Michelle Rhee: Ready, Fire, Train
Virginia's Turnaround Specialists Interview w John Merrow#4: podcast transcript video
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Barack Obama: Wish List May Have to Wait
Proponents of education reform are beginning to run up against. Relative newcomers to the game are finding out that the solutions are not easy fixes. Improving achievement takes long term planning and, in my opinion, a systems approach. One critical missing factor is a focus on what students are learning (and what teachers are teaching).
Rhee's plan promotes firing many teachers and on professional development for the rest, including support from a Massachusetts consulting firm. Virginia's plan included training people who were supposed to go into a school, reform it an move on. Gate's plan was to change the structure of high schools. Obama's plan includes many of the same, and his nominated Secretary of Education believes that charters and entrepreneurs will do the trick.
Here in California, I am betting on knowing the California content standards and teaching to them. Everyone learning grade level standards. Professional development based on aligning the instructional materials, teaching methods, and assessments with the content standards. Performance evaluations based on the ability of each person to help students learn those grade level standards. This is the only thing I can see working. A state's content standards aren't the bee's knees or the end-all be-all. Nevertheless, they do take each core discipline and impose a logical sequence upon them. They establish a common foundation for offerings of professional development, objectives for classroom visits, communication to parents, and performance demands for students. Why can't we all get motivated behind those, learn them, teach them, assess them and see what happens?
Standards do indeed work. I saw it again and again. One of the biggest issues is that teachers need to concentrate their efforts on teaching numeracy and mathematical reasoning as opposed to teaching from the book. The first step is to develop our own depth of understanding. I was priviledged to attend some of the best professional development for mathematics while teaching in Riverside, California. I (and my students) continue to benefit from this training to this day. I had several teachers approach me to tell me that they would never teach sixth grade because the math is just too hard! The need for professional development cannot be overstated!
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