Here are two of my favorite bloggers in conversation. Jennifer Berkshire–aka EduShyster–went to a bloggers’ convention in New Orleans and stayed with Mercedes Schneider. Jennifer spent a day with Mercedes, then interviewed her here. As it happened, they were meeting on the first anniversary of the start of Mercedes’ blog.
Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
This appeared on a Facebook page and was sent to me (I am one of the few people on the planet not on Facebook).
“I’m getting ready to go to bed b/c I have to get up at 5:00 in the morning for early duty. I plan to pray tonight for our Elected Officials b/c that is what it says to do in the Bible to pray for them b/c they are placed in authority. I have a lot of emotions going through my mind but I hope and pray that the Representatives will do the right thing tomorrow and Support our Ms Teachers. We all work hard and we all do it b/c we love the children and love our communities. Even though we don’t teach for the money we all have bills to pay and have to provide for our on families. It really bothers me personally though that the State would be willing to give away $350 million to big corporations, willing to give tax credits to Vouchers for private schools, and expanding Charter Schools across our states. I truly believe that some of these elected officials have forgotten us and just don’t respect us anymore. I just don’t understand how they can start new schools while our schools are underfunded and teachers are struggling to make it. Anyway I’m off my soapbox but plan to keep the fight and plan to do the best job that I can to educate my children everyday. God Bless you all.”
Joseph Featherstone has been writing about education for decades. He was a progressive back when I was infatuated with accountability and other useless ideas.
In the current issue of the Nation, Featherstone has an interesting and provocative review of my latest book “Reign of Error.”
What was especially gratifying to me is that he understands the dangers of privatization, he sees the larger context of what is happening in our society, and he recognizes the importance of building a movement to reclaim the promise of American public education.
He asks the crucial question: Once the phony reformers have moved on to some other hobby, once they recognize that they have wasted their time and the nation’s money, once they realize that their efforts to demolish the teaching profession is harming children and our society, what then? How will we improve our schools? How can we get the schools we want and the schools our children need?
What comes after freedom from oppression?
That’s a great question, and I hope readers will comment.
I have my ideas but I need to hear from the experienced readers and teachers and parents and students who read this blog.
John Thompson, teacher and historian, didn’t use the word “sham,” but that was exactly his meaning in this good analysis of the case where the claim has been made that due process for teachers denies the civil rights of students.
The reality, as Thompson notes, is that the lawyers for the plaintiffs aren’t even trying to show that any child has been harmed because of tenure. They aren’t trying because there is no evidence. Teachers in high-performing districts have tenure, as do teachers in low-performing districts. Don’t expect the lawyers to introduce evidence about districts that abolished due process for teachers and closed the achievement gap, because there is none.
Taking away the right of teachers to a fair hearing before an impartial administrator won’t help a single child, and presumably the lawyers know it.
What it will take away is teachers’ academic freedom, and the lawyers don’t care.
What is the point of the Vergara case? It is to attack unions and due process rights for teachers. If teachers serve at the will of administrators, as John Deasy and the corporate reformers want, who will be brave enough to disagree with their principal, or to teach evolution, or to teach a challenged book that offends even a single parent? What teacher will speak out against the attacks on their profession? Surely not those who want to feed their family and pay their mortgage.
John Thompson feels sure that the plaintiffs will lose because they have no evidence for their claim that children lose when their teachers have due process. Let’s hope he is right.
In the past few years, as one tragedy after another has befallen schools by nature or at the hands of the malevolent, our school personnel have time and again risen to the occasion.
In the recent wintry blast that shut down transportation across large sections of the South, Atlanta was hit hard.
School officials made the unwise decision to keep schools open despite the gathering storm, and it was left to staff to get them home or protect them when they couldn’t get them home.
This article portrays the selflessness of bus drivers, teachers, cafeteria workers, all of whom did whatever they could to protect the children stranded with them by the storm.
In Alabama, more than 10,000 students spent the night in their school, unable to get home because of the weather.
When thousands of students were stranded in their schools, their teachers took care of them.
A columnist called the teachers of Birmingham “the heroes of #snowmageddon.”
He wrote:
Teachers aren’t mere baby-sitters. They’re mentors. Comforters. Advisers. De-facto parents.
They are drivers in harsh weather and can prepare meals from lunchroom scraps.
They are protectors.
