Yesterday we launched our new feature, Questions for Linda Darling-Hammond. The idea is to pose queries that she might face at a Senate confirmation hearing, in order to flesh out whether she is a reformer or not.
Today we turn to statements from the 1996 report, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, which??Darling-Hammond wrote as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.
1. Dr. Darling Hammond: In What Matters Most, you expressed concern that ???well-prepared urban teachers and teachers of color are in short supply.??? A recent Education Next article found that states with ???genuine??? alternative certification programs have a greater representation of minority teachers in their classrooms. Twelve years later, have you come to believe that these streamlined routes to the classroom are worth supporting?
2. Dr. Darling Hammond: In the same report, you wrote that ???literally hundreds of studies confirm that the best teachers know their subjects deeply, understand how people learn, and have mastered a range of teaching methods.??? Can you point to a single rigorous study???one that would meet our panel's rigorous definition as ???scientific??????that indicates that the best teachers ???understand how people learn??? and ???have mastered a range of teaching methods???? If not, why did you include such a sweeping statement in this report? What are we supposed to believe about your credibilty as a researcher and a presenter of evidence?
3. Dr. Darling-Hammond, in the same report you dedicated a whole section to knocking down the idea that ???tenure is the problem.??? You wrote that ???several local teachers unions, affiliates of both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, convinced that incompetent teachers harm the entire profession, have taken steps with their school boards to evaluate and assist teachers and counsel poor ones out of the profession, both during probation and after it ends.??? If so, can you point to a single large urban district that has ???counseled??? poor teachers out of the profession at a sizable scale? And without unreasonable costs? If not, are you ready to admit that tenure is a problem?
4. Dr. Darling-Hammond, you dedicated another whole section of that report to knocking down the myth that ???unions block reform.??? You wrote that ???teacher organizations for the 21st century have improved student learning at the heart of their mission.??? What percentage of local teacher organizations do you think fit this characterization? What do you make of unions that push for policies such as ???last hired, first fired??????which leads to the termination of young teachers, even if they are highly effective? Do these unions have ???improved student learning??? at the heart of their mission?
We'll be back next week with another installment.
