In last week’s major speech about the future of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Secretary Arne Duncan urged stakeholders to “build a law that respects the honored, noble status of educators – who should be valued as skilled professionals — rather than mere practitioners, and compensated accordingly.”
To help advance that discussion, Arne will engage teachers across the country in a national town hall in a special edition of the department’s television program, Education News Parents Can Use, on October 20 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Live from Public Broadcasting System station WETA, he will take comments and questions from teachers in the studio audience and via telephone, email, and video.
Throughout the hour-long program, teachers will have a chance to offer the secretary their suggestions and their hopes about reforming education. The conversation will cover ways to improve the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; better methods for recruiting, preparing, and rewarding teachers; ideas for elevating the teaching profession; and much more.
Details about the special town hall for teachers on Education News, including directions for viewing the webcast of the program live, online, are at www.ed.gov/edtv.
Teachers can contribute to the conversation right now by submitting a question or posting answers to one or more of the questions below. We’ll feature as many responses as we can on the October 20 live broadcast. You may also call the show during the live broadcast at 1-888-493-9382, between 8:00 – 9:00 PM Eastern. Or submit original video comments and questions by Wednesday, October 14, 2009. (To learn how you can submit an original video, visit: www.dropio.com/ENPCU.)
Here are the questions:
- How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
- What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
- How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
- In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
ED Staff
107 Comments
Dear Secretary Duncan
RE: Limiting Controversies and Pitfalls
The Townhall Meeting for Teachers and the the Family Learning Night are two more excellent ideas by the Department of Education.
I sincerely appreciate all of your efforts to inspire American schoolchildren and challenging them to be the BEST they can be.
Anytime educators, parents, and students are not involved in any drastic change in education, you will always encounter resistance; however, if you involve educators, parents, students, and the community THEY will be the ones who will successfully make the change needed.
Before concluding that school days need to be extended, you really need to review educational systems and practices, talk to students, parents, teachers, and other administrators to see how to BEST implement this strategy; challenge them for other ideas on how to improve math,reading and other academic skills. In addition, you need to consider cost and resources for any proposal that requires extended hours.
From Arizona to Connecticut, I spent days ‘fending off’ criticism of the President’s “Message to Inspire American Schoolchildren”. This entire controversy could have been avoided had you effectively planned and collaborated this activity with the administrators, parents, students, and the community.
This is another OPPORTUNITY to demonstrate the appropriate leadership needed to meet today’s monumental challenges.
So let our government reflect the spirit of the people and for the people; and let all of us work together and find solutions to prepare American schoolchildren for the global marketplace in the 21st century.
Sincerely
No Child Left Behind has made our lives as teachers superficial and irrelevant (I teach HS history). We, as teachers, spend countless hours a year filling out meaningless paperwork related to NCLB. We have meetings on staff development days discussing how to make history, math, science, and english more FCAT relevant (the Florida assessment). These days could be spent collaborating on effective teaching strategies or creative concepts. Instead we discuss what kind of word wall we each have highlighting FCAT words, or what type of strategies we’re using to incorporate FCAT material. Many a teacher meeting has culminated in frustration when teachers ask “when can we just teach?” The frustration continues when we feel like so many rules are coming down the pipe that make us feel more like robots of the state than inspiring leaders. We are judged on the job we do as teachers by how many students pass or fail, how many students seem inspired in our classrooms, and how many students graduate. Yet, the NCLB act has largely eliminated any opportunity for creativity in the classroom. We are all supposed to be like each other rather than be the best “me” we can be. How do we teach our children to be unique and valued as an individual if we cannot do the same ourselves?
Our children enter elementary school already afraid of “the test.” My high school students start plotting to take the ACT or SAT their freshman year rather than “live in fear of the test.” I’ve seen seniors drop out because they didn’t pass the test and they won’t receive a standard diploma. I’ve seen 3.5 and 4.0 students not pass a section of the FCAT because they aren’t good test takers. When did our classrooms become a pulpit from which to evoke fear and frustration in our children? Why have we not built a system to enlighten our children and encourage all learning styles rather than a tailor-made, concrete version given by lawmakers who haven’t been in a classroom since they earned their last degree? Like the Constitution, the environment in our schools should be flexible and enlightening while still setting expectations and outlining responsibility. How sad has our system become when many teachers are choosing to send their children to private and charter schools rather than public schools because of the NCLB restrictions? I know we won’t send our kids to public school as long as the FCAT is in place. And my husband is also a teacher!
Thank you for your time.
I would like to know what extending the school day will do for our children that outweighs what it will do to family life and involvement in extra-curricular activities? Keeping children in school longer will only detract from the number of hours they spend with their families. It will eliminate some children being able to be involved in activities outside of schools. And for those still involved, it will come at the expense of family time. For older children who need to work to help support their family (a big issue where I teach), how will you justify the loss of income to those who feel they now much make a choice: money or school. Or for those students who work throughout the summer to give money to their families or themselves to use throughout the year, how will extending the school year benefit them in this way? Of course, keeping in mind that not every student is going to earn a scholarship based soley on academics, how does their removal from such activities justify a longer school day/year?
transfer of college credits huge problem. Regional Accredited colleges are not accepting a lot of nationally accredited college credits.
Build a law that respects the honored, noble status of educators – who should be valued as skilled professionals — rather than mere practitioners, and compensated accordingly.
Great post
Thank You
Regards
Dany
Secretary Duncan
Visiting Atlantic City recently I talked with a city police officer and he commented that many young people do not expect to live to the age of eighteen! Are you planning education interventions (e.g. Cooperative Education) in LA, NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia and all major cities to give young men and women marketable skills to escape their nightmare?
I am a career Education Manager and Teacher in corporations and in public schools, respectively. Millions of teenagers, in the lower classes, may as well be on another planet in terms of their future. Please help.
Donald
Thank you for asking such well thought out and critical questions to teachers!
I am excited to share this conversation opportunity with teachers in New Mexico.
I am appalled that our Washington leaders and media do not side on behalf of America’s teachers. Policy makers and administrators often talk about how poorly schools/students do on standardized test, or how the children lag behind other countries; yet, they fail to recognize that it’s not necessarily a teachers fault.
As the spouse of a teacher and a parent, I am often I’m irked by the way state and national officials talk about implementing steps to hold teachers and schools accountable. Some steps talked about are to address some of the issue are length of the school, school vouchers to families, or using test results to determine a teacher’s performance based upon a student test results on state and national tests. State officials are failing to take into account that current measurement tools determining a student’s standing DO NOT consider and weigh factors which clearly affect the results being attained. One example is where test(s) DO NOT consider a child’s aptitude; (under the No Child Left Behind Act, children with low aptitudes continue to move through the system regardless of what grade level they are really at. These children are evaluated along side children who have higher aptitudes and ALL scores are compiled into one result showing a classroom/school standing). Some additional factors not being considered are language barriers, a child’s medical condition (an ADD or ADHD child not on prescribed medication) or the simple fact that many children refuse to perform (I speak from experience). It is clearly unfair to hold educators accountable when such measurement tools do not weigh all facts.
Further, I must say lengthening the school day only burdens the overworked/underpaid teachers. My spouse has taught in a Chapter 1 (% of students receive free/reduced lunch) schools in Texas as well as here in Arkansas. My spouse dedicates every minute of her day to teaching her students. She is not the type of teacher who will sit behind a desk and hand out student work sheets, she ACTUALLY teaches every minute of her day. During the course of these years I have watched her spend countless hours and weekends beyond the required school day. Hours spent both at school preparing for the next day as well balancing family time with grading papers into the late hours of the night.
I have observed her pour out her heart teaching and it is disheartening that no one (Washington nor the media) ever engages in discussion about increasing the number of teachers in the schools, decreasing the student to teacher ratio, or how underpaid these unsung Heroes are. Sports players, people in executive positions, personnel in federal jobs are just a few who often earn salaries that far exceed that of the teacher.
Orlando
Dear Dr. Duncan,
I am in my eighth year teaching at a Title I school in south Sacramento, CA for the Elk Grove Unified School District. Since 2002, our school has made leaps and bounds in its growth, especially by the benchmarks set by the state and comparative growth within the district. However, in the eyes of the federal government, based on subgroup performance, my school is barely failing one subgroup, and therefore, subject to program improvement.
Teachers at this school spend countless hours of their own time dedicating themselves to analyzing data, adjusting instructional practices, and collaborating with each other to improve performance, improve skills, and create responsible citizens. I am 100% positive that teachers across this great nation are much like those at our school, especially those working in at-risk environments. Linking test scores to teacher performance is a sensitive issue because I can give you several accounts of sixth grade students that I have taught who were facing a multitude of life’s complexity that many Americans are fortunate to never encounter in their lives: extreme poverty, high divorce rates, single/zero parent families, gang intimidation, sexual abuse, family members murdered and raped, and the list goes on. If teachers are going to be solely evaluated on test scores, then working with at-risk populations will be under-mined because veteran, competent teachers will have incentive to go to “turnkey” schools where they can coast and not risk being labeled as ineffective by an inefficient measure of performance.
Evaluating teachers on test scores does not adequately reflect the outputs of what teachers do. I’m sure you realize this. With that said, if test scores were a partial factor in evaluation, coupled with peer reviews, parent reviews, and a portfolio assessment of career growth by the teacher…Only then would we be on the path to more clearly portraying the taxpayers return on their money for the teachers they fund. I suggest the book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. This book gives some great, successful transformations in test scores and teacher compensation that has happened here in our country (Montana, Los Angeles, and Denver). Accountability must be on the forefront of every dollar spent by our government, but we must create accountability measures that are incentive-laden, not the punitiveness that seemingly lurks.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that standardized tests are designed with questions that are chosen by a bell-curve distribution on beta-tested test items. In laymen’s terms, the actual test questions are chosen based on inherent failure. On average 50% will pass and 50% will fail. Teachers do attempt the impossible.
We need to improve our education system quickly because we are falling way behind our global competitors. This is an agreed upon construct. We can look to Friedman’s The World is Flat to gain a picture of how India and China are hot on our heels in innovation, education, and profitization. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers pointed out what you delivered to the masses yesterday: students need to spend more time learning. Unfortunately, students of poverty are not getting the extension and experience when they’re not at school. I agree wholeheartedly that more school can only be a good thing.
Lastly, I have two recommendations/solutions for our education system:
(1) Give increased tax credits to parents who have students that earn “Proficient” or “Advanced” on test scores. Ahhh! Parent accountability on an incentive basis!
(2) Make middle school sixth through ninth…Here’s why…dropouts and those-who-aren’t-interested-in-college…Let’s be honest: (A) Prison construction projections are based on fourth grade reading scores. (B) I get students in the sixth grade who read 9 words per minute (counterparts read as high as 220 words per minute). (C) Some folks are cut out for college and some are not. Those who are not face this decade of uncertainty (age 17-27) where many succumbed to drugs, crime, and cycles of poverty. By ninth grade, it is quite obvious who is college-bound and who is not…For those who are not, at tenth grade, we offer “technical trades” as means of completing the HS diploma…train our young as technicians: electricians, plumbers, auto mechanics, data entry…you know…viable tax paying jobs. For those college bound…we get them completing more AP coursework and reduce their amount of college time…and society benefits from more taxpayers, less crime, and a higher collective esteem.
Sincerely,
Teacher-in-the-Trenches, USA
To me, the issue of math and science education seems central to the economic future of the country. Is there a serious forum, or panel in place where key issues be discussed? What I mean is a real open, respectful discussion, without hangups or rethorical arguments that lead nowhere. I think such forums, with strong participation of real-life experienced quantitative professionals, educators and parents, away from the established patterns of political struggling should be explored. If we were able to put a man on the Moon four decades ago, and land and operate sphisticated rovers in Mars today, I am sure we can use our collective talents better to raise the academic scores of all our K-12 students, all over, really soon.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
Ideas to improve national policy should come from the teachers up, not from the politicians down, so I thank you Mr. Secretary for this opportunity.
It is my understanding that each state develops their own curriculum standards, and creates their tests based on these standards. So one state’s tests may be harder or easier than even the neighboring state. When we compare a state’s or student’s scores across the nation(or the number of students proficient), this comparison may be flawed. I’ve had students from other states whom were proficient there, but were below basic a year later in my state.
Secondly, who makes/influences these standards? Are they developmentally based? In other words, are the concepts in these standards developmentally appropriate and capable of being understood by the age of the students at each given grade level? Ask the teachers in the trenches, they’ll tell you and give you plenty of examples where this is not the case.
Does a 80 question multiple choice test in each subject really tell us how the child thinks and what he has learned throughout the year? For certain students, this is not the case. What about the students that need more open ended questions?
What happens to the child who makes significant gains on the standardized tests, but because they are one or two questions away, he/she is thus labeled “BASIC” or “BELOW BASIC”? The teacher/district doesn’t get credit for this child.
Lastly, if we must implement “merit pay” and evaluations, such legislation should be accompanied by additional legislation basing the state and federal elected officials pay on how well (and in a timely manner) they balance the budget and decrease the state and national deficits. So everyone is held accountable.
Before we base the pay and job evaluations of hardworking, unselfish,tax paying citizens like our nation’s teachers, there is so much to be fixed with our entire educational system.
Another Unappreciated Teacher
Secretary Duncan -
In some states, including my own, students cannot graduate if they do not pass an exit exam. This is illogical and unfair. Yes, students should be able to pass any exit exam given to them as long as it is a good one and unbiased. However, why should a student be kept from graduating when his/her poor performance on an exit exam may be due to poor teaching or the absence of a certified teacher from the classroom for an entire year?
Whether or not students graduate should not be decided alone by a test. Grades, teacher recommendations, and maybe even a graduation panel should also be included in the decision-making.
How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all ours
schools?
My answer to this question is based on 35 years of classroom experience teaching secondary science. In those 35 years, only one school principal was a person I and my students could respect and admire. NONE of them could have walked into my classroom, or any other teacher’s classrooms for a week, or a month or longer, and done a good job, and enjoyed it.
Schools, and secondary schools in particular, are adminitered by people who do not like to teach. Who would listen to an orchestra conducted by a maestro who does not like to play musical instruments??!!
To recruit,support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools the schools need to be run by people who love teaching and are great teachers.
I am a principal in a Title 1 School. We are also a magnet school for English Language Learners. NCLB is a punitive program designed to make all schools failing schools. It has had a negative impact on learning and on the student day. My question is why are students who are special needs held to the same standard as regular ed. and gifted students? Why are ELL students held to the that same standard? We have IEPs and LEPs so that we differentiate how we teach to meet student needs, but we do not recognize these differences in the testing. It is a mystery to me. Please stop the madness of unfair and cruel testing for these children and the unfair, misleading labels on “failing” schools. We need a commom sense assessment that drives instruction and does not label schools or specific populations as failures.
Thanks for your interest.
22 year teacher/principal
Dear Mr. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,
I am in my eighth year teaching kindergarten at a school of about 500 children in the small city of Woodland California. I love my job, I love my students and I am brought to tears when I think of the pride I have for my little school that could. In spite of all of the madness around us in education, and the giant hurdles we have to jump over every day with our students, C.E. Dingle Elementary is succeeding. We are teaching, learning and caring every day. It is a wonderful place to be.
However, this is not the story for most of America. Schools everywhere are failing. Teachers are exhausted and students are unmotivated and underachieving. I am nothing short of appalled by everything I have read about your suggested changes for education thus far. You seem to have completely overlooked the most obvious necessities in teaching and instead have pushed an agenda that will continue to hurt our students and teachers and push us further down the road of failure. Unless we do something now, public education is going to be something we speak of in past tense when talking to our grandchildren. We will be immersed in a society of private schools and your prized charter schools and those who are already behind will only fall deeper into the cracks.
Least you forget, under current NCLB guidelines, 100% of students, in ALL subgroups must be proficient or advanced in all areas by 2013 or the school is labeled as failing. If one subgroup falls short, we don’t make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and are put into Program Improvement (PI) status. The idea of 100% achievement is virtually impossible, even when language, socio-economic and other hardships are factored in. These are tests based on a bell curve, the tests are designed for some students to fail- 50% should pass, 50% should fail.
Consider this- if all students can meet the standard, then isn’t the standard not set high enough? How can we expect all subgroups to achieve 100% proficiency when the very fact that we have divided them into subgroups verifies that we understand them to be different, yet we are asking for them all to achieve at the same rate. In addition, may I point out that not every test takes the same test? Every state has their own set of standards and a different exam. Only 20% of the test, which is given six to eight weeks BEFORE the school year ends, is standardized for the entire nation. We are not comparing apples to apples here.
Instead of dumping NCLB and starting fresh with something that actually works for us, you hit below the knees and cripple us further by your efforts to extend our school day and make us compete for funds under the “race to the top” campaign. Neither of these things will make the job easier, they will just raise the bar that much higher. Yet where are the stilts we’ll need to reach it-certainly not anywhere in your policies.
What happened to idea of parents and teachers working together as a family? When did we decide it was acceptable for parents to pass the buck to teachers and have them raise their children for them? Sure the world has changed, many families have two working parents or parents with multiple jobs but that shouldn’t mean that their children should be required to stay after school and work even harder. Most adults are exhausted after an eight hour work day yet you brazenly ask students and teachers to work for twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week? And who will be caring for these children? Surely you don’t expect to staff these programs entirely with single caregivers with no families of their own?
Please remember that we need a break. Part of the reason we have continued to have such a long summer vacation is not because of the agrarian calendar from which it developed but simply because we all need a break! Can you even imagine the enormous teacher burnout rate?
We are not robots, we are not numbers on a page, we are not a factory full of equipment, we are not a business- we are PEOPLE. We are people with our own families to care for, our own health to mind and our own needs to meet. If we are asked to spend four hours extra a day caring for other people’s children, who will care for our own? Shall we put them in daycare so we can babysit someone else’s child at our own expense? You suggest using programs such as YMCA to staff these programs- do you intend to shut those businesses down with the decrease in revenue they receive from paying parents while you use taxpayer’s money to fund an afterschool program at the school?
When comparing us to other countries, there are several factors worth noting and studying. First note that when looking at the duration of instruction, we are not behind when comparing hours. Take a look at actual instructional time before you start throwing around additional days and hours like candy in a parade. Again I ask you to compare apples to apples. Look at the standards that are the same and compare the actual instructional time. Then come back with some numbers to share with us.
Let’s make sure we take a look at the quality of the education happening in these other countries. How many languages are they dealing with and how are they dealing with that? What services do they provide for free for their students? Consider the student to teacher ratio. Look at the teacher adjunct duty requirements. Take a good hard look at the depth of instruction that is found, rather than the breadth we see in the United States. We ask a great deal of our students- to read and write at five, no exceptions, to do algebra in second grade when they don’t even know their doubles facts because the curriculum moved so fast they never had time to master it. With seven to eight months to teach nine months worth of instruction and the incredible weight we have resting upon us to go, go, go we cruise through the curriculum at a breathtaking pace, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
Instead of covering what students need to know and need help with, we rush along, following our little pacing guides set forth by school districts as a result of NCLB designations of Program Improvement whether or not it is in the best interest of our students. We spend hours after school tutoring those who are behind, have time left to do little for those who are above and pray that the grade level kids can keep up with the rapid pace set by administrators who have been gone so long from the classroom that they’ve forgotten why they got into education in the first place. We spend all kinds of money on after school interventions, when if we just put the money into the classroom in the first place, we would likely not need them at all!
