Teachers not to blame for low-achieving schools

We continue to hear about the low achieving schools in the U.S., and quite often we hear it is the teachers’ fault for not doing an adequate and appropriate work in the classroom. Along with these acquisitions, it is often said the teachers should be penalized with lower pay and eventually dismissed.

The solution according to many folks, especially outside of the field of education, is that teachers who have high achieving students should be awarded with bonuses or higher salaries.

This is, unfortunately, the industrial approach to award employees for high production achievements or high levels of sales and many other areas of production, operations and marketing.

The sad part of this method is that individuals as well as entire departments end up competing with each other. While this may appear to be a superb method of improving the company and moving it ahead, over the long run it has many destructive effects on the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

When the company falls apart, no one understands it was the competition within the organization. Individuals and entire departments will keep information to themselves instead of creating a cooperative system.

The No. 1 problem with schools with low achievement levels is the fact that they do not have the appropriate resources for working with the students or their families. Instead the teachers are blamed for the low achievement, when in reality they have been struggling to do the best they can with and for the students. With such low levels of resources, many of the low achieving schools have more than 35 students — some as many as 40 — per teacher. While the teachers are working to do their best, the administration — both at the district level and at the state level — simply looks at the statistics and data to determine what teachers and schools are doing the best.

School districts fortunate to have high employment levels and higher levels of resources, have higher achievement levels and quite frequently have fewer students per class. One example with my own teacher experience was an elementary school in East Lansing, Mich., where the number of students ranged from 18 to about 24. East Lansing — and its connection with Lansing the state capital — is fortunate to have higher levels of employment and resources for its schools.

We often hear about how much better the other industrialized nations are doing with their education systems. The explanation in the U.S. is that such school systems have longer school years. Looking at a calendar, it’s true they have longer school years; however, many of the other industrialized nations in Europe and Asia have shorter school days. In fact, in the 1990s, a study was done comparing the instructional time in classrooms between Japan and the state of Wisconsin. It turned out that Wisconsin had more instructional time in school, even with the shorter school year.

There are many other factors that are completely ignored. Just one example is all elementary, and often middle or junior high schools, must be neighborhood schools. Students then apply to a high school that they wish to attend.

The thought in the U.S. that larger schools provide more opportunities for learning, and save money. Unfortunately, there are additional costs with school busing, and even greater utility costs for larger areas for entries and other parts of the building.

Quite often, our school districts spend more money on other area provided by the school district.

One school district in Minnesota in the late 1970s accidentally revealed that their athletic expenses were $9 for every $1 of revenue. That is a 900 percent operating ration, and no industrial company would survive that.

Another area of education in other industrialized nations is basically ignored in the U.S. —respect for teachers. When one thinks about it, education is the foundation for any nation and culture, and it can provide the sources through educated students for growth and development, as well as living a happy and productive life.

Our teachers cannot be blamed for low achieving students. We need to look at the resources they have for working with the students and their parents. Granted there are people who don’t care, but this is a problem in all areas of life and occupations.

Sadly, it even happens in the medical field. What we need to remember is that close to all of our teaching staffs went into education for the primary purpose to provide appropriate instruction for their students.

Patrick C. Dorin is a member of the Superior school board and retired as principal. He has also worked in the railroad industry and has published numerous books.

Tags: opinion, education, family