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A Botched Attempt at Education Reform
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11632 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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9 / 1986 |
3,551 Words |
| Author
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Myron Lieberman
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Educational reform reports have been a growth industry in the United States in recent years. For all practical purposes, however, these reports have ignored teacher unions. This situation changed radically, though, with the May 16 release by the Carnegie Corporation of A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century, which in effect advocated teachers' unions running the schools.
For various reasons, A Nation Prepared is devoted primarily to the development of teaching as a profession. Probably for this reason, the 14-member task force responsible for producing it included the president of the National Education Association, Mary H. Futrell, and the American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker. Understandably, A Nation Prepared (and therefore this critique) devotes more attention to teacher unions than previous reform reports. The attention is long overdue and should lead to a more realistic discussion of the prospects for reform.
Under the heading, "A Professional Environment for Teaching," the Carnegie report recommends increasing teacher autonomy, reducing bureaucratic regulation of schools, collegial decision making in which "lead teachers" play leading roles, and add in to teacher support staffs under the direction of teachers. The report asserts that, ideally teachers should have the power to make - or "strongly influence" - decisions on the methods and instructional materials to be used, the staffing structure to be employed, the organization of the school day, the assignment of students, the consultants to be used, and the allocation of resources available to the school.
Later, we read that "The education code for some states is now printed in 10 or more volumes. To these commands are added the policies of school boards, the instructions of school district officials, and the wishes of the parents…. It is this welter of rules that produces the situation in which…everyone has all of the brakes and no one has any of the motors, that makes even worse the already heavily bureaucratic environment teachers must endure. In these circumstances, teachers, in particular, cannot be expected to approach the task with renewed energy."
Who Is Overregulated?
Unquestionably, education is overregulated. Realistically, however, it is school boards and school administrators who are overregulated. Most state legislation affecting teachers is intended to enhance teacher welfare and teacher protections; the notion that state legislation significantly restricts teachers from exercising their professional judgment is absurd.
Since Bill Honing, the California state superintendent of public instruction, was a member of the task force, let me illustrate this point with data from that state. The California Education Code is indeed a legislative monstrosity, covering eight thick volumes. One section of the code, enacted under Hong's leadership in 1983, requires that school districts follow the same procedure for suspending a teacher without pay, even for one day, as must be followed to dismiss a tenured teacher.
Dismissal of a tenured teacher in California requires a hearing by a "Commission on Professional Competence." One member of the commission is appointed by the teacher, one by the school district, and one is a hearing officer
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