It shouldn’t take a snow storm to remind us of our teachers’ undying commitment. As the city thaws, I hope their hard work isn’t forgotten.
I consider them heroes, but most teachers likely will shy away from that term.
In their eyes, they were just doing their job.
Loving, kind, and dedicated people rose to the challenge.
They didn’t need merit pay or bonuses.
There is no measure for their dedication.
It won’t show up on a test.
They were just doing their job: caring for children.
They truly put students first.
I will be in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 11 to participate in the Emerging Issues Forum. It brings together strong partisans from very different perspectives. The focus seems to be about recruiting and retaining the best teachers. It is an ironic time to discuss this topic when North Carolina teachers are feeling besieged by punitive legislation that is encouraging senior teachers to leave not only the profession, but the state. After I speak in Raleigh, I will go to Durham to the Holton Center for a conversation with parents, community leaders, and educators, from 1:30-3 pm.
Here is the agenda for the two-day forum:
29th Annual Emerging Issues Forum
Teachers and the Great Economic Debate
Raleigh Convention Center, February 10-11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
8:00 – 8:20 a.m.Opening Session
W. Randolph Woodson, Chancellor, NC State University
James B. Hunt, Jr., Former Governor, State of North Carolina & Chair, Institute for Emerging Issues
Anita R. Brown-Graham, Director, Institute for Emerging Issues
8:20 – 9:00 a.m.Where are the Smartest Kids in the World?
Goal: To remind the audience why teacher quality is an emerging issue, and why it demands North Carolina’s attention. Rather than providing specific policy recommendations, the goal of this session is to demonstrate ways in which other countries have approached the issues of teacher quality and its impact on student performance and ultimately economic development. It will also be a “call to action” for the audience to begin thinking about how they can contribute to the broader discussion.
Introduction by Walter McDowell (Confirmed), Board Chair, BEST NC and Retired Executive, Wachovia Bank
Amanda Ripley (Confirmed), Author, The Smartest Kids in the World – And How They Got That Way
Having most recently authored The Smartest Kids in the World – And How They Got That Way, Ripley will share international comparison data as well as patterns of transformation within the teaching profession that have led to positive change in other countries.
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.Lessons from Finland
Goal: To connect national and North Carolina stories to those of other nations. This session will highlight what leaders in Europe and Southeast Asia are doing to address teacher quality with an eye toward improving their nation’s overall competitiveness.
What is it about the teaching profession that impacts every industry and every individual? How are other countries tackling this issue? What potential impact can focusing on improving teacher quality have on student performance and ultimately a nation’s competitiveness?
Introduction / Moderation by John Tate (Confirmed), Member, NC State Board of Education and Retired Executive, Wachovia Bank
Pasi Sahlberg (Confirmed), Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation (CIMO) in Helsinki, Finland
In recent years, the country of Finland has produces out some of the
highest test scores in the world. This is due to the country’s investment in a knowledge based economy and a conscious strategy, developed in the 1970s, to be globally competitive. As a result, Finland has a tremendous commitment to highly trained teachers and they have committed to an equitable foundation of learning for all citizens regardless of family background, socioeconomic status or learning ability. Finnish teachers have a highly individualized focus on students with an array of options available to them. Salaries are benchmarked with other white-collared professions and assessment of learning is done for the application of knowledge, not memorization. Teachers assess students with independent tests they create themselves rather than high-stakes standardized tests. With all of these strategies, Finland’s educational results outperform other countries with lower per pupil funding.
9:30 – 9:40 a.m.Technology / Collaboration: What is a World Class Teacher?
Forum attendees will engage in table discussions about what they just heard, how it resonates with their current beliefs and where the opportunity is for consensus on NC’s direction moving forward. Discussion items will be captured through technology.
9:40 – 9:50 a.m.Break
9:50 – 10:40 a.m.Who are These Teachers and What is Their Value?
Goal: How can we identify world-class teachers? What is the link between high-quality teachers and a well-educated and well-paid workforce. What impact do high quality teachers have on our state’s economy?
Introduction by Phil Berger (Invited), Senator, North Carolina General Assembly
Raj Chetty (Confirmed), Bloomberg Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Chetty’s study on the long-term economic impact of high value-added educators shows that students assigned to high value-add teachers are more likely to have higher lifetime earnings. Other students outcomes influence by a quality teacher include the opportunity to attend college, live in higher socioeconomic status neighborhoods, and save more for retirement.
