Race to a Deadline
Much of the work of the Education committee over the past few weeks has been on Race To The TOP (RTTT). Last Friday I attended a three hour meeting at the Minnesota Dept. of Education and this morning I was a part of the Joint House and Senate Education Committee. Today’s discussion focused on the Governor’s proposal for Round Two of the application process, specifically in areas where Minnesota scored low on its initial application. The committee took up three items. Two of those included alternative teacher licensing and using a student growth model as a measure of teacher effectiveness. I wasn’t sold. The main questions I still have, will these proposals close the achievement gap, improve graduation rates, or raise the bar for under performing schools?
The third item made some sense: using teacher mentoring and staff development to improve classroom instruction. But we can do more. Let’s focus on proven strategies we know can make a difference. Let’s invest in early education and all day kindergarten. Let’s support after school programs, extended school, and summer intervention programs. School counselors, school social workers, and strong parent and community involvement is essential. Let’s demand reasonable class sizes. Let’ be sure our professional development funds improve teacher quality and raise expectations. Staff development must include strategies and measures for aligning curriculum with accepted core standards and outcomes. Let’s give teachers time to collaborate and develop lesson plans that improve student learning across disciplines.
With over 200 applicants for every teacher opening in my school district, let’s make sure we hire the best and brightest teachers. More importantly, make sure we weed out ineffective teachers during the three year probationary period. Let’s provide ongoing peer review and mentoring programs for all teachers. Let’s beef up teacher preparation programs in our colleges and universities. Let’s consider student loan forgiveness in under served areas.
We can all agree that teacher quality is important, and we can do better with the system we have. Federal dollars would be nice, but money and an unreasonable deadline should not drive our state’s education policy. There were plenty of good ideas presented at this morning’s meetings. The Governor’s tired proposals regarding teacher quality were not among them.
