Can I Get My Degree Wherever Tony Bennett Got His?

I am absolutely baffled as to how anyone on Indiana's Senate Education Committee ever graduated college... Nay, high school... with their current level of ignorance.  See, ignorance has many levels, but the state legislature has managed to reach a new level that makes Rush Limbaugh look like a college professor.

So what has the Education Committee done that has me up in arms?  Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett, announced on Tuesday that the committee will be pushing for drastic educational reform in Indiana that will essentially make quality educators extinct.

The proposal consists of the following:  Teachers will be divided into four subcategories based predominantly on students' results on standardized test scores.  Teachers placed in Group 4 will receive bonuses from the state.  Teachers placed in group 1 will be dismissed.  New teachers who do not receive an adequate score within the six years following the issuing of their teaching license will have their license revoked.  Failing schools will be privatized by the state until test scores are to an adequate level.  If a university produces enough students who are not successful as teachers, they will lose their accreditation.

First and foremost, don't get me started on the potential privatization of low-income schools.  If you want to talk to me about that issue further, I'll draw a couple diagrams explaining how that aspect of the proposal will bankrupt Indianapolis, IPS, and raise the drop out rates.

As for the other restrictions, this is going to essentially make it impossible for any quality educator to retain a job.  Talk to any teacher, they got their start at a low income school.  Most teachers aren't lucky enough to get high-testing students early in their career, but this experience leads to their growth.  The greatest teacher I ever had, Marilyn Miles, spent the majority of her career at Manual High School, in the ghetto.

Bottom line:  Revoke the licenses of teachers in bad schools, you will lose the best teachers you have and our entire educational system will slip even further.

So let's look at this from a teacher's perspective...

I'm a young teacher, straight out of Ball State University with one of the best educational programs in the nation.  Several young teachers out of BSU tend to gravitate towards programs such as Teach for America or towards a lower-income school to gain experience.  Needless to say, these programs tend to rank dead last in high-stake testing as most children are far under reading level.  So now here's the problem... If I take a job in IPS, where I know I can be hired, I will likely lose my license to teach regardless of my performance.  Do I take a chance and put my career in the hands of students: 1,529 of which are homeless, 3,463 aren't fluent in English (the language they're required to take the required testing in), 84% of which have to receive financial aid from the state.  We live in a state where 33% of working adults are functionally illiterate and the number is significantly higher among children.

...I don't know if I trust these kids... But can these teachers be trusted under this pressure.  It has been proven that the more high-stakes testing take place in school, the higher propensity teachers have to cheat.  This is no fault of their own.  Imagine for just a second that you will lose your career if a third grader who never learned how to read English being up to grade level over the course of 180 days.

Scary, eh?

I'm not going to lie, I'd cheat, too if I were put in a situation by the state where I would lose my license to do what I love when the task they expect me to complete is impossible because of... guess who...

That's right, the state.

Hey Indiana, do you ever wonder why we rank so low in literacy in a nation that ranks 19th in the world in literacy (despite our high spending on education)?  The answer:  We have a government that has no regard for educating children, they just want to appear to be doing something so you can't be upset with them.  I'm not going to get into the dozens of educational mistakes that both state and national legislature have made over the past few decades, because I don't have 48 hours to talk, but if this legislation passes, I'm homeschooling my niece and nephew until I can get elected to change it.

I always thought that our government would kill off a species someday, I just never thought that species would be quality educators.