Category Archives: Teachers

Ed News Colorado reports on an attempt by Denver Public Schools leadership to help its struggling schools break out of their struggles: [DPS superintendent Tom] Boasberg, in an email to principals Friday afternoon, said “it is our intention” not to place any unassigned teachers at year’s end into schools now on probation under the district’s school rating system. He also said DPS “will seek to limit forced placements” in the district’s poorest schools, or those receiving Title 1 federal grant money based on student poverty rates. Whether the teachers are poor performers, or they just aren’t warm to the school’s culture and its program to achieve excellence (presuming an effective one is in action), it does more harm than good to force teacher placements — at least as a policy on paper. If the current approach is the best we can do to deal with the “dance of the lemons,” then we might as well give up on urban school reform. But I’m too young to give up, and you should be, too! Writing at the Ed News blog, Alexander Ooms lauds what DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg is trying to do: “Changing the lemon dance to a game of musical […]

While Colorado’s governor and state officials have created a 15-member Council on Educator Effectiveness and Denver Public Schools has received a $10 million Gates Foundation grant to study and develop a new teacher evaluation system, Harrison School District in Colorado Springs is moving forward on a truly bold merit-pay reform. So reports Nancy Mitchell in today’s edition of Education News Colorado: Incentives play no part in the plan created by Miles, the superintendent here since 2006. There are no bonuses for teaching in struggling schools. Teachers don’t pocket a couple thousand bucks more if their students do better than expected on state tests. Instead, teachers in Harrison will soon have their entire salaries based on a combination of their annual evaluations and their students’ academic progress. No longer will teachers get annual raises for another year on the job or for taking more college classes – the way most districts in Colorado and across the country pay their instructors. These changes are made easier by the fact that Harrison teachers do not have collective bargaining rights.

Yesterday the state of Colorado turned in its Race to the Top grant funding application to the U.S. Department of Education. Missing the opportunity to do something bold, Colorado instead opted for “consensus” and “collaboration” — as reported by Jeremy Meyer in the Denver Post. Some of my older friends in the Education Policy Center are less surprised by this development than I am. Still, whether it jeopardizes our chances to win some of the federal cash or not, this approach is disappointing. One of the greatest statesmen (or women) who ever lived, Margaret Thatcher, famously once said: “Consensus is the negation of leadership.” An opportunity for greater leadership was missed. We may still win some money because very few other states opted to be bold either — and in comparison we could look pretty good. But that doesn’t cut it for me.

Education Week blogger Stephen Sawchuk reports that Georgia may be taking a bold step in reforming teacher compensation: Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has announced plans to support legislation that would overhaul the statewide teacher-salary schedule and allow teachers to opt into one that determines pay partly on performance-based measures. States have tried to do statewide performance-pay before, but this example stands out because it sounds as though it would fundamentally restructure how the salary schedule operates. Teachers opting in would no longer get supplements for advanced degrees, which have only weak correlations to student performance. Instead, they would win additional compensation based on observations of teachers and growth of student performance to determine teacher effectiveness and base compensation on those results. The plan would go into effect in 2013, and current teachers could “opt into” the plan or remain on the current salary schedule. Teachers hired after Jan. 1, 2014, would automatically be enrolled in the system.

So American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, leader of one of the national teachers unions, gives a big speech this week on how her group is interested in reforming the tenure system and is willing to accept student performance as part of meaningful teacher evaluations. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert gives Weingarten a fair hearing (H/T Eduwonk) but concludes: If the union chooses not to follow through on these proposals, its credibility will take a punishing and well-deserved hit. Otherwise, skepticism seems to be the word of the day….

Today is the start of Colorado’s legislative session, and the people under the Golden Dome are wasting no time getting to work on education issues. With Race to the Top deadlines looming, lawmakers are working to speed some bills through the process. Right now, the Senate Education Committee is considering Senate Bill 36 — which would use data to link teacher performance to teacher preparation programs, so we better know which education schools are getting the job done and which are not. You can listen live (Senate Committee Room 354) like I am, and you’ll get a sense of just what kind of fast track this legislation is on. CDE associate commissioner Rich Wenning just raced across Colfax Avenue from testifying to the State Board and receiving their unanimous support for SB 36 to the Senate Education Committee. Now the committee is debating amendments. There are more bills coming, and plenty of hectic action underway. My Education Policy Center friends and I are doing their best to stay on top of the situation. If there are late-breaking developments, please follow me on my Twitter page. The action is fast and furious, almost enough to wear out an energetic little kid […]

Every year the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci undertakes the daunting work of going through the National Education Association’s federal financial disclosure report (hosted online by the U.S. Department of Labor). In his latest exclusive analysis, Antonucci found the NEA’s contributions to advocacy groups and charities reached $26 million in 2008-09 — nearly double from the previous year’s total. To almost no one’s surprise, the NEA’s disclosed giving includes plenty of money for liberal causes and some education-related initiatives. But the biggest chunks of money went to politically active committees to fight state-level issues. Out of the $26 million, the NEA sent more than $5 million right into our Colorado backyard — including the single largest recipient on the list:

Two days from now Colorado’s state legislature starts the 2010 session. And with a recession cutting into tax revenues, many lawmakers will show up without the enthusiasm to create new programs or boost spending on existing programs. As legislative sessions go, this one has a particularly strange character about it. Tough and unpleasant decisions will have to be made. But what about K-12 schools? As Todd Engdahl explains in a thorough preview for Ed News Colorado, at least a few lawmakers (Engdahl quoted many more from the majority Democratic Party) are not looking forward to education reform debates when budget cuts are on the table: Some wish that were the case. “I’m hoping there isn’t too much [education legislation], quite frankly,” said Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora and a member of House Ed.

Writing for the new edition of The Atlantic, Amanda Ripley talks to the Teach for America (TFA) crew about what they’ve learned about quality teaching from their vast stores of data. We know quality instruction can make a huge difference, but you may be surprised to learn what characteristics TFA finds match up with making the biggest positive impact on student learning: What did predict success, interestingly, was a history of perseverance—not just an attitude, but a track record. In the interview process, Teach for America now asks applicants to talk about overcoming challenges in their lives—and ranks their perseverance based on their answers…. But another trait seemed to matter even more. Teachers who scored high in “life satisfaction”—reporting that they were very content with their lives—were 43 percent more likely to perform well in the classroom than their less satisfied colleagues. These teachers “may be more adept at engaging their pupils, and their zest and enthusiasm may spread to their students,” the study suggested.

You can write about education issues a lot, have your eyes focused on the future, and still miss some of the debates that are going on out there. Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss says that schools need to hire more male teachers, especially in the early grades, for the sake of boys. Citing Richard Whitmire’s book Why Boys Fail, blogress extraordinaire Joanne Jacobs responds: “Boys can learn without male teachers.” While I don’t have much to add to the debate, I at least have a vested interest in the discussion. As a boy, I want a smart and caring teacher who keeps the standards high and doesn’t let me get away with nonsense. (Someone who believes in homework quality over quantity, and has a soft spot for Legos and Mr. Potatohead, would also be appreciated.) More important for troubled boys than whether their teacher is male or female is expanded opportunity for an excellent education through school choice. That’s what Independence Institute senior fellow Krista Kafer persuasively argued for in “The Boy Crisis in Education” (an Independent Women’s Forum publication), and that’s what I’m sticking with.