The Daily Beast’s Diane Ravitch takes Secretary of Educaton Arne Duncan to task for suggesting poor teachers contribute to low test scores.
Apologists like Ravitch seem incapable of admitting bad teachers even exist. “Behind the teachers’ rage and skepticism is the fact that Duncan has time and again said that ‘bad’ teachers cause low test scores, refusing to recognize (as he did, belatedly, in his letter) that low test scores are primarily caused by poverty and lack of family support,” writes Ravitch.
It’s not the teachers’ fault. It never is. Accountability is for other occupations.
I’m not arguing that teachers are solely responsible for our average, at best, public education system (14th among developed countries). And I agree that testing is over-emphasized.
But it’s hard to be sympathetic when the teacher’s unions refuse to take any responsibility.
