An open letter to Arnie Duncan

February 6, 2010

Dear Secretary Duncan,

I was very much looking forward to listening to your interview on NPR this morning. And it seemed that the only music to my ears was the phrase “necessary changes to NCLB.” I was very excited when the interviewer asked about the major changes necessary, and so let down to hear the general response of “more charter schools” and “merit pay.” And again, so interested in hearing the response to “What does merit pay look like?” and so disappointed to hear the avoidance of a clear answer.

As a public school teacher, it is very hard to support what I hear about the changes recommended for education in our country. It seems as though even the Department of Education has a hard time with understanding what most people fail to understand: schools are not insulated from society. Schools are a mirror and reflection of our society, its values and its power structures. When students walk in to my classroom, I know that the teacher before me attempted to teach California’s ridiculously complicated standards, and that due to the socioeconomic status of my students, these standards have been difficult to grasp from day one. I know that they are not coming into my room on grade level, but according to the little bit I have heard about the plans for merit pay, they are magically supposed to leave my room in June at grade level. I work incredibly hard with my students; I accommodate varying learning modalities that are all forced to learn in the same room together. I use varying strategies to help my students to access and learn our standards. I push literacy and critical thinking skills. But I can not, no matter how hard I try, overcome the overarching, problematic issues of my students’ society that follow them from the sidewalk into my classroom. And I truly still question how I will be paid for my merit when the only way I have heard is through “evaluations” and “scores.” What if my administrator has a grudge against me? What if my scores are low in general, but my students have progressed three grade levels from September to May? How will I be compensated for all of that hard work? How will I be protected from the vengeful administrator?

I took it personally that it was assumed that standards are “dumbed down” and that they are not challenging enough to support our students who are headed to four year universities. Students who are placed in remedial classes upon entering college are simply a reflection of the drop in true literacy outside of the classroom. They are a product of a generation that does not read, are not interested in the world beyond the one they can hold in their hand, do not engage outside of “popular culture.” They are placed in remedial classes not because the schools have failed them, but because the school is not a powerful enough tool to overcome the faults of our socioeconomic inequities. I can not control that somewhere along the line the parents of my students were told not to speak to their children in Spanish, but in English. And so, did my students learn how to speak beautiful Spanish? No. Were my students exposed to weak, broken English? Yes. I can not control that books are a luxury to the students in my community and so they have little exposure to reading for pleasure. I can not control that for many of my students, there is no parental figure at home to motivate my students to do their homework. Why are they not home? Because they are too busy working more than one job to make sure that there is food on the table and that the bills are paid.

And the idea of charter schools simply breaks my heart. Charter schools do look amazing on paper. They have wonderful test scores. They have beautiful graduation rates. They send all of their weak students back into the public school pipeline for us to deal with. To make it seem as though those of us teaching in public schools are not effective teachers. That those of us in public schools do not have the same teaching skills as those in charter schools. That charter schools are the answer. The answer is understanding that the problems in our schools reflect the problems of our society; that the children who are successful generally come from families of stronger socioeconomic backgrounds. Yes, we have students that break through the glass ceiling and defy existing power hierarchies, but they are few and far between, and oftentimes are breaking through on only a temporary, superficial level.

Schools will not improve until we accept that they are mirrors of our society. Schools will not improve because someone says “merit pay” and “charter.” Schools will not improve when the money follows the child. Schools will only improve when we address the overarching social issues that impact the students (and faculty) attending our schools. Schools will only improve when the values of our society are adjusted. Schools will only improve when my students know that their unhealthy cafeteria lunch will not be the only meal they eat that day. Schools will only improve when we as a society acknowledge that the society impacts the school and that the school impacts the society.

I hope that upon your restructuring of No Child Left Behind and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that the society at large is taken into consideration, and that schools are no longer isolated from that which is happening in our country at large.

Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns. I hope soon to hear the actual plan for merit pay and for a way to improve our public school system that does not lean on charter schools.