It’s fair to say that after our recreational governors, many schools in Massachusetts need help. Some buildings need repair or replacement, many children need early education and full-day kindergarten, and our public higher education needs investment. But beyond the list of education issues that need to be addressed, there is the question of how to address them. Do we go with a top-down method? Or do we get some wisdom from the bottom up?
Primary and secondary schools are asked to do more and more in the same limited amount of time. Teachers need the time, the flexibility in work rules, and the support to innovate and experiment. Kids are also hungry for the attention of their teachers. So, we will reduce class size and lengthen the school day to provide more instructional time, and we will coordinate after-school programs so that students have access to enrichment and tutoring opportunities that complement the academic curriculum. Teachers will have the support, compensation and professional development to enhance their performance and job satisfaction, and administrators will have the tools, training and authority to be accountable for performance at their schools.
Notice the emphasis on innovation and experiment by the teachers themselves, the people who would be the first to notice when a technique helps the students learn. Notice the emphasis on the relationship between students and teachers–students need that attention, so they can get personalized direction for their learning.
This is not the old style of government ordering nostrums down the chain of command–this is government helping educators bring progress to education. This is leadership that respects the people who want to do their work better, and honors their efforts by helping them make progress.
This is a vision that provides hope.
I find it amazing that a candidate can say “teachers need more time” and talk about “lengthening the school day to provide more instructional time” in the same paragraph. Talk about having it both ways.
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Talk is one thing, action is another. If Deval is going to keep Massachusetts in No Child Left Behind, and keep the MCAS as a tool to measure student accomplishment and teacher competence, then the rest is meaningless. I’m free to try things my own as long as I meet a detailed, comprehensive, and exacting standard. It’s allowing “creativity” the same way that paint-by-numbers allows “creativity”.
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Lengthening the school day to provide more instruction doesn’t mean that teachers can’t get more planning/collaboration time. There are ways to rearrange schedules, or to hire additional teachers (or just not lose teachers to attrition in shrinking school districts) to meet the goal he sets out.
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“If Deval is going to keep Massachusetts in No Child Left Behind, and keep the MCAS as a tool to measure student accomplishment and teacher competence, then the rest is meaningless.”
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Not sure I see the connection between your “if” clause and your “then” clause. Please elaborate.
Heehee…I guess he could also get robots to teach kids for all that’s going to happen. That would take a budget revolution these days, and that’s not in the offing.
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I put in 2-3 hours a night after school. If the day is lengthened, then I’m not sure when that time is going to happen. Beacuse between meetings, errands, and coverage, “prep” time in school is rarely used to actually prepare for lessons.
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As for all this talk about freedom and creativity…if Deval continues using an exacting set of rather arbitrary benchmarking tools, then my choices will be constrained to the point of non-existence in order to meet them. Keeping (or adding to) standardization — his platform is unclear which he advocates — doesn’t help.
There are plenty of people in the country who would like to teach History and English.
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When Deval mentions the MCAS…
I think he’s telling you empathizes with your situation, Sabutai, and he wants to improve it.
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I know where you’re coming from, Sabutai. American school districts don’t respect prep time, never realizing (as Japan does) that every minute of teaching should have a minute of prep. We need to press for things like hiring more teachers, and better student-teacher ratios to eventually get them.
all this is perfectly fine. As a classroom teacher, however, the hierarchical level at which this philosophical discussion is taking place has little impact on me.
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MCAS is here to stay, and as an English teacher, I have no problem with that at all.
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Extended day? Excellent idea in some districts; unnecessary in others.
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The amount of relevant professional development time I get is contractually negotiated, as is my prep time, so, again, not much happening for me with this issue.
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Schools have their own personalities based on the faculty composition and the quality of the leadership. In schools with good leadership, teachers get time to collaborate both vertically and horizontally, their prep time is protected, and their proposals, innovations, and ideas valued and acted upon. I’m extremely fortunate to teach at a high school with an outstanding principal, unbelievably committed faculty, and students who care about their school. Our town passed an override for $400K because of the the organized and intensely vocal efforts of our high school students. Our dinky town made the Boston (gasp!) news because of the unusual nature of the student participation.
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We’re opening a brand new badly needed high school. (For all the good things about the school itself, the town has not exactly been supportive of its schools historically.) We’re launching between $30K and $45K worth of brand new English curriculum this year for grades 10 and 11, (45K if we get grade 9 purchased). As teachers, we’ve met over the summer to sort out the overwhelming materials that accompany this text on our own time. Whatever the suits decide in the Corner Office really doesn’t change much what I’ll be doing. I am hopeful, however, they can effect some change where it’s needed. So, to that extent, then, what Patrick says makes fine sense as a starting point.