Responding to Ed Deform Ideas in AFT Report

There she goes again. Randi sponsoring an ed deform-laden report (of which you will not hear one word of criticism from any of the Unity gang, especially Take-Away-Our-Collective Bargaining-Rights, Please, Mulgrew). Agreementwith attack on the teaching profession and public ed are echoed in this union report.

At The Chalkface, there is a response from Julie Gorlewski. Some excerpts:

The document is grounded in the notion that the profession is ineffective, substandard, and intrinsically flawed. This assertion is emphasized through comparisons with other, presumably more authentic “professions,” specifically those associated with law and medicine. The claim that teacher education and induction are ineffective is erroneous; the myth is perpetuated as part of the attack on public education, labor unions, and the teaching profession.

When US student performance is controlled for poverty, our student achievement (and, by extrapolation, our teacher performance), consistently ranks near the top.  In a pluralistic nation, standardization and consistency do not guarantee quality. Standardization is not beneficial for students in a multicultural society, nor is it beneficial for teacher candidates who will be working with those students.

 Despite the report’s continual refrain about the significance of “evidence,” the CCSS has absolutely no evidence of effectiveness. Assessments and curriculum are being developed at a frantic pace; however, the standards remain unproven. It is bad enough that K-12 instruction and assessment will be aligned to these unproven standards, but to link teacher preparation to them is absurd. The CCSS, and its related assessments, represent a massive financial opportunity – not an authentic learning opportunity.

Read it all:

atthechalkface.com/2013/02/22/guest-post-julie-gorlewski-responds-to-aft