Can we fix America’s Public School System?

In reflecting on the topic of last Tuesday class and viewing the video on “A Vision of Students today”. I came across a very interesting article written in Time magazine issue dated December 8, 2008. The article is about Michelle Rhee who is the head of Washington D.C. schools. It speaks of her battle against bad teachers, and what she feels is needed to transform public education.

Did you know that the U.S. spends more per pupil on elementary and high school education than most developed nations? Yet, we are behind most of them in math and science. Did you know that it is predicted that most young Americans today are less likely than their parents were to finish high school? This is the issue that’s warping the nation’s economy and security. According to decades of research the problem with U.S. public schools is ineffective teaching.

Michelle Rhee is determined not only to make Washington the highest-performing urban school district in the nation, but she hopes to transform the way schools across the country are run. Rhee is convinced that the answer to the U.S. education catastrophe is talent, in the form of outstanding teachers and principals. She is attempting to make these changes by finding and rewarding strong teachers, and purging incompetent ones and weakening the tenure system that keeps bad teachers in classrooms. Because of the laws that protect teachers from arbitrary firing most teachers receive tenure almost automatically, they are filtered, as possible candidates for the job, but their certification doesn’t guaranteed they are good teachers even though they get paid the same regardless of their effectiveness.

Rhee has proposed a revolutionary new model to let teachers choose between two pay scales. They could make up to $130,000 in merit pay on the basis of their effectiveness in exchange for giving up tenure for one year. Or they could keep tenure and accept a smaller raise. Of course the union has declined her proposal to a vote. However, Rhee still plans to purge incompetent teachers through any means necessary.

I believe in what Michelle Rhee is trying to accomplish, and I think it’s about time someone steps up to the plate to try and change what everyone has known for decades. This is what we need to do in Hawaii, and we need to have every Island accountable for their schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Time Magazine / December 2008 / how to fix America’s Schools