When our wrists are slapped when the test scores come out we are put in designations of Program Improvement. We are considered failing, even if we made growth, even if we helped every student in our classroom learn. Our students are told they can move to schools that are not in PI, or maybe attend at Charter schools nearby if it’s offered. That’s assuming that the charter school chooses to accept them. When discussing healthcare you state President Obama says he won’t stand aside and let the status quo continue. Yet the two of you not only allow the status quo to continue in education, you reinforce it. Encouraging charter schools will only deepen the achievement gap between students as we create more and more divisions in education. How can we assure an equal education for all when we allow schools to start up with their own set of rules, their own admissions processes and their own standards to follow? There is nothing equal about that. That is private school funded by the public and I can’t support that. There is little convincing evidence that charter schools are any better schools than a regular public schools nor that they produce a more educated or higher qualified student.
When you ask our administrators to evaluate our teachers by their students performance I would ask you this- are your jobs evaluated by the quality of life of your constituents? Do we pay you more or less based on the unemployment rate or by the percentage of us who vote? Are you required to make sure that every person in every tax bracket makes more money than they did before and finds fewer tax loopholes before you are considered a quality cabinet member? Do you have to pass an examination that makes you a “Highly Qualified Member of the American Judicial System?” Can we put you in Program Improvement? No? Then how can you possibly ask that of us?
So what am I asking of you then, Mr. Secretary? I’m asking that you read this and hear me. Hear us. Get the message. We need help. We need support. We need money. We need you not to make us fight for it, but to give it freely and with appropriate designations. Don’t allow it to go to administration. A shocking amount of funds get hung up in the state, county and local district offices. Many administrative secretaries for the multitude of administrators take home a bigger salary than most of the teachers in their district. In WJUSD alone we have four, yes, four administrators for a district student population of just 10,450. Teachers are asked to work more and more efficiently but the administrative level seems to get additional support at every turn. We are so top heavy that it’s amazing we can even stand up.
We are asked to work more efficiently, while at the same time the administrators are allowed to continue to divide into smaller and smaller parts at a higher and higher cost to the district. When a school is labeled failing we create another layer of bureaucracy with another set of eyes watching and monitoring and additional funds are taken from the classroom. This has yet to prove to actually increase scores or help schools! Stop the wasteful spending. Cut the fat out! Put the money where it counts. Our district actually hired two people from a PI district to come and get us out of our own PI status. Explain to me how that makes sense?
Where do we need our funds to go? We need direct classroom support in the form of paraprofessional aides. I personally have twenty-five kindergarten students for a full day of instruction every day and I get a paraprofessional aide for seventy five minutes a day. It is not legal in California for a daycare provider to have more than 14 school aged children by herself to supervise while they play, but it is apparently acceptable to ask a teacher to instruct more than double that many.
We need teaching materials. We need to be able to make copies and not have to ask the parents of our students to buy us materials as basic as copy paper. You want us to teach them to read but we have no money left to buy books. You want us to have current research-based curriculum but don’t give us the money to purchase it.
We need clean, safe schools. Currently in my school district if a custodian is sick, the district will not provide a substitute custodian until the fourth day of absence. That means that we will have a dirty classroom for three full days. Three. How often is your office cleaned Mr. Duncan? I’d be willing to bet you’d find it unacceptable for it to be left unclean for half the week and you don’t even have a classroom full of students in there trying to work and learn every day.
We need time to teach, stop tying us up in paperwork. Get rid of assessments whose only purpose is to generate numbers for a computer to eat. Let us do purposeful assessment so it can be the blueprint for our instruction. Give us qualified substitutes who can either teach our classes while we do these assessments or actually do them for us.
We need time to improve our practice. We need to be able to select professional development that is appropriate for us and our actual needs. Give us follow up support after trainings. One day trainings with no follow-up leave us bitter and resentful and serve little purpose in the long run. Make sure trainings are provided for all staff members so we can be on the same page.
Help us get current technology. We are past the overhead era; get us smart boards and ELMO projectors. How about computers that were made sometime after our students were born? How about computer monitors that don’t break from being turned on and off too many times? Is that really so much to ask? Why not give companies that manufacture these products a hefty tax break for providing them to schools?
Make sure our schools are up to code, have working air conditioning and heating and functional furniture and equipment. A school’s appearance is a reflection of it, make sure it looks nice. Give us the funds to maintain our grounds and buildings. Don’t ask us to teach in moldy, rotting portable buildings and then shrug your shoulders when we turn up sick or with cancer a few years later.
Mr. Duncan, I invite you to come and tour around the nation’s schools. Take an inventory of what we are lacking. Read the curriculum. Look at the states’ standards and curriculums. Find out what programs are already in place and are working. Please, please don’t start your tenure in this position in such a harmful way. We’re all in this together- it’s our future at stake.
Respectfully,
Michelle Setzer, M.A
C.E. Dingle Elementary
Woodland CA
Standardized tests do not work, since children are not standard issue at birth. All children have different levels of mental and physical capacities. To expect everyone to be the same is ridiculous.
In order to achieve any type of success, teachers must be able to control their classrooms once again. How can you teach with children who are undisciplined or mentally ill? If an IEP states that screaming and throwing fits in the classroom is part of a child’s disability, these children cannot be asked to leave the school. I bet they don’t do that in China!
In your model, China, children are taught to respect teachers and elders. Further, the country does not try to educate the masses. If you don’t want an education, you are out the door. As long as we are educating the massess, our educational assessments should reflect the varying needs of our learning communities. WE ARE NOT CHINA!
I agree that we are no longer an agrarian society, and from the number of kids I’ve seen doing absolutely nothing with their summers, I am not against adding days onto the school year. It would help with subject retention and provide these children with a safe place to spend their time.
I am however VERY opposed to lengthening the school day. There are many parents I have spoken with who are frustrated now that their children are not learning anything beyond what is necessary for passing the proficiency exams. And from more than one college professor in my area, I have heard that many kids entering college, while they have passed the proficiency tests, still have no concept of the basics in math and science, as they are essentially being prepped to take these tests, without the proper understanding of these subjects and how to apply these concepts outside of a proficiency exam.
Futhermore, school districts throughout my state are cutting art, music, sports, and other such activities that are just as vital to a child’s education. With these longer days, are these activities going to be reinstated, and if so, where is the money going to come from to pay for these very necessary programs? Taxpayers are hurting now and turning levies down.
Prolonging the school day also adds to the problem of kids that have to work after school. There are many kids that work to help provide income for their families. Others are saving money for college. What about kids that have other studies(religious/social) that require afternoons and evenings? I don’t think you’re taking all of this into account when you are suggesting that children should be in school for 9 hours a day. And honestly, nine hours is a LONG day, even for many adults who work full time!
Finally, while I respect teachers greatly, I have to say that having children in classrooms for longer days is of NO BENEFIT to those children that are stuck with tenured teachers that are there simply to do the minimum in order to keep their jobs and just get through and collect their retirement. Teaching was once a noble profession in that teachers truly cared about educating their students and trying to provide more to future generations. I no longer feel, from what I’ve seen and heard, that many teachers are truly in these jobs for the benefit of students. This problem may stem from teachers unions, it may be the by-product of teachers that feel that their hands are tied due to too many NCLB requirements, or, it may be that with the demands of teachers to now teach autistic and learning disabled students along with everyone else, it has just become overwhelming and dysfunctional. Whatever the cause, it needs to change before requiring students to endure longer days without first changing some of these other issues.
Thank you,
A concerned parent
It is a shame that you think teachers actually have time to teach. Your information is wrong if you are operating on this premise. I spend my time filling out paperwork and saying the same thing 14 times. There is not enough time in the day and the night to do this. I am burning out, I have to do at least 3 hours of work each night just to keep up the documentation, not to mention the documentation to document the documentation. You have asked special educators to, in effect, become case managers. This is sad.
It has recently become very clear to me that my job is to make sure the co-op is not sued. That is the major concern. What the kids learn is secondary. This message is loud and clear simply by the amount of relentless, redundant, idiotic paperwork.
How can you be surprised that people don’t want to teach. You certainly can’t teach in middle school special education, but if you have an compulsion for paperwork this would be the job for you.
You want to “grade” special educators on what the kids know, but we have to teach so the GRADE LEVEL standards are focused on instead of the level of actual functioning. I feel as if I am misleading the parents telling them their child is working on a grade 7 standard even though they only read on a 2nd grade level. Who in the world does this help? Is this clear information for the parents?
Unfortunately this is the result when a bureaucracy takes over any operation.
If you want the kids to learn get us case managers and police. Case managers could do the paperwork, the police could escort children to classes so a fight does not break out. Then I could acutally prepare for class, even be in class, and teach. WoW! That would be novel and even an enjoyable experience….
Teach.
Why do politicians, business leaders, and policy wonks, such as yourself and President Obama, make the claim that America can’t be “competitive” without radically changing the schools? Where’s the PROOF? The social, economic, and international problems of our country aren’t the fault of kids, teachers, and schools. It’s the same politicians, business leaders, and policy wonks who control the economy, the government, and international relations. They should have the guts to take responsibility for it.
(Veteran of 40+ years in the front lines of education)
Why teachers are not required to go thru mental/psychological evaluation as part of their licensing process? in my opinion,I agreed with kids spending more time in school if teachers get a mandatory psychological background check.
If teachers were to be paid more than the meager salaries the currently earn I would too support psychological background checks.
Secretary Duncan,
I knwo that retaining quality teachers is something that is very important to this administartion and new teacher induction is a very important part of that. Would the Federal government financially support the states in providing full time mentor support for new teachers?
There needs to be an emphasis on including teachers and parents in improving schools. We do not need the federal government to over prescribe what is done. What we need is a partner. How will the Federal government engage parents and teachers in the process of rewriting the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Dear,
Secretary Duncan
Your listening and learning tours have been very effective in going strait to the sources of education, which are our students, educators and parents. Will you be visiting and speaking with the educators and student in Cleveland, Ohio sometime this year? I think that this will be great for the Cleveland Metropolitan school district. Please please come to Cleveland, Ohio!!:) We need you.
Secretary Duncun,
We have a very important job of teaching students! When I think of how much time we have with them each week, I realize that we see them much more than their own family. And yes, I also realize that means that my own children spend more time with their daycare provider than me, which makes me sad. And you are asking teachers to work more and students to spend more time in school? What happened to spending time with family?
We are woking hard everyday. I work when my childen are in bed just so that I can keep up with all that is requried of us. In class I am with my students, working through my breaks, and take about a 10 min. lunch. I do this because to be the best teacher I can be, I must be prepared. I’ve been teaching for 8 years. If you only knew what we go through in a day. We are not only instructing students, but we are dealing with social issue, emotional issues and physical issues that our students seem to have each day. It is really frustrating when someone assumes we need to do more but are not given more resources, support and yes money. Instead we are being penalized!
My concern as an ART teacher is that our kids are losing their fine motor skills because they are being pushed by pacing guides and not allowed to experience learning and skill building from Kindergarten on.
I work with sixth graders who CANNOT use scissors effectively.
Art and music must be kept in our schools.
Was it Shakespeare who asked what’s in a name? ESEA IS the name that should return.All professional educators and students nationwide have been abused by NCLB. Mr. Secretary, you need to stop using the tired rhetoric of the “right”and ackowledge the reality that 100% of, and ALL children WILL, are words that do NOT belong in ANY law.It IS statistically IMPOSSIBLE for 100% of any group to do anything.The statistic for the exiting of teachers from Special Education is 3-5 years. As a Special Educator for the 30+ years, I guess you could say I am one of the exceptions. I teach “children” with Learning & Emotional Disabilities, Mental Handicaps, Autism, and any other Category of Exceptionality as a cross-categorical teacher.I am sick to death of the simplistic use of buzz words like rigorous. Everything I try to accomplish with my students is rigorous for them. Like having a severly processing impaired 6th grader reading at a primer level who will be expected to take Arizona’s AIMS Test at 6th grade level. Yeah, THAT makes sense.Politicians don’t get it. Some children will pass. While the rest, NOT being cured of Autism, Mental Handicaps, Emotional Disabilities, and the slow learners who do NOT learn at grade level and do NOT qualify for Sp. Ed. will FAIL! Then schools and dedicated teachers are labeled failing. It’s a vicious and demoralizing cycle.I teach CHILDREN…..NOT Standards. We are NOT given magic wands with our certification. How about having the courage to stop pandering to the political anti-education right, and reintroduce some reality to the law?? The current law IS the FAILURE.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
I am currently in my second full semester of college. I plan to be a high school math teacher with a certification in special needs. I am also a 35-year-old mother of two school age children. The current state of education in my suburban Texan town is appalling. As NCLB has come into play, I have seen programs cut and stress skyrocket.
Personally, my son who just entered sixth grade constantly stresses for each test though he is an A student. He is very aware of the stress in the schools and hates it. Though he does like school. He has had perfect or almost perfect scores on each test to date though after each he feels for sure he has failed it. My daughter who just entered third grade is a different story. She is dyslexic but was not diagnosed until midyear of second grade. She hates school and constantly feels like a failure. She repeatedly says she is stupid and has very little self-confidence when it comes to learning. Both children have grown up in the same household with the same parents, same scouting activities and same group of friends. They have gone to the same school and even ended up with two of the exact same teachers. Neither child has ever been a discipline problem. So why on earth is one child just at failing and hates school and the other doing great?
NCLB has created an environment that is not conducive to learning. Teachers are stressed to capacity and so overwhelmed with paperwork that they do not have time to teach. They cannot slow down their teaching pace but must somehow keep the lowest kids up to speed. Administrators are terrified that their school will be closed and they will be fired if their school does not do well. I happen to live in a community with well-advertised “good” schools. This has been even worse for the teachers because the Superintendent has put even more pressure on them to have exemplary ratings.
I am shocked and saddened that deleting summer and adding 3-4 hours to each school day is actually being considered as a real option. My kids are exhausted by 3pm. They each have one activity a week and just that eats the whole evening. During the summer we go on vacations, go camping, and just let the kids play. They create imaginary worlds and constantly explore the neighborhood and hangout with their friends. Creative play and unstructured social time is just as important as formal education. It is an opportunity to develop lifelong interests/hobbies and to check out possible professions. It is just as necessary as learning to read and do math.
As a potential incoming teacher I have heard all of the horror stories of new teachers being full of ideas and energy just to be deflated over the first year or two. I have heard of the teacher whose student goes to the bathroom and tries to commit suicide or the child being abused. I know teaching is not mountains of happiness. As the daughter of an educator, I know I will be at school long past the students and that my life will not be my own. Even knowing all of this, I still want to teach. I still want to the possibility of helping children find their potential. But if I have to spend my time sorting out mounds of paperwork, and teaching to a test that over half of the people in congress could probably not pass, how am I helping anyone.
How can you recruit, support and retain excellent teachers:
1) Offer a livable wage. If for some reason I had to be a single parent – I don’t think I could do it on a teacher’s salary.
2) Give them the support they need – mentors, initial lesson plans, and places to turn to solve problems.
3) Reduce or eliminate the paperwork. Let them teach. Hold them accountable for student improvement, not all students meeting the same level of achievement.
How to measure and reward teacher achievement:
1) Are the students improving year after year?
2) Does the teacher still enjoy what he/she does?
3) Are they constantly looking for ways to improve?
How to get best teachers at schools that need help:
1) Pay them more
2) Let them teach
3) Hold them accountable for student improvement not overall standard scores
How does NCLB need to change?
1) Let teachers teach
2) Reduce paperwork
3) Compare apples to apples in testing
4) Stop punitive actions attached to low performances.
5) Create an environment where everyone is encouraged to help each other, share successful strategies and come to the aid of those who nee it.
6) Allow for students who are facing hurdles to learning, Dyslexia, Autism, ESL, poverty (how well do learn if you are hungry?), abuse, gangs, the list goes on – allow for them and help them
Thank you for giving the public an opportunity to voice our opinions.
-Relda Comer
Round Rock, Texas
It is difficult to be brief, but I will try. A few thoughts on some of the issues:
1) A longer school day/year isn’t a good solution. Thirty years ago, students did not act up in class, scored higher on tests, and were better prepared to be functional citizens. This is because those children had PARENTS. Those children spent far more time on vacation than our students of today. My family should not be punished because other parents refuse to do their job at home. If my child completes homework, scores well, and does not disrupt learning in the classroom, she should not be punished with a longer school day. I don’t want my child — or my students — to grow up believing that learning can only occur in a classroom. That would be a great tragedy for education in general.
2) I don’t care what the research has been twisted to say, but I can tell you from classroom expereince that mixing special needs students in with the general population helps no one. It is NOT the capable’s kids’ job to “bring up the others,” as is so often stated. I have taught both inclusion and tracked classes many times. The regular and advanced students are indeed held back when the teacher has to “teach down” to others in the room. Because of this, I now must move much more slowly, which bores the advanced students and makes it painfully clear who in the room just doesn’t get it. Case in point: I have three 90-minutes English classes this year. In each class, I have a reading scores that range from 3rd to 11th grade level. I teach 8th grade. You can use the term “differentiated instruction” all you want, but that doesn’t make it work.
3) Stop expecting special education students to magically be on grade level. It’s not going to happen. They are special ed! Instead, start giving us some credit when they improve.
4) Understand that some teachers struggle to pay back student loans. My husband and I are both teachers, and we pay out approximately the amount of our house payment monthy for government loans. Programs designed to forgive loans sounded great (that’s why I initially chose to teach at a Title I school), but only those who got loans after 1999 are eligible. That means that for those of us in our mid-thrities raising families, we are unable to qualify for loan forgiveness, even though we’ve spent the time in the trenches, sometimes at the most challenging schools. My husband and I take home less than $4000 a month (we’re both teachers, and I have my master’s degree); we pay out nearly $500 monthly in student loans. We could certainly be doing our part to stimulate the economy of this country if student loan debt were not crippling us.
Blaming student failure on teachers, as you, and your brethren: Al Sharpton, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, and others, do is simply drawing energy away from dedicating your resources to the real problem with our schools: a depraved, apathetic, disruptive student body.
It’s the pink elephant in the room, which no one seems to want to address. No one wants to come off as a racist, no one wants to seem weak on the various ideologies that drive this superficial, simple-minded line of thinking: student performance = teacher performance, not parenting, student values, ethics, etc.
It’s time to stop scapegoating teachers and challenge Americans to be better parents.
I’m writing this as several comments, as there is too much to get into for one comment box.