Helen “Sunny” Ladd (Confirmed), Edgar T. Thompson Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy
Ladd has written extensively about teacher quality using longitudinal data in North Carolina. She will respond to Dr. Chetty’s session, addressing why value add is a limited way to determine teacher effectiveness and highlighting the importance experience plays in identifying world-class teachers.
10:40 – 10:50 a.m.Technology / Collaboration: _______________________
Forum attendees will engage in table discussions about what they just heard, how it resonates with their current beliefs, and where the opportunity is for consensus on NC’s direction moving forward. Discussion items will be captured through technology.
10:50 – 11:00 a.m.Break
11:00 – 12:35 p.m.The Pathways and Programs in the War for Talent
11:00 – 11:25 a.m.Building a Better Pipeline
Goal: To highlight the importance of having an effective talent development strategy for our state’s teachers, this TED-style session will have representatives of very different industries sharing best practices in talent development as it is done in other sectors.
Moderated by Tom Williams (Confirmed), President, Strategic Educational Alliances, Inc.
Virgil Smith (Confirmed), Vice President / Talent Acquisition & Diversity, Gannett
Willy Stewart (Confirmed), CEO, Stewart Inc. and i2 Integrated Intelligence
Director of Nursing at Duke University (Suggested)
11:25 – 12:00 p.m Recruiting the Best
Goal: To highlight several innovative approaches to recruiting, preparing and supporting high quality teachers. We will investigate what practices School of Education Programs are implementing to ensure teachers enter the classroom with the most effective pedagogical practices as well as alternative approaches to recruiting and preparing the best students and professionals into the field of teaching.
Glenda W. Crawford (Confirmed), Director of Teaching Fellows, Elon University, School of Education, National Teaching Fellows Program
Elon’s National Teaching Fellows Program is a national model for the preparation of teacher leaders and scholars who will contribute meaningfully and significantly to the quality of education in PreK-12 classrooms and who will be influential in political decision-making on the local, state, national, and international levels.
Tyronna Hooker (Confirmed), Director of District and Community Partnerships, Teach for America, Eastern NC Region
There are 230 corps members teaching at every grade level, and almost 500 alumni leading in a variety of sectors in the 10 counties that make up the Eastern NC region. Independent studies in North Carolina have demonstrated that TFA teachers have an immediate and pronounced effect on student achievement.
Commons Story: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ Educator Treks.
• A program that takes educators from all fields for nature treks to experience hands-on learning experience, while delivering the curriculum materials for them to return to the classroom with their new knowledge.
• This story will demonstrate how professional development, especially professional development outside of the school environment, serves to strengthen the profession. Community-school partnerships like this provide development and experiences teacher do not normally find inside the school environment.
12:00 – 12:35 p.m.Keeping the Best
Ann Maddock (Confirmed), Senior Advisor, New Teacher Center
The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, recently recognized New Teacher Center (NTC) as one of five outstanding K-12 education programs that have demonstrated a strong potential for helping prepare more U.S. K-12 students for college and the workplace. NTC is committed to supporting on-going growth as a “teacher of teachers” through a comprehensive teacher induction program model and a wide range of available professional development, communities of practice, products, and free resources.
Elizabeth Kolb Cunningham (Confirmed), Director, NC New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP)
The goal of the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) is to improve the effectiveness of beginning teachers through intensive induction support aligned to each teacher’s individual needs, teaching assignment, and school environment. NC NTSP serves beginning teachers in their first years of teaching by providing intensive institute “boot camps”, direct, individualized classroom instruction, and aligned professional development sessions.
Angela Hinson Quick (Confirmed), Senior Vice President for Talent Development, NC New Schools
North Carolina New Schools believes that real and lasting educational change begins and ends in the classroom, with teachers who know their subject as well as the skills that students need to succeed and thrive in a changing world. NCNS helps make this happen by providing intensive and proven coaching for teachers and principals in classroom instruction and supportive leadership. Educators benefit from well planned professional development activities that provide access to practical, challenging strategies and opportunities to collaborate with experts from across the state and nation.
Ruben Carbonell (Confirmed), Director, Kenan Institute for Engineering Technology & Science, home of the Kenan Fellows Program, North Carolina State University
The Kenan Fellows Program improves K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teaching and education by providing relevant, professional learning and leadership development for exceptional teachers through innovative collaborations with research partners in industry, higher education, and government. Providing professional exposure opportunities for North Carolina teachers helps to bring relevancy into the classroom, connects teachers, and enriches learning opportunities for teachers and students.
