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What teachers know vs. what education policymakers do

We heard a lot last month [1]about the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher [2]. It showed that teachers across the nation are demoralized and that their job satisfaction has dropped precipitously since 2009, says Diane Ravitch, education historian, for her Bridging Differences [3] blog. The proportion thinking of leaving teaching has gone from 17 percent to 29 percent, a 70 percent increase in only two years. If this is accurate, it would mean the exit of one million teachers. I hope it is not true. What has happened in the past two years? Let’s see: Race to the Top promoted the idea that teachers should be evaluated [4]by the test scores of their students; “Waiting for Superman” portrayed teachers as the singular cause of low student test scores; many states, including Wisconsin, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio have passed anti-teacher legislation, reducing or eliminating teachers’ rights to due process and their right to bargain collectively; the Obama administration insists that schools can be “turned around” by firing some or all of the staff…

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