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The Role of the Education Sector in Enhancing Teacher Quality
Following Wednesday's discussion of the private sector's
role in enhancing teacher quality, a panel of educators discussed the role of
the education sector in doing the same. Lew Solmon,
president of the National Institute for
Excellence in Teaching, provided a brief history of the
efforts that have been made to improve education in the past few
decades. He then asked each of the panelists to give his or her
perspective.
Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, Ohio State Superintendent of Public Instruction, observed that it is often a counter-intuitive effort. She gave a few specifics:
- Instructional management system: what do we want our educators to be able to do?
- Fiscal policies: are resources being used effectively?
- Overall picture: how can we compare strengths and weaknesses of very different schools that may be just around the corner from each other?
Paul
Vallas, chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia,
pointed out that his city is a genuine challenge. And yet despite insufficient
funding and academically struggling students, scores and retention rates have
been improving. The school system has turned around, he said. They
now have more applicants than they can accept. They subsidize extra
help in the classroom by providing internships for students from eight local
colleges—and not just education students. When these students get
into classrooms and see what can be accomplished, quite often the school will
win another future teacher.
They've tried
physical changes—going to smaller schools, charter schools, and other variations.
They have insisted that high school Advanced Placement courses be
data-driven. And they instituted year-round professional development,
first during school, then during the summer. That approach, he said,
institutionalizes quality instruction.
Gary
Stark, vice president of program development for
the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, stated that first we need to
deal with teacher management, and outlined again the four elements of the
Teacher
Advancement Program
(TAP).
The TAP team that
goes into the schools to help get things rolling are support members sent to
work with the teachers. TAP is not, he said, "just a
shake-n-bake solution" mailed to the school, after which we cut them
loose. We work with them every step of the way. We have
125+ schools, and we're in fifteen states now.
Putting on his
teacher/principal hat, he suggested that TAP should start with the leadership
role. A good principal helps the new teachers get into the new
orientation. Great teachers will be attracted and retained by this
approach.
Tom
Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and
America's Future, reported that his organization decided to understand why
we're not getting to where No Child Left Behind wants us to get to.
What they found was that we not paying enough attention to the
structure.
We don't have a
teacher supply problem, he said. We have a teacher retention
problem. The teacher dropout rate is higher than the student dropout
rate. When asked, those leaving the profession complained of no
preparation for the task at hand, and no support when they started the
job. Another common observation was that "I don't see a
rewarding career path in front of
me."
New teachers are no
longer willing to teach in factory-era conditions. We used to have TV
heroes, he said. Now we have TV teams. Instead of Dr.
Kildare, we have ER. Instead of Perry Mason, we have The
Practice. We should be moving from stand-alone teaching to team
concepts. It is morally irresponsible to have a high-powered teacher
in one room and a poor teacher just down the hall. We've got to build
a team.
Joan
Baratz-Snowden, director of educational issues for the American Federation
of Teachers, took umbrage at ad hominem criticisms of teacher
unions. She asserted that there's plenty of blame to go
around. Working people have always understood the importance of
education, adding that she wasn't talking about teacher unions alone, but all
unions.
Teacher unions, she said, can be powerful
agents of change. If they were as powerful as they are said to be,
however, we'd have a lot better schools. Unions advocate for policies
that support teachers and teacher unions, and they do a lot of professional
development.
Lew
Solmon asked the panel members if they thought National Board
Certification process was constructed primarily to produce great teachers or to
identify great teachers?
Thomas Carroll said
the initial purpose was to identify accomplished teachers, but that it has
actually become a means of developing stronger teachers through the reflective
process of certification. By the way, he added, we need to stop
calling them "hard-to-staff" schools; they're just bad places to
work. And, he said, we need to train teachers how to teach under new
conditions.
Joan Baratz-Snowden agreed, saying that
money alone is not going to move talented teachers to difficult
schools. Safety is also a big issue, and geography is a problem.
Finally, she said, we've got to remember that it's not the kids that are
repelling potential teachers—it's the working
conditions.
Other panel members
offered suggestions for improving school
conditions.
Vallas: I would not
have not had the success I have had, had it not been for collaboration with the
teacher unions. We've also got to upgrade our approach and our methods to deal
with current problems and prospects. We've not only got to recruit
teachers who might be willing to spend two or three decades, but also great
prospects who might be able to spend five or six years and give them the
support they need.
Zelman:
Teach For America is providing an apprentice model. Generation X
students have a very different view of the world and of their careers than we
did.
Snowden: It's a
democracy. The teachers vote to have the TAP model come in.
Many times the teachers are really open to
learning.
Carroll:
What we're hearing is that the preparation is critical to the survival of the
new teachers. They must learn, for instance, to
collaborate.
At that point, we were running dangerously close to the time when the buses were scheduled to pick us up to take us to the Congressional Reception at the Hart Senate Office Building, so the panel adjourned and the Milken Educators headed for the buses.
For more information on the Conference—including the agenda, bios of Conference presenters, photos and videos—please visit the Milken Family Foundation Web site at www.mff.org.
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I have a VERY good feeling that I will see a female president in my lifetime. What do you think?
I'm predicting that the war, 911, Iran, Hurricane Katrina, the Immigrant issue and Gay marriage will get more people to the polls in 2008.Yes, there are a lot of issues, but children and education is one close at heart to me.
We all know what happen to the 5 STAR-NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND PROGRAM, It got funding- started to take off then- BUSH cut the funding! NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND- FOR A SHORT TIME- THEN LEAVE THEM ALL BEHIND BY CUTTING SO MUCH FUNDING- THEY COULD GET ENOUGH HELP OR SERVICES. There are so many broken homes today. So many people who just need help to raise a child properly.
like Hillary Clinton's book which I love, It Takes a Village.
In the old day we all had so many relatives all watching out for our kids, Now families are far away in most cases or too busy to help. Years ago the families were larger, lived together & took care of each other.
Every one has to do our part to be of the village that raises its children. Donate, mentor - just get involved. We have many agencies - some work together well- others just let children fall through the cracks, Hillary see this a sees a need to revamp systems that do not work for our children.
just think,
A little $$ our government spends now- can save us a lot spent latter... EXAMPLE:
education,childcare,food programs & parent education VS: drug rehabs & prison.
The children we don't help. we pay for in prison cost down the line.
Just my take,
Cheryl
http://journals.aol.com/cste609371/writingsshortstoriesbySt ewart/
4/21/08 2:03 AM