12:35 – 2:00 p.m.LUNCH
What Drives Performance?
Goal: To explore the three elements (autonomy, mastery and purpose) of true motivation and what this means for how we pay our state’s teachers. What impact does “merit pay” have on student performance? How would raising the base pay for teacher affect prospective teachers? Existing teachers? What does this mean for poor performing teachers?
Introduction by Jayne Fleener (Confirmed), Dean, College of Education, NC State University
Daniel H. Pink (Confirmed), New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author
As presented in his book, Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink shares how research disproves the notion that the best way to motivate others is with external rewards like money. He will share with us how the secret to performance and satisfaction is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things and to do better by ourselves and our world. Dan Pink will share with us what all this means in regards to ways in which we best tackle the question of “how we train, retain, and support teachers in every classroom.
2:00 – 2:15 p.m.Break (Voting Closes for High School Prize)
2:15 – 3:20 p.m.Solution Sessions:
The solution sessions are focused on the four questions developed from the IEI Working Group. Forum attendees will be able to learn about initiatives across the state that are focusing on solving questions with the goal of training, retaining and supporting a world-class teacher in every classroom. These four sessions include:
(1) How can we design and fund a competitive compensation system that attracts and retains world-class talent in the teaching profession?
(2) In what ways can we ensure high performance standards for teaching are met from entry to retirement?
(3) How do we ensure enhanced societal value and globally competitive students by elevating the status of the teaching profession in North Carolina?
(4) How can we ensure access to comprehensive, high-quality and relevant professional development for teachers?
3:20 – 3:55 p.m. Charting a Path Forward
Goal: Governor McCrory will highlight the immediate action steps that the state is taking in education. He will also speak to his office’s future plans on public education in North Carolina, and his thoughts on the ideas from the Forum.
Introduction by James B. Hunt, Jr.
Pat McCrory (Invited), Governor, State of North Carolina
Governor McCrory has supported providing for Career and Technical Education pathways for students, including overhauling the way that CTE teachers are certified. Also in regards to North Carolina’s teachers, Governor McCrory has pushed for merit pay for teachers, as well as the expansion of charter schools and digital/online learning.
3:55 – 4:10 p.m.Awarding the Emerging Issues Prize for Innovation
W. Randolph Woodson
Governor Pat McCrory
Prior to announcement, video collage of finalists to be show
High School Prize Winner (show video)
Commons Story: Financial Literacy in the Classroom
• Fidelity Investments and the North Carolina Council on Economic Education have partnered to train Wake County educators in teaching financial literacy and money-management skills to high school students.
• This story highlights how Corporate-Teacher partnerships can influence the lives and education of students. The program has reached over 144,000 NC students through Career and Technical Education teachers.
4:10 – 4:55 p.m. Teacher Quality: Identifying Our Respective Responsibilities
Goal: To wrap up day one with a clear understanding teacher quality is something that should be important to all of us, no matter our background or profession. A transformational change will require support from all sectors. This session will respond also to the question: With so many aspects of education reform in debate, why focus on improving teaching / teachers?
Introduction by___________
Rex Tillerson (Invited), Chairman, CEO & President, Exxon Mobil Corporation. Exxon Mobile has identified K-12 education as an investment priority and, as a result, is investing its resources to support the professional development of teachers across the nation. Also, as chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Education and Workforce Committee, Mr. Tillerson has led the national conversation about the influence of exceptional teachers on student learning and its connections to the quality of our nation’s global workforce.
4:55 – 5:00 p.m.Closing
James B. Hunt, Jr.
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.Open Reception
6:00 – 8:15 p.m.Leadership Dinner
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
8:00 – 8:10 a.m.Insights on the NC Strategy for World-Class Teachers
Anita R. Brown-Graham
8:10 – 8:20 a.m Recognizing the SECU Prize for Innovation Winners
(SECU Representative) (Suggested)
8:20 – 9:10 a.m.Teacher Town Hall Hosted by the 2013-14 NC Teacher of the Year
Goal: Recognizing that the voice of a teacher who has left the classroom is one that is rarely heard, this Teacher Town Hall conversation will engage several former teachers who were high performing in the classroom. It will help the audience appreciate that when a high-quality teacher decides to leave the classroom, we lose on student outcomes. While little room for career advancement and relatively low pay are often cited as the primary reasons teachers leave the profession, a non-supportive work environment as well as a lack of supportive and shared leadership has led some of the best and most passionate teachers to leave the classroom. This group will respond to questions around reasons they left the profession and what they think it will take to retain high-quality teachers in NC.
