-By Johnathan Swift (as recorded by me)
It is a pity that the outstanding
certification policy just adopted by the RI Board of Regents does not fully
develop all of its brilliant ideas. I shall take one such idea and apply it
consistently, with rigor and enthusiasm. The idea is to abolish requiring
advanced degrees of advanced teachers, because there is indeed little evidence
that said degrees improve test scores of students. It is commonly known that
absence of conclusive evidence to support a claim is irrefutable evidence
against the claim. For example, if you eat salad, but are still overweight,
salad surely makes you fat! If you groom yourself and still cannot get a date,
stop grooming and you shall attract members of the desired sex! Thank God for
scientific reasoning! How shall we extend this brilliant idea further?
1.
The proposal still requires all administrators, support
professionals, and specialists to obtain an “advanced degree.” The dreadful phrase
appears 18 times in the document! Surely, if it is not good for teachers, it
must not be good for anyone else. There is no scientific proof that a principal
or a school psychologist with an advanced degree raises children’s test scores.
These degrees are issued by the same disreputable colleges caught peddling
useless master’s degrees to teachers. If you have the courage to stop the
fraud, stop all of it! District-directed, job-embedded professional development
will naturally turn an individual into a superb principal, or an excellent
superintendent! One will soak up the wisdom of being a Reading or an ESL
specialist from having thoughtful conversations with colleagues, and reading powerful
books. If this works for teachers, it should work for all!
2.
No evidence exists that a bachelor’s degree causes
a teacher more likely to raise student test scores. I implore the Board to
exercise simple logic: A bachelor’s degree is just another pointless academic
credential, a collection of seat time sold by the same despicable institutions
of so-called “higher learning.” Isn’t it better to measure the effectiveness of
teachers directly without regard to their credentials whatsoever? Therefore,
bachelor’s degrees are unnecessary. We have the mighty educator evaluation
system you all saw working so well for so long! Why certify, if we can
evaluate?
3.
And while we at it, why not abolish the very
concept of the approved teacher preparation program! After all, anyone can just
teach oneself to be a great teacher by engaging with great books, thoughtful
conversations, and worthy examples. Even a shoe store should be allowed to
train teachers, as long as they raise the test scores. If we happen to hire a
teacher who cannot read, for example, well, his students will not show any
growth. Within a few years, we will know that we made a mistake, chastise the
shoe store, and fire the teacher. Our children are the least expensive and most
convenient instruments for measuring teacher quality!
4.
Don’t dictate what a teacher can do! You are
already prepared to send elementary and high school teachers to middle schools.
Let worthy individuals teach music one week, and calculus the next, preschool
one year, and an AP class the next. We all know that principals possess the uncanny
intuitive ability of judging every teacher’s talents just by looking at them.
Principals famously have the ultimate power to hire whomever they want. You
have embarked on the glorious path to deregulation that did wonders for this
nation’s economy recently. Deregulate until it hurts!
5.
Attention, the biggest fraud of all times will
be exposed now. Did you know that economic research so far failed to
demonstrate a convincing link between the high school diploma and worker
productivity? It is not clear if schooling is simply a screening mechanism to
select talent, or it actually raises productivity. Over 1000 scholarly papershave been published on the subject only in the last ten years. Still no proof! And
we already established, no proof is the proof of the opposite! High school
diploma is not proven to be good; therefore it is bad and must be abolished. Improve
the quality of all education by not requiring it!
6.
And finally, not even a shred of research evidence
supports the claim that having a board regulating education policy has any effect
on the test scores. If you abolish advanced degrees, bachelor’s degrees and
high school diplomas, there will be nothing to regulate anyway! Take your
brilliant idea seriously. Abolish yourselves tonight, for there is no proof you
are useful!
I should like
to take this opportunity to announce that the Jonathan Swift award goes to
Rhode Island, the first government in the world that will improve teacher quality
by lowering its expectations for teacher learning.
Brilliant,
simply brilliant!
Brilliant, simply brilliant!
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