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Day
Higuchi, President of the United Teachers of Los Angeles Day
Higuchi, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, described
on Sunday morning how teachers are being held accountable (loss of pay,
loss of employment or assignment) for the results of the curriculum,
but teachers are not being allowed to make critical curriculum decisions.
For example, the State Board selects the tests, selects the staff
development providers, mandates the curriculum (no mention of invented
spelling), makes all the major curriculum decisions, and then holds
teachers accountable for the results. Teachers ask, “Why should I be punished by
you (the State Board of Education) for the decisions you make?” The CTA, said President Higuchi, has proposed
an answer to this question---a bill to give teacher organizations bargaining
power in curriculum. This is
the first bill addressing the scope of bargaining in nearly 30 years,
according to Bill Younglove. The
CTA is saying that teachers are willing to accept major responsibility
for results as long as the State agrees to give teachers some reasonable
authority in the curriculum decisions influencing instruction.
President Day Higuchi asked, “How can a teacher organization
encourage their members, the teachers, to develop their expertise in
Lesson Design while, at the same time, the State Board of Education
excludes teachers from significant roles in curriculum decision making
(picking their books, their staff development providers), and then gives
teachers most of the blame and punishment for poor results?”
There was some discussion of the contention between teachers and the California State Board of Education over the reading curriculum. If State Board policies have any influence at all, then the State Board could claim (as it does) that its policies have produced reading test increases in grades 1 to 3. But its policies could also be said to have produced reading test declines from 4th to 12th grade (SAT9, International Comparisons, and NAEP). RAND and a number of research groups seem to be suggesting that the California State Board’s reading policies are seriously deficient in grades 4-12. It appears that the State Board’s policies have over simplified the reading problem, often to fit one reading adoption or another, and, as a result, it could be said that the State Board has orchestrated the 4th through 12th grade decline. The State Board is facing the question of whether teaching complexities will force them to give high priority to teacher discretion in Lesson Design. This is the same question facing government regulators of medical practice: will the complexities of medical practice force government to change its HMO mandates and give high priority to doctor discretion in medical practice. Doctors can claim some authority because they have made some efforts to systematize their practices. The development of the concept of Lesson Design and Lesson Study is the most recent effort to systematize K-12 teaching practices.
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