Education Policy, Business and Technology

Analysis | Teachers are now being asked to punch time clocks. What does that mean for their profession?

The Washington Post: School reformers in recent years have talked a lot about ensuring that all students have “high-quality” teachers — though they have both fudged the definition of what “quality” actually means and, in many cases, taken steps that many teachers feel are assaults on their profession.

Those actions include scapegoating teachers for problems that are beyond their control, implementing evaluation systems that are unreliable and unfair and emphasizing the importance of standardized tests to the point that classroom time is dominated by teaching to the test.

There have also been repeated attempts to undermine due-process protections for teachers as well as tenure and reduce the power of organized labor. Right now, the Supreme Court is considering a case that may deliver the biggest blow to organized labor in decades. The case asks the court to make it impossible for unions to charge fees to nonunion members who are still covered by the contract benefits that unions win through bargaining.

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