WASHINGTON, DC – In an effort to foster solutions to restore order in America’s classrooms, Independent Women released an education report today, titled “Give Teachers A Break: Cutting Red Tape to Unleash the Potential of America’s Great Teachers.” The report exposes the reality of victims in the classroom and outlines common-sense practices to enable students to learn and teachers to thrive by cutting the red tape and regulations that get in the way of America’s great teachers who are just trying to do their jobs but end up entangled in a bureaucratic system.
The report is authored by Neeraja Deshpande, Independent Women policy analyst and engagement coordinator, who previously taught middle school and high school math, English, and financial literacy. Deshpande’s research and analysis highlights the key challenges teachers face in their classrooms and emphasizes the urgent need to eliminate unnecessary mandates and barriers that hinder teachers from effectively doing their jobs and properly supporting their students. The report discusses:
- Why the nation is losing its most effective teachers;
- How misguided policies—not educators—are sabotaging student success; and
- Practical, common-sense reforms to restore order, trust, and excellence in our classrooms.
“Subjected to an ever-expanding and ever-changing bureaucracy, teachers today are often barred from holding their students to any real academic or behavioral standards, leading to unruly, out-of-control classrooms in which little teaching or learning can be accomplished,” said Deshpande in the report’s executive summary.
Some stats outlined in Independent Women’s report:
Less than a third of children in America are able to read and do math proficiently:
- 69% of 4th graders and 70% of 8th graders aren’t proficient in reading
- 61% of 4th graders and 72% of 8th graders aren’t proficient in math
While student success is often linked to their teacher’s success, the recent patterns of low student performance and teacher dissatisfaction within their profession are both caused by “a bloated educational system enabled and funded by a bloated government that teachers have little control over or ability to influence.”
The report finding concludes that educational standards should include:
- Allowing teachers to maintain basic classroom discipline without the state deciding what is and isn’t acceptable;
- Enforcing fundamental classroom discipline strategies to hold unruly students accountable and ensure classes can focus on learning;
- Upholding grading integrity by not passing students who have not earned a passing grade;
- Ending the “Social and Emotional Learning Practice,” a “therapeutic approach to education that emphasizes feelings and progressive ideology over learning;”
- Streamlining the process for teachers to keep and maintain teaching certificates;
- Reevaluating the definition of learning disability to focus on students who need specialized instruction.
About the Give Teachers A Break: Cutting Red Tape to Unleash the Potential of America’s Great Teachers, Deshpande said, “It seems like every year, the headlines about America’s schools get worse and worse—students not being able to read, or do math, or even just behave themselves, while ideology encroaches more and more on actual learning. Far too often, this abysmal state of affairs is blamed on teachers: it’s teachers who aren’t teaching reading or math, it’s teachers who aren’t controlling their classrooms, it’s teachers who are shoving ideology into students’ heads. But the truth is, while there are some bad apples out there, the majority of teachers are in it for the kids. In far too many cases, teachers are as victimized by the bureaucracy and government red tape as their students are, and have little control over their classrooms. It’s time to change that. This report exposes the red tape and bureaucracy getting in the way of teachers and proposes tearing those down to empower America’s best teachers to do what they do best: teach.”
Beanie Geoghegan, a former teacher, fellow emeritus at Independent Women, and co-founder of Freedom in Education, said, “The issues I faced as a new teacher two decades ago pale in comparison to those faced by educators today: with red tape and bureaucracy, teaching has become far more difficult than needed. If we genuinely want to improve education for American children, teachers must have the training, support, authority, and materials necessary to accomplish the monumental task.”
Read the full report here.