Review of Dana Goldstein's 'The Teacher Wars'

How schooling has changed! Moving forward to present day and everything is done by computer. Notebook paper is barely used, presentations are ‘slides’ on ‘google classroom’, and if you do not know ‘Excel’ or ‘PowerPoint’, you will be left behind. Everyone has at least one computer at home, if not more. We can submit and/or complete homework and classroom assignments any day of the week. The computer is a way of everyday communication and it is a very useful tool in part of America’s school learning. For the older person, we have had to learn to adjust, connect, and develop a tolerance for the computer age.

Even the ‘classroom’ has changed in the past thirty or so years! It was not heard of having a class ‘online’ years ago but today, here I am taking a class online for the very first time but it is very common for many! In fact, one could graduate with a degree and never set foot out of his or her house to actually go to the college which they graduated from! Going back even further, let’s say sixty or seventy years, there were white versus black schools. Segregation. “Separate but equal”. Even though black schools were “lower quality than white- less well funded, with older textbooks and fewer athletic facilities”. “For black teachers, a transfer to an integrated school was considered a vote of confidence; for white teachers, it was considered a demotion”. Today, however, we do not think twice if we have a black or white teacher for ourselves and/or for our children. We can go one step further: today we are taught with both black, white, male, or female teachers from kindergarten on up to graduate school and beyond.

During the Segregation Era, we had the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 which was the “most lasting Great Society change for the nation’s schools” .This was “the precursor to the Bush-era No Child Left Behind”. The Act of 1965 was created during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson to help fund low-income families and close the gap in reading, writing, and mathematics. It also helped fund preschool programs. Then came “No Child Left Behind Act” that was introduced in 2001 by President Bush. This required states to test students in reading and math in grades third through eighth and once in high school. If the majority of the school did not pass for three consecutive years, they had to offer after-school programs and tutoring. If the majority of the school did not pass for five consecutive years, the firing of staff took place!

Then in 1998, the first year of SOL (Standards of Learning) testing only two percent of Virginia public schools met the standard for full accreditation. By 2004, it increased by eighty-four percent. Did they improve because year after year since the SOL’s began “teachers took the previous tests and would target their lessons over that”? (page 200, Goldstein) Is this a true example of what American students know or is it that they are presented with the material and they just memorize the answer, not really knowing the material? What if one knows the material but are bad test takers? The test is geared to one thinker, what about the rest?

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We have adjusted, learned from our mistakes and changed through the years. In the future, let’s say thirty or even sixty years, how will teaching and the classroom change? Presently, we judge our teachers and/or schools by how good our test scores are. “To determine what data can be collected to prove the big goal has been achieved. The data will almost always be test scores, from either a state standardized test, a district test, or a test the teacher finds or creates on her own”. “Standardized testing, numbers-driven evaluation of teachers, and merit pay”. There is so much demand and stress on achieving high scores to look good to get that ‘bonus’ for themselves or school, are some schools cheating by erasing answers that their students answers so their school will have high scores (pay bonuses had been paid to administrators and teachers who cheated by erasing and correcting student’s answers on standardized test). By personal knowledge, I know that is a child fails the standardized test they are tutored and are re-given the test. Is this truly fair? We put a lot of emphasis on these scores. Heaven forbid if our schools fail! Are we even lowering our standards too?

‘No Child Left Behind’ has provoked states to lower standards and the scores that would qualify as proficient. Lowering scores will only hurt them, this is not challenging them. Another issue leading to the No Child Left Behind controversy is the fact that some teachers have felt pressured to focus on subjects rated by the No Child Left Behind testing requirements, rather than focusing on providing children with a well-rounded education. Some schools have been accused of cutting back on studies involving science and the arts to increase the focus on English and math. As a result, some complain education isn’t really improving; it just means sacrificing one subject proficiency for another. “The best things a teacher can do for her students is to set high, individualize expectations for each one of them, regardless of a child’s past performance…”. So what will happen in the future? Time will tell. However, I know things I hope stay the same and that I can be successful in directing the future adults to believing “that doing well in school could help them become more effective advocates for their families and neighbors”. I hope to make them self-directed learners. I hope to be observant of other teachers and see what really works in guiding my little scholars. I also want to be able to relate to them so they can “see themselves reflected in me”. I hope this will create a determination and a strong desire for them to want to achieve. Hopefully, I will be molded into an outstanding teacher by not only being taught in the classroom but having real-world experience in the classroom, that in itself is a ‘powerful education’. I think for me to observe other teachers and being observed myself will help by receiving positive or negative feedback. This will help make me be a more successful teacher by letting us know what is more effective or what is not. Our lessons need to be engaging and challenging enough so our students will not be bored. Teacher evaluation whether observational or based on children test scores, I would like to think, can be a clear determining factor of whether or not my students are receiving a proper education.

What the future holds for the American public school with its complex relationship between publicly funded education and the democratic way of life is somewhat hard to grasp. However, what will be the same as it was from the beginning as Ella Flagg Young wrote, “….I believe that every child should be happy in school” and that “ someday the system will be such that the child and teacher will go to school will ecstatic joy. At home in the evening, the child will talk about the things done during the day and will talk with pride. I want to make the schools the great instrument of democracy” in some regards, this holds true and we must hold onto some of the past dreams (the example of Ella Flagg Young) and continue that hope into the future.

Overall, the book was about the rich history of our public-school teaching and the teachers. It was interesting, well written, and went into detail from the beginning to present day education system. I think it should be on the list to read for this class. A lot of the details that were uncovered I was unaware, for example, was the size of the classrooms and the gender of the teacher of two hundred years ago. I was unaware that the classes were so large and that the teachers were mainly male! I also learned about ‘consulting teachers’. I love this idea of having a teacher (sort of like a mentor) assign to new teachers. These consulting teachers act as coaches and it is really encouraging me to know that I will or could have extra guidance once I graduate.