Blog Post 14

Joel Klein served as the Superintendent for New York City's Public School System. In a article published by USA today he was asked if there was one thing he could change about the educational system what would it be? He responded by mentioning that their are a lot of thing that need fixing. The following are a list of problems and solutions that he and Albert Shanker came up with to fix the school system.

Problems
1. Anyone with a college degree can become a teacher.
2. Teachers are rewarded based on seniority.
3. Their hasn't been a solid educational program developed that is compatible to other high-performing nations.

Solutions
1. Pick from the best(recruit from the top third of graduates)
2. Job security should be based on performance not seniority.
3. Their should be national teacher examination test compatible to entry exams for doctors and lawyers.

      First, the qualifications to become a teacher are too lenient. I agree with his first problem on teacher inflation. Just because you have a college degree does not make you qualified to become an educator. The school system is filled with unqualified teachers who have not been trained properly. Therefore, our students suffer academically from the broken pipeline of teacher inflation. In order to fix this problem we should adhere to the advice of Mr. Klein. We should recruit from the top college graduates to ensure our students are receiving the best education possible. This will produce more productive students and prepare them for the future workforce.
      Secondly, we should change how we reward teachers. The current reward system should be discarded and a new one should be implemented. I agree with Mr. Klein's suggestion. We should reward teachers based on performance, rather than seniority. As he mentioned just because a teacher is experienced doesn't mean their effective. Furthermore, our best teachers should be going to the low-performing schools in order to help close the performance gap between at-risk kids and high-performing students.
      Lastly, universities should change their teacher education programs. According to the National Center on Teacher Quality their hasn't been a program developed that is compatible to other high-performing nations. To solve this we should adhere to the advice of Albert Shanker. He suggest teachers establish their own board to monitor the profession and weed out ineffective teachers. Furthermore, the school system should develop national teacher examinations compatible to doctor and lawyer entry exams. These test will be administered to consider which teachers deserve promotions and rewards. This incentive will ensure the very best teachers enjoy the fruit of their labor.
      In conclusion, I believe that Mr. Klein and Mr. Shanker has provided American education will a blueprint for radical change. In my opinion, these changes should be implemented promptly so we can ensure our students have the best educators teaching them. Additionally, technology will play a huge role in this process. Teachers should be technologically literature in order to be an educator since their are so many ways technology is influencing education in a positive way. If we implement these strategies we will be on our way to becoming an educational superpower again.