Saturday June 30 12:52 AM EDT
Experienced public-school teachers reportedly are increasingly opting out of handling New York City fourth-grade classes - supposedly because they can't handle the pressure of preparing their students for the important reading and math tests that gauge classroom success.
Since the union's contract lets tenured teachers choose their classroom assignments, many of those instructors have decided to leave the task of prepping fourth-grade students to those with far less experience.
Good for the senior teachers.
Too bad about the kids.
The teachers complain that they're being held accountable for poor results on the fourth-grade tests - only 44 percent of city pupils passed the reading exam this year - even though the tests actually reflect skills the kids should have been learning since kindergarten.
Maybe so.
But if teachers aren't prepared to be held accountable for the failure of their students to learn, then they shouldn't be in the classroom to begin with.
Fourth-grade tests are the most critical factor when it comes to evaluating an elementary school. So yes, the pressure on teachers is enormous.
But it should be. If students aren't learning, then there has to be accountability.
Besides, we're not talking about inculcating 10-year-olds in the finer points of philosophy or trigonometry. The tests measure basic skills - of the kind that every fourth-grader needs to have.
UFT President Randi Weingarten complains that the tests are being used as an "off-with-your-head tool." That strikes us as overheated rhetoric - but if it's true, we don't exactly have a problem.
Actually, it's time for all teachers - not just those responsible for fourth-graders - to start feeling more pressure to prepare their students properly.
Those who can't do that should have reason to feel nervous.
� 1997
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