All the Way In or All the Way Out:
According to the 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” As the education of the nation’s youth is not a power delegated to the United States Government by the Constitution, and it is not a power prohibited to the states by the Constitution, it is therefore a power reserved to the states or the people. What does this mean? It means that no state is obligated to follow any law made by the United States Government in regards to the education of its youth. So, why do the states follow the No Child Left Behind legislation? The simple answer is because the United States Government holds the purse-strings. We are perfectly within our rights to not follow No Child Left Behind, however, doing so means that we lose our federal funding. Without federal funding we lose such programs as Title I, the School Lunch Program, and other federally funded school programs. To me, it seems that the federal government should either have sole control over education, that is a nationalized education program fully funded by the United States Government with nationally standardized objectives for students and requirements of teachers, or the federal government should allow the states their constitutional right to educate their youth as they see fit without federal interference. As things stand right now, the general feeling is that the federal government is telling the states, “Go ahead and educate your children as you see fit, only do it our way or we pull all your programming.” It’s time to stop dipping toes into the pool of education. Either dive all the way in or get out.
Teachers in schools put up with this behavior almost on a daily basis while state and federal policy makers have the brazen boldness to say the school day needs to be extended as if it’s the teacher or schools fault.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – Police said an Ohio elementary school student bit a teacher on the arm and had to be pried off by a school official. Dayton police said the child was brought to the assistant principal’s office at Patterson-Kennedy Elementary School Monday by teacher Stephen Green. The boy began throwing things in the office and had to be restrained by Green.
Assistant Principal Jack Johnson told police that Green was bitten on the forearm while clutching the child. Johnson said he had to pry the boy’s mouth open so he’d let go.
Washington is quick to hand out CEO bailouts and slow to give teachers hazardous duty pay. Our policy makers need to establish equality in pay for teachers and ensure they receive a compatible professional pay.
I’ve taught in several states, socio-economic areas, public and private settings, elementary, secondary, adult and ESOL classes… used all the latest techniques and research based practices …. I’m also a guru of cognitive science —- and here’s my take from 20+ years in the trenches…
– human learning cannot be assessed through tests–often it doesn’t show up for many years later–
(which is why our system works (worked) so well — our educational system allows for flexibility in human development) Many of my students are not who they will become at 17 or 18–esp the more creative and complex individuals.
-the relationship between teacher and student is the key– if a kid hates the subject, but likes the teacher, he/she will do well—not only that—come away with a respect for learning and education
-we don’t need to teach MORE, we need to teach BETTER— get rid of 1950s techniques and understand the mind of 21c students—- any info we can find out in a split second is NOT worth time —application and analysis –higher levels of thinking are needed now. Why are we still testing kids on the “associative property, and math vocabulary? Kids that screw up definitions can fail a course, yet be a wiz in REAL math! And science in NYS has become endless pencil paper labs to qualify for a Regents exam that is so diluted that my dog could pass on that curve!
Why so many failures? BORING as hell! The brain is so efficient that it closes down instead of wasting it’s energy on useless information!
-And, yes, we have kids coming to school hungry, angry, racist and brainwashed against education. Our culture perpetuates it through the media of FOX news, Limbaugh, Savage, etc… (Read “Idiot America”–he makes it so clear.)
-Then – corrupt Capitalism; unethical politicians; violence in schools, communities, media, families—individual rights over community rights; fanatical religious influence and
-Finally–the worst blow to higher education today is– incredible college loan debt combined with poor employment possibilities. Why bother–the American Dream is no longer attainable to the average American. Why work for 38,000. a year when you are indebted to college tuition of 41,000 a year? – PLUS INTEREST and compounded daily—then harassed incessantly by the banks, damned with bad credit and unable to function in this system—feeling like a loser—beating your spouse or others, doing drugs, killing yourself ,,,,,blah blah blah
Soon the educational institutions fail, and —Idiot America wins! It’s a cultural problem–forget trying to fix it with a few more hours—America is in a nose dive—and it’s cause is from the Top—trickling down effect.
Barb
I apologize that my previous remark was posted only in part due to an editing error. Below are my remarks in their entirity.
I sympathize with the responsibility felt by our government in improving our public education system, including increasing the high school graduation rate. I know that advice is not hard to get on this topic. I have 30 years as an educator, but many have far more experience than I. My second job is part time graduate instructor at a small university.
Every time I have had a German exchange student in the high school where I work, I ask them to talk to one of my university classes, with the instructions: “Tell us about public education in Germany.” The total instructional time for the year is typically longer (there are some variations in each of the 16 states in Germany), but their educational system is based on a principal that seems to have been forgotten by the U.S. legislators charting the current course of public education. Not every student needs to study four years of math, take higher level science courses, go to a college or university, or even attend four years of high school. In Germany, students begin planning an educational program by middle school based on both ability AND interest. If they, for example, want to become an auto mechanic, they may GRADUATE (not drop out) after their second or third year in high school, after which they matriculate to a technical school or some sort of structured training program to prepare them specifically for the career path they have chosen. Those with their sights on higher education will have a four year high school program, filled with higher level classes.
As Germany, a country with 80 million or so people, ranks third in the most Nobel prizes awarded to its citizens, I am inclined to assume their educational system is effective. Meanwhile, America’s high school drop out rate has increased, so the response is to increase the level and number of academic classes that must be taken. To add insult to injury, we will have a 100 percent graduation rate at some point in the future. With the decisions our legislators are making about public education at this time, I’d give better odds on finding the holy grail. A student can be a worthy, contributing, tax-paying citizen of the United States of America without studying higher math and science and by later working in a job for which a four year college education is not necessary nor even desirable. Save the higher level classes for those with the inclination and desire to take them and for whom these classes are needed for their chosen path of study in our colleges and universities.
For the legislators who are shaping the future of our educational system, I suggest that they be required to teach in a public school for a couple of years before they are allowed to pass any more insane legislation that is a liability to our students and makes our jobs more difficult.
* How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
The best way to recruit excellent teachers is to offer pay on par with the type of candidate you want. You get what you pay for.
* What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
The best way to reward excellence in teaching is to give financial incentives to teachers who perform in an excellent manner. The first step in measuring excellence in teaching is to come up with some valid standard by which you can make comparisons. The current hodgepodge of state assessments is a joke.
* How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
Offer financial incentives for these candidates to go to these schools. I have always taught at rural, poverty-stricken schools, and I often wonder why I make the same amount of money as teachers who work with more resources and more affluent students.
* In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
I wish we could all recognize that all students are not equal. Trying to get all students to perform on the same level simply makes schools and states fight a Race to the Bottom when it comes to assessments. You have to realistically look at incentives, financial and otherwise.
Pumping more money into education is great as long as it is being used in ways that will actually bring about positive results. Teachers, on the whole, are not an evil group of lazy people who just want a paycheck and a summer break. Most teachers sincerely want what is best for the students; we’ve just been knocked out by the overwhelming and seemingly hostile tone of rhetoric and laws that have come from the Department of Education over the past decade.
Before you make a decision, please try to see teachers as your loyal workers. If you have happy, well-compensated workers, those workers will go to bat for you. If you have unhappy workers, you will get nothing but trouble.
I appreciate the many intellgent and thoughtful pro-public education and pro-Teacher comments made here. This is what really is holding down America: the politicians and policymakers continue to ignore the advice of people who really are in the know when it comes to what is best for our great public education system. The few negative comments made are from people who are far removed from the realities of the classroom and are not willing to listen to reason.
Many of our best and brightest teachers leave the profession as it is very stressful and not financially rewarding. We wonder why we cannot attract great teachers into low-income schools. The reasons are twofold: NCLB and the salary scale most school districts use. A teacher working in a low-income inner city school that struggles to make AYP each year gets paid the same amount of money as a teacher who works in a low stress, high income school that has no problem making AYP. Of course teachers flock to these schools because they get paid the same amount of money for working less hours in a relatively stress-free school! We need to start providing major incentives for highly effective teachers to teach in schools where they are needed most.
Secondly, NCLB has nearly made the teaching profession unpalatable. The amount of needless stress that comes from the ridiculous standards set forth by the law is crazy. We need to start measuring a school’s success based upon how much the students grow in a single year. A school which has great difficulty meeting AYP due to language/economic issues should not be help to the same standard as schools where 95% of the students are on level. It is a slap in the face to teachers who pour their heart and souls into their work to be told that they didn’t make adequate progress. These students come to us with so many problems that are beyond our control.
Reform NCLB to measure AYP based on student growth. Start paying teachers that work in “needy” schools more. Those are my two suggestions as to how to reform NCLB and how to attract highly effective teachers into our most challenging schools.
•How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools? Encourage those who have a true interest in seeing our country grow, who are inclusive in thought, and open to a global economy and power structure. Establish student exchange programs in high school and / or college that allow Americans to learn from others outside of the USA.
•What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
The best way to measure is to allow parents, students, peers, and administrators to evaluate, annonomously perhaps, as to a teacher’s performance.
Perhaps “bonuses” should be paid to schools that show advances in NATIONAL standards in core curricular areas. Teachers then share in those “bonuses”. All teachers should be paid a living wage at least, and that is not currently done in many areas of our nation, so that should be a starting point.
•How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers? Figure out a way to improve the caliber of administrators, place those principals and APs in schools, and effective teachers and staff will be found at those sites. A good leader inspires others to be the best they can be.
•In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
Cut out the reams and reams of documentation that goes nowhere, except to statistian’s desk and instead fund art and music education in all schools, bring back Social Sciences in the elelementary grades and Trades (carpentry, plumbing, mechanics, electronics, metal and auto shop, etc.) in High School.With more opportunities for success, no child will be left behind. The previous post about the German school system should be considered more closely. Not all students desire or care to continue on a college track, and we all know that we can use
a good t.v. repair man/woman or at least someone who can help us when our computers crash!!
It is the quality of time spent in school and family involvement in a child’s education that need to be increased, not the quantity of hours spent at school. Also, are all the factors being considered? Surely teachers would not be expected to take on the extra hours for free. A linear increase in salaries would cost tax payers an additional $74 Billion! Here’s my public education math….adding 1 hour per day to the current calendar and 27 week days during the summer increases the number of hours taught by 36%. Taking numbers from 2006 data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, teachers are paid $204 Trillion today in the US ($51K/year avg. times 4 million teachers). What is the plan for paying this?
See this is how poorly some teachers are getting paid. They have to avert to taking kids lunch money to make ends meet. The Murfreesboro Post: A Cason Lane Academy teacher accused of pocketing students’ lunch money was charged with theft under $500 Monday by Murfreesboro Police.
“Small Town School” Campuses are the Only Systemic Solution to Urban Teen Violence and to Improve the Quality of Education. So long as both parents have to work in this society often at two jobs each, the way schools are structured is the only viable long term solution to teen violence in urban areas. These schools should be structured to serve no more than 2000 students on one neighborhood campus total and the entire spectrum of grades pre-K through 12th grade should be served together on that one community campus of the neighborhood. That way each student will have a meaningful positive role to play and will build constructive and accountable relationships with both peers and teachers. Parents will also more likely establish collaborative relationships with teachers and principal and other parents.
Such “small town” school campuses should have daily after-school intramural sports and other after-school programs including homework tutoring for all students to participate in and weekly early evening events for all parents to attend. Schools should focus on teaching math, science, writing, and readings and also provide daily P.E., a foreign language, civics and history, and practical skills like etiquette and conflict resolution, personal health and hygiene, keyboarding, personal finance, check book reconciliation, credit card management, basic bookkeeping, home economics, and auto repair. All other curricula should be electives paid for by sliding scale user fees. Let the NFL, the NBA, and MLB pay for varsity sports programs, their coaching staffs, and playing facilities. Direct the savings to better teacher salaries and smaller class numbers.
The present structure of school campuses where thousands of kids of the same relative age are packed together and lose their identity and are ripe for gang recruitment and victimization is a key part of the problem of teen urban violence and the failure to teach children to stay in school and be productive citizens.
Restructuring schools to be a “small town” school campus serving all grades pre-K through12th on one campus as a tight knit community is the only practical solution to not only teen violence but also educational deficits inherent in the present school structure. Then and only then will real communities be formed in the neighborhoods of areas like South Chicago and then and only then will interconnected generations of students, teachers, and parents be able to hold one another accountable for the culture of their community and be empowered to improve that culture.
Secretary Duncan-
Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to what teachers have to say. I am a second year junior high social studies teacher in rural Alaska. Everyday I am challenged by my students which is one of the things that I love most about my job. In response to your question how can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools, I think back to the beginning of September when President Obama spoke to the students of America. He asked for accountability of our students and for them to take charge of their education. If we demand the same high standards of students that we do of our teachers, then I feel we will be able to retain excellent teachers. Teachers are held to high standards and yet, students and parents are not.
I feel that if we hold all the pieces to the education puzzle to high standards, teachers will be less likely to leave the profession due to the stress and near impossible expectations that are placed on them.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
Thank you for inviting teachers to be a part of these important discussions.
I’ve been a teacher since 1992 and have taught in a variety of school settings. I’ve been discouraged to witness the problems recruiting, supporting and retaining excellent teachers. It has been my experience that working conditions are the biggest factor. In my opinion, the areas that could make the most impact in working conditions are:
Wages: Many excellent teachers I’ve worked with have left because they could not support a family on teaching wages. When I look around the teaching staffs I have taught with over the years, I see teachers who are supplementing a family income, single teachers or teachers working additional jobs during the evenings and summers. Until being a teacher can support a family on a teacher base salary, especially a single parent family, we will continue to have problems recruiting and retaining teachers.
More accountability for the ways schools are managed and led: Despite the amount of money spent on schools, the reality is that teachers don’t always have easy access to supplies needed and spend their own money to support their classes. According to http://www.adoptaclassroom.org, teachers spend an average $1,200 of their own money each year for classroom supplies. Teachers are held accountable for student learning on standardized testing whether or not they have the supplies needed and whether or not there is quality leadership managing the school. Money needs to make it to the classroom level and states, districts and schools need to be accountable for making that happen.
Support through mentoring: Professional development for teachers is an expensive endeavor and isn’t always productive because it isn’t differentiated to meet teachers individual needs. Quality mentoring programs are also expensive, but they provide instructional support that is individualized and provides a safety net for students of new teachers. As you know, the distribution of new teachers vs. experienced teachers isn’t equitable across socio-economic lines. Mentoring is a way to help level the playing field by bringing experienced teachers into schools as mentors and by building capacity and reducing turnover.
Over emphasis on testing: As a Texas teacher since 1992 and a Texas graduate of public education, I’ve watched as the over emphasis on testing has narrowed the taught curriculum, stressed out schools, resulted in ethical violations at schools so desperate that they cheat, and robbed elementary students of the love of school. Part of the problem is that the quality of the assessments is based on affordability and ease of scoring, which makes them not developmentally appropriate (for example: the fourth grade writing test starts about 8 AM and students typically finish between 1 and 6 PM). It is ridiculous that teachers are expected to differentiate for the variety of learners that we have in class, but testing is one size fits all even for students we have identified as having learning disabilities. There also are few or no incentives for teachers to work at schools with achievement gaps, so schools with the greatest needs are also the worst working conditions with fewest resources. We need to recognize that closing the achievement gap means allocating more resources to students that are behind their peers. It can be done, but not using the same allocation of resources as schools that have most of their students already performing above grade level. If we had better tests and a more common sense vs. high stakes approach, schools would be a better place for everyone involved.
Again, thank you for taking time to get teacher input and for considering teachers as professional experts in their field.
Dear Mr. Duncan, part of the problem we have in school is that policy treats and tests all children equally despite disabilities or abilities. Under the No Child Left Behind every one passes regardless of their abilities/aptitude. Pretty much like giving every child who plays sports a trophy so they won’t feel bad about themselves. Hey, it is kind of like giving the Nobel Peace prize to President Obama even though he didn’t earn it!
Dear Secretary Duncan,
Teaching students who are available for learning is a joy and delight for teacher and student. But it can be a nightmare when you have one student who constantly disrupts the entire class. All channels to support and redirect this student’s behavior have been completed. The people who have the power to make changes refuse to make changes because the student must stay within the classroom (still disrupting)to show that the teacher has tried interventions. In the mean time, all the other students are missing out on valuable learning. We need to get serious about educating all students including the disruptive student. If we were committed to educating all students, this disruptive student would not be allowed to disrupt the learning environment.
*How can we recruit, support, and retain excellent teachers in all of our schools?
I think that, in order to recruit excellent teachers, school districts need to offer them enticing wages. I’m not saying that it has to be top dollar but remember that teachers have high student loan payments, as do other graduates; however, teachers are generally the lowest paid graduates. And why do teachers in Parochial Schools get paid much less than those in the public schools? Aren’t they teaching the same standards? School districts need to offer support like mentorship and moral support to their teachers. Let them know that there is someone to bounce off ideas, or vent to when stressed. This will also help retain those teachers who are effective and burned out. Schools need to ensure that their teachers have the tools necessary to teach to diverse students in their class.
*What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
I believe that the best way to measure teaching excellence is student PROGRESS, NOT STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES! Children are not standard. They are each unique individuals who learn differently and to various capacities. Teachers struggle with multiple ways to teach these diverse children who all learn in various ways. We are teaching the future leaders of this country, yet we are the last to be recognized and compensated. Students and teachers are not measured on their progress, only on the standardized test score. Excellent teaching is actually having a student progress in his/her learning. Teaching excellence are those “AH HA” moments that students have when they finally “get it”! That is a teacher’s internal reward; however, does not count in the government’s standards because it cannot be “measured”! Here’s a thought…teaching is the only profession that creates ALL others!
*How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
I think that the best way is to offer monetary incentives along with loan forgiveness to teach in these challenged schools. I personally want to teach in an impoverished area. I want to teach where the greatest needs are; however, I need to also be able to make a living. I also think that, just because this is an impoverished area, the students should be afforded the same opportunities to learn as those in other areas. This includes equipment and resources. Is the government setting these areas up to fail? If you want to keep No Child Left Behind, then the federal government better ensure that these students and teachers have the tools necessary to succeed! I also think that teachers should be nationally licensed to teach in all states, not just the specific state where we graduated. This would enable qualified teachers to go to other states without jumping through their state specific hoops in order to be able to teach. I also think that all states should have the same standards, this way; students (and teachers) that move would be on the same page when it comes to learning and teaching.
*In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
Funding, funding and…funding. Oh, yeah…and less paperwork.
The ways we can retain, support, and retain teachers are: 1) the government offer scholarships to minorities who go into education and want to teach in low income or performing districts; 2) give the teacher the support they need, I mean by this is that some teachers do not have the resources that are needed to be effective. Some teachers are using out-dated materials and because of this the students are not ready for the proficiency tests for their grade level. We need to make sure that teachers are given the appropriate materials that needed so that their students succeed at these tests; and 3) retention of teachers can be done by giving them incentives to stay at their schools. This can be done by paying a portion of tuition for teachers to get advanced degrees. If they have these degrees, forgive some or all of their student loans or even give them a check so they can set up a savings account for themselves or their children.
Another point I would like to make is that teachers are teaching to the proficiency test and not being creative is the classroom. I am currently a substitute teacher and I substitute in a variety of classrooms and districts and it is the same hum-drum education in each. The teachers are not engaging the students and these students are rebelling against, causing havoc in the classroom, making the classroom unteachable. The students are using this type of teaching to rebel and they are using this opportunity to rebel like their forefathers in the sixties against a system that is antiquated and has no beneficial use for them.
I believe in a national education system, but the federal government is doing this in a completely wrong way. I purpose that the national government tells the states what standards they need to follow and what the standard for proficient schools mean at national level to compete in the twenty-first century world.
1. Higher wages
a. Have professional organizations and organizations pay for the athletics and other organizations that need to happen in schools.
i. Who says that a person that cannot be as talented as a teacher as Lebron James is as a basketball player??
2. Instead of pay for teachers based on just test scores, they should be paid based on their own performance. i.e. – merit pay.
3. Help hold the parents responsible
a. Tax credits for parents who go above and beyond for helping their child succeed.
4. Should be mandatory for new teachers to have a mentor
a. Continuing professional development
b. Forces discussion
5. Put career based classes back into school. i.e – carpentry, mechanics and so on.
a. More options for people who do not want to go on the college track but still want to be successful and learn trades that they would essentially when they graduate from college.
b. This would help students self esteem rise since everyone would have something they like to do and have a chance to be successful at.
6. Character education needs be included in everyday activities
a. More and better discipline
b. Not only hold students responsible but also parents
c. Would we have to put more hours in the day to put forth the effort of teaching character and other things such as finances that parents either don’t have time to do or refuse to do.
Thank you!
How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
There are several ways that the recruitment, support and retention of students can be improved.
The first is making the obtainment of a teaching license affordable. I am lucky; I only have about $20,000 in student loans, whereas my fellow teachers have upwards of $70-100,000 in loans. There needs to be some type of grant/scholarship program for teaching candidates regardless of where they end up teaching. Many teachers end up leaving the profession or not even start teaching because they cannot afford to live and make their loan payments. I know people would say what about the teachers that leave the profession anyways make it that if they do leave the profession after a set time the grants/scholarship turn into loans that are repayable at a competitive interest rate.
Next, don’t throw the new teachers to the lions. Most new teachers usually end up in the worst schools teaching the “problem” students or lowest performing students with limited resources or knowledge in dealing with the multiple problems that the students bring into the classroom on a daily basis. Make it so that the new teachers have smaller class sizes to start with. The class sizes than can be increased with the teachers experience.
Thirdly, eliminate the high stake testing that takes place. Realize that there is not a one size fits all test to evaluate individual students. The NCAA has utilized a sliding scale of high school grade point average and test score the determine student-athlete initial eligibility. Allow the combination of not only test scores, portfolios and possible oral communication to determine the level of individual student advancement.
Finally, determine a set of standards and leave them alone. In the business world people become more proficient with the repetition of tasks. This also takes place with teachers. If a teacher knew that they could refine their lesson plans from year to year and not have to completely redevelop them they would become more proficient at teaching and allow more creativity to be implemented or new strategies tried.
How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
Teachers should receive more pay. Teachers are some of the hardest working individuals. We continuously admire people who, through education, achieve great success and stand out as role models in our society. Doctors, nurses, politicians, world leaders, and Nobel Peace Prize Winners are all great figures of influence, but they would not be where they are today if it was not for teachers. Teachers are underpaid and way over worked. How can we recruit, support, and retain excellent teachers in all our schools? Pay them more money!!!!
How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
To ensure that that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers it is important that they have the support of the administration, parents, and fellow teachers. It is also very important that teachers never stop learning. A teaching license is a license to learn. They must continuously be searching for new ideas and ways to reach every child and pull them into new levels of intellect.
In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
Sometimes documentation can kill the creativeness that a teacher may need to reach a child. Every child is different and may learn in different ways. It is not feasible for ALL children to achieve a certain level of education within a certain time frame. Some children take longer to learn than others. I feel that it is wrong to punish a school because its test scores are not as high as they should be. Some students have a hard time taking tests and just need more time to learn information.
• How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
• How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
• In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
-Salary: Money plays a key factor in this question. Why would a person choose to teach in a challenging district with high levels of occupational stress when they could make the same amount or more money in a higher performing district? Also, teachers spend a significant amount of their own money to support the education of the students in their classrooms. If a person works in a challenging district, he/she is even more likely to spend more of their own money. Teachers who work in challenging districts should be compensated with higher wages. This would increase the retention of teachers in these kinds of districts.
-Support the profession: Many high schools offer students the opportunity to explore different career paths (cosmetology, engineering, health care, culinary arts) however, there are few if any programs offered to students who would like to seek a career in education. If schools promoted the field of education and offered students the opportunity to explore this field, then perhaps more students would be inclined to enter the field of education.
-Professional development: There are many companies who will pay for their employees to receive higher education. However, in Ohio, teachers are required to obtain a Master’s degree to retain their license, without being offered any financial support. Many teachers would love to learn the latest techniques and theories, but they are unable to afford to further their development.
- Class size: It is very hard to teach in a classroom containing 25-30 students with various needs /developmental levels and expect one teacher to meet the educational, social, and emotional needs of all those students. It is also unfair to hold those teachers with higher class numbers accountable for the students’ performance on standardized tests.
-Teacher Accountability: Teachers have a responsibility to educate the students in their classroom. It is difficult to hold teacher accountable for student achievement/learning when that child receives no support at home.
October 10, 2009
Dear Secretary Duncan,
The areas that need to be addressed are the following:
Teaching to the Test – where is real learning?
States set “Standards” – low or inadequate?
Address Reasons for Lack of Achievement
Every child needs to be ready for the next grade level. In doing so, districts are required to spend much more money. Now, the federal government did send districts money but it never seemed to cover all the NEW standards and testing that we needed to do with the kids in the classroom.
Everything became standards based learning, which is fine, but we lose the character based education. The questions lies, when do kids learn value? When do they have time to share? Learn about friendships? As well as, what it means to have empathy?
We put so much pressure on teachers and kids with testing and standards based that we forget what we need to do to build citizens and good characters. The NCLB began in 2002 and really didn’t affect us in high school, so something that needs to change.
It is fine to keep a standards based curriculum, but it is good to have students achieve higher standards in content areas. When it comes to testing in schools, it is fine, but it seems as teachers we are always assessing opposed to teaching the skills they need, because we are so worried to get every child to live up to all of the standard. We need more time to teach the skills to students before assessing them too quickly after a lesson. There needs to be time for students to learn to apply the skills for a while then assess their learning. We also need to build their values and ethics to the YOUNG (like preschool, etc). We also need to have more teachers in school to lower class sizes and have more individual time with students to address the skills and concepts as well as values and ethics.
Schools today need to emphasize character education and value education. Well, we can teach students values of honesty, and kindness, and understanding how other people feel! Maybe if we have an hour a day that teaches values, we would not have teenagers killing another or killing oneself.
There needs to be extra CONNECTION time with students and it would not cost much. Kids don’t have time in school with all the standards to just sit in small groups and learn about each other. They only time kids have time to get to know one another is during lunch, but this time does not do justice. We need time in the classroom to mentor students and to go over values and issues.
The supporters agree with the federal government that accountability to educational standards and emphasis on test results will improve the quality of education for everyone.
The opponents, which include all major teachers unions, agree that standardized test have had mixed results and has not been effective in improving education. Some people even believe the federal government has no authority in education.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rochford’s Class
It is sad that education is spinning in the direction that it is going. As a teacher I feel like I am no longer allowed to teach. Our government, whether it be state, local, or national, just keeps adding programs to fix the problems. In my opinion they have basically taken the teacher out of the equation. There are no longer opportunities for teachers to be creative. They fail to add to the equation that people, yes this includes children, are naturallly different. They are failing to challenge those students who could one day go on to be future scientist and engineers. They are also failing to realize that parents need to be held accountable too. I’m not talking about all parents. I mean the ones who play the system (they are able to work but don’t), the ones who can afford to smoke and drink, but can’t buy a $5.00 workbook or send snack money for their child. The ones who don’t want to hold their children accountable for what they do. Government as well does not always seem to hold themselves to the same accountability as is expected of a teacher. It is time we all look at what we are doing, including our work ethic, and start holding ourselves accountable first. I love my job, I love my students, I love teaching. I just don’t care at all for the direction it is going. Let me give you a more specific example.
Our state has added so much reading instruction to our day that the students who used to love to read now hate it. We have to teach our lessons going strictly by the lesson plans included with a textbook our system adopted. We are on pacing guides, which means we can’t teach for mastery, can’t spend longer on topics that add interest to the subject matter, or bring in literature units, so that students actually read an entire book instead of a short story. We can’t even take stories out of sequence to teach across the curriculum. It is expected that 80% of our students will read on level by the end of the year. They are basing that on the end of the year test that comes with our textbook. Teachers, adminstrators, and our reading coach have taken the test and only make within the 70 – 85% range. Knowing that,every time they take a unit test and do not meet goals, I along with our reading coach and principal have to write an action plan and turn it in to the county. Therefore about every 5 weeks the teachers in 4th, 5th,and 6th grade have to write action plans, on top of all other documentation that has to be done.
Math, science, and social studies are practically ignored. Before NCLB our students always made acceptable on their standardized test scores, and excelled in other areas as well. We are bringing our students down so much we should name the program All Chidlren Left Behind.
How to make NCLB better? 1)Scrap it-It IS the problem, as someone posted.2) Reduce the number of bureaucrats in your department.(State DOEs could do that, too.) Obviously they couldn’t come up with a decent law several years ago. We all know many of them have cushy jobs where they sit around and make up new rules for us in the trenches to follow, pretending that their ideas are better than what we already have, just to justify their positions. Thank heavens we here in Charlotte County (FL) have an excellent superintendent who cares about the kids. He has gradually reduced the number of administrators by attrition, and he hasn’t had to lay off anyone yet; that’s saying alot in the SW Florida economy. 3) The executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government need to realize we are NOT working with widgets, but with human beings with all their variables and problems. Therefore, 4) Not every student wants to go to college, the U.S. doesn’t NEED every student to go to college, and we should plan more vocational training accordingly. Also, 5)NCLB’s goal of 100% of students being “proficient” by 2013 is ridiculous, AYP is a ridiculous concept as we now know it, and judging schools by the test results is ridiculous. 6) Regarding your ideas of “highly qualified” teachers and paraprofessionals,I like Michelle’s (post #15) idea of requiring “Highly Qualified” Cabinet members, Senators, and Congressmen. Let the teachers of the country set THOSE rules! 7) I teach at a center school for handicapped kids, and I’ll tell you, I will never recommend to a young person that he or she go into special ed as long as things are the way they currently are. The paperwork is insane! So are the “tests” that we must give to our kids. If you want to recruit good special ed teachers, go back to a simple IEP with it’s goals, and leave it at that-let the teachers teach! 8)Finally,teacher’s aides now must become paraprofessionals and must either take a test or get the equivalent of an AA degree. Many of our devoted teacher’s aides have been at it for many years and have had good evaluations. They should be able to be grandfathered in. Is on-the- job training not good enough for you people sitting in your Washington offices? I’ll bet YOU don’t deal with toileting, wiping runny noses, cleaning up vomit, getting hit, bitten, having your hair pulled, all while trying to educate our special kids, and making about $7.00 or $8.00 an hour. Our teacher’s aides (parapros) deserve more respect than being required to take more tests and classes, thank you very much!
As you can tell, I’m no fan of NCLB. If you don’t change it drastically, education in our country is going to go right down the tubes!
Cheryl Lehew
Charlotte Harbor School
Port Charlotte, FL
We are not doing what is best for children in the lower grades. We have so much assessment in the first 30 days of kindergarten that teachers have to “shoo” children away in order to assess one-one on many items. It takes hours at school and home to hand bubble sheets for reporting purposes. Other forms have to be reported via computer, but never without some time consuming glitch. We are seeing more management problems because we can not spend team building activities with our students. I agree with the comment regarding fine motor skills. We are so caught up in having five year olds being able to read, we are not doing the developmental activities that they need. Some of the so called rewards for teachers and schools are not helping moral but are pitting school against school and teacher against teacher. I love my job, my school, and my students, but I have spent every weekend since school started at school in order to do the work required to prepare lessons and materials. (we have always taken things home, etc.), but I am now doing this at the expense of celebrating birthdays and holidays with my own family.
I am a teacher who left a now 5A school in Denton to make a difference in a rural east Texas Title 1 school(85% free & reduced/economically disadvantaged).
#1 I came to teach to make a difference, it is NOT about the money
#2 I spent 20 years in the media as a photojournalist & graphic designer, etc before returning to school and moving to education
#3 I teach 6 – 12 technology, art and journalism related classes
#4 I am mired in student loan debt and cannot seem to find a way to deal with it and take care of the obligations I have for family …
#5 NCLB is a failure because it puts pressure on teachers to teach to pass a test, and not on teaching what the students need to know to be successful in life
EXAMPLE: Who said that creative writing is better than the basic formula for writing a good report? When did we give up conjugating verbs, and diagraming sentences to understand why we write the way we should?
When did we give up teaching time tables, and flash card games to see who could remember and how fast? Why do we not have our students memorize the Declaration of Independence, or the Gettysburg Address?
#6 Teaching for incentives is only going to inspire those who came to education thinking it is a decent job for the money and effort you have to expend, and, what is more important, you only have a great teacher if it is someone who truly loves what they are doing and share what they know and why it is important to know it with their students.
#7 You cannot put a price on knowledge, but you can put priceless on an inspired student. Our children today are raising themselves. Parents are their kids buddies, and the violence they see all around (TV, movies, and other sources like games and the internet, and the “news”) have given them a course crass view of the world. Language is disintegrating, values are situational, and disinterest is rampant. They mostly don’t value education. They don’t see it as a way beyond their existing world. some of us are trying to change the view.
Please work at giving us the room.
#8 I also believe that a year-round school program is an effective way to improve our education. I had my boys in the Magnet program which was year round in Denton, and it made a difference for both my Sp.Ed. kid and my Honors student. Samuel graduated and tackled college. Thomas was a National Merit finalist. They had terrific teachers who loved what they were doing and loved the kids.
#9 The best reward is to have kids who have had their lives touched come back and to thank-you for the difference you made in their education/life path. There is nothing like it.
#10 Identify the “most challenged” schools and post the job availabilities in the colleges who have education departments. Most graduating college students do not know where to go look for jobs, and, unless someone tells them, many go to something else because the job search is very daunting. Monster.com is NOT a good place for a certified teacher to start looking, but many do not know that each state has a department of education which has teacher resources which contain links to each county in each state, who post opening positions each spring. It is not common knowledge.
#11 Recruiting teachers is going to be a challenge. The image of teachers portrayed in any form of media has to change. Most of us sacrificed to go to school to get our education, and those following behind us as going to pay even a higher price. Show some value for the profession, and not-the critical … no-one likes to be derided for what they do ( as a job) and not many will choose a job where they are constantly belittled, have more asked of them each year, and not paid a working wage. Starting salary for teachers in texas is 27,320. …and, if you consider that the federal poverty level is considered anything under 50,000 as they espouse on the “news”….where does that put teachers? Capable of receiving food stamps, and not being able to live and pay student loans.
“We have to be crazy to do this……wouldn’t you think?
Secretary Duncan,
I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on our schools. After 21 years of working in public schools in a variety of settings, performing a variety of roles, this is the first time that I can recall that the Department of Education has offered me the chance to give my opinion on something.
How can we recruit, support, and retain excellent teachers in all our schools? This issue is bigger than the Dept. of Ed. We need to make the teaching profession attractive, which will require the cooperation of the legislature and the media. We need to stop talking about how bad our schools are and start highlighting all of the wonderful successes that are happening every day. I’m not suggesting that we ignore problems when they happen, but the negative picture presented publicly of our schools is an exaggeration. Even President Obama gets the facts wrong at times, such as when he spoke to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in March. He said that the high-school drop-out rate had tripled in the past 30 years, when it has actually declined. Why would a talented young person become a teacher, knowing that nearly every time you read the newspaper or watch a news program you’ll hear what an awful job you’re doing? Public schools are too important to be treated as political footballs.
What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching? The Teacher of the Year program is an excellent way to recognize teachers and reward them. Any other measures of teacher quality, I believe, should come from the local school districts or the states. If you really want to increase the quality of teaching, you need to work more closely with the teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities to insure that their graduates are prepared for the work they will be required to do in our public schools. Think of it as a K-16 issue, not a K-12 issue.
How can we insure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers? Spend more time preparing and supporting the school administrators. Teachers want to work where they feel their work is actually appreciated and having a positive impact. Good school administrators are key to creating that environment. Principals need much more professional development, training, and mentoring. Schools also need much more money to implement programs that can have an impact on their students. There have been many occasions in my career when teachers and administrators have identified solutions to problems that they could not implement due to a lack of funds. That should never happen.
In what ways does NCLB need to change in order to support effective teaching? Where should I begin? I could start by telling you about my own daughter’s experience right now, in 5th grade. She is getting no instruction in social studies because it isn’t tested. Now take that experience and multiply it by however many other children are in our public schools and project into the future to imagine what kind of citizens we will have when they are adults. Scary, huh? Or, I could tell you about a very talented young teacher I know who will only teach kindergarten, first grade, or second grade because those grades aren’t covered under NCLB. People will often say that the schools don’t have to make the choice of only focusing on tested subjects, but when there are penalties for not making AYP and there is a likelihood that schools that don’t make AYP will get raked over the coals publicly, that’s not a reasonable argument. More and more testing does nothing to improve teaching and learning. Professional development, smaller workloads, strong administrators, and adequate resources will improve teaching and learning.
I wish you and the Department of Education all the best in working through these complex issues. I appreciate the need to balance accountability with flexibility, particularly when we still need to come to consensus on what it means to be an educated American. I’m glad that we are finally having these important conversations.
Many parents leave it to television, Hollywood and the internet to teach their children values and ethics. How about adding values and ethics to the curriculum? May be if our children received some of the same values and ethics our parents and grand parents possessed, we might not be dealing so much with the drugs and crimes that plague our country.
Are you listening? Are you truly listening? You’ve extended the invitation. Great! You seem to indicate that you deem teachers an important resource and asset. You said that you want our input. You said that you want us to tell you how we think the problems should be fixed. If you truly want to fix the problems, LISTEN! We’re speaking. The posts are filled with great points, and I would love to address every one of them. They are vast. They are many. They make sense, and they are personal. Education is personal. Education is individual, from each unique student up to the very community within which the school exists. Diversity makes standardized rules for education ludicrous (and thus, standardized tests ludicrous). The posts have a resounding theme that points to a deep need for a return to localized control over education.
To cite one example, some communities are still agrarian (and more could be if the federal government actually supported, upheld, and followed the Constitution by disengaging its control over areas not expressly granted therein); thus necessitating a system that allows for students to work during planting and harvesting seasons. Some students will never afford college if they are unable to work during the summer months. Some students will never go to college because apprenticing in the family business, farm, or local community affords them the life they desire. The ideas central to this theme of individuality in education and a necessity in downsizing the federal government’s involvement in education are plentiful in the posts, as you will see, IF you listen.
