Poverty is what’s crippling public education in the US—not bad teachers
By Anthony Cody
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Hanushek has also argued, by the way, that more money won’t help schools succeed, nor will small class size. The teacher is the only variable worth targeting. Unions are a problem to the extent to which they make it difficult to quickly fire teachers identified as ineffective.
But the real world is proving to be a difficult place for Hanushek’s theories to be verified. No school has ever replicated the results predicted by his “four great teachers in a row” theory. In fact, there is no real research to support the idea that we can improve student achievement this way—it is all based on extrapolations.
And in fact, new data shows that in the three large urban school districts where these reforms have been given full rein, the results are actually worse (pdf) than in comparable districts that have not gone this route.
Some of the key findings from the Economic Policy Institute’s April report:
Test-based accountability prompted churn that thinned the ranks of experienced teachers, but not necessarily bad teachers.
School closures did not send students to better schools or save school districts money.
Most importantly:
This last point is crucial. This attention to the supposedly pivotal role teachers play in student success comes at a time when the number of children in poverty has been on the rise. According to a study in 2011 (pdf), one school in five was considered high poverty, up from one in eight in the year 2000. Another study showed that “many high-poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding… leav(ing) students in high-poverty schools with fewer resources than schools attended by their wealthier peers.”
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http://qz.com/101508/poverty-is-whats-crippling-public-education-in-the-us-not-bad-teachers/
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