Baltimore County Superintendent Joe A. Hairston recently gave a speech to school administrators, teachers, and union staff. He urged the powers that be to create in schools "a nurturing, supportive" environment - no, no, not for kids. For teachers. The speech, and the comments during it, are so cheesy as to sound like satire:
Addressing 700 school officials Friday at Loch Raven High School, Hairston emphasized that the school system can't meet federal and Maryland mandates for boosting the achievement of every student without solid classroom instruction by teachers.
Wow. Really? Who'd've thunk it? (Michael, don't correct me on this). Solid classroom instruction, eh? And how are they going to bring this about? Higher standards for teachers? More intensive teacher training? Weeding out bad teachers via standardized exams?
Nope, by touchy-feely management:
"It is all in their hands, really," he said. "Make sure your staff feels encouraged and reassured that you support them. Micromanaging will only stifle creativity. Pointing fingers and blaming others is negative leadership."...
Cheryl Bost, the teachers union president, welcomed the superintendent's message as necessary to free teachers from the crushing burdens imposed by new testing, and she expressed hope that principals would heed Hairston's call.
But Bost, who attended the meeting, added: "We still need to improve the contract. Maybe this is the beginning of the realization that teachers are important, and we can continue that thought with higher salaries."
That's right, because we don't want to "crush" teachers with the burden of having to teach basic math and language arts skills, do we? And isn't it shame, how starting teacher salaries in the county of Baltimore compare so miserably to the median household income in that county? Oh, wait, the starting teachers make, on average, almost $5000 more than Baltimore's median household, and almost as much as the median income for a family in Baltimore.
But of course, to a union member, money is the cause of Baltimore's failing schools - the miserable graduation rate, the low percent of students reading satisfactorily in eighth grade - and increasing those teacher salaries will fix it, just like that.
The superintendent's annual speech traditionally opens the school year for the system's leadership. As in previous years, Hairston stressed the need to educate every child, including minorities, whose test scores lag behind those of white children.
"Children of color, immigrants, the poor, children with disabilities have all been written off in the past," he said. "But public education can no longer meet the needs of some children. Our mandate is the educational success of all children."
Given Baltimore's poor scores, I'd say they're moving from writing off only minority students to writing off all students. But then, I'm cynical about these kinds of speechs, which are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The session ended with a chorus of students singing "No Child Behind," as Hairston's recorded voice intoned, "Every child is a gift."
eeeEEEEwww. That sounds like something you'd hear at a Scientology rally. He thinks recording his mantra and playing in public is going to improve Baltimore's schools? Sheesh.
Update: Reader Roger S just shot my thesis about teacher pay all to hell, by pointing out that Baltimore County does not include Baltimore City. Doh! Damn these knowledgable readers.
This link shows that median household income in Baltimore is around $52K, which is much higher than in the city of Baltimore. However, this link shows that women in Baltimore County have a median salary that is below the starting teacher pay for that county, and it's estimated that around three-fourths of all teachers are women, so this is perhaps the more accurate comparison.
These data don't provide evidence that teachers in Baltimore County are grossly underpaid, which is what the union leaders would like you to believe. And even if Baltimore County's teachers have a valid reason to need more money, that doesn't necessarily mean the problems will be solved. While Baltimore County appears to be doing better than the city itself, recent reports show dropping test scores (which are probably the reason behind this pep talk).
And this graph of eighth-grade Reading scores doesn't make Baltimore County's schools, as a whole, look too great either (although the Writing and Mathematics scores are better).
That chanting thing at the end is still really ooky, no matter what geographical area we're talking about.
Posted by kswygert at August 19, 2003 10:57 AM