Every year since 1984, MetLife has published a detailed Survey of the American Teacher. Past year's surveys have focused on elements of the teaching experience ranging from school-family partnerships to violence in the schools to school leadership.

This year's survey, "Expectations and Experiences," examines the way teachers, principals, and education deans see teacher satisfaction and preparation.

Some of the main findings:

• Principals are twice as likely as education deans to feel that new teachers have unrealistic expectations about their first year, including the number of hours they will work and the number of special needs students they'll work with. Principals are also more than five times more likely than deans to report that new teachers are unprepared to engage parents and maintain discipline in their classrooms. Deans should take note: teachers who report that teaching compares poorly with their expectations are much more likely to say that they are planning to leave the profession.
• In comparing teachers who said they were likely to leave the classroom with those who planned to stay, the study found that teachers who plan to leave are more likely to report that principals do not value their suggestions or appreciate their work and that they are not adequately able to influence the policies that impact them in the classroom.

The issue of whether teacher salaries are a major determinant of teacher dissatisfaction or likelihood to leave is still unresolved for me. While more than half of principals and education deans cited this as on of the top two determinants of teachers leaving the profession, the data from the teachers is much more nuanced.

Of teachers who reported they were likely to leave the profession, 69% said they felt their salary was not fair for the work they did. But 63% of teachers who said they were NOT likely to leave the profession said the same thing! More significant differences were seen in questions that asked teachers about the level of respect, support, and collegiality they experienced at their school.

According to the report, "All other factors held equal, new teachers who feel other teachers do not go out of their way for them are more than three times as likely to leave the profession."

Labels: conversations

I spent this afternoon tagging along with a new teacher coach who works in several CPS schools. I asked her later if she ever got a chance to coordinate classroom visits for her beginning teachers, so they could see what excellent classrooms look like.

They're starting to implement this, but it's slow going, she says, and here's why. It's hard to identify which classrooms her teachers should observe. Does it makes sense to send a new PE teacher from an extremely high poverty school to observe a fantastic teacher in a school with more resources? Will new teachers in overcrowded schools benefit from seeing classes taught in charters with limited enrollment?

The answer is probably yes: teachers benefit from seeing great teaching, wherever it is. BUT (and it's a big "but"), in the short term, it seems like what would help a new teacher most is to see really excellent teaching that takes place in a very similar context to the one they are teaching in.

When TEN was first being developed, one of the ideas on the table was to use it as a way to gather a really comprehensive list of all the good teachers in Illinois. Not just Golden Apple winners, not just National Board teachers, but all of them. I'm not sure how practical this would be, but I'm interested in seeing if we can figure out how to do it, if only so new teachers and their coaches will have more options for seeing good teaching in action, and will be able to choose teachers from schools that face similar challenges to theirs.

Labels: conversations

This week, a bipartisan group (including Golden Apple Board President Max McGee) released its Burnham Plan for a World-Class Education. Named for Daniel Burnham's famed Plan of Chicago.

The plan was developed in the wake of the Chicago Tribune's editorial series "From Here to Excellence," published in February.

The proposals include:

• Improved accountability, including improving student data systems, financial accounting, and teacher evaluation.
• Specific education reforms, including digital education grants, professional development for school boards, a statewide new teacher induction program, tenure reform, performance pay for teachers, and raising the cap on charter schools.
• School funding reform.

As might be expected the funding reform is the vaguest part of the plan. The proposal is summarized as "Identify stable, predictable, and sustainable revenue sources and continuing appropriations to guarantee a system of adequate state funding." Well yes, we should. But where?

Not surprisingly, the Tribune thinks the plan is, "worth reading -- and enacting. It's thoughtful, bipartisan, results-oriented and, most compelling, it's within reach." The Sun Times is more measured, reminding us that several of the proposals are fairly controversial, particularly tenure reform, merit pay, and raising the cap on charter schools.

Expect to hear a lot more about these issues in the next few months. Wheels seem to be turning in Illinois education these days. It'll be interesting to see where we go.

Resources:
Burnham Plan Summary from A+ Illinois
Burnham Plan Legislative Proposal from the Illinois Education Association.

Labels: conversations, resources

Pay-for-performance plans have been percolating in school systems all over the country for a long time. Seems like the momentum is picking up now, at least in Chicago.

First there was this report, from a national group of teacher leaders, with recommendations on how to make merit-pay an effective tool for improving student learning.

And now, CPS announced this week that ten schools will be part of a new performance pay plan. According to the Tribune, the plan was created after the district won a $28 million federal grant to experiment with pay structures. (More of an auditory learner? Get the scoop from WBEZ!)

The schools chosen are all hard-to-staff schools with high teacher turnover, where at least 3/4 of the staff voted for the plan. In a reversal of the union's earlier opposition to this type of proposal, even CTU president Marilyn Stewart is calling this, "a whole school reform model that is designed to improve teacher quality, maximize principal effectiveness and promote student achievement."

CPS teachers: what's the buzz?

May 30
12 - 2 pm
Join Golden Apple, MetLife, and the Committee for Economic Development at a forum to discuss the newly released 2006 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, Expectations and Experiences. Barbara Eason-Watkins, Chief Education Officer for Chicago Public Schools will give the keynote, and panelists include Golden Apple Fellow and school principal Cheryl Watkins and Victoria Chou, Dean of the UIC School of Education. RSVP to Zack Schwartz.

June 1
3:00-7:00 pm.
Grand Opening celebration for Kohl Children's Museum's new exhibit "The Power of Documentation: Children's Learning Revealed. Free! Light snacks and cash bar from 5:30-7.

June 20
8 am - 5 pm
The Center for Teaching through Children's Books and the Office of Partnerships at
National College of Education present INDIVISIBLE, "an engaging study opportunity for mindful educators who are open to experiencing an illuminating day to deepen their knowledge about societal issues that impact youth and to develop new vistas for teaching for social justice through children's literature." Speakers include Bill Ayers and Deborah Ellis. Click here for more information and to register.

Labels: resources

Teacher Magazine recently ran a series of three first-person narratives called "Take this job and love it." In each, a teacher described how she had discovered their perfect grade level (elementary, middle, high school) for teaching.

I had always expected to be a high school teacher, but I was assigned to student teach in a 7th and 8th grade classroom, and discovered despite myself that I loved working with middle school students. On the other hand, after four years teaching 7th and 8th grade, I hit a wall and ended up, like so many teachers in their first five years, out of the classroom.

Was it the grade level? I do wonder sometimes how things might have been different if I'd started out working in a high school.

How did you choose your grade level?

Labels: conversations

Teachers in Chicago Public Schools are (hopefully) well-aware that tomorrow is the union election. A rematch of sorts, the election pits the current president, Marilyn Stewart, and her slate (UPC) against the previous union president, Deborah Lynch, and her slate (PACT). In 2004, Stewart was elected by a tiny margin--a result that was hotly contested by Lynch at the time.

The Sun Times has an overview of the election issues. To read what Chicago teachers are saying, visit the District 299 blog. (137 comments at last count!)

UPDATE: CTU elects Stewart in a landslide.

Looking for a broader perspective on teachers unions? Spend some time with this guide from Teachers College's Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. It's written for journalists, as a resource for them to use when covering education and union issues. A history of teachers unions, case studies, and research are combined to offer a really comprehensive overview.

Related: Elephants in the Room.

Labels: resources

APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 29!

Golden Apple is in the process of creating an amazing new Teaching Excellence Center for Illinois teachers. The center will feature exciting in-depth seminars in a residential setting throughout the year. This summer we're piloting the center, by offering four new week-long seminars. Three are residential (lodging and meals included!), and one is a more traditional non-residential format. All four of them are FREE!

June 24-29 at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL:

Click for the Flyer
Click for the Application


July 22-27 at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL:

Click for the Flyer
Click for the Application
[This workshop is especially for teachers in CPS Region 6 and Chicago's South Suburbs]


Click for the Flyer
Click for the Application



July 30-Aug. 3 at University of Chicago Lab School (non-residential):

Click for the Flyer
Click for the Application
[TEN members are especially invited to apply!]

Visit the Golden Apple Website for more information about these workshops or our other summer professional development experiences:

• Science Workshop

• CORE (Center for Ongoing Renewal and Enrichment) (for more information contact Sister Raeleen Sweeney: raeleens@goldenapple.org)

• Storytelling Workshop (contact Gaby Aguirre for a brochure: aguirre@goldenapple.org or (312) 407-0006)
  

Questions? Want more information? Contact Penny Lundquist, lundquist@goldenapple.org, (312) 407-0006 x122.

Labels: golden apple, resources

Apply for a $300 Study Group Member grant. More information HERE.

Labels: resources

Golden Apple Fellow, author, teacher, and professor Greg Michie explores what is left unsaid when mainstream media covers education in "Elephants in the Room," a new article for Rethinking Schools.

He concludes with a call to action:

[We] need to pay close attention to the silences in popular accounts of urban education, and to seek out public spaces where we can tell counter-narratives: op-ed pages, letters to the editor, community or city council meetings, blogs, online discussion boards. There's not just an elephant in the room -- there's a herd. As often and as conspicuously as possible, we need to wave our arms, point each one out, and call it by name.

Blogs? Online discussion boards? I sense a great opportunity for TEN members...

Labels: conversations

In this month's Nation, education expert Linda Darling-Hammond outlines her views on No Child Left Behind and how to implement meaningful education reform. She offers an interesting perspective from Gloria Ladson-Billings, who argues that the "achievement gap" is not the real issue. The real issue is "an educational debt that has accumulated over centuries of denied access to education and employment, reinforced by deepening poverty and resource inequalities in schools." Darling-Hammond's essay challenges educational policