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Empowering Professionals
Blog Entries
According to a new article in U.S. News, teacher blogs are having a growing impact on national discussions about education policy. These blogs can provide a good dose of classroom reality--often the missing ingredient in national policy discussions. Reporters are listening in on the teacher blogosphere, and so are some parents and administrators.
As a result, teacher blogs can have an impact on policy, but they can also get teachers in trouble. Some good rules of thumb: Keep it clean, and don't dish too much dirt on your colleagues or administration.
The article cites one of my favorite classroom bloggers, Bill Ferriter, who teamed up with another favorite, Nancy Flanagan, to write some guest blogs for us last summer. Nancy and Bill both blog for the Teacher Leaders Network, which should be a resource for reporters and policymakers everywhere. ...
Innovations can emerge from public schools and districts as well as from think tanks and other homes of the education reform cognoscenti.
That's the premise behind the American Federation of Teachers' new "Innovation Fund," "a groundbreaking plan to seek and share successful local educator- and union-led reform efforts in public schools across the United States." According to the AFT, the fund will support reforems such as: ...
In a story that has received remarkably little media attention so far, eight urban public schools in Connecticut are participating in an experiment to give teachers, parents and communities greater autonomy over curriculum, governance and budgets. The Connecticut Alliance for CommPACT Schools is helping these formerly struggling schools reorganize.
Among the hallmarks of this effort: ...
It's no secret that schools serving the most disadvantaged students face the toughest challenges in attracting and retaining effective teachers. As a result, the poorest, most vulnerable students--those who need our help most--are least likely to attend schools with fully qualified staff members.
One promising solution is attracting attention: Urban Teacher Residency programs. These programs combine master's-level education coursework with clinical teaching experience in actual urban classrooms. According to a recent article in Voices in Urban Education, these programs are showing early success in poor urban schools. Ninety percent of graduates from a Boston program--and 95 percent of graduates from a similar program in Chicago--are still teaching three years after graduation. Compare that to national urban school retention rates, which typically run between 30 and 50 percent.
The programs succeed by combining some essential ingredients of successful teacher retention programs: mentoring, professional collaboration, school/university partnerships, on-going support for teachers, and concrete links between research and classroom practice. ...
Education Week reported yesterday that the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is mounting a new effort to increase the number of Board-certified teachers in hard-to-staff schools. (See the National Board's website for more information on this initiative.)
The National Board recognizes teachers who successfully complete its process of "intensive study, expert evaluation, self-assessment and peer review." It has long acknowledged that only a minority of the teachers they certify work in the schools that need them most. According to recent research, Board certification raises student performance. In light of this evidence, the National Board's renewed focus on hard-to-staff schools is heartening.
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In late May, this blog reported that best-selling author Dave Eggers, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Vanessa Roth and 826 National executive director Ninive Calegari were working on a documentary that aims to inspire public support for teachers' work while offering an unvarnished view of the challenges teachers face every day. (See our recent interview with Eggers for more information about their plans.) ...
It appears that a phony debate continues to rage over whether schools alone or out-of-school social programs alone can close achievement gaps between poor and wealthy students. Provoked by the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education," an important statement calling for both in-school
and out-of-school interventions to boost student achievement, the debate is distracting us from constructive deliberation about what it will take to support all students' achievement.
Of course schools can and should make a profound difference in the lives--and academic achievement--of our most vulnerable students. Indeed, that's a major premise of this website, which highlights the success of public schools and districts across the country, many against sobering odds. Let's be clear: It serves no one well--least of all educators--to depict public schools as powerless and educators' dedication as wasted. Defeatism has no place in discussions of school reform. ...
A few weeks ago, we were excited to learn that Crook County Middle School's Michael Geisen, a forester-turned-science teacher, was named by the Council of Chief State School Officers as the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. Selected for an innovative teaching approach that focuses on the individual needs of students, school/community connections, and collaboration with his colleagues, Geisen is now spending a year traveling nationally and internationally as a spokesperson for education.
He recently spoke with Public School Insights about a variety of topics including what he hopes to achieve as teacher of the year, his belief in the need to redefine "basic skills" and "intelligence," the support teachers receive (or should receive), and how he personalizes teaching to foster a life-long love of learning while increasing standardized test scores.
Listen to 5 minutes of highlights from our interview (or read through the transcript below): ...
Well, the DC Examiner did it again. Their story about superintendents' compensation this morning bears the inflammatory headline, "Fat Cat Edu-crats: High Pay, Lavish Perks Enrich Schools Chiefs." This just days after publishing "Local Teachers Are Cashing In," a story about the less than 2 percent of DC-area teachers who earn more than $100,000/year. ...
The recent flurry of reports and manifestos urging a more constructive federal role in K-12 education are bringing an important issue back into the policy limelight: the fact that the nation's poorest, most vulnerable students are least likely to attend schools with fully qualified staff members.
This renewed focus is long overdue. Unequal access to the most effective teachers and other school staff remains one of the most shocking inequities in the education system. Federal leadership in closing the staffing gaps would be welcome, indeed. ...
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