Those who know they’re right never let the facts obstruct the TRUTH.
The situation of the firing of all the staff from the Central Falls High School in Rhode Island just gets curiouser and curiouser in ways I never would have predicted. For one thing, I would have never dreamed I would ever ‘side with a teacher’s union over anything. Politics makes strange bedfellows, but bedfellows make strange politics.
Let me illuminate the problem by my outline of what I would do if I were completely in charge, leaving aside whether education is as important as some people believe. As an aside, if it’s so important, why is it done so poorly? That’s government for you. Heavy on INTEND–light on DOES.
The problem, as I see it, revolves around two problems; measurement and method. The student’s (as in the representative student) achievement in a particular grade should be measured in whatever subjects may be agreed upon using a method that is valid and reliable (there are several which compare student with one another and assign a grade level in each subject). Math, reading, writing and comprehension are particularly important. This establishes a baseline. The expectation is that each student would gain one year for each year in school. With students who start at a low level, this is a modest expectation and can easily be tripled. Never mind. One year of progress for one year of instruction. The least expectation would be an average gain of one year. A much higher expectation would be at least one year gain for each student. I’ll go for the first to cover the possibility that there are special needs students who are, admittedly, difficult to teach. Teachers are only paid if the gain is one or above.
Anyone who knows anything about teaching will know which methods work. If a teacher chose the wrong method, or combination of methods, he would not be paid. And those are incentives for you.
That’s how I would do it. Clean and automatic. I know it works because it’s the way I, and many others, do it and we’re still in business. Q.E.D.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies
