Defining Merit and Measuring Quality: New York City Teacher Policy During the Post–World War II Years

• In Event: 61.034 - Analyzing the Arc: What History Teaches Us About Civil Rights and Educational Justice

Abstract

Objectives and Results
Teachers stand at the nucleus of education policy, at once a target of criticism and object of reform. Linking the deficient quality of teachers to poor school outcomes, policymakers – past and present – have identified professionalization as a panacea. In an historic policy arena that is diverse and often contentious, the concept of teacher professionalization emerges as a rare point of consensus. But as history offers, that consensus has been superficial. The metaphor of profession, to use JoAnne Brown’s wise phrase, represents a powerful idea but one that individuals across the educational landscape and over time have defined differently.
Teacher examinations represent one brand of professionalization reform. During the early twentieth century, policymakers around the country argued that this extra level of inspection would help ensure that the “right” kind of individual made his or her way into the classroom. For teachers, the exams, though cumbersome, certified their expertise. But by the post-World War II years, consensus around these longstanding practices eroded. Faced with teacher shortages in high-needs schools, New York City school leaders took aim at these examinations by calling for alternate routes into the schools including emergency licensure. Unionized teachers resisted these policy changes, identifying them as an affront to their professional stature.
These debates centered on a contested notion of merit that was suffused with the discourse of race and equality. City policymakers argued that the examinations were discriminatory and that bending these long-standing rules would yield a more diverse corps of teachers. Unionized teachers contended that the exams offered a “colorblind” assessment of merit. The rhetoric of social justice engulfed these conversations as both sides offered different definitions of professionalism and fair practices. Through an examination of these competing definitions, this research calls attention to the complex ways justice has been conceptualized within the school and some of the critical barriers to change.
Methods and Evidence
This scholarship employs traditional historical methodology. Drawing upon the historiographical traditions of intellectual, institutional and social history, I employ an ecological perspective and considering the interplay of schools and teacher organizations against the backdrop of social and political forces. I have conducted extensive archival research in local and national collections and make use of a wide range of sources including: official policy documents and confidential memorandum, union speeches, correspondences and recruitment materials, newspaper articles, and articles from teacher journals and union bulletins.
Scholarly Significance
Scholars have studied the professions from historical and sociological perspectives , and others have studied the history of teachers and their organizations. This work builds bridges between these two traditions and reveals that far from static and quantifiable, professional identity is negotiated and contested. In addition, scholars have also identified key tensions between teachers and students in the quest for social justice. This research illuminates how shifting ideologies surrounding teacher professionalism motivated and amplified this divide, placing teachers in a complex and alienated space in the schools.

Author

• Diana D'Amico, George Mason University