Shifting Paradigms... Making a Mental Mind-shift to Save American Education

Being a science teacher at heart,  I am always searching for insightful quotes by famous scientists. One of my favorites is by Albert Einstein: 

"Insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

The more that I delve into my course work in Educational Leadership and the more that I examine educational practices,  the more I believe that if we used Einstein's standard, the educational system in American should be classified as Insane! Even if you consider all the educational "reforms," many of which are simply old reforms with new packaging, we as a society keep expecting different results when, for the most part, we keep employing the same old practices. I have read dozens of leadership books, studied hundreds of educational theorists, and basically it all comes down to this... if you want students to learn, then we need to give skillful teachers the time to teach. Even research will support the this! And yet, states continue to think that they will raise student achievement by implementing some new high stakes test, as if the test alone is some type of panacea for closing the Achievement Gap. Worse, many states believe that tying teacher salaries to student performance on these tests will improve student achievement.

Now some of you might be thinking, "well if the teachers know that their salary is depended upon their students' performance then they will teach better." That logic is as flawed as thinking that garnishing a doctor's salary would improve the quality of care. To the contrary, if the doctor's salaries were dependant upon recovery rates, they would simply quit treating terminal patients, and those patients that routinely fail to follow doctors orders.  This practice would not increase recovery rates, nor would it improve the quality of care, rather it would just mean that doctor's would become very selective in the patients that they would treat.

What adult would ever consider having their salary tied to the performance of others as a good idea, they would look at you and say, if you want to judge my performance, look at what I do. Yet, in the educational arena, we are judging all of our professionals in just this way... when you look at it in the context of other careers it seems almost ludicrous doesn't it?

You might be thinking that I am claiming that using student performance as a primary indicator of teacher effectiveness is by definition "insanity." I would say, no not exactly. I do believe that any professional in the service industry (education is a service industry) must look at customer satisfaction (ie,  in this case achievement) I think often the best way to judge that is not done in the chambers of a politicians office. I do believe therein lies the "insanity." Most educators would agree that standardized tests do provide valuable feedback, but if you were to ask a teacher, there are dozens of other ways to assess student performance as well. Additionally, teachers would tell you that the tests students take don't always test what they are supposed to test. For example, this past spring students in 6th grade in Florida took the standarized tests on computer. This computerized test made it hard for students to skim passages, highlight key information, and in many cases, because of computer clitches, they had to spend time waiting for the technical support to fix the problem. Add to that that some of these 12 year olds were being expected to sit still for 3 hours. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time staying focused if I had to sit in one place quietly for three hours, and I am way older than 12. So in the end, was this test assessing student knowledge or was it testing students' patience?

I think it is time for a paradigm shift... It is time for American's to stop thinking that just because an individual may make a good politician doesn't mean he is a good educator or that he understands good educational practice when he sees it. Our politicians are often not qualified to make educational policy, we need to stop thinking that they are and demand that decisions that effect education be made using sound research not political influences.

American's need to make the paradigm shift in which they stop thinking that all teachers are bad... yes like any profession we do have some bad apples, but there are far greater good teachers than bad teachers. And if we give our teachers the respect and time to do the job they have been trained to do, they will do it very well.

It is time for a paradigm shift within our profession. We need to stop protecting those in our profession that really should retire. We all know those teachers, those that have outlasted their effectiveness, those that we would never put our kids in their class. How could we expect the public to trust us if we can not police our own? If those teachers are not good enough for our kids, then they aren't good enough for anyone's kids! We either do something to help them or do something to get rid of them. If we, as professional are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem.

We need to have a paradigm shift among parents. Parents are not doing their children a favor by not allowing them to take responsibility for their actions. Today's doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers did not get where they are by having their mom's bring in their late work or by having their parents blame the teacher for their poor study habits. No... today's professionals learned the value of hard work. We need to shift paradigms to ensure that we raise a generation willing to work hard instead of one looking to take short cuts.

The problems facing our nation in terms of education can not be solved by employing the same old practices, and they will not be solved by creating yet more high stakes tests. Rather the problems facing our nation will require a paradigm shift. We have too much at stake to continue our country's current educational practices... that type of insanity can no longer be tolerated.

View Tony Danza's Video about his experiences as a teacher. This experience inspired his mental mind shift... what will inspire yours?