New (MASS.) Teachers Union Chief is Unapologetically Adversarial

[Igel]

4. A real advocate for teachers.

Let's not confuse "teacher" with "education."

It's rather like confusing a rancher with BBQ.

A year ago I was firmly against standardized testing. Then a series of standardized tests were dropped in my state. I think that the standardized tests were too hard for regulars. The only way that a lot of kids passed them was targeted tutoring and teaching. There's a reason most such tests have low pass rates the first year they're given, and the pass rate increases for the next few years as teachers adapt to teaching mostly what's tested.

They distort the system of education. Granted, they're just one distorting political factor and there are others, but high-stakes tests are a biggy. (So's political correctness.) Then again, the entire field of education is a disaster, one so riddled with bad assumptions and horrendously screwed-up research that if it were duplicated in any field that had immediately realized outcomes (say, bridge-building) it would be shut down and started again from scratch.

But without the standardized tests a lot of teachers I know stopped working. "I'm all about what's easy for me." "Nobody cares if I give out the test as the review, and go over the review in class right before the test." "They don't learn anything anyway--why should I bust my butt worrying about them? When was the last time you actually used any high-school science in daily life?" "Why fight with them to get them to learn? Just keep them occupied with fun projects and film-Friday." One time recently that teacher simply didn't give a unit test. Her kids hadn't done that 2-week unit. His science class did personal finance, watched Frozen for a couple of days, talked about college plans, etc. The teacher didn't understand the content, so didn't teach it. And you know what? Nobody in the administration cared one way or the other because there was no standardized test covering that class.

This is a kind of rot. One teacher slacks off and gets by with it, another teacher realizes busting his butt is pointless and also slacks off. Eventually Johnny can't read. Or thinks that vaccines cause autism, carbon dioxide is healthy and doesn't cause global warming, GMO foods are evil, or wild horses are natural and indigenous to the American West and should be protected.