Acting White: Obama, Calling Mr. Kotter

Interesting carrot the Obama team is dangling in front of school administrators and teachers across the country, a sort of a baseball bat made to look like a carrot, or vice-versa, depending on your perspective. And it’s not a small carrot at that, $4.3 billion dollars, to be exact. Only thing is that some folks are miffed because the president is trying to inject vitality into and education dynamic, long in need of over-haul.

Specifically, Obama is offering the funds, under his "Race To The Top" program, only to school systems that link teacher evaluations to the performance of their students. Huh? That socialist S.O.B! So if he wants to do this, I’m wondering what pay is tied to today? Turns out that teacher’s get evaluated based on longevity and their own schooling, not student results. So, if I’m a teacher today and I want a raise, I go to school at night and in the summers, and game the classroom to minimize its outside distraction (on me), unless I have true dedication and a sugar-daddy/momma taking up the bill-paying slack at home.

Some state legislatures are considering changing laws on the books, California being one, which make it illegal to link teacher evaluation and pay to student results. Wow! Illegal! Education - a profession where the law forbids your boss from considering how well you actually teach, when it comes to your pay. It’s no wonder that our schools are failing.

Now do I think that this fixes things? Not by a long shot. We are still stuck in a back-end quality control mindset, rather than one of front-end assurance. But this move sends a nice signal about where education priorities should reside - between the student brains and teacher wallets. Welcome Back Kotter.

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Acting White: Obama, Calling Mr. Kotter, Race To The Top, Pay, Evaluation, Performance, Acting White