Statement of Support from Ronald A. Wolk

Founding Editor, Education Week

 

This New Teacher Project report makes painfully clear that the policies and practices that govern the hiring of teachers are undermining the effectiveness and quality of the nation's urban schools. Because these policies and practices are rooted in teacher union contracts, this report will be controversial. If the unions will feel they have been attacked and respond in kind, the opportunity to improve the way urban schools are staffed will be lost. There are solutions to these problems, and the report recommends some. It is in everyone's best interest, especially the children's, for the parties involved to sit down together and address the issues. We need to focus not on how we got into this situation, but how we get out of it.