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Police officers are
well-known for their "code of silence"--their hesitation to
divulge information about the misdeeds of other officers. As Los
Angeles witnessed during the Rampart scandal, this code is often
the greatest enemy of prosecutors and police reformers.
Law enforcement, however, is not the only profession with a
damaging "code of silence." Educators have a similar code, and
our silence serves to keep failing teachers in the classroom, to
the detriment of hundreds or thousands of students per teacher.
Studies estimate the number of failing teachers at between 5%
and 18%, and most high schools or middle schools have teachers
who are failing, or close to it.
High school and middle school teachers know about failing
teachers because we often have the same students and, no matter
how much we may try to ignore harsh words about our colleagues,
the students tell us, or tell each other in our presence. We try
to ignore it because we know how hard teaching can be. We try to
ignore it because any sign of agreement from us in front of the
students serves to undermine the struggling teacher. We try to
ignore it because we do not want to seem petty or mean, because
we have to deal with our failing colleagues in meetings and on
committees, and because it is "none of our business" anyway.
Countless times I have debated whether to remain silent as I
listened to an earnest but out of touch parent express complete
faith in a teacher whom I knew to be damaging his or her child's
education. Teachers are
evaluated primarily through administrative observations, though
many times overworked administrators and department chairs fail
to conduct them. Even when they are done, all but the worst
teacher is usually capable of surviving them if he or she knows
about it in advance. The failing teacher tells the students the
day before that "we are going to have a visitor tomorrow and
anybody who causes problems while the visitor is here is in big
trouble" and promises future reward. It usually works.
By carefully scheduling the observation times in advance, the
administrator is telling the teacher "I won't be stopping by
your class unannounced to see what's really going on in there
because I don't want to know. Let's arrange exactly when I‘ll
come in so you can put on the necessary show and then we're both
covered." Sometimes a
failing teacher's classroom is a daily battleground. In other
cases, failing teachers and their students reach an unspoken
agreement--the teacher pretends to teach and the students
pretend to learn. The students are given a light amount of busy
work and the students use the extra time to do work for their
other classes, pass notes, or chat in low voices. Everybody is
happy--the class is relatively quiet (often an administrator's
judge of a teacher's competence goes no deeper than the
question--"is it quiet in there?"), the failing teacher
survives, and the students have less work to do. When it is
necessary, the students will put on a show in front of any
bothersome visitors.
Failing teachers often compound their problems by refusing to
refer out disruptive students. Failing teachers know that most
administrators know little about what is really happening in the
classroom and that, as long as they do not bring attention to
themselves, the teacher will be presumed to be "doing fine."
Referrals serve to draw unwanted attention from administrators.
One of the reasons that administrators often would rather not
know about failing teachers is that it is frequently difficult
to find suitable replacements. This is particularly true of
teachers who work in crime-ridden areas where few teachers want
to go, or who teach one of the many subjects where there is a
shortage of qualified teachers. According to former U.S.
Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, 28 percent of high
school math teachers and 55 percent of physics teachers have
neither majors nor minors in their subjects. Over a third of all
teachers in grades seven through twelve are teaching a subject
that they have not studied.
More importantly, because of the union and tenure protections
teachers enjoy, it is costly and time-consuming to terminate a
teacher, particularly once their probationary period is over.
Nationally, it takes between two and three years and costs
roughly $60,000 to fire a teacher.
It is unspoken but well understood among teachers that these
protections often keep bad teachers in the classroom, yet
because of the trying nature of our profession we are hesitant
to surrender these safeguards. That is why I am skeptical that a
genuine solution to the problem will ever come from us. Failing
teachers? We'd rather not talk about it.
This column first appeared in the
Los Angeles Daily News (12/2/01).
Glenn Sacks taught elementary
school and high school and was named to "Who's Who Among
America's Teachers" three times. His columns have appeared in
dozens of America's largest newspapers. He invites readers to
visit his website at
www.GlennSacks.com.
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