Tom Friedman has a great column in today’s Times entitled “Teaching for America”. Here’s a portion of that column:
President Obama got this one exactly right when he said that whoever “out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow.” The bad news is that for years now we’ve been getting out-educated. The good news is that cities, states and the federal government are all fighting back.
“Other folks have passed us by, and we’re paying a huge price for that economically,” added [Secretary of Education Arne] Duncan in an interview. “Incremental change isn’t going to get us where we need to go. We’ve got to be much more ambitious. We’ve got to be disruptive. You can’t keep doing the same stuff and expect different results.”
Duncan, with bipartisan support, has begun several initiatives to energize reform — particularly his Race to the Top competition with federal dollars going to states with the most innovative reforms to achieve the highest standards. Maybe his biggest push, though, is to raise the status of the teaching profession. Why?
Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of “The Global Achievement Gap,” explains it this way. There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate.
If you look at the countries leading the pack in the tests that measure these skills (like Finland and Denmark), one thing stands out: they insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating classes. As Wagner put it, “They took teaching from an assembly-line job to a knowledge-worker’s job. They have invested massively in how they recruit, train and support teachers, to attract and retain the best.”
That is why Duncan is starting a “national teacher campaign” to recruit new talent. “We have to systemically create the environment and the incentives where people want to come into the profession. Three countries that outperform us — Singapore, South Korea, Finland — don’t let anyone teach who doesn’t come from the top third of their graduating class. And in South Korea, they refer to their teachers as ‘nation builders.’ ”
Duncan’s view is that challenging teachers to rise to new levels — by using student achievement data in calculating salaries, by increasing competition through innovation and charters — is not anti-teacher. It’s taking the profession much more seriously and elevating it to where it should be.
I agree with Friedman, Duncan, and Wagner on this one. We need better teachers. And we need to seriously consider ”how we recruit, train, support, evaluate, and compensate our nation’s teachers.” Most of all, I agree with the final paragraph of Friedman’s piece:
… if we want better teachers we also need better parents — parents who turn off the TV and video games, make sure homework is completed, encourage reading and elevate learning as the most important life skill. The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents. That’s the Contract for America that will truly ensure our national security.
Parent and student accountability. Now there’s a novel concept.
Greenwich Time Explores Town’s “Brain Drain”
The Greenwich Time continues to do an excellent job reporting on the town’s schools. This Sunday, the paper will feature a story entitled “Greenwich’s brain drain” where the Time investigates whether or not the town’s public schools “have a problem keeping bright students.”
Students are always going to “defect” to private schools. Many families simply think that they’ll receive a superior education in a better environment. Also, keep in mind the many options that families in Greenwich have when it comes to private schools. The town is fortunate to have so many quality private institutions, therefore it’s not surprising that so many families choose to send their children to these schools. If anything, perhaps it’s surprising that more don’t.
One week ago, Greenwich Time columnist Bob Horton wrote the following:
But how many private schools exist in Wilton, Ridgefield, Westport, Darien, and New Canaan? Families in those “affluent towns” don’t have the options that families in Greenwich have.
Listen, I didn’t step foot in a public school until I became a teacher. I received a great education attending Catholic Schools from kindergarten through graduate school. I’ll always support others who choose the private school route.
Dr. Freund is right when he says that retaining our “high-performing students” will help scores on standardized tests. So will expecting more from our current students.