Is the Intra-Democratic Party Edu Policy Debate “A War”?
That’s what Harlem Children’s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada said yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative, which I’m covering for The Daily Beast. In a breakout session, Canada spoke bluntly about overhauling the teaching profession, and was greeted with whoops and cheers from the crowd, a mix of political, corporate, and philanthropic elites. “Here’s something that absolutely needs to be changed,” Canada said. “I believe that if you’re a terrible teacher, you should be fired. I know, it sounds harsh. People are thinking, ‘Oh my God.’” The issues of teacher tenure and pay are increasingly under a public microscope. Earlier this year, the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education grant competition rewarded stimulus funds to states that agreed to tie teacher evaluations and salaries to student achievement on standardized tests. But results of a major study of teacher merit pay in Nashville, TN, released this week, found that bonuses of up to $15,000 did not improve student test s
