhee being fetaured.
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