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News from the
National Commission on Teaching and 1 Holding onto Teachers That Flee Holding
onto Teachers that Flee District Administrator
Magazine, January 2004 Full Article: When more
teachers leave the field rather than stay, it poses a big problem. Experts
say that specialized professional development, mentor teachers and formative
assessments for beginning teachers are just some ways districts can
retain more new teachers. The The biggest hit came
in the late 1990s when those leaving the profession outpaced the entrants--primarily
due to school conditions, Carroll says. Teachers felt no support from
school leaders, had little time to collaborate with colleagues, and
faced disruptive students. They also complained of a lack of control
in the organization and instruction in school. "Teachers need a
stronger voice and a strong principal leader who works with teachers
on effective instructional strategies, clear goals, and school environments
around teaching and learning, and to end disruptive environments,"
Carroll says. Strong teacher preparation
is also key to keeping teachers. A teacher
from a four-year program is more likely to stay in the profession than
those certified in a four-week alternative program. School districts
must process resumes for teacher vacancies quickly so qualified candidates
are contacted on time. A recent report shows that large urban districts
were missing out on qualified math and science teachers because the
hiring process was so burdensome, Carroll says. And mentor teachers,
which are common in Failing
City Teachers Face a Faster Ax The New York Times,
Excerpt: The "Yes, this is a
union president who is going to talk about removing teachers who should
not be teaching," Ms. Weingarten said in a breakfast speech to
the Association for a Better New York. "And I do that without hesitation,
because this a union that is not about just keeping people. We are
about keeping qualified people." Ms. Weingarten's proposal
calls for expanding an existing peer intervention program for troubled
teachers. Under her plan, a teacher in danger of being fired would enter
the intervention program for up to 90 days. If the teacher was still
ill-equipped to return to the classroom, Ms. Weingarten said, union
representatives would counsel the teacher to leave the school system.
If the teacher refused,
an existing 90-day grievance and arbitration process would begin. Currently,
city officials say they must spend at least two years building a case,
with a principal giving the teacher two annual unsatisfactory ratings,
to stand any chance of dismissing a teacher through the 90-day arbitration
process. In her speech, Ms. Weingarten also said that retaining good
teachers was even more critical to the future of the public school system
than removing the few bad ones. She cited statistics showing escalating
retirements among older teachers and high numbers of resignations among
new teachers who leave after one or two years. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/15/education/15teach.html Education Week, Excerpt: A compensation
system designed to provide "The pilot has
demonstrated that the focus on student achievement and a teacher's contribution
to such achievement can be a major trigger for change— if the initiative
also addresses the district factors that shape the school," concludes
the Community Training and Assistance Center, a nonprofit organization
based in Boston that has been studying the project for four years. The
initiative, it says, "can provide a basis for improving the entire
school system by tying district activities to core classroom needs."
The two entities that
designed the plan and are now overseeing it— the school board and the
local teachers' union—see the report as praise for their work. The school
board will vote later this month on expanding the pay program; members
of the union, an affiliate of the National Education Association, will
cast ballots on the measure in early March. If both agree to the idea,
the program will be expanded to include all schools in the 72,000-student
district. Currently, 13 percent of schools take part in the program,
which began in 1999. Rigor
Disputed In Standards for Teachers Education Week, Excerpt: States have
fashioned wildly different ways of judging whether teachers already
in the classroom meet the federal standard of "highly qualified,"
raising the possibility that teachers in some states will not face the
high hurdle that Congress intended. Critics say that many states are
giving veteran teachers too easy a pass on whether they know their subjects
well enough to teach them effectively, as the No Child Left Behind
Act specifies. "Few states distinguish
themselves in terms of the rigor and comprehensiveness" of their
evaluation systems, said Ross Wiener, the director of policy for the
Education Trust, a Washington- based group that pushes higher achievement
for poor and minority students. The Trust released a report last month
criticizing states for designing evaluations that depend too much, for
instance, on existing licensing or professional-development requirements
that may or may not reflect subject knowledge. State officials, for
their part, have taken advantage of the flexibility offered by the law
while sometimes lamenting the uncertainties that go with it. Still,
it's hard to envision how both http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18housse.h23
Striving
to Improve Those at the Head of the Class The New York Times,
Excerpt: The deadline
looms. Under federal law, by 2006 every classroom must have a highly
qualified teacher, and Louis V. Gerstner, the former I.B.M. chairman
and an architect of the school standards movement, has a prediction.
"We don't have a chance," he said flatly. At least, not unless
states follow his commission's advice, he added. For the last year,
Mr. Gerstner and a panel of marquee figures in the fields of politics,
business and education have been kicking around an intractable problem:
how to entice the best and brightest to a profession woefully ill equipped
to compete for them. "For the cost of
15 B-2 bombers, we can give three million teachers real incentives to
raise student achievement and stay in the classroom," reads the
press release for Mr. Gerstner's teaching commission. It calls for an
overall spending increase of $30 billion to raise teacher pay - not
necessarily a scientific number, but something to get the debate started.