Similar to teaching, if the government does what it should, it will put itself out of (a portion of) a job. Teachers work to help their students grow into independent thinking members of society (ideally). If a teacher is effective, students cease to “need” the teacher. If the government were effective, it would vote to get itself out of education and give the “power” back to the people at a more local level.
The federal government needs to (and we (teachers, parents, students) NEED the federal government to) turn control over education back to the people, the local school boards, and the state governments. The federal government, as specified in the Constitution, is tampering in an arena that is constitutionally off limits to them. Quite frankly, the government is contaminating the education system. How did we let loose of the reins at a local level so much so that the President is creating policy for nationwide regulations over such details even as the length of the school day? Where are the checks and balances? Is ANYONE in Washington doing his or her job? We need to get back control of our country; we need to put control over education back where it belongs. “Making” school districts jump through hoops created by people in our federal BIG government, who are so completely out of touch with what teachers want, need, and can do, is ridiculous. Take BIG government out of the driver’s seat of education and education reform, make it localized, and you will see what teachers are capable of accomplishing. This should also have a trickledown effect. If you eliminate the federal government and put control back locally, placing an emphasis back on the actual teacher, elimination of much of the administrative waste in schools is a next logical step in improving schools. Districts in control of their own schools, through local school boards (who have a real stake in the school, be it because they have children in attendance there, or because they value the unique education they can help to shape for the community in which they live) and family involvement are key to improving education as well as saving actual money. Getting government and the BIG BUSINESS of the standardized testing machine out of education will save unfathomable amounts of money (not to be mistakenly spent on extending the school day or some other regulation that maintains federal government control over educational decisions) and can effectively eliminate some of the unnecessary jobs (and thus additional expenses) associated with test production, administration, and evaluation; freeing up money for continued necessities like art education that supports individuality and creativity in our students, which leads to innovative and creative thinking adults.
If you truly want teachers to be respected and validated, get government out of the classrooms! Giving teachers back some of their autonomy immediately indicates a level of respect that once existed (before compulsory and standardized education and evaluation) in the profession. A profession once (and often in other countries) revered and respected, could regain that level through relaxed regulatory impositions. Giving teachers more creative license, instead of less, speaks volumes to public confidence in them as professionals. Improvements could undoubtedly be made in teacher training facilities, our study of systems that work to accomplish our proclaimed goals of education, as well as the configuration of schools, adequate compensation as well as evaluative measures (input from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators springs to mind). Again, however, the federal government need not waste anymore time laboring over what to improve next…Just remove your influence and manipulation of the system altogether and local districts will likely gladly rise to the occasion and take over improvement steps. Undoubtedly, each teacher has, in his or her back pocket, a plethora of viable solutions to all the problems over which you are deliberating. Let teachers and local school districts work out these issues in the way that best suits the locale unique to each district. Put control over educational decisions back in the hands of the people who do have the expertise; eliminate government involvement! I, too, have many specific ideas about how to improve education, and there are many systems in place (mostly in private schools; LARGELY if not solely because of the government involvement and control over public education) that teach students much more effectively and in a way that is more conducive to actual learning. Still the key remains to eliminate the federal government from its involvement in education, return control to a local level, and let the individuality of states and local populations make the intimate decisions about running and implementing creative, workable solutions to educational debates.
Testing. Are you serious? LISTEN! Standardized testing has long been, and continues to be a nightmare in education (for EVERYONE in education). Initially used as a tool to assess whether teachers were effective (undeniably a very INEFFECTIVE tool to determine this), standardized testing has become the pivotal point upon which almost every other aspect of education centers. Our aid, our effectiveness, our curriculum, our teaching methods; all center on the results of the standardized tests. As a nation, we continue to test (with standardized tests) more than any other country in the world (and continue to score low in comparison to these other countries) and yet, we continue to base our legislation, funding, and curriculum development on such results and tests. Teachers, parents, students know that standardized testing is an impotent system at best and that there is little or no value in it. Why won’t Washington listen? Because BIG government liked BIG business, and the testing companies have become an astronomically big business? How could they not, with NCLB requiring standardized tests throughout the country? Even while in the midst of an economic crisis, we continue to pour vast amounts of very valuable education dollars into the wasteland of standardized testing.
Individuality is American. American families are entitled to have input it their children’s education (from what and how they learn, to when and where they attend). American children are entitled to be individuals, to learn and grow and think differently. American teachers are entitled to teach creatively and take risks; to be unique individuals within their unique classrooms, teaching in a way that they (being the professionals) deem best for their individual students and the make-up of his or her student community and the community within which he or she teaches. American schools are entitled to be unique within each community and the individual make-up that comprises that community. American school districts are entitled to reflect the uniqueness of their communities within the policies and requirements, as well as the customs and traditions, school year and length of days, holidays and breaks, curriculum and evaluation consistent with the needs and norms of their unique communities. American states are entitled oversee schools and aid in shaping those that best support and serve the needs of each state and all its individuality. Americans are not the same from state to state, from region to region, from little town to bustling city. We don’t have the same needs, desires, expectations, dreams for our lives or for our children. Americans are not built from a cookie cutter mold. Americans are innovative, creative, unique. Let’s start building a system from the bottom up that adequately supports and reflects that, and then, let’s see what students and teachers can REALLY do.
If you are listening, changes will be made. If you are listening, you will take back Washington and tell special interest groups that the Constitution will not be compromised; that big government, not good for your citizens, will not be allowed to exploit those citizens and their needs. If this is just lip service, designed to make us believe that we can have an impact on the direction of education in this country, then government will continue to exercise absurd control, ineffective policies; and schools throughout the country (students, teachers, families, communities) will continue to suffer, be unable to compete in the global infrastructure, and Washington will continue to wonder why the system is failing…because you refused to listen to the people who actually have something intelligent to contribute to the solution.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
I may be in a minority, but I believe that the data collected because of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been beneficial to many schools, parents, and teachers. It has helped my school focus in on individual students that need additional assistance in meeting our high academic expectations. However, I continue to feel that the measures of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is an inaccurate read of a school.
If I were to recommend one change in NCLB, it would be that we would compare student scores in a more accurate manner. Under the current law, the test scores of this year’s 8th grade students, for example, are compared to the test scores of last year’s 8th grade class. I believe it would be a more accurate read to measure the growth of the SAME students from one year to the next. Therefore, in order to determine if a school met AYP, we would compare the scores of my 8th grade students to the scores they earned in their 7th grade year. This would let us know if we were truly affecting change amongst individual students.
Thank you for reading my thoughts.
Sincerely,
Becky Taylor
Silver Spring, MD
I am a National Board qualified first grade teacher in Northern California.
If we are moving toward merit pay for teachers, what fair and equitable criteria will you use to determine teacher pay other than student test scores? With cutbacks in our district, we have fewer resource staff to assist children who have learning difficulties. Our district has increased the number of students in grades K-3 from 20 to 21, and may increase it again next year. All of these issues, the quality of instruction in the previous years, as well as family issues influence a child’s test scores. Therefore, test scores must not be the sole determinant of teacher merit pay.
PRINCIPALS NEED TO RELY MORE ON PARAEDUCATORS & TEACHER’S AIDES FOR FEEDBACK:
These support staffers are in the classrooms all day long. They can easily monitor how well — or poorly — the teacher(s) teach. If these support staff
knew that their appraisal of the teachers’ performance was to be kept confidential by the school’s administrators, they can really be the principal’s
“eyes and ears” in the classroom.
The principals are so busy that they can only spend a small amount of time
in each teacher’s classroom, appraising the teacher’s performance. Since the Obama Administration wants only high quality teaching in the public schools, doesn’t it make sense to use the support staff in the classrooms as a resource in
achieving this aim?
In another matter, in high poverty schools, there is a great need for students to receive extra help with their academic subjects. For this reason, more teacher aides are needed in these classrooms. One teacher and one Para educator (or teacher’s aide) is not enough to help the 32 students in the class. I encourage the Obama Administration to include federal monies to the states for the hiring of additional support staff in the classroom. With this extra help, there is no reason a student in a high poverty school should not do as academically well as a student in a school with a wealthier population.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
I am currently an Education Major in Wisconsin. My area of focus is in Social Studies and I plan to teach at the high school level. Recently, I have been studying “No Child Left Behind (NCLB).” I have heard countless interviews and statements by teachers regarding how NCLB has affected their teaching and classroom. I have been greatly discouraged by what I’ve studied and heard. Many teachers have talked about how the moral amongst teachers within their schools has dropped drastically. Many have even given up teaching because the spark is no longer there. There seems to be no wiggle room for a teacher to be able to adjust their teaching style to meet the needs of a particular class or student. Instead, many are having to teach scripted materials arranged according to a very tight schedule.
Teachers know best about what is going on and what needs to take place in the classroom. I am concerned that their knowledge and experience is being thrown to the wayside by administrators and politicians that are more concerned about the bottom line (test scores). However, this town hall meeting and recent speeches that you have made have brought me some hope that the effects of NCLB can still be reversed.
The reason I chose to enter the education field is because of a few select teachers that I had in high school. These teachers engaged me in the classroom. They knew their responsibility was to make sure that I understood the material instead of memorized it. Their unscripted teaching has had a profound impact on my life and career choice.
My question for you is this: What can be done to insure that teachers have the ability to be flexible in their teaching styles and to be able to engage students on topics that matter to the students, instead of sticking to a tight schedule and lesson plan?
Thank you for listening
Sincerely,
Blais, Concerned Student
Thank you for affording teachers an opportunity to voice our concerns about the educational system today.
I am a certified middle school math teacher, and I support standardized exams. I am sorry to admit that without accountability some teachers do not focus enough on teaching the skills necessary to provide the necessary math foundation for college or professional trade schools. Currently colleges are burdened with unnecessary algebra remediation classes — skills that should have been learned in middle school and high school. Culinary schools must remediate measurement conversions. One can only conclude then that high schools are graduating students who have not mastered basic mathematics/algebra. The US should be embarrassed by this! The days of individual states controlling public education should soon be dissolved. Most states are doing a horrible job on their own. You cannot blame the students — absolutely not! Federal oversight (not necessarily control) of public schools would keep all math teachers on the same page. We should utilize our wonderful National Standards for Mathematics and share best teaching practices online. Standardized testing should be done at the close of every school year to indicate progress made. Those teachers who are not doing their jobs would be exposed through repeated lower scores on standardized test. Good teachers produce. Lazy teachers, those who teach for a paycheck and benefits, should be exposed and removed. In summary, a federally monitored public school system and performance-proven teachers would allow us to make huge gains in education, enough to be globally competitive once again.
I have taught for twelve years in public high schools. Through those years I have seen educational change that, while meant well, has negatively impacted our most at-risk students. As such, I would like to contribute my answers to the question “In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?”.
1. We need to move to a growth-based measure of success for students. If a student enters sixth grade reading at a third grade reading level and tests at a fifth grade reading level at the end of the school year, the growth of that student should be acknowledged as success. This continues as the student moves through the system. If that student begins behind and they continue to make progress but lag one or two grades behind in reading comprehension, that child is “failing”. Their progress needs to be noted and rewarded. We need to track longevity data on students and not compare the eleventh graders this year to the eleventh graders next year. Moving to a growth-based measure would give a much better picture of how the schools are serving individual students.
2. We need national content standards. As it stands now, each state is left to design their own standards and test from those standards. The standards need to be developed by a panel of K-12 educators, higher education educators and professionals within the fields encompassed by those standards. One component of the standards designing process should take into account how much of the content can reasonably be taught in a one school-year timeframe. We must set goals for students that are challenging yet attainable.
3. We need a national assessment tool–test, work samples…etc. The assessment should be based solely from the national standards. The assessment must NOT be norm-referenced. When an exam has a bell-shaped curve, such as the ACT, there is no possibility that ALL students will meet standards. Again, it is our obligation as educators to ensure that all students have the ability to succeed.
4. We must reform the NCLB mandate that 100% if ELL students will be grade-level proficient in English. This must be reformed because if a student were to move into the United States one week before testing began, the school would be held accountable for that student’s proficiency on the exam one week later. We need to acknowledge that there will be a continual influx of ELL students in our schools.
5. We must have an exam that measures growth of our ELL students. We cannot continue to assess them using tools such as the ACT. This is not an accurate measure of their language growth nor is it reflective of their content knowledge. Our schools and students deserve data that reflects how well we have served our ELL students.
6. We must encourage creative teaching and critical thinking in schools again. While we do need a means of finding ways to measure our success and challenge our shortcomings, we also need to remember that there is more to our profession than a scan-tron test.
It is the system, not the people for the most part. Our children are voting with their feet and leaving our schools. The reasons they give:
There is nothing there to engage me.
There is no one there who cares about me or about my success.
There are schools that are succeeding in truly educating our children. They create appropriate adult-child relationships, and they find away to engage children in their own learning, usually by asking them what they are passionate about learning.
We might attract a different set of individuals into teaching if we create a different “way” to do the job, or we might really excite teachers to make teaching a two way street. We should not only expect kids to “hold up their end of the learning’, but including them in the conversation.
I am a Special Education teacher in the state of Florida. My students all have different ability levels. Although they have been making yearly gains, some have not been able to make Adequately Yearly Progress (AYP). Now the pressure is on because the percentage of students that have to meet AYP is increasing. Again, all of my students have made progress, some significant, but have unfortunately not made enough gains. These children are doing the very best they can. Some of them have come to me more than 3 years behind grade level. It doesn’t seem appropriate to expect them to miraculously gain those 3 years in one school year. My principal has expressed to us, the ESE staff that we are solely responsible for ensuring that these students make AYP at all costs. Given the fact that I only spend 1 and 1/2 hours with the students a day I feel that the responsibility should be shared by everyone. After all if we are a team we should work as a team. Never the less the burden has been placed completely on the ESE teacher. I feel that the standards may be unattainable. I fully believe that every student CAN learn but some at a slower pace. Maybe instead of setting an arbitrary number for all students to meet, wouldn’t it make more sense to base AYP on the amount of progress made by each child from year to year? For example, if the students developmental score increases by 300 pts. Even if he does not increase to a level 3 we should say that he has made AYP. The next year that student would be expected to make similar gains. The amount of gains should be determined by the student. Those with more severe disabilities would have less stringent standards than those who are higher functioning. I would like for you to please consider the method by which AYP is calculated and the effects of the current system on the students with disabilities.
A couple of thoughts, Arne. I’ll let you hold me accountable for my students’ performance when you or your proxies deliver to me, in late August, a classroom of kids that are all on grade level. Next, you must guarantee me that, during their tenure with me, none of them will have parents that will divorce, use drugs or alcohol, or physically/verbally abuse them. They must all come to school well fed, well dressed and well cared for by a pediatrician. No family trips allowed other than during scheduled school breaks. If you can do these things to level the field on which you’re asking me to play, I will gladly consent to being held responsible for their progress. But, if you’re going to continue to ask me to parent kids, clothe kids, obtain medical care for kids, AND teach them, don’t waste my time.
Thank you for soliciting teacher’s opinions on these crucial matters regarding education. I am a HS physics teacher. I submit that the best way to support and retain excellent teachers in the classroom is to engage them in a meaningful continual pursuit of their content knowledge and the empowerment of creatively developing their own curriculum for their students. Both of these opportunities have been provided to me by the Teachers Institute. The Pittsburgh Teachers Institute which is modeled after the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute links the resources of Universities and colleges with high need school districts. The process involves the teachers taking collaborative seminars with university professors on topics determined to be most relevant by the teachers. The teachers create curriculum units that they implement in their classrooms that are also published online so that they can be utilized by teachers nationally. My experience with the Institute over the past 7 years has vastly strengthened my content knowledge about current science, empowered me as a professional to believe that my efforts and enthusiasm make me most qualified to determine how to motivate my students to be successful, intellectually engaged me and convinced me to continue teaching in a challenging urban educational environment, and enriched the quality of my instruction for my students.
It has been demonstrated by research that Teachers Institutes help to retain teachers in high needs districts and increases teacher effectiveness and student achievement. The Teacher Institute has also improved my effectiveness by enhancing my sense of professionalism by providing me with collegial relationships with university faculty. I invited Secretary Duncan to visit our Teachers Institute during the G20 in Pittsburgh and I encourage the Obama administration to support teachers by supporting the Teachers Institutes. This can be done by incorporating the provisions of H.R. 3209 and S. 2212, known as the Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act, which were introduced in the 110th Congress, in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This action would enable the creation of Teachers Institutes in most states.
Teaching is a demanding and challenging endeavor. I firmly believe that we must encourage our dedicated teachers to continue in the profession and to strive to stimulate the educator’s enthusiasm to provide the best, most engaging instruction possible. The Teachers Institute has been critical in these regards in my own teaching experience and I hope that more teachers will be given the opportunity to experience this approach to professional development.
I just want to reaffirm what has already been stated numerous times. How can we expect students who have been placed in special education because of a learning disability to pass a grade level assessment? If that student could do grade level curriculum, he/she would not have been placed in special education in the first place. It sounds great to say that we want 100% of our students to pass standardized tests, but it is an IDEAL. Just like a balanced budget in Washington is an ideal. We are talking about human beings. There is absolutely nothing “standardized” about human beings. Some are good test takers, some are not, some have a 140 IQ, some do not. It is proposterous to treat them all equally when it comes to test-taking. We are pounded with the notion of “differentiation” in the classroom. Meet each individual student’s needs, make modifications if necessary, differentiate for your ELL students, your special ed students, your ADD/ADHD students, your dyslexia students, etc. But when it comes to testing all of those same students, we are going to use one measure only. It doesn’t make sense on any level.
Furthermore, every student in every classroom is NOT college bound. We are doing our students and society a disservice to treat them like they are. Because of NCLB, a lot of schools have done away with vocational programs that at least gave those students skills that could be turned into a way of making a living. Again, we are back to treating every student the same, not taking into account their differencees–expecting that every student is going to college and graduating from college with a degree. What if they don’t? What have we prepared them to do? We are setting some of them up for failure.
Please take into account that we are dealing with human beings and as complex as human beings are, that is how complex this problem is. There is no “easy” fix or “magic bullet.” We need great teachers in every classroom, we need families that understand and value how important an education is, we need students who are willing to set high standards for themselves and work to reach those standards, we need high expectations for all students– but not unattainable expectations.
My husband and I are both educators. We have devoted our lives to teaching. We have two daughters who attend public schools. This is an issue that is on our hearts and in our minds continuously. Thank you for taking the time to get feedback from those of us on the “front lines.”
I would like for the education department to discuss the inclusion of a bill that will provide for teacher institute throughout the country. There had been a bill formerly known as H.R. 3209 and S.2212- Teacher Professional Development Act introduced in the 110th congress. Has shown qualities that improve teacher efectiveness and your department will help with economically disadvantaged areas by supporting an act such as this. The model of this began in the New Haven school district more than twenty five years ago. (Yale New Haven Teachers Institute) and has been modeled in Pittsburgh ( Pittsburgh Teachers Institute) and other cities such as Houston. I as a teacher want to provide quality instruction to my students and need stimulating and challenging professional development to challenge my instruction.
