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"Inflammatory, unfair, irresponsible" and not to mention "WRONG."

How much research is out there showing that the most effective factor in student achievement as measured through growth IS the teacher???

But doesn't it say the problem with "Educators?"

There's a difference between the statements "The problem with education is teachers" and "The problem with educators is teachers."

Now, I've not even read the article yet myself, BUT: I would think the argument about to be made is that there are people who want to truly educate children, but people who are forced instead to "teach" (i.e. to a test a la NCLB) are getting in their way.

No?

Admin--I just read the article, and that's not what it argues. It essentially cribs all the other articles we've seen recently about hiring and firing teachers. It interviews the same people everyone interviews--Michelle Rhee, Kate Walsh, Kati Haycock--and no one who might complicate the argument at all. (And I'll add here that I like and admire Kati Haycock. I just wish they had called up a few more people.)

And the lede drives me to distraction--"Getting rid of bad teachers is the solution to turning around failing urban schools." It's the solution, is it? Nothing else to consider, like maybe curriculum, better staff development, community supports, etc? Any "journalist" who writes about "the solution" to anything should lose his or her job.

Another subtitle for the article: "In no other profession are workers so insulated from accountability." Well, how about punditry? You can apparently crib your stories from a small list of sources, consult only with people who agree with you, ignore complexity, and still write the lead for a major national news magazine. I'll wait to see if the authors of the story face any "accountability" for what they write.

Here's the thing: teacher evaluation and due process are a problem. Poor students and students of color are in classrooms with the least effective teachers--by just about every measure available to us. But judging teachers on test scores is not "a no-brainer," as the authors suggest. The could have leavened their statement with an acknowledgement of just how much work we have to do improve tests and technologies for value-added measurement. They could have spoken with one or two first rate teachers who worries about the effects of merit pay on collaboration among teachers. (And that's no small issue.) They could have referred to non-charter public schools that are beating the odds. And they could have acknowledged, as thoughtful advocates of choice do, that it's difficult to scale up the best charter schools.

This does not mean that they have to depart from concerns about tenure or evaluation. But they've basically come out and said that there's a silver bullet. And that's just nonsense.

Aren't journalists supposed to meet a higher standard? 

Jason--They think it's fine to play fast and loose with research.

The problem with journalists is that journalism is dead.

And just when I was starting to like Newsweek, again.

We've hit critical mass in sloppy, cut-and-paste media with this piece--evidently, nearly everyone now thinks all public schools are lousy, no kids are learning, we're desperately behind in the race to economic world domination, blah blah.

So discouraging.

I agree with Nancy. I've noticed that most journalists seem to be rewriting one another's articles. No one is doing any investigative reporting anymore. This recession is hurting a lot of people, and in more ways than one.

The solution, my friends, is a new organization I'm about to start: Journalists For America.

One day, all newspapers will have people who can actually write competent stories about education.

I don't see a problem here. It's common knowledge that teachers are the main thing wrong with education. Likewise, our hospitals would be much improved if we could only get rid of bad nurses, and our military would be much better if we simply dumped all the bad soldiers.

Jason, I think your statement needs to be more precise. The most important factor at school is the teacher. I do not believe that it has been established that teacher quality can make up for poverty, homelessness, serious health issues, abuse, transiency, language, etc.

So, let's review the conditions in the "lowest performing schools," and see how many of those factors are in play. The fact that some schools outperform others in those situations has been used to beat up on the majority of struggling schools and proclaim that "no excuses" is a strategy anyone can use. Seems to me that's quite like saying that because some people recover so impressively from serious injuries, those who don't recover must simply lack the will power to complete their physical therapy properly.

Hi, David--

I do think teachers and schools can make a dramatic difference in the lives--and, of course, academic achievement--of students in poor communities. Why else become a teacher in those communities. The evidence is also very strong that students in low-income schools are far more likely than their wealthier peers to have less experienced teachers, teachers with fewer credentials, etc.

So while it's true that the conditions of poverty make things so much harder in most struggling schools (a point Newsweek barely acknowledges), some schools actually compound the problem rather than lessening it--a point I've heard Pedro Noguera make on occasion. (We did some work on this problem here: http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/tools#staff.)

Still, to write that "the problem with education is teachers" is offensive, inaccurate and likely to anger and provoke most teachers. (Some of my European relatives used to say "the problem with America is Americans," a statement I found very provoking, to say the least.) And to argue that "Getting rid of bad teachers is the solution to failing urban schools" is preposterous on its face. Sure, we might be able to improve matters in any profession if we lost poor performers, but what about curriculum, assessment, staff development, leadership, community supports--and I could go on and on? 

I have to say, the Newsweek piece read like a parody of bad journalism on schools.

I think the underlying point the article seems to attempt to convey is still valid. There are far too many horrid teachers who are secure in their jobs.

I think it behooves us to remember that this is a MAGAZINE piece. Magazines are hardly the stuff of serious hard-news journalism. I was pretty humourously outraged at the Newsweek article about the difficulties of parenting ONE neurotypical 11-month-old while her husband was out for the night. The writer does THREE LOADS OF LAUNDRY A WEEK, and I'm supposed to feel all sorry for her. Ha!

Obviously not written by someone who has really "been there." I would take Newsweek with an entire saltshaker, Claus. :)

As an education journalist, I take real umbrage at the comments made by Nancy Flanagan and others claiming that "journalism is dead." Generalizing about the quality of all education journalism, and suggesting that all reporters wantonly play "fast and loose" with statistics, is no more accurate or productive than, for instance, categorizing all teachers as ineffective.