"For long-term national security, well-educated workers - and not
just weapons and bombers - are crucial," the release continues.
As Mr. Gerstner will
happily admit, the commission's report is largely a compendium of proposals
that have made the educational rounds for years. It proposes higher
pay for teachers who work in needy urban areas, who teach understaffed
subjects like science and math, and who manage to push up students'
scores. There is also a demand for more stringent certification standards,
a challenge to university presidents to herd honor students toward teaching,
and a potentially dicey insistence that principals, not union contracts,
decide who works for them. Mr. Gerstner closes
the report in very large, very bright type promising that "the
commission will not measure its success by its recommendations, but
through its ability to mobilize key stakeholders, and through subsequent
changes in policies and practices nationwide." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/14/education/14teach.html Teaching
Talent May Be On the Way Excerpt: Several of
The school district
is primarily interested in the program because it provides teachers
trained in specific subjects, Associate Superintendent George Ann Rice
said. "They are recruiting subject-matter experts that have the
heart to be a teacher and want to work at at-risk schools," Rice
said. Most of Teach For America's recruits did not major in education, but their
expertise in areas such as English, math and science better qualify
them to address some of the proficiency needs of the district's at-risk
students, Rice said. The school district is meeting with Teach For
America officials this week to work out logistics, but Rice said the
partnership all depends on whether the organization raises enough money.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-ed/2004/jan/13/516168046.html
Excerpt: Many states
and local school districts are underreporting the number of schools
failing to teach children to read and do mathematics at their grade
level as required by the 2-year-old No Child Left Behind
Act, fearful of ultimately losing control over poorly performing schools.
ducation Secretary Rod Paige says the problem of districts
and states "playing games" to avoid accountability for poor
teaching and learning in their schools is not yet "under control"
and is anticipated with "any big change like this." "In fact, there's
a level of expectation that there will be those that will push the envelope
and try to game the system," Mr. Paige said in an interview with
The Washington Times, two years after President Bush's education-reform
law took effect. So far, more than half the states have reported a combined
2,513 fewer low-performing schools than they did last year, according
to data from initial state reports issued Friday by Education Week.
Some states did report a rise in the number of low-performing schools
over last year, and some have yet to report. "The idea is not
to be on any list that a school needs improvement," said Rob Weil,
director of education issues for the American Federation of Teachers,
the nation's second-largest teachers union. But Mr. Weil said because
standards are stiffening, the number of low-performing schools should
be going up, not down, in the second year of the 12-year duration of
the law. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040113-113134-1469r.htm
Gov.
Bush Unveils Excerpt: Gov. Jeb Bush used the success of a project at In 2001, only 14 percent
of the students at Carver were reading at or above grade level. But
with the help of teachers who volunteered and worked overtime even on
Saturdays, students prospered. In 2003, 29 percent of Carver's students
were reading at or above their grade level. Schools usually stop teaching
reading after sixth grade, said Carver Principal Marilyn Doyle-Patterson.
In the program Bush wants the Legislature to fund, reading coaches would
teach middle-school instructors how to teach reading along with their
other subjects. History teachers, for example, would teach reading strategies
along with history. The details of the plan
have not been worked out by the state Department of Education, Bush
said, but he wants schools to adopt ''best practices'' such as those
at Carver, where teachers have built up a network of mentors to work
with low-performing students. The reading-coach program is part of a
proposed $21 million boost in ''Just Read Florida,'' bringing Bush's
favorite education project to $46.4 million if it gets legislative approval
in the session that starts in March. '' http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/7695617.htm Paige
Announces New Initiative to Support States US Department of Education,
Excerpt: U.S. Secretary
of Education Rod Paige announced that a national initiative will be
launched to help improve students' reading achievement. The new " The contract is the
result of a competitive bid process. The national center will include
three regional centers that will be operated by Technical assistance
will be provided through a range of learning opportunities, including:
national and regional conferences, institutes and seminars; training
and professional development; on-site, telephone and e-mail consultations;
new materials; and links to national reading experts. President Bush launched
the Reading First initiative to improve all children’s reading achievement.
Studies show that when children fail to learn how to read during their
early school years, every aspect of school success is affected. Academic
achievement can be enhanced through early diagnosis and intervention.
Reading First was designed around an extensive knowledge base of the
essential skills children must have to learn to read. The program reflects
the findings of an extensive congressionally mandated review of scientifically
based research on how students learn to read, completed by the National
Reading Panel in 2000. http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2004/01/01072004.html
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