*How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
First, let’s define “excellent teachers”. If excellent teachers means someone with a master’s in the field they’re teaching, then you need to be prepared to pay what that person could make elsewhere. A good example would be one of my colleagues who left teaching science at our middle school because she could make twice as much working for Merck. Better benefits, too. Wouldn’t need to take work home. Could go to her kids’ soccer games rather than faculty meetings… you get the picture. ‘Normalize’ what it means to be a teacher; don’t expect teachers as a profession to do things that other similarly educated professions, say, lawyers, aren’t expected to do. Teachers are expected to do 16 hours of work in a 7 hour day. End that if you want to retain top-notch teachers. You also need to hold someone other than teachers responsible for students’ performance: parents. They are equal stakeholders, yet are not held to account when they fail to contribute to their children’s education. That needs to end, too.
*What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
A system that takes growth into account, rather than a fixed target for all students. With one finish line to drive everyone over, I’ve already seen what happens with standardized testing in two states in which I’ve taught; consciously or unconsciously, the teacher spends the lion’s share of his/her time with the kids who are close to being able to pass the test. Given a bell curve, that’s most of the students. There are two groups she/he cannot afford to spend any time with: the kids who are advanced, and the kids who won’t pass it regardless of effort. Don’t fool yourself, NCLB leaves as many or more kids behind than the previous schemes. You need to measure growth, and reward teachers for helping students grow, not insist students reach for arbitrary goals.
*How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
Because the opposite is true now, right? The most challenged schools have the worst teachers, because someone who’s well educated is simply not going to be inclined to put themselves in harm’s way. Sure, there are exceptions, but for the most part I think this holds true. By the way, this is also a good reason to take educational research done in affluent districts with a grain of salt (thinking about DuFour here).
*In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
The status quo, produced by NCLB, is that we’re teaching to the test. We changed a rubric this year that reflected truly good writing, because if the kids wrote that way, it would not score well on the NECAPS, our regional assessment. So, teaching to the test is causing teaching to not be effective in anything other than having kids pass a limited, unimaginative multiple-choice test. NCLB appears to have been a political statement rather than an actual attempt to improve education, as it does not appear to have been based on the hundred or so years we have of sound developmental psychology, any more than our incursion into Iraq reflected lessons learned in Vietnam. So, go back to the drawing board and design something that actually works, rather than something you simply wish would.
It is commendable that you are seeking input from teachers to help direct reform and improve public education for our children. I am a third grade teacher, I am proud of my profession, and I am humbled by the task entrusted to me to educate the future. My students come from an urban background and need enthusiastic, motivated professionals to guide them. My goal everyday is to instill an understanding for the need of a well rounded education and to inspire a life long love of learning in each and every one of my students. The best way to achieve this is through example and my participation in the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute has supported my love of learning and enabled me to develop curriculum units that engage, challenge, and educate my students. This Professional Development opportunity has given me the ability to investigate content area knowledge from a university professor on topics I find relevant to my students while addressing state and district standards. A collaborative seminar joins teachers from every level of education to discuss not only pedagogy but also content specific knowledge with peers who educate elementary, middle school, high school, and university students.
In my opinion, the best way to support and retain excellent teachers is to give us opportunities to develop our personal learning, to make us feel confident in our knowledge of the subject matter we teach, and to enable us to interact with teachers from all levels of education. These suggestions are components of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. An effective way to accomplish this for all teachers is to incorporate the provisions of H.R. 3209 and S. 2212, known as the Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act, which were introduced in the 110th Congress, in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act. These provisions would enable most states to create and develop Teachers Institutes.
My one true goal is to help my students reach their goals. The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute has given me more tools that aid me in this endeavor. I feel confident that the curriculum units I developed are relevant to my student’s lives and will someday help them reach their goals.
How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
One way to accomplish this is to provide excellent professional development. Too many times teachers get the same old thing, repackaged, and presented as the latest, greatest innovation in teaching, but which was probably around ten years ago. True professional development meets the needs of the teacher for their classroom and their students. For all you teachers out there reading this, how would you like to learn more about some aspect of your content? To have the opportunity to learn more about the subject you love and to use that new information to create lessons for your students? Lessons that will meet your schools objectives, but which revolve around a topic that will inspire and energize your students? Just such professional development is being proposed under the provisions of H.R. 3209 and S. 2212—the Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act. If these provisions are passed, Teacher Institutes modeled after the Yale-New Haven Teacher Institute will be funded across the country and will join similar Institutes in Pittsburgh, Houston, Philadelphia, and Charlotte.
Teacher Institutes are a collaboration between school systems and local colleges and universities to provide the resources and inspiration for teachers to delve deeply into some aspect of their content, and to use that information to create curriculum units designed to meet the needs of their students. Teachers—elementary, middle school, and high school—meet together with professors to discuss topics (selected by teachers) in a seminar setting where there is input from all members of the group. Teachers read, research, and discuss the topic, guided by a university faculty member who is an expert in their field. Teachers share lesson and activity ideas which cross grade levels and content areas. They create curriculum units which are published for other teachers to use, and for which they are compensated.
I am currently participating in my third seminar. Although this is considered professional development, I never say I have been “at a workshop”. The seminars are so much more! In many ways, I consider it something I do for ME, because I get so much out of them. Teachers, after all, are life-long learners—or ought to be—and the seminars meet the need I have to continue to learn all I can about a subject I love. Writing the curriculum unit gives me the chance to put together that lesson I always wanted to make better, but never had the chance to, or to create something totally new because I was inspired by what I learned from the seminar. The units I have written have added depth and dimension to my teaching. They have enriched the learning experience for my students. That’s what I think teachers want from professional development, and what I think will keep them rejuvenated so they continue to remain in teaching.
Secretary Duncan,
In response to the question, “How can we recruit, support, and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?” I would like to respond as someone in the younger generation of teachers, who have been teaching for less than 10 years and in only one “era” of teaching. I am driven by personal and professional development. I attended graduate school immediately following my undergraduate degree, simply because it was a way to set myself apart from other people with whom I graduated. I wanted to get a doctoral degree right away as well, but realize that in teaching, a certain amount of classroom experience adds to one’s qualifications for a doctoral program. I was so excited when I passed the five year mark because I knew I had set myself apart again – I surpassed the high percentage of new teachers who quit within the first five years. As soon as I completed my third year in NC, I began the process of achieving National Board Certification. I am eagerly awaiting those results! During that same year, I learned about an exciting opportunity available in my district – the opportunity to attend the Yale National Initiative in New Haven, Connecticut. This Initiative is currently being proposed under the provisions of H.R. 3209 and S. 2212—the Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act. If these provisions are passed, Teacher Institutes modeled after the Yale-New Haven Teacher Institute will be funded across the country and will join similar Institutes in Pittsburgh, Houston, Philadelphia, and Charlotte.
When I applied and was accepted to the Yale Teacher’s Institute, I had no idea what to expect besides a professional development opportunity unlike any other being offered in my district. I knew from teachers who had participated and from what I had read online that Teacher Institutes are a collaboration between school systems and local colleges and universities to provide the resources for teachers to develop deeper understandings of specific content material and turn that knowledge into curriculum units designed to meet the needs of their students. I participated in a seminar called “Shakespeare and the Human Character,” along with an extremely knowledgeable Yale professor as our seminar leader, and teachers from a variety of states, settings, and subject areas to develop units that were related only in that they were about Shakespeare and created by teachers who cared deeply about reaching students in whatever ways possible.
Since returning, I haven’t stopped talking about the Institute Approach with anyone and everyone I can. There are so many teachers that are interested in meaningful professional development opportunities, and the Teachers’ Institutes are more than just “workshops” that we attend that are somewhat related to what we teach. Speaking as a young teacher who is extremely interested in thinking outside of the box in terms of what I teach and how I gather information, the Teachers’ Institutes provide exactly the type of professional development needed to recruit, retain, and support excellent teachers in any position, at any school.
Thank you for your time!
We must pay teachers well, and provide benefits comparable to government employees or the military. This will draw good teachers into the system and retain them.
We must also support them and give them a stronger voice in the decision-making process. There are many complaints and no one, until now, has even asked teachers what they think needs to change. No medical decisions would be made without consulting with a doctor. I don’t know why people insist on fixing the education system without consulting the teachers in the classroom, not lawmakers, businessmen, or administrators. They are the experts. We need to listen. By listening and giving teachers a real voice, we will prevent burn out.
Secretary Duncan,
Re: How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
In addition to the most challenged schools needing the most effective teachers, I believe it is important to understand the role of technology that supports the proficiency of these teachers. As a teacher in Maryland, the technology available to me on a daily basis in the classroom I teach in is the EXACT amount of technology that was in the various classrooms I attended as a child. It is amazing that our young minds have more technology in their pocket than we have available for them to use. If we want to prepare young minds to be proficient in reading, math, science, social studies and the like then we must be able to provide our students with the opportunity to use the most up to date technology to engage them in a way that is relevant to our time. In order to prepare our students to be productive members of society in the 21st century we need to prepare them with the tools of today. There are many great teachers across the nation that are willing to take on the challenges of the day to day classroom in a school that is in critical need, but what service are we doing our young people if we do not prepare them with essential skills and engage them with the useful technology that is absolutely critical to survival in the United States society today?
Thank you.
We need to measure learning with one national test. We need to do away with the individual state assessments.
The success of a school should be measured by the growth each child has shown from the previous year instead of how many children pass. It should also be okay to have different children take tests on a different levels. For example, one level of test might be heavy on problem-solving and complexity, while another test might focus more on procedural concepts and simple problem-solving. This level of testing appropriate fot students should be determined by the teacher and parents together along with administration.
NCLB is great in theory, but it translates into an overwhelming amount of paperwork for classroom teachers-constantly proving what interventions they are providing for struggling students on an indivdual basis. If these are the expectations, then the funding needs to be appropriate. Currently, the expectations are there, but there is not enough funding for appropriate support staff and resources. If we are expecting to leave No Child Behind, then it going to take more tax dollars for teachers to successfully accomplish this goal. I think it is possible if we choose to put our tax dollars to work in the school systems.
Usually, we are given the demands, but we are asked to be creative when finding the resources and time to implement all the changes. This is not good business.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
For the past 6 years I worked at Torch Middle School (Bassett USD) in La Puente, CA. Eight years ago this school was ranked as one of the lowest performance schools in the State of California. Torch is a Title 1 school which serves a 98% Hispanic population and over 30% of the students are English Learners. Most of our parents are Spanish speaking and many did not graduate from high school. You could say that we had every excuse for why we could not be successful with our students. However, this was not the case at Torch. As of 2009 Torch was recognize as a 2007 CA Distinguish School, 2008 Schools to Watch (Taking Center Stage), 2007 and 2008 Title 1 High Achievement School, and just this year we hit “800” in our API. We have also met our AYP with all our subgroups and our decile rankings and similar school rankings are the highest they have ever been. How did this happen and how is Torch closing the achievement gap?
This is the question that you and many other educators are trying to find the answer for. The solution is simple but at the same time complicated. The change at Torch happened because of one person, our Principal and leader, Mr. Medina. If you want to bring effective change to schools you better have the right people leading those “low” performing schools. You can have the best teachers working at our schools, but without a leader, those great teachers will not know what to do. Many schools have various mission and vision statements for their school. We had one very simple one, “Academic Excellence.” We had a leader who believed in all of us and who gave us the freedom to do what ever we wanted to do for the success of our students. Many of our ideas were what many of you would think to be “outside the box.” But it was this freedom that allowed us to do our job. Our staff had a no excuse mentality and to us failure was not an option. We held each one of us accountable and we did what was needed to bring change to our school. We stuck with what we had started implementing since day one (curriculum, writing program, behavior program, AVID) and we all gained mastery in each of these areas. We did not change our programs because a new thing was coming to education. We also had every area covered in order to ensure the success of our students. We had an on-site YMCA Coordinator, 2 counselors, 1 Marriage and Licensed Therapist, Probation Officer, ELD Resource Teacher, School Nurse, and various other partnerships. We made sure that every need for our students was being met. So it is not only academic but it is also socially/emotionally or taking care of the “whole child.”
With all this said, change has to start from the top. Change has to come from you Mr. Duncan. Many teachers want change, unfortunately, we do not have leaders that know what they are doing and they are also not being held accountable. School districts are doing what ever they want and with no real accountability. It almost seems that it is best to be a Program Improvement School because the solution from the state and federal government is to give these schools more money. We seldom see schools being taken over by the state or federal government. Why do I say this? Because the school that was doing everything it could to close the achievement gap had 17 of its 24 teachers dismissed due to budget cuts. This Mr. Duncan is what you do to a school that was doing the right thing. You destroy it. It is sad because now you have kindergarten teachers teaching 8th grade Geometry and/or middle school. Mr. Duncan, teachers want change, but please remember to hold everyone accountable and not just teachers. Teachers all over this country are working their hardest for the success of their students. Wouldn’t it also be important to hold principals and districts accountable? In conclusion, I really hope that change or accountability includes everyone and not just teachers. Keep up the great work that you are doing and always remember that our students are our future. Keep those high expectations but please make them realistic and not at 100% like the current goals of No Child Left Behind. Every child deserves a quality education and not just some. Thank you.
How can we recruit, support, and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
One way to support and retain excellent teachers is to provide them with content rich, relevant to their classroom professional development. I have had the opportunity to participate in the Yale National Teacher Institute twice and both curriculum units I produced have energized my classroom and me as a teacher. Currently, I am participating in a local Teacher Institute and I look forward to attending every seminar and participating in engaging discussions with teachers from different schools, teaching different subjects at all levels of education. Please continue to provide resources to expand the Yale Teachers Institute approach.
I am a high school science teacher in the Philadelphia area. Although this is only my third year teaching, I am already extremely frustrated with the system and am considering a career change (although I love teaching, it seems that I do not get to do enough of it). I agree with many of the posts above, especially those regarding NCLB and extended school day questions/comments. I feel like we are lacking when compared to many countries in our “proficiency” is due to a lack of our societies value of education – it can not all be done a in the school. We as parents and society as a whole needs to read to our children, show them the value of education, and empower students to advocate for themselves.
On a seperate note – With No Child Left Behind, it seems that no child gets ahead. Enrichment programs, honors classes, etc. are being cut out of the curriculum to ensure all students are proficient. Why can’t we have both? There needs to be more support for educators and a re-evaluation in current special education labeling and practices. This policy seems to have been well intended, but poorly implemented and evaluated.
I am sick and tired of hearing you teachers/principals crying over doing your jobs. Some of the charter schools are doing it, why can’t public schools do it too. The charters have to same requirements as do public schools. And most are passing these tests. Why? Remember before NCLB our schools were failing. I think, and this is not about all you good teachers out there, maybe you need to change you teaching style. We should be using rescores like the internet, computers, Smart Boards, etc. But if you will not change you wouldn’t know the about these things. And I do agree teachers need to have a little more control to how long they should stay on a skill. The bottom line is we all got to make it work. Not for ourselves but for the children. YOU GOOD TEACHERS ARE TAKING THE WRAP FOR THE BAD. SORRY FOR THAT. WE PARENTS KNOW AND APPRICATE YOU GUYS. THANK YOU FOR CARING FOR OUR CHILDREN. We parents also need to step up our game. (This email is not about bashing you guys). If we would send our kids in ready to learn then maybe you would have more time to teach. Scratch maybe you will have more time to do your jobs. We parents have failed our children too. I ask what can me as parent do to ensure he/she learns all that they should be. Once again thank you for all that you do for us the parent.
LET WORK AT IT TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL
Dear Mr. Duncan,
For the past two years I was selected to be a National Fellow representing San Francisco Unified School District. Within this fellowship, I received content from key professors at Yale in which I was able to design curriculum units that are aligned to the San Francisco Unified strategic plan. Within this plan, the three goals are:
Access and Equity-making Social Justice a reality.
Student Achievement-engage high achieving and joyful learners.
Accountability-keep our promises to the students and families.
Along with this fellowship, I was selected to be the City Representative. This program inspired my voice in sharing and working on a local institute. My duties included the following; working with Yale to communicate with the school district, communicate and recruit fellows within San Francisco, and begin the process of forming a partnership with local colleges to form a local institute. For most cities, funding and partnerships have not come, but for San Francisco with the help and guidance from Linda Buckley from San Francisco State University along with Peter Novak from the University of San Francisco, we were able to get Superintendent Carlos Garcia, President Robert A. Corrigan of San Francisco State and President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., of University of San Francisco to form the partnership.
As we moved into our second year as participants in the National Yale Initiative, we were able to hire a program director. Betsy Kean, along with identifying Dongshil Kim from San Francisco Unified School District. They began the process of writing the planning document to move this partnership into a reality, a local institute.
With the deadline set for September 9, 2009 to submit a planning document to Yale, at the last moment, Superintendent Garcia had to walk away from these partnerships. It was explained to me, due to fiscal restraints from the state, local and federal, at this time we will not be able to move forward.
As a veteran teacher of twenty-two years, I am saddened by these actions. I have seen and participated in many programs that claim to enhance teacher qualities known to increase teacher effectiveness and student achievement. I feel that the Yale National Initiative is a program that needs to be acknowledged by your staff, when looking at funding special programs that are proven to increase teacher effectiveness and student achievement, along with teacher retention in high-poverty schools.
Even though, I and other Fellows within San Francisco will not be able to continue to participate in this program, I hope that you will help fund this program to other cities within the United States. At the present time, Philadelphia, Houston, New Haven, and Pittsburg have their own local institute, whereas, Charlotte, Richmond, New Castle, Delaware, Dekalb County, Santa Fe, Chicago are waiting in the wings to establish their own. The Obama administration can support effective teachers in high-poverty schools by urging that the provisions of H. R. 3209 and S. 2212 the Teachers Professional Development Institute Act, which was introduced in the 110th Congress, be incorporated in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This action would provide the resources necessary to establish Teachers Institutes in most states. I will continue to be a voice of this program, to help other Bay Area school districts to participate in this program. I truly appreciate the opportunities and experiences that this program has given me. I hope that you and your staff will take the time to have a conversation with the Fellows that have participated in this program and the school districts that this program has impacted to “Strengthens Public Schools”.
Lisa
As I watch you, Secretary Duncan, in a pre-recorded conversation with parents and teachers, several ideas come to mind. First, I’m happy to belong to a very successful elementary school community in Federal Way, Washington where my sons in second and fifth grade attend and I teach music. Enterprise Elementary, through the leadership of our amazing principal, Margot Hightower, has stayed focused on kids despite the serious flaws in NCLB that trickle down through our district administration and distract rather than help her and her staff.
In asking for comments on how NCLB needs to change, your comments on looking forward in education highlight for me some attitudes at the Department of Education that have been particularly hard on the morale of teachers. I understand your comments on the need to recruit young eager minds to the profession, and read and hear that you feel teaching should be more respected in our society, but I feel strongly that at the same time you must recognize that education leadership is not careful to honor experienced teachers as it talks about moving forward. I don’t refer to the occasional award handed out. I’m talking about the amazing educators who give day in and day out for others. Teachers on our staff have given an amazing wealth of energy and dedication to children. Over the past ten years I’ve taught here, I’ve heard so little that honors this from district, state and national administration and I ask you, as our national education leader, to change this. As long as NCLB devalues the great things that educators have done for children, it is fundamentally flawed.