My colleagues and I strive to keep the quality of our writing and reporting up to par and to carve out opportunities for in-depth, investigative work. We owe our readers and the public at large no less. And we are open to constructive suggestions, advice, dialogue, and feedback

It's so nice to know that there are organizations like Public School Insights who are challenging the status quo. I've listened to Steve Perry on CNN and get so infuriated. As a teacher who truly wants to educate students, I get tied up in the bureaucracy that is in place in so many school districts. I encourage everyone to read George Wood's recent blog on The Forum for Education and Democracy.
I've also asked this question before, but how do we get the other side represented in media? Do we send CNN e-mails of names or, Claus, do you call the media requesting that your voice be heard? How do we voice our thinking in magazines like Newsweek?
Maybe you're not as angry as Steve Perry and that's the problem? How do we make our voices heard?

Check this out! Promise it's not Polish math and has some relevance! (Your friends have been gone a while; congrats on that!)

http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2010/03/johnson-lost-cronkite-te...

Looks like Newsweek changed the online headline for the story. The print headlines might be objectionable to some too, but at least they focus on "bad" teachers. (The cover reads "The Key to Saving American Education" with "We must fire bad teachers" written repeatedly on a chalkboard in the background. The headline on the story is "Why we can't get rid of failing teachers." (I agree that it's ridiculous to talk about "the key" to saving education.)

If we have informed judgements on this subject, probably we should thank a journalist. And probably that journalist is Steve Sawchuk or one of his equally excellent journalists at Ed Week.

"As an education journalist, I take real umbrage at the comments made by Nancy Flanagan and others claiming that 'journalism is dead.' Generalizing about the quality of all education journalism, and suggesting that all reporters wantonly play 'fast and loose' with statistics, is no more accurate or productive than, for instance, categorizing all teachers as ineffective." (Stephen Sawchuk)

Well, gee. I'm glad to see that you perceive the deep irony here, Stephen, at being unfairly accused of outright incompetence. It's tempting to say "welcome to the club." The mainstream, non-education media does sometimes play fast and loose with facts, implications and opinion when it comes to schools and education--and teachers have grown weary of trying to paint a more accurate picture. That's not being an apologist for "the education blob"--there are lots of publications that paint a too-rosy, non-data-based picture of dedicated teachers and miracle schools, too.

Although I would *never* suggest that any of Ed Week's reporters is anything less than meticulous about both facts and editorial slant, it's very easy, on any given day, to find unsubstantiated judgment and outright falsehoods in mainstream newspapers and magazines. We're not even talking about web-based advocacy "journalism" which has no restraints on accuracy or balance. Most publications are not Ed Week, the national go-to source for education news, I realize. But it was disappointing to see sloppy, cut-and-paste story-writing in Newsweek. Our national angst over education deserves better than "Michelle Rhee and Randi Weingarten don't like each other."

As for journalism being dead-- I made the remark with a fair amount of sarcasm (the same way someone might say "all public schools are lousy"), but certainly journalism is either endangered or rapidly changing in the 21st century. My niece was a journalism major last year. This year, her regional university shut down the journalism program and incorporated it into the IT program. If journalism isn't dying, it's changed its identity and started over.

The point was: the reporting in the Newsweek article series was seriously limited and biased. The third piece--the one about classroom management--was laughably shallow, and the single teacher interviewed claims that her words and intentions were twisted.

http://itsnotallflowersandsausages.blogspot.com/2010/03/oh-no-they-di-in...

Ed Week remains one of the few places where there are actual reporters tracking down stories. Please don't stop.

I'll second (third?) Nancy's and John's celebration of EdWeek, and her concern about the trajectory of the other national press. Your link, Nancy, was downright fascinating. I wonder whether the reporter twisted the teacher's words out of ignorance or because it supported the big thesis? Either way, it wasn't a good moment for journalism.

I think this not true in all cases,in some cases teachers are really responsible for worst quality of education.But for this we can't say that all teachers are like same.

Many of our institutions are becoming obsolete. The exponential rate of change in our technological knowledge base and the population growth rate are changing our self conception as human beings as well as our experience. Our institutions can be compared to an air plane with a combustion engine and propeller. It does not matter what you do to it, it can only go so fast. The self perpetuating power structure based on currency is amongst the conceptual realities which no longer serves our race. Going back to education, here is how it should be:
1. Never mandatory, always free
2. No buses
3. open 24 hours
4. mostly e-learning
5. matrix's are provided by employers to determine which classes are required for the positions they offer.
6. local trade schools offer training for local job opportunities
7. Communities can put together their own support schools if they want
8. day care is a different business
9. raising children to respect the law is a different business
10. big tax breaks for families with two or less children
11. no hand outs - ever. If you are going to collect unemployment, you must pick up trash on the side of the road or do something to keep you from sitting on the couch cashing that check.
12. what about the basics? Small community schools can be organized - people should know their neighbors and their neighbors' children anyways.
13. We can use the existing infrastructure and just add a mess of computer labs and public performance halls (for community music events.)
14. Sports - More important than ever. We can save a couple of buses for transporting teams - though electromagnetic rail seems cleaner.
15. How are we going to finance it? Come on man, can't you see that the ideal of value in relation to currency is not as real as the value of how we exist.
16. Anyways, there is my jet. It wont fly, but just seeing there may help to get the ideal going.

We can do it. We can change the world for the better. We are just in a disconcerting transitional period.

The best article ever written about teachers:

Sorry I am a teacher

http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/alan-haskvitz/im-sorry-i-am-a-teac...

It says it all