askteachers

Ask teachers what they need

by Randi Weingarten
Oct 27, 2006 1:35 PM
"Ask the folks on the front line – teachers – what they need to strengthen our schools"
Most Americans agree strengthening our public schools is critical for today’s students to participate in what we think of as the “American Dream” and for our nation to compete effectively in the global economy. Unfortunately, we don’t often agree on how to do it, leaving kids hanging while policy-makers get mired in debate.
Nationally and locally, the debate often focuses on curriculum changes, additional testing or various proposals for how school systems should be structured and managed.
The politicians, bureaucrats and education experts who decide these matters rarely pause to ask the folks on the front line – teachers – what they need to strengthen our schools. Taking that simple step could provide some useful insights.
A bi-partisan advocacy organization called Common Good recently did just that and published a report based on diaries kept by eight New York City public school teachers recounting their workday experiences. The goal was to try to understand how school bureaucracy gets in the way of teachers’ ability to do their jobs.
The study was small in scope, but it makes a compelling case that time spent on student assessments and testing, mandated teaching procedures, student discipline, school management and paperwork is overtaking the school day and preventing educators from actually teaching.
The diaries paint portraits of frustration as they recount tales of breaking up fist-fights, confiscating scissors from a student threatening to stab another, a student threatening to slash a teacher’s tires, and so on. The teachers lament that all too often a student who acts like this bears no consequences for misbehavior. He or she simply goes back to the classroom.
The teachers spoke a lot about the unintended ramifications of standardized testing, which continues to consume a larger portion of the school day. Several teachers were pulled from their regular teaching assignments for up to five weeks to administer and grade tests. One teacher wrote: “This situation exemplifies what education in New York City has become – preparing for tests, testing and grading tests. What has happened to teaching?”
Another source of educator frustration is mandated teaching techniques that leave little or no flexibility for teacher input or discretion. One veteran teacher wrote: “Sometimes I feel like I’m a robot regurgitating the scripted dialogue that’s expected of us day in and day out.” Another dismayed teacher wrote: “Teach mini-lesson… Student raises hand with question. Tell him to put hand down. Students not allowed to ask questions during mini-lesson. Feel guilty.”
Teachers also noted the constant interruptions that hamper their efforts to keep their students focused – such as administrators calling seeking paperwork or using the public address system to make announcements. One Common Good researcher said one teacher was interrupted 16 times in a single day.
Some degree of test preparation and paperwork should be expected in a typical workday. The same is true with students who are disruptive – after all, the best school systems figure how to effectively help disruptive students. But the situations described in these diaries couldn’t be intended by anyone who wants schools to be positive learning environments. Wave upon wave of new educational mandates developed without teacher input and no collaboration has resulted in a system that substitutes time-consuming bureaucratic routines for teaching and learning.
The problem is not unique to New York City or other urban schools. We hear it across the country in rural and suburban schools as well.
If education policy-makers are serious about improving our schools they should ask teachers what they need and then listen to what they say. Teachers would tell them: We need order and safety in our schools because education suffers in schools that are neither safe nor secure, we should try to strike a healthy balance between teaching and testing, and we must respect the skill and dedication of our educators and give them the professional latitude to do their best rather than drown them with paperwork and micro-management.