A second major issue with NCLB in our state is that it has translated to testing without sound scientific follow-through. When schools are labelled failing, without regard to the fact that kids are entered and withdrawn from our schools daily, the testing becomes non-sensical. It doesn’t take a doctorate in educational statistics to see that this kind of testing doesn’t evaluate similar consistent data – apples are not being compared to apples. In our state of Washington a new test will take the place of our WASL this year. How will educators be able to take seriously the long-term validity of testing data when goals, tests and required results are a moving target? NCLB must fix these issues if it is to be successful for students’ lives.
Of course, the above issues lead us to the broader one of whether families have the resources to support their child’s educational needs. The constant state of transition of our school community occurs because economic resources for families are so scarce. Until the economic well-being of children becomes a real part of NCLB, all the talk of cranking out better numbers will be largely moot.
On a last and most personal note, as a teacher of the Arts, I am especially distressed to see students leave my elementary school music program and be squeezed out of further arts involvement because of these test results. The students who would benefit the most by having life enriched by the Arts are those most often affected. How can this be good for their lives and for the life of our country? If NCLB administrators know this will happen and accept it as a necessary consequence for better testing numbers, then this too is a fundamental flaw.
Secretary Duncan, in closing I’d like to offer my support for your ideas about making schools a community center. I believe that, despite the obstacles, my school is doing an exceptional job of this and could do even more with support from administration. Such a strong community can, to a degree, ameliorate the large amount of transition mentioned above. But the flaws in NCLB I’ve cited have seriously handicapped us. I urge you to repair NCLB with a major overhaul, or get rid of it entirely and start with a new fully-funded effort that is serious about helping children succeed.
Dear Secretary Duncan:
I appreciate the opportunity to give input to the issues facing education. I hope that these responses you receive will truly be considered when it is time to reauthorize No Child Left Behind and develop stronger educational policy.
I ask that one of the provisions in any reform proposals be support for high-quality professional development. As a Nationally Board Certified Teacher, I appreciate your support of the NBPTS process. However, if we are to continue motivating teachers to attempt this professional challenge, there needs to be financial support in place, both for the individual candidates and support provider programs. Our state is currently in a special Legislative session to balance the budget deficit, and education cuts are on the table. We are very concerned that the state subsidies which help diminish the cost of candidacy, the salary bonus which recognizes achievement, and district funding for our Candidate Support program will all be cut as “non-essential” expenditures. If the federal government would like to see more highly qualified teachers in the classrooms, the federal government needs to support these ambitious teachers with more than words, and provide financial assistance for the NBPTS program.
I have also been fortunate to participate in the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools. Whereas the National Boards required and inspired me to become more reflective about my practice, the Yale National Initiative has allowed me to develop high quality learning opportunities by developing collegial, collaborative relationships with inspiring educators from across the country. The curriculum unit I wrote as a result of this year’s National Institute will introduce my students to the fascinating world of brain function and also inspire them to consciously engage in strategies to improve their capacity to learn.
As I researched this unit, it became clear to me that biological data is now able to support what good teachers have known for years: learning is improved when students feel safe, have opportunities for choice in the classroom, and are able to connect the content with their life experiences. In order to create and maintain these types of learning environments, teachers need professional development opportunities in which they can improve their content knowledge of the subjects they teach and develop collegial professional relationships to support their work.
Our current and former National Fellows are working to develop our local Teacher Institute, based on the Yale model, in order to provide outstanding, sustained professional development to our local teachers. This model has been shown to enhance teacher quality in ways known to improve student achievement, well documented by the 32 year partnership between Yale and New Haven Public Schools and eleven years in other cities, as well as improve teacher retention rates.
In order to achieve our goals, we need your support. The provisions of H.R. 3209 and S. 2212, the Teachers Professional Development Institutes Act, which was introduced in the 110th Congress, need to be incorporated in the Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind act in this Congress. Funding to develop the Teacher Institutes approach and support National Board Certification will be investments in opportunities that will become integral and sustained components of teacher and student improvement.
In my 30+ years of teaching, I have participated in countless staff development sessions and activities. I have repeatedly required to take mandatory trainings that are repetitions of previous training often because a new superintendent, central office administrator or staff development officer has come into the school system. The professional development activities that had meaningful impact on my teaching practice are ones I sought out, i.e., graduate school and National Board certification. I am required to participate in coaching sessions every week for one of my planning times. The math and literacy coaches both admit that they really don’t know what to present that would be meaningful to me based upon my experience and classroom performance. Grade levels are required to met twice a quarter for a half-day with these same coaches. This year I had my fourth training on conducting running records and everyone admits that I know how to do this but no one will authorize exemption from the mandated training. I am pulled out of my classroom repeatedly for all this staff development and my students are losing quality instructional time so I can be trained in that which I’ve already been trained in. If I made all my students do the same level of instruction with the exact same skill instruction irregardless of their individual skills, I would be an extremely poor teacher. The very people who emphasize tailoring instruction to meet students’ needs, strengths, and skills cannot do the same for teachers. One-size-fits-all staff development is a total waste of time and money. I would gladly participate in training that developed teachers’ reflective practices, opportunities to share with colleagues practices that actually work, and was teacher-driven!
In regards to recruiting and retaining teachers I think we need to remember that teachers make it possible for every profession in the world to exist. It is teachers that prepare our doctors, nurses, lawyers and every one to meet the challenges of our society. Yet teachers are among the lowest paid workers in America. I became a teacher after working in the private sector as a nuclear physicist for 15 years. I had a friend come to me when I began to work as a private consultant to say that the county I lived in was in desperate need for science teachers. My parents are retired teachers so I answered the call. I have not been sorry one day since I answered the call to teach. However, If I were to lose my spouse I would not be able to survive on my income. Teachers spend thousands of dollars to get advanced degrees to become better teachers with no type of program in place to help offset the cost of the advanced degrees that help them become better teachers. Programs such as the Teachers Initiative Programs at Yale provide dedicated teachers a wonderful opportunity to create awesome curriculums for their students and students throughout the nation. However, many inner city school systems such as my own cannot afford to initiate such programs on a local level without serious juggling of funds. Here is a way to inspire teachers to remain in the proffession of teaching, but is limited by funding. We must began to provide teachers with some of the same incentives as other sectors of the business world. We want to look at teachinfg as a business with no child left behind, but we do not provide incentives to those in the classrooms working to make a difference. We further insult teachers by judging their merit by who passes a test. What about the kids we teach that come to us three and four grade levels behind. These kids scores often times come up two or three grade levels. However, what message do we send them for their hard work not job well done but did not pass. We do not make these children feel proud for closing their achievement gaps.Even if that gap is closed by increasing one grade level they deserve to know that we are proud of them as antion not treat them like a failure. Mny of theses kids are in our most challenging schools and every bit of encouragement helps them keep working to get ahead. Instead they are made to feel bad because they could not pass the test. So they feel that all their hard work was to no avail. Why, because they did not pass the test. We must recognize that every gain a teacher helps a child make is keeping that child from being left behind. We must remove the stigma of passing the test as the olny measure for success. Teachers in my school work very hard to close these gaps with children who are extremely low with many social issues. I work in a Title One School, I along with many of my colleagues give out of our personal funds heavily to ensure that our children have the supplies they need so our children can experience success. So if we want school such as my school to maintain our effective teachers give them incentives such as reimbursement for tuition, or reduce student loans for working in challenging schools to make a difference. Why can’t we have scholarship programs to ensure that a teacher’s kid can afford college like other companies. Reward teachers of the year and teachers for going above and beyond the call of duty to help our children. Provide funding for teacher institutes to help train teachers and allow them to be creative and think outside the box, to create curriculums that trully motivate and inspire kids to learn. Elliminate the salary gaps for teachers. It is not fair that a starting teacher can come in making as much as a veteran teacher with ten or more years experience because of the salary structure in most systems. The new teachers are offered higher salaries, while the teachers in the systems salaries are not adjusted to ensure that their salaries are adjusted for the current market. To retain the veteran teachers we must ensure that every ones salaries get an adjustment not just the new teachers we are trying to attract. Who is going to train the new ones if the effective old ones leave for more money.
As a teacher after reading many of the comments I am delighted and filled with hope for our society; many people do get it, and understand the complexities and growing political influences that toughen our jobs. However given the events of the past year or so regarding healthcare “the congress & our president are’t listening! Our teacher unions work against us elected and lobby for politicians whose only concerns are being re-elected. Perhaps it is a rather apathetic thought but there is such a disconnect between Washington and public schools that I don’t know if there is a way to turn the current policies around with out completely starting from scratch. Some career lawyer who works for the deptartment of ed has no clue about the ART of educating children; lawyers see guilt or innocnce. I do think more accountability should be put on parents of students that underacheive. The tax-cut suggestion from above was FANTASTIC! Imagine that parents getting motivated to encourage their students’ success, instead of blaiming a teacher that works 60+ hours a week. Politicians need to stop enabling parents to be spectators!
I work in a school in the State of Florida. I became a guidance counselor because I LOVE CHILDREN. I wanted to provide for someone else what my high school guidance counselor provided for me a safe space to share my fears with. Last year several guidance counselor, teachers, administrators, and school staff lost their JOBS because of budget cuts. If you look at our class sizes we are overcrowded. We have more students to teach and less teachers. We are expected to do more with less. In my county we are going on year three of not getting a raise. But in the mist of it all I am going to serve my children, my parents and support my staff.
Education as a professional practice; what would it look like?
A teacher would work year-round, but much of the time would be spent preparing, learning and analyzing. There would be professional libraries, meetings between teachers of common grade levels or subjects in regions, amazing mentors to bring out the best in the profession and colleges connected to the schools to keep the schools informed on the research and the colleges informed on the practice. There would be much more planning time between units, classes and groups, and when the students were in school there would be much more time spent in first gear. It seems like we pack too much into a teacher’s day (at least we do in the elementary level) to be effective. I don’t even want a whole summer off so that I can run like a mad man when school is in session.
There would not be ‘busy-work’ given to students because in this new profession teachers were so well prepared that they had every moment planned and prepared. Teachers had time to analyze student work each day to prepare appropriate responses according to the assessment of that work. Students would be given work appropriate to their needs. Teachers would have the appropriate number of students and amount of preparation time to ensure this.
Teachers would not be rushing to the bathroom far down one hall while being on their way down the other hall for a recess duty and then rushing to prepare a lesson as she/he takes off winter boots and coats. Teachers would be able to refresh and prepare. Teachers would be treated like professionals. Teachers wouldn’t have to get up after sitting down for 12 minutes to eat in order to do a hall duty.
There would be a state whistle blowers hot-line; anonymous with no strings attached to letting people know what isn’t right that’s going on.
Teachers would dress like professionals, act like professionals and teach like professionals. They would BE professionals. That is my dream.
The basis for accountability in the teaching profession should be measured gains in how well students perform over time. Teacher accountability should inform how well teachers have prepared students to think critically and solve problems in school, in their homes, in their communities and ultimately, in their country. Student performance and achievement should not be measured by high stakes tests alone; however, teachers should be held accountable for how well their students demonstrate the ability to negotiate modern day challenges that often compromise their ability to lead productive and responsible lives as adults.
Accountability strategies should inform teaching. Accountability structures should consist of strong and stable leadership at the top and at the local school level. The strategic investment of government and private resources from nonprofit organizations should be considered when holding teachers accountable for student performance. Are there clean and safe schools? Are adequate materials and resources provided? How are teachers trained and deeply prepared to teach? Are they prepared in their content area? Should national tests determine teacher readiness? These are questions that must be asked and considered when determining teacher accountability. I believe that how long one teaches should NOT be the measure for accountability. TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS should be the measure used for accountability.
EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS and EFFECTIVE TEACHERS
I believe student learning gains should NOT be directly tied to evaluations of individual teacher effectiveness for the following reasons: 1) Standardized achievement tests were designed to provide feedback regarding students’ academic abilities relative to peers or to specific learning criteria and were not designed or validated to be used as a measure of instructional effectiveness; 2) Many teachers teach content that is not addressed by standardized tests (e.g.; social studies, music, art, etc.); 3) There are numerous factors which impact student learning that are outside a teacher’s influence and control; and, 4) Learning is not a smooth, consistent continuum but follows a unique pattern in each child, often occurring in fits-and-starts where the impact of effective teaching may be delayed and/or may result in a gradual change in attitude and behavior over time.
I believe teacher effectiveness is better evaluated by observing teachers in their own classrooms and by regularly assessing professional portfolios. Observations should be conducted by trained field evaluators which could include administrators, peer teachers, and/or teacher educators. Professional portfolios should provide evidence of a commitment to professional development, evidence of the capacity to build constructive relationships with students, parents, school staff, and other professionals in the field, and evidence of the ability to affect and support meaningful learning by all students.
With regard to current policy trends, I believe accountability needs to shift from teachers to building and district administrators. Administrators, not individual teachers, should be held accountable for student learning gains since administrators control the support systems within a school (e.g.; technology, supplies, support staff) ; administrators assign and monitor new teacher mentors; administrators shape the learning environment by managing the safety and physical resources of the facilities; administrators coordinate professional development efforts; and, since they are the ones responsible for hiring and evaluating “effective” teachers, administrators directly influence teaching and learning within their building or district.
Respectfully yours,
A Professional Educator of 28+ Years
I am not a teacher, but I am the daughter of two teachers who have struggled all their lives to educate their students and to help their students grow up to be decent citizens. My father taught history at an alternative high school, my mother worked as a drop-out prevention specialist for elementary and middle school students, and they both taught summer school for years. Some of my fondest memories are of the students who will come up to my parents in a store or a restaurant, and even if they only had them for a semester, or a year, they would remember my parents and talk to them about their lives and show them their kids, and thank my parents for changing their lives.
So it’s very unsettling these days when I talk to them on the phone and they talk about nasty students angry that they are being made to do work and nasty parents who don’t value education.
There are a lot of problems with education in this country. Chiefly, the fact that there is no one system… but 50+ education systems, and how can we hope to measure up to other countries when we can’t agree on what and how we should educate our students.
I think our number one in this country is that we don’t support education, and we don’t respect teachers. It’s not just about the pay, but about simple courtesy and support. If my mother calls a parent and says the child is going to fail, they are not doing their work at all, she shouldn’t get accused of trying to sabotage the child’s education by that parent. She shouldn’t have students coming in telling her that their parents say it doesn’t matter what they do in class because you can get rich without suceeding in school. And yet it happens. There is no support from the administrations or the school districts because every one is more worried about being sued than about educating children.
You can not recruit and train and retain teachers without respect. And you certainly can not improve education on any level without it.
The best thing I can think of to start fixing that problem would be to help administrations and school districts stand by their students. Limit lawsuits somehow. The next thing I would do is embark on a campaign to promote the importance of educators and education in the community. Get not just parents but politicians, different companies, community groups more involved in helping schools. I would also pump up teacher appreciation day. More companies do promotions and things for administrative assistants day than they do for teachers.
And yes, pay is also a big part of respect. But I think it’s the whole compensation package that’s even more important. How about better health care? In some districts in Florida, where I’m from, teachers are forced to pay hundreds of dollars a month for bare bones health coverage for their families. Other perks would be helpful too. Sure teachers get summer vacation and holidays off, but do you know how many teachers are working summer jobs to help make ends meet?
So that’s where I would start. Hope that’s helpful.
Having taught in a public high school for many years I can say that one major issue that we neglect to address is how the current high school requirements are not serving the needs of all of our students. There can never be one formula for all kids, yet that is the philosophy of our schools. Every student takes the same classes, regardless of the student’s ability and interests. There are higher level classes, however, that are geared toward interested, ambitious students. But what about the students who do not have the interest? The answer, according to educational administrators, is to try to push more of them into AP classes. No wonder we have so much violence among teenagers. Schools fail miserably at addressing the needs of these kids. Why can’t we have classes that teach trade skills to our non college-bound students?
In terms of evaluating teachers on student performance, the problem with this is that we are living in a society for which education is not a value. Students will not study for exams and rarely do homework. Parents, who are aware of these issues, claim they cannot do anything about it. Teachers cannot monitor what goes on in the students’ homes. How many of us would have made it through high school and college without ever having studied for a test and never having completed an assignment at home? Yet that is what is happening with these students, and teachers are being held responsible. Maybe an extended day would help this situation if it meant the students spent the extra time doing homework and studying. Even when a topic is taught over and over, if students do not try to process it on their own, they do not retain it. They definitely need structured study and homework completion time. Most of us can successfully get students to work in the classroom. The problems occur when they are not in front of us. Perhaps teacher aides can be hired (and trained) for the extra time the students would spend in school. It would be less expensive and, if there were good communication between the teachers and the after-school staff, probably just as effective.
One thing for sure, however, is the answer is not in changing the way teachers are teaching (with some exceptions of course). Years and years of imposing new practices, best practices, powerful practices, scripted lectures (can’t even begin to comment on that one), reading initiatives, math initiatives, and whatever else they want to call them, have gotten us nowhere because the real issues are never addressed.
Dear Mr. Duncan,
Thank you for offering us this opportunity. Here are a few ideas.
1. Do away with the testing. In my school I would say we spend about 20 to 30 teaching days a year testing. These are days of testing, not test preparation. So yes the students are spending less time learning.
2. Increase teacher salaries. I would like to spend all of my time doing teacher things, but I have to keep another job to be able to make ends meet.
3. Make the school year 11 months. Pay the teachers for it, but increase the time. Compromising the curriculum because we only have so little time isn’t worth it.
4. Create a mandatory high school class that teaches students how to teach children how to read, write and do math. People aren’t born with these skills and unless they major in education at college they may never learn it.
5. No high school degree, no WIC, no foodstamps.
6. If the students in China, India and in other nations are excelling, then we need to model our system after theirs.
7. Disband large urban school systems and make them smaller units.
8. Allow PTA’s to be part of the hiring board for teachers and administrators at a school.
9. Make teachers, adminstrators and staff state employees on a state pay schedule.
10. Keep English as the official language.
Thank you,
Stephen
Dear Secretary Duncan,
I am the Founding Principal of a high performing charter school in the state of NY. I am an alumni member of Teach For America, and I’ve taught in the inner city of Baltimore, MD and the South Bronx of New York City.
1. How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
RECRUITMENT: The hardest part. You have to get the right people on the bus. They have to be a mission fit, have content knowledge, and understand that education is the civil rights movement of our time. They have to be prepared to put in long hours, understand that they’ll never be paid in proportion to the gift they provide, and still walk into work everyday with a smile.
MOST IMPORTANTLY…Principals need to have the ability to recruit from more than a resume. I have every well qualified candidate teach a sample lesson, then I give them feedback to see if they can handle it.
SUPPORT:Provide quality professional development, and the tools that they need to plan and execute their lessons.
RETAIN: Provide room for growth, teacher leadership, pay increases, and the opportunity to earn a bonus.
2.What are the best ways to measure and reward excellence in teaching?
