Article summary of “Georgia Fails at Improving Teachers- Ineffective teachers can have a lasting negative impact on a child’s future. The AJC’s education team discovered the state has spent billions to train and recruit better teachers. But results are mediocre “by Nancy Badertscher, Laura Diamond and Jaime Sarrio.
For the last decade, the state of Georgia has tried gradually to improve the quality of teachers in Georgia public schools, but with little success. The state is having trouble making decisions and sticking to them. In 2000, for instance, the state got rid of job protection laws so that ineffective, or problem teachers, could be fired more easily. Three years later, however, these laws were put back in place. In addition, the state promised raises to those teachers who enrolled in scrupulous certification programs, those raises were cut in 2010 (Badertscher, Diamond and Sarrio, A1). Those teachers who are in fact effective are mixed with those poor performing teachers and make the same salaries. In respect to the stop-go nature of Georgia’s policies over recent years, Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, says that “If you ran a business like this, you would soon run it into the ground” (A10). Throughout all of this, the students of the public schools in Georgia are suffering significantly. Studies have shown that there will be a lasting negative impact on a child’s education if he/she is taught for three years by ineffective teachers (A1).
An investigation conducted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered that the state of Georgia has spent billions on teacher improvement with insignificant results. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes four reasons why greater results have not been seen. The first reason is that Georgia has not found a way to recognize bad teachers and remove them (A10). For this reason, many ineffective teachers continue to teach. The second reason greater results have not been seen is that according to national data, Georgia’s most intelligent students are not majoring in education (A10). The third reason is that Georgia does not have enough funding to adequately and continually train public school educators. The fourth reason noted in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that marginal results have been seen is that Georgia has spent nearly $1 billion dollars each year hiring teachers with advanced degrees, but there has been no evidence of an improvement in class performances (A10).
Not everyone in Georgia agrees about how to define a “quality teacher”, however, many people agree that the best teachers “believe all children can learn, are able to improve student achievement and develop in kids a respect for learning” (A10). Quality teachers, are not always fond of working with ineffective ones, according to Paul Rowson “the quickest way to lose top-performing teachers is to let them work side by side with someone who is disengaged and to reward them the same” (A10).
One of the biggest problems with the Georgia Public Schools system is that in the years to come, everyone will be more critical of teacher quality, yet there is next to no training on the job. Also, teachers will likely have a more diverse student population than ever (A10). The student population will be made up of students from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds with varying needs, but the teachers will be given little training.
It is troubling to me that the goals and efforts of the Georgia Public School system seem to be in constant conflict. Georgia wants better performance from their educators but limits training opportunities. They want to put an emphasis on quality, yet pay effective educators the same as ineffective educators. Perhaps the most troubling situation to me is that truly effective teachers are going to have a lot of trouble welcoming students into their classes of diverse backgrounds with next to no training. Therefore, in some aspects, these effective teachers may become ineffective teachers.
After receiving my Master’s degree I intend to teach in Georgia. I would be lying, however, if I said that I was not fazed by this article in any way. It is hard to think about working in a school that will possibly not support me when I feel that I need a little extra training in a certain area, or that I may have to clean up the messes made by other educators in my school. Or that I may send my students on to the next grade in great shape, only to be derailed by their next teacher. I understand Paul Rowson’s statement that “the quickest way to lose top-performing teachers is to let them work side by side with someone who is disengaged and to reward them the same” (A10). I would love to work in a school where everyone exhibits the qualities of an effective educator, sometimes however, that dream seems highly unrealistic.
Badertscher, N., Diamond, L., & Sarrio, J. (2011, September 18). Georgia Fails at Improving Teachers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, pp. A1, A10-A11.
