Kevin
G. Basmadjian, Dean of the School of Education at Quinnipiac University in
Connecticut, wrote a powerful article in
the Hartford Courant in collaboration with other deans from across the state.
Connecticut’s
students are among the highest on the NAEP, yet its policymakers insist that
its schools and teachers are unsuccessful. The politicians want more charter
schools and Teach for America.
He
writes:
“But
instead of addressing this crisis, we have demonized teachers for failing to
solve problems our government cannot, or will not, solve. Poverty, homelessness
and the dangerously high levels of emotional and psychological stress experienced
by low-income students — these are the problems many of our nation’s public
school teachers face every day.
“Our
nation’s obsession with standardized test scores will not solve these problems,
and they put our country at great risk intellectually as well as economically.
As educational researcher Yong Zhao writes, countries with which we are often
compared — such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea — are moving away from a
focus on testing in their public schools.
“Why?
Because they have learned from the history of the United States that a great
education and nation is one that rewards creativity, originality, imagination
and innovation….
“The
most recent scapegoat for our nation’s shameful achievement gap is teacher
preparation programs, for failing to produce a steady stream of what the U.S.
Department of Education abstractly calls “great teachers” to work in our
neediest public schools.
“By
blaming teacher preparation programs, the department can yet again divert
public attention from the most crucial barrier to achieving educational
equality: poverty.
“There
is a need for more “great teachers” who will commit themselves to our state’s
neediest public schools. But achieving this goal will take more than naive
slogans or punitive measures levied against teacher preparation programs that
do not successfully persuade graduates to teach in these schools.
“The
U.S. Department of Education’s proposed regulations for teacher preparation —
with its emphasis on standardized test scores — work against this goal because
of the overly technical, anti-intellectual portrait of teaching they endorse.
We in Connecticut need to make these jobs more attractive to prospective
teachers through increased respect, support and autonomy rather than criticism,
disdain and surveillance.”