Moderated by John Merrow (Invited), Education Consultant for PBS Newshour and President of Learning Matters
Hosted by Karyn Dickerson (Confirmed), 2013-14 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Guilford County Schools
Jen Colletti (Confirmed), Former East Chapel Hill High School Teacher
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9:10 – 9:50 a.m.Strength and Quality Through Professionalization
Goal: Diane Ravitch has recently written at length on the impact that professionalization has on teachers. She will speak to how strict professional standards, based in pedagogical research, should be applied to teachers and school administrators. She will also describe how standards for the teaching profession can be brought into alignment with other respected professional such as law and medicine.
Introduction by Karyn Dickerson (Confirmed), 2013-14 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Guilford County Schools
Diane Ravitch (Confirmed), Research Professor, New York University
Diane Ravitch is an education policy analyst and historian at New York University. In addition, she served in the Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations. Her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System was a national bestseller, which addressed issues with high-stakes testing and quantifying teacher quality. Her latest book, Reign of Error, warns against the privatizing of the public school system. She is being invited to share her thoughts on how high-stakes testing, the move to charter schools, and competitive teacher performance measures are damaging the teaching profession. Furthermore, she will argue that teacher de-selection is unfairly punishing teachers who are not given the tools to succeed or who are working with special student populations.
Commons Story: Project L.I.F.T.
• Project L.I.F.T., which is revitalizing 9 Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, shows how business partnerships and redesigned school policies can turn around failing schools. Project L.I.F.T. has raised $55 million in private funds to support its venture.
• More importantly though, it has restructured many of its teacher policies- allowing for teachers to be paid more, and pursue leadership roles without having to leave the classroom. Increases in teacher pay has not come through private funds, but rather the innovate structuring of their school’s personnel within normal salary funding.
9:50 – 10:40 a.m.Exploring the Choices Before Us
Goal: To make clear the places where we need to make critical choices in order to improve teacher quality. While the impact of a high quality teacher is clear, how we build a world-class teaching workforce is debatable. Do we remove low performing teachers? Or do we work to support and develop them? How do we think about pay? How do we assess?
Moderated by John Merrow (Invited)
Rick Hess (Confirmed), Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Frederick Hess is an education policy analyst from the American Enterprise Institute. He has authored several books on education reform, as well as supporting a school district turn plan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Hess has recently published a 9-point reform of the teaching profession, entitled Teacher Quality 2.0. He will speak on how his reform plan of de-centralizing education authority will improve the teaching profession. Some of his strategies include the use of charters and vouchers, de-selecting teachers, and reforming teacher tenure.
Bryan Hassel (Confirmed), Co-Director, Public Impact.
Bryan Hassel is director of Public Impact, an educational consulting group. He will speak about how extending the reach of quality teachers through technology, mentorships, and increasing their class sizes provide opportunities for teachers to be promoted. He will elaborate on how, through the work of Opportunity Culture, his organization uses differential pay to attract and retain the highest quality teachers, and how this translates into an elevated view of teachers as professionals. In addition, he will share how Public Impact works focuses on the policies and approaches to recruiting, selecting, evaluating, developing, compensating and retaining high-performing teachers and leaders.
10:40 – 11:00 a.m.What Are the Choices Before Us?
Anita R. Brown-Graham
Goal: To share the work of the IEI Working Group, what was heard during the breakout sessions and how the technology sessions are being used to collect their ideas on ways to address these important questions. During the final technology session of the day, attendees will be asked to prioritize these ideas, which will be used to guide the work of the Teacher Ambassadors throughout their post-forum MOOC-Ed experience.
Technology / Collaboration: Prioritizing Ideas from the Solution Sessions
Forum attendees will engage in table discussions about what they just heard, how it resonates with their current beliefs and where the opportunity is for consensus on NC’s direction moving forward. Discussion items will be captured through technology.