MEASUREMENT: If students don’t grow academically, there is no achievement. When I was a teacher, I prided myself in being able to move students academically. I still teach one period a day, and I use a variety of different assessments to measure their growth. Urban education is in a crisis, we are not rewarding smiles, and warm fuzzy feelings, we’re closing the achievement gap! I believe in standardized testing! I had no problem with it as a classroom teacher in the Bronx, nor do I have an issue with standardized tests as an administrator. .
REWARD: Excellence is it’s own reward, but a bonus check always helps. You can throw in a certificate or something as well.
3.How can we ensure that our most challenged schools have the most effective teachers?
(SEE QUESTION #1)
4. In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
FUND IT PROPERLY!
*EXTENDED DAY/EXTENDED YEAR:
My school goes from 7:40-4:45, and the staff day goes from 7:15-5:15.
If we are working to close the achievement gap, then we have to spend more time on task. Urban education is the civil rights movement of our time, and we’re not going to make strategic gains by doing the same thing. We need more time on task! Imagine Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saying ” I can’t work longer days.” We do whatever it takes, because these are our students lives, their chance for equality, and their opportunity for change.
This places even more emphasis on teacher recruitment. We need to restructure the concept that people have around becoming a teacher. I’m not sure how to do it, but perhaps you have a TV show/reality show on a new teacher, or “America’s Next Best Teacher!” People will stand outside in line in the rain for the chance to be a model, they should be pitching tents for the opportunity to become a teacher! There is no profession more rewarding, but then again…I’m biased.
Yours Truly,
Stacey
How can we encourage all schools to meet the needs of children with severe special needs? Given the current trend for test scores to determine a school’s overall quality, few accommodations are given to show the quality of special education programs. In fact, charter schools are often discouraged from serving the most severe population because those students will bring down the school’s overall test scores and make it appear as if the school is not “succeeding” or meeting AYP. As a result, many schools are discouraged from finding ways to meet the needs of students with more severe special needs and will try to find alternative placements. How can we find a way to examine overall school programs that include special education and go beyond test scores?
Have every administrator from the Secretary of Education down to the school level required to teach at least one regular level class every year. This will reduce class size, save money, and keep them in touch with the classroom situation in their schools.
Secretary Duncan,
Thank you for addressing this important issue. I feel school districts are caught in a terrible loop. We have too many underqualified, poor quality teachers. To address this, districts add layers of accountability and documentation in order to identify these teachers and plan interventions. However, it is this same accountability and documentation system that is crushing the spirit and vision of highly motivated, creative, inspiring teachers. You can hear the level of discouragement in many of the posts to this blog. By trying to protect schools against the lowest common denominator, districts drive away the very teachers they need to retain.
Improving teacher education programs is certainly an important step. I gained ten percent of my professional knowledge and skill through my teacher preparation courses and the remaining ninety percent on the job. Mentoring, collaboration, and high-quality, relevant professional development have helped me continue to improve as a teacher.
One effective model for on-the-job teacher support and professional development is the implementation of Magnet and Magnet Cluster programs like we have in the Chicago Public Schools. When a school has a specialized curricular emphasis, professional development becomes more cohesive and focused. Administrators, teachers, and students work together to create purposeful learning communities around a theme or content area. I believe this sense of school identity and focus supports and motivates teachers. It builds a sense of professional community and shared practice, and the collegiality at our school is a direct result of our Magnet Cluster focus on Literature, Writing, and Technology. I feel this model builds teacher skill while increasing effective instruction and teacher retention.
Thank you for your time,
Carolyn S.
Chicago, Illinois
I am a recently retired elementary school teacher. I have just read all the posts here by my fellow teachers and I first must say ‘Thank You’ for what you have written. Your stories validate what I have seen, experienced, and struggled with in my 24 years of teaching. These struggles are the reason I left teaching…and the school and students I loved.
I am only going to re-post my thoughts on two of Secretary Duncan’s questions…and I do VERY MUCH appreciate that Secretary Duncan is asking for more teacher input. I hope that is a good sign.
*How can we recruit, support and retain excellent teachers in all our schools?
Recognize that teachers are not the problem with public education and stop scapegoating them. In 2001, under the Bush Administration’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige, teachers (unions, specifically) were called terrorist organizations. For the last eight years, NCLB has done nothing but blame public school problems on ineffective teachers. There has been almost NO recognition for eight years of the job teachers do. The general public has NO IDEA what the job entails and our leaders have worked to make that WORSE for eight years. A better start would be a HUGE and LOUD apology to the teachers of this nation who have dedicated their lives to teaching kids. Most with little support, either financial or in respect.
And then ask teachers what they think, and make THAT public. (Wow..that’s happening!) What a difference that would bring! Much of the public and many politicians, who rightfully want to improve public schools, have no real idea of what is wrong with them. So they try ‘canned solutions’…like merit pay…most of which are the wrong thing to do. Merit pay is divisive, just like NCLB was. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a tool for improvement if done in the right way, but it HAS to be done fairly.
Example: NCLB has good things in it, but it became bogged down because it used AYP to pit schools and districts and teachers against each other, instead of helping us to work together toward a goal we all share: Improving education for kids. I think ANY workable solution will require input and support from teachers…not just unions…teachers. In all the talk of fixing public education and schools…which I wholeheartedly support…the idea of involving teachers in this process is never brought up by anyone in a position of authority.
*In what ways does No Child Left Behind need to change in order to support effective teaching?
My reform ideas, with the underlying prerequisite that teachers MUST be involved in designing a program in order for it to be successful:
1. For teachers, stop demeaning them and start treating them professionally. Create career paths for them. Very few exist now, because teaching used to be a ‘traditional woman’s job.’
2. Integrate curriculum. Learning makes more sense to kids when connections to other knowledge can be made. We have lost that in the era of NCLB. And we can still keep standards to meet…just not in isolation.
3. Create multiple pathways/goals for students’ graduation…all of them rigorous. Have it kick in at about age 10 or so…be flexible until age 12 (to be sure the child has made a good personal choice)…and then be the student’s committed choice after that. Some kids may choose science/math, others may go into writing/journalism, others to a third choice. It’s important to design these pathways well…for areas students will need to work in in the future. When they finish, they are job-ready or college ready…but THEY have some buy-in to their future goal (not just their teacher or their parents).
4. Ungraded schools at the elementary level. As some have said here, mastery of concepts should be required to move on. It’s WAY more complicated than that…but clearly passing kids from grade to grade does not work.
5. Find ways to involve parents in their child’s education…ie. Student Led Conferences, Curriculum Fair, technology, etc. The list is endless.
6. Less testing and test preparation. If the only test given was for NCLB, once a year, I’d cheer. But, in my county, tests are given three times a year…in reading, math and writing (to be sure state standards are met) in addition to NCLB. We start the school year…we test. We get to Christmas…we test. We return in the spring…we do test prep and test NCLB. After NCLB, at the end of the year…we test again. That’s what I mean. And anyone who has taught knows you don’t just test one day…you have all the hassle because kids are absent/makeups, etc. And then there’s the focus on scoring. Teacher energy needs to be on the kids and teaching.
Thank you, Secretary Duncan, for the opportunity to be heard. I agree with you that it is CRITICALLY important that we fix public education. We, as a country, have talked about it the whole time I have been a teacher…but we haven’t done the right things. Politics always gets in the way.
THIS TIME, I want President Obama to do it right. If all he does is ‘fix teachers’, he will…sadly…learn what teachers already know: WE are not the #1 problem. And we will have wasted more time and more money and we still won’t be educating our kids for THEIR future. THAT is no longer acceptable…at least not to me.
I voted for President Obama. I think he is a smart man, and the person we need now to lead. I want him to make good decisions for our country. On education, I believe he can only do that with ALL the information out there…and that includes the point of view and experience of TEACHERS. I have great hopes for what he may be able to accomplish. My hope comes from knowing he is intelligent enough to understand and find solutions for the problems we face, seeing that he has great empathy for all people (even those who don’t agree with him), and observing that he is willing to learn from what has gone before (both in politics and policy) and always builds a strong foundation for the things he proposes.
Secretary Duncan,
Performance pay to individual teachers will not work in public schools. Teachers do not choose who enters their room. Some teachers will get great students who are on or above level while others will receive a large number of below level students. I would recommend the following:
Schools who are producing significant gains receive performance pay. All staff members would receive this pay because all staff members have an impact on the students. This would ensure that principals and superintendents hire and maintain excellent staff members and would place pressure on those staff members who are not cutting it to either get it together or move on. We could even extend this to superintendents – no pay increase until all schools within the district increase performance.
I have taught in two states and noticed a huge difference between state tests.
In one state the state test suggests that the test should take a specified amount of time to complete but the students are given as much time as needed (all day) to complete the test. This makes the test criterion referenced which provides accurate data to the teachers on where the students are in reference to the standards.
In another state the students are restricted to a specific amount of time to take the test. This makes the test norm referenced and labels students.
My question is how can we compare states when the tests are so different?
My suggestion would be to make all tests criterian refenced.
So many great comments. Society in general has failed to take responsibility for what is working or not. I am not preaching for teachers (like myself) to make more money. Usually, teachers will make a salary sufficient to live a comfortable life and pay for the necessities. I would like for teachers to receive recognition and support. How do you support teachers? Spend more money in programs to help families so they don’t have to work 2 or 3 jobs and can spend more time with their kids. Help society by spending more money in neighborhood programs to help kids make better decisions. Spend more money in programs to give kids tools to stop the cycle that keeps them from reverting to crime in order to pretend they are meeting their basic needs. Nobody needs millions of dollars to live, but that is an issue that will never be resolved (greed). However, everybody needs love and support … and the government can definitly support programs who can provide it.
To Patrick, you state teachers usually make salary sufficient to live a comfortable life…so does a McDonald’s worker. Do you know some door to door cable TV sales people in Abq, NM (with a 12th) grade education make $90K. As you state a comfortable life does not mean proper compensation for cost of getting the teacher education or much above poverty level if you are a teacher who is the head of house hold. Try putting two or more children through college, while paying health care, room and board, a mortgage, a car payment, and the rest of the bills. Being at the bottom of the professional pay scale is not acceptable compensation if you consider the required 30 pg lesson plans, late nights & weekends grading, after hour calls to parents about their LOVELY children, or all the classroom materials a teacher personally provides. Love is great and all most most teachers teach for the love in teaching. Heavens knows a teacher’s won’t receive their riches on earth so the must wait until they get to heaven.
I have been teaching for 8 years in a public elementary school. We are a title 1 school. I love my job and although I struggle financially, teacher pay is not the most important thing on my mind these days. This year for the first time, my school is in P1. –for not making AYP. Although my state says we are an “A” school based on state tests and other criteria, we are still facing corrective action due to AYP. We must notify parents of this fact. Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain this to a parent? We are an A school, yet we are in corrective action? Parents just shake their heads!
This year I have not had a planning period–not one single planning period to take care of the MANY things a teacher must do in a classroom. I am not jsut talking about grading, and lesson plans, but also classroom organization etc. Each day we meet in teams–different teams on different days. We review data and discuss children and intervensions etc. YES, I agree that this is necessary to a certain point. I feel like my head is about to explode most of the time. Teachers are worn down and some cry after school if not during school. I am not talking about slackers! I am talking about the teacher of the year, the national board certified, the master teachers and lead teachers too. Each day we get a new e-mail about a new form or new paperwork or new documentation we must keep track of. People come in and go out of our rooms and watch us and take notes and make faces. The students are distracted by this and stop instructions to ask questions or talk about these “people.” I honestly think that NO ONE but an educator has any idea what I am talking about. Could we please have someone with authority go into the schools and see what is happening? When we write here, we know what we sound like. We know it sounds like 6 year olds begging for more toys or a later bedtime. Many have written to our legislatures and have spelled out in detail what is going on in the schools, but nothing changes.
PLEASE,even if you totally ignore everything else I have said, please send a trustworthy, honest person to visit schools. Please help teachers to see the light of day, and help save the children, as they see what is going on and feel the stress of their teachers as well.
TEACHERS GET PAID TO MUCH
I’m fed up with teachers and their hefty salaries for only nine months of work!
Wheat we need here is a little perspective. If I had my way, I’d pay teachers babysitting wages. That’s right…instead of paying these outrageous wages taxes, I’d give them $5.00 an hour. And, I’m only going to pay them for five hours ad day, not paying them for planning time. That would be $25.00 ad day. Each parent should pay $25.00 a day for these teachers to baby sit their children. Even if they have more than one child, it’s still cheaper than private daycare. Now how many children do they teach a day – maybe twenty?
That’s ($25.00 X 20 = $500) a day. But remember, a teacher only works 180 days a year! I’m not going to pay them for all the vacations. So $500 X 180 = $90,000 (Just a minute, my calculator must need batteries.) Teachers say what about those who have ten years of experience and a masters’s degree? Well, maybe (just to be fair) they could get the $7.25 (minimum wage) per hour, times five hours, times twenty children. Minimum wage ($7.25 X 5 X 20=$725.00) that’s $725.00 a day; $725 X 180 days = $130,000. Wait a minute…babysitting wages are too good for teachers!
Instruction is the key element of the success of our children and with this there must be support to continue to instructed the core. We must reemphasis the spirit of Title I which is to supplement. There appears to be a stronger disconnect in education that it has developed method of division and derision, establishing territories. It takes a community to educate the children, which means all of coming together in the decision making process, using data as the tool to evaluate. As long as teachers and the parents are put down by dumbing down involvement patterns, our children will not be successful. Innovation is about changing for the better, not making it a profit margin. Let us all partner in the future of preservation of our children legacy. Keep the term involvement when it comes to parent!!! Let keep instruction when it comes to the teacher and let us all come together!!! COMMUNITY!!!!
Mr. Duncan:
I am a college professor in the social sciences, but I also have a job teaching in a GED program which serves at risk kids who have dropped out of school. I’ve taught at colleges which served different demographics over the years, so I’m well placed to have some ideas about how education happens. A lot of what I say echoes what previous posters have said (and I have to wonder-do you really read this stuff? Do you have any intention of doing anything about NCLB?).
Thought #1-teaching and learning are creative processes. And good teachers are, in fact, creative professionals. Figuring out how something looks to a kid, and how you can explain so that he/she understands is an exciting process. And when the teacher is excited, the students are excited. Putting teachers in a situation where they aren’t allowed to use their skills, and where they’re constantly denigrated, is a-not going to retain good teachers and b-not going to help kids learn. The more you create a teaching profession that’s something anyone could do (i.e., scripted lessons), the more unlikely you make it that good teachers will become teachers. Most of us don’t do it for the money.
Thought #2-I echo much of what other people have said about how well the tests really evaluate teachers. What they are really evaluating, it seems to me, is a-how high a level the class was at when it came in, b-how good the class’s test taking skills are, as an aggregate, and c-perhaps how well the teacher has been able to impart TEST TAKING SKILLS to the students. I’d argue in this sense that the tests aren’t even really evaluating the students’ knowledge. Standardized test taking is a skill, but it’s not the same skill as reading or doing math-and it’s not the skill that’s going to allow American kids to catch up with the rest of the industrialized world. There are clearly additional problems in our country which impact on the educational system (i.e, high rates of poverty and unemployment, inadequate safety nets, etc)-but part of the problem is that if you’re teaching to the test, you’re not teaching substantive subject areas, which are the places where important skills happen. How many times in our professional lives do most of us take standardized tests?
My suggestions would be that
a-NCLB is altered such that it takes into account level of improvement of each individual class, rather than holding classes up to an imaginary standard. This is what Bloomberg has been doing in NY, and although it’s not a perfect system, I think there are a lot of good things about it. It takes into account things that NCLB doesn’t (i.e., school atmosphere and retention rates), and it also takes into account when a school is serving a particularly challenged population (i.e., low income, ELL, ESL). This system has its kinks, but it seems to me that it is actually rewarding teaching, as opposed to testing. And it also gives credit and dignity to kids who have done something like shot up 3 grade levels in a year, even though they still may be behind. MOVING UP 3 GRADE LEVELS TAKES AN INCREDIBLE DEGREE OF DETERMINATION, SMARTS, AND COURAGE. A kid who can do that is a kid we need in this country-penalizing him/her because he or she hasn’t had access to good education previously is writing off what could potentially be the most talented student we have. And penalizing his/her teacher underplays the degree of skill this process takes on the part of the teacher. This applies whether the kid is special needs, ESL, or whatever else.
2-Add other kinds of evaluative materials to the mix. As a college teacher part of my evaluation is based on observation by a senior member of my department-why can’t that be true of elementary school teachers as well? I wouldn’t recommend that the observer in this case be senior faculty at the school (scheduling, for one thing, is much less flexible in elementary schools than in colleges)-but why not train a series of Education inspectors to do it, and do it properly? This is a place where you could draw on the skills of social scientists-anthropologists and sociologists spring to mind, particularly. Part of what we’re trained to do is to observe sets of interactions and learn how to code them for specific things. Sit down with a bunch of really good teachers and people who research education and train teachers. Figure out what some basic things are that happen when an effective teacher is at work, and how those things look on the ground. Get a bunch of social scientists to help you create a method of observation that looks for those things, and train people to do that. These methods have been used in all sorts of ways in colleges (most recently, at the school where I work, librarians were trained in targeted observation so they could put together some info on student use of library spaces and how it could be improved)-there’s no reason they couldn’t work productively at the grade school level, and adding observation to scores would give a clearer and fairer picture of the teacher’s level of expertise.
C-Before you base federal funding on NCLB, make sure that schools have basic parity in terms of funding. It’s unfair to have students at well-supplied schools competing with students where the teachers dip into their own pocket to buy copy paper. Every school needs to have money for supplies, books, and facilities. Period. Otherwise you’re setting poorly funded schools up for a dangerous spiral.
D-Look at individual classes, rather than school averages. I know this means a LOT of statistics, but it seems to me that averages have the effect of both placing teachers at odds with each other (because any individual class can bring them up or down), and not really evaluating what’s going on in the school.
E-Before shutting schools down or withholding funding, meet up with the community and the state to think through what affect that will actually have on the kids involved. From what I’ve read, in a lot of cases kids end up in new schools which are similar to their old schools (i.e., their level of schooling hasn’t changed), but they’ve lost the comfort of familiarity with their old schools and teachers, and the relationships they’ve built there, which can end up causing worse, not better, outcomes for them. If withholding funding is going to mean cutting staff, or that the air conditioning doesn’t get fixed, that’s really penalizing the kids-it doesn’t seem like it will help them do much better.
F-Teachers often do get a bad rap-but the truth is that what we do is as skilled as what doctors do, and when we do it well, it’s because we’re talented. If the DOE started talking consistently and loudly about the value of skilled teachers and the tough job they do, I think that could go a long way to combat a-smart kids not wanting to be teachers, because everyone knows it’s a “dumb” job (this goes towards both recruitment and retention), b-parents not respecting the authority of teachers in matters of education, and c-kids not respecting the authority of teachers in matters of education. This is a cultural shift that might take a long time, but in the long run it can only make American education better.
Sincerely,
Chana (passionate believer in the power of good education)