And yet the states with strong teachers unions have some of the best high schools in the country, along with some very bad schools. Generally speaking, the worst schools are in areas of grinding poverty and their problems are very challenging.
Of more concern for overall performance, is the vast middle. There is a somewhat strong current of anti-intellectualism in parts of this country. While testing has been a standard for HS graduation since the No Child Left Behind, the level of testing in many places was incredibly low. Nothing like the “leaving tests” kids take in other countries. This is in contrast to the top US HS where the work load is probably too intense. But when we push our kids we get the “Race to Nowhere” backlash. When tests become harder, like the Common Core tests, parents complain about teaching to the test. Teachers experience everything from parents who don’t even show up at back to school night or respond to requests to discuss their children’s progress, to parents that come in to argue over a few points on a test. Kids, parents and the community, tend to give more attention and support to the top athletes than the top students.
There is also an attitude that kids are born with certain abilities and can’t do much to change that. The “I am terrible at math” mantra that is very common, rather than if I work harder I can be successful. In many other countries, hard work (sometimes to a ridiculous extent) is valued over innate ability.
There are bad teachers and certainly it should be easier to fire them. But the reality is that most teachers do a decent job. Districts could fire every single bad teacher and still see very little change in achievement, unless there is an overall change in what is required of students and a change in attitude of students and parents, especially for the kids in the middle.