11:00 – 11:10 a.m.Break
11:10 – 12:00 p.m.State-Level Policy and Financing Our Options
Goal: To bring North Carolina leaders together to discuss policy options and how we finance the way forward. Any changes in public education regarding teacher pay, more individualized instruction or other policy options inevitably must include a discussion of how to fund the proposals. This session will feature North Carolina leaders in a discussion of how North Carolina should move forward in prioritizing its efforts to reform public education including financing the policy changes considered during the two-day Emerging Issues Forum. State leadership support must include identifying the resources to pay for initiatives.
Moderated by: Richard Stevens (Confirmed), Counsel, Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P.
Education Facts Presented by: Trip Stallings (Invited), Director of Policy Research, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Rick Glazier (Confirmed), Representative, North Carolina General Assembly
Bryan Holloway (Confirmed), Representative, North Carolina General Assembly
Craig Horn (Confirmed), Representative, North Carolina General Assembly
Earline Parmon (Confirmed), Senator, North Carolina General Assembly
Jerry Tillman (Invited), Senator, North Carolina General Assembly
12:00 – 12:10 p.m.Technology / Collaboration: ______________
Forum attendees will engage in table discussions about what they just heard, how it resonates with their current beliefs, and where the opportunity is for consensus on NC’s direction moving forward. Discussion items will be captured through technology.
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.One State’s Approach to Teacher Quality
Goal: To highlight the comprehensive reform package for K-12 education planned by the State of Tennessee, particularly as it applies to teachers. How will decision on evaluation and compensation effect North Carolina? What strategies should North Carolina consider as it seeks to move forward?
Introduction by: James B. Hunt, Jr. (Confirmed), Former Governor, State of North Carolina & Chair, Institute for Emerging Issues
Bill Haslam, (Confirmed), Governor of Tennessee
Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam has made improvements to public education a top priority for his administration. Recently, Tennessee’s students were the most improved in national benchmarks. Gov. Haslam has made pledges to overhaul teacher evaluation systems, and to move teacher pay in Tennessee from the bottom 20% to the most competitive in the nation.
Commons Story: North Carolina Safe Routes to School
• A program that encourages children and parents to walk, or bicycle to schools, while facilitating projects that make pedestrian pathways to school safer.
• Embracing a whole school, whole child approach to child safety, healthy lifestyles, and community design. Safe Routes to School has provided improved school and community infrastructure where it has not existed before, especially for rural schools.
12:40 – 2:00 p.m.Lunch
The Influence of a World-Class Teacher
Goal: To wrap up all we’ve heard over the past two days and to provide proof that this work is possible. The influence of a world-class teacher does stretch far beyond the classroom, to our state’s future workforce.
Introduction by: _____________________
Ron Clark (Confirmed), Founder and Mathematics Teacher, The Ron Clark Academy Ron Clark has been called “America’s Educator”. In 2000, he was named Disney’s American Teacher of the Year. He is a New York Times bestselling author whose book, The Essential 55, has sold over 1 million copies and have been published in 25 different countries. Ron Clark has directly impacted the community around his schools, his students, the state of Georgia and countless others through his educating teachers across the globe. He will share with Forum attendees how building a world-class teaching workforce is not only necessary, but POSSIBLE; leaving attendees with a charge to roll up their sleeves and do their part to improve teacher quality. Our students deserve it; our state deserves it!
2:00 – 2:15 p.m.Closing
James B. Hunt, Jr.,
Anita R. Brown-Graham
The new Di Blasio team is off to a good start in education. The Bloomberg team is quietly exiting stage right. One of the key players, Marc Sternberg, has moved to the Walton Family Foundation to promote vouchers. Another, Shael Suransky, will be president of Bank Street College, which does not share his enthusiasm for test-based accountability.
The new chancellor, Carmen Farina, is assembling her own team, and unlike Bloomberg and Joel Klein, she is selecting veteran educators.
When she met with principals as a group for the first time, she was greeted with a standing ovation. She made clear that the days of derision were over and a new era of respect and collaboration. She also made the startling announcement that the city would require a minimum of seven years’ experience, in contrast to the Bloomberg policy of fast-tracking inexperienced newcomers to lead schools.
Her second in command, Dorita Gibson, has more than 30 years’ experience in the schol system.
The Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Philip Weinberg, a high school principal in Brooklyn, has nearly thirty years in the system, and the Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development has 27 years in education.
This is quite a change from the early years of the Klein regime, when the inner circle consisted of fresh-faced MBA graduates, and 20-something’s with no classroom experience. As one insider told me later, “I would look around and realize that no one making decisions had ever worked in a school.”
Philip Weinberg, who takes charge of teaching and learning, was a signer of the New York principals’ letter opposing the New York State Annual Professional Performance Review, the evaluation system designed by John King that created enormous pushback.
In this article, he explains why more than 1,000 principals signed the letter and why it is wrong to remove the job of evaluating teachers from principals.
This is part of what Weinberg wrote:
“My concern about the agreement is that a large portion of a teacher’s evaluation is to be taken out of the hands of principals. I am disturbed by this, not just because I think this will lead to inaccurate ratings and will pressure teachers in unproductive ways (it will), but also because I believe it speaks to a growing distrust of or disrespect for principals. I am surprised that the teachers’ union would trade a principal’s rating for that of a student’s test score, especially given the recent teacher data report debacle. Are most principals less fair or trustworthy than reductive data? I think not. I think most principals feel exactly as Mr. Mulgrew does when they work with an ineffective teacher, and they communicate those concerns with the same intelligence, honesty and kindness Mr. Mulgrew expressed above.
“The desire to use multiple measures to rate teachers seems like a smart idea. However, New York City’s two experiments with value-added ratings in education, the teacher data reports and the school progress reports, have not produced reliable information. So far we have not discovered any measures which clearly correlate teacher performance to student learning. This new agreement will generate a teacher’s rating by using data which we know does not answer the question we are asking. Why? Are principals incapable of understanding data, incapable of interpreting it based upon what they see in their schools? I think not.
“I think we can review our schools’ data in a much more nuanced and accurate way than any measure designed to encapsulate and compare the work of thousands of teachers working with hundreds of thousands of students. No less a prominent voice in this discussion, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, was recently quoted as saying: “The principals’ job is to decide who’s good, who’s bad. It’s their judgment; that’s their job.” Who could disagree?”
“But we principals, too, are part of the problem. Not because we have promoted the use of bad data to rate teachers, but because we may have allowed our attention to stray from our chief job of promoting professional growth, training staff, documenting teacher performance, creating community and defining what quality teaching and learning look like in our schools. Newly necessary distractions like marketing and fund-raising and data analysis may have seemed more important than getting into classrooms and working with teachers on how to plan lessons and ask questions. But if we let our attention waiver from those things which we know should be our primary focus, if we asked “How can we help students earn more credits?” instead of “How can we help students learn more?” then some of the distrust we see driving this new agreement is our fault, even if we believe that is what the school system and the general public wanted us to do. We may have felt less incentive to concentrate on the quality of classroom instruction in our schools because we are rated on other things, but we know our jobs. If we chose to focus on tasks outside of instruction, it makes sense that the void such a choice created was filled by psychometricians.”
Imagine that: a deputy chancellor who believes that professional judgment is wiser than data!
This will be interesting.
On Saturday morning, the Board of Directors of NYSUT–the New York State United Teachers–voted unanimously for a resolution of “no confidence” in State Commissioner John King.
This is tantamount to calling for his removal.
The implementation of Common Core testing in New York state was widely recognized as a fiasco. Many legislators, including the leader of the State Assembly, have called for a delay.
King’s high-handed tactics, his refusal to listen to the public, and his lack of experience as an educator have set off widespread protests among teachers, principals, and parents.
This is the press release from NYSUT:
ALBANY, N.Y. Jan. 25, 2014 – New York State United Teachers’ Board of Directors approved a resolution Saturday that declared “no confidence” in the policies of State Education Commissioner John King Jr., therefore calling for his removal by the Board of Regents. NYSUT’s board also withdrew its support for the Common Core standards as implemented and interpreted in New York state until SED makes major course corrections to its failed implementation plan and supports a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences from standardized testing.
The union’s board acted unanimously Saturday morning at a meeting in Albany.
“Educators understand that introducing new standards, appropriate curriculum and meaningful assessments are ongoing aspects of a robust educational system. These are complex tasks made even more complex when attempted during a time of devastating budget cuts. SED’s implementation plan in New York state has failed. The commissioner has pursued policies that repeatedly ignore the voices of parents and educators who have identified problems and called on him to move more thoughtfully,” said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi. “Instead of listening to and trusting parents and teachers to know and do what’s right for students, the commissioner has offered meaningless rhetoric and token change. Instead of making the major course corrections that are clearly needed, including backing a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences for students and teachers from state testing, he has labeled everyone and every meaningful recommendation as distractions.”
