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Excellent post! I've been thinking about this a lot too (I should have a blog up on a similar topic tonight), and I think that question in bold might be the most important question in how we recruit new teachers.

First, I don't think we should be blind to the economic implications of this idea...teachers who stay in the profession less than 6 years are substantially cheaper than those pesky veterans. Some administrators, like Paul Vallas in New Orleans, seem to publicly fuel this worldview. The pipeline of bright, enthusiastic younger teachers makes economic sense.

I chafe a little bit at the Peace Corps comparison. When you join the Peace Corps, or become a Missionary (which I did for a while), or something similar, you drop everything else and ONLY do your new thing, 24/7. Then you burn out after a little while and join the Rat Race. I've seen A LOT of charter schools nationwide, from NoLa to Chicago to even my hometown of Columbus, operating with this mindset. I don't agree with it...I don't think it is sustainable, or healthy, and in the long run, it doesn't elevate teaching as a profession.

Matt - I'll look over on RPOA later to see what else you have to say. But I agree that the bold question is extremely important, and I feel like for some reason it doesn't come nearly as often as it should.

In debates over TFA and TNTP (and other programs) you hear about the economic implications you mentioned. Its cheaper to hire newbies than veterans. But the counter to that is the money that the district has to pay for training of these teachers ups their price. So beneath the surface (where many non-wonks fear to tread) it is not as cut and dry.

You also hear about the benefits to the TFA et. al-ers (which for those of you who do not know, I am one--and I suffered from the burnout of which Matt speaks) and the feel-good nature of the service. And you hear complaints that such programs de-professionalize teaching. But do we ever have reasoned debates among policymakers/educators themselves about the long-term implications of considering teaching a service rather than a profession? I really struggle to think of any.

And by the way, I somehow missed the McKinsey report I reference in this post...it was released yesterday and is now available for download at http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/SSO/closing_the_talent_gap_sep...

So the question becomes, how do we attract those upper-third college students to the teaching profession? which starts with, how do we present teaching as an attractive profession to high-performing high school students, since that's when students start to aim themselves towards one profession or another. There's a bit of a vicious circle going on here, because students meet plenty of teachers during their K-12 years who aren't intelligent or knowledgeable and who don't act at all like professionals in the usual sense, and whom it's not very encouraging to imagine as future colleagues. That's along with the teachers who could easily compete if standards for entry into the profession were higher, of course.

If you want to attract more talent into teaching, make teaching a better job. How do you do that? Make teacher's the owners of the schools, the employers not the employees. Private schools do this, Charter schools do this, why can't the rest of the schools? They can. The idea is Teacher Professional Partnerships.

Teacher professional partnerships (TPPs) are formal entities, organized under law (partnerships, cooperatives, limited-liability corporations, etc.), that are formed and owned by teachers to provide educational services. TPPs may enter into contracts to manage entire schools, a portion of a school or to provide some other educational service. Teachers are in charge and they manage or arrange for the management of the schools and/or services provided. The school district is not managing the school; nor is a district-appointed single leader in charge (e.g. a principal).

TPP21 is a new venture to provide assistance to teacher, school districts and states to help them understand, support and implement teacher professional practices.

To learn more about TPP21

http://www.educationevolving.org/pdf/TPP21-Info-Slideshow.pdf

The days of public service being what you can do for your country seems to have died along with Kennedy. Many can rightly see that a good deal of effort goes towards "public servants" (nearly an oxymoron) working their hardest at mostly increasing their own lot.

Very good article. I have experience with change of schools when I was younger and my experience is that private schools do a much better job than the public schools. I totally changed after I went one year at a really good private school in Sweden. That school had a great enviroment and very good teachers. The culture was totally different at that school than from my old school. I say that the teachers have the biggest part in making a great school. And the teachers should be able to be strict with the children so they can learn them disipline.

I agree with you! Teachers play a huge role in what makes a school great.