The resolution states that the board declares “no confidence in the policies of the Commissioner of Education and calls for the New York State Commissioner of Education’s removal by the New York State Board of Regents.”
NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said the union has been sounding warning bells since 2011 about the over-emphasis on standardized testing and the state’s rushed and unrealistic timeline for introducing curriculum and assessments tied to the Common Core state standards. She said NYSUT is seeking:
- completion of all modules, or lessons, aligned with the Common Core and time for educators to review them to ensure they are grade-level appropriate and aligned with classroom practice;
- better engagement with parents, including listening to their concerns about their children’s needs;
- additional tools, professional development and resources for teachers to address the needs of diverse learners, including students with disabilities and English language learners;
- full transparency in state testing, including the release of all test questions, so teachers can use them in improving instruction;
- postponement of Common Core Regents exams as a graduation requirement;
- the funding necessary to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve the Common Core standards. The proposed Executive Budget would leave nearly 70 percent of the state’s school districts with less state aid in 2014-15 than they had in 2009-10; and
- a moratorium, or delay, in the high-stakes consequences for students and teachers from standardized testing to give the State Education Department – and school districts – more time to correctly implement the Common Core.
“The clock is ticking and time is running out,” Neira said. Students sit for a new battery of state assessments in just a few months. It’s time to hit the ‘pause button’ on high stakes while, at the same time, increasing support for students, parents and educators. A moratorium on high-stakes consequences would give SED and school districts time to make the necessary adjustments.”
The resolution will go to the more than 2,000 delegates to the 600,000-member union’s Representative Assembly, to be held April 4-6 in New York City. The resolution underscores NYSUT’s longstanding, strong opposition to corporate influence and privatization in public education and calls for an end to New York’s participation in InBloom, a “cloud-based” system that would collect and store sensitive data on New York’s schoolchildren.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members. Members are pre-K-12 teachers; school-related professionals; higher education faculty; other professionals in education, human services and health care; and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
I hope teachers will find the inner strength to stand up to the bullying by governors and legislators. If you can’t teach, find another job. But if you are a good teacher and you are devoted to making a difference in the lives of children, don’t give up. Stay and fight. Join grassroots groups. Join the Network for Public Education. In every state there are groups of parents and educators standing shoulder–to-shoulder against the cultural vandals now in charge in places like North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin. We will prevail, because their goal of destroying public education and turning teaching into a job for temps is so wrong that it will eventually be repudiated by the voters. We must work to make that day come sooner.
Here is a note from a teacher in North Carolina about the poisoned atmosphere for teachers in a state determined to crush public education and professional teachers:
“What do I, a NC public school teacher, think? I think it’s time to relocate. I chose to settle in NC b/c of its strong support for public education, but that’s now a thing of the past. The state govt is hell-bent on destroying both the teaching profession and the public schools.
“As soon as I am able, I will join the exodus of good, experienced teachers to anywhere but here…”
I wonder if Teach for America can produce enough temps to replace the experienced teachers who are leaving North Carolina? Perhaps the legislature will use this opportunity to increase class size, flip classrooms, and encourage home schooling and virtual charters?
Don’t leave. Stay and fight.
This teacher deconstructed the proposal to change compensation for teachers in North Carolina, which follows on last year’s full menu of legislation intended to reduce the pay, job security, and rights of teachers in that state.
Bear in mind that the specifics of the plan are evolving, but here goes, from Kafkateach:
“I originally started this blog as a coping mechanism to deal with the absurdity coming out of the Florida Legislature and its wacky implementation in the Miami Dade County school system. After six months in North Carolina, Florida is starting to seem like a bastion of sanity and teacher love. The latest ideas circulating at the North Carolina General Assembly regarding how to reform the teaching profession certainly makes one wonder what exactly is in the water supply in Raleigh? Is it some brain eating teacher-hating amoeba? Or perhaps some chemical contamination laced with teacher hate? Apparently last year’s legislation to end tenure, abolish pay for advanced degrees, and reward the top 25% of teachers with a $500 raise only if they give up tenure four years early was not insulting enough. The highlights of this year’s 60/30/10 plan include: paying teachers on a per pupil basis, establishing career tracks, forcing all teachers to reapply for their jobs, and the ultimate kick in the wazoo, mandatory retirement after 20 years of service.”
According to the author’s last clarification, all teachers will not be compelled to retire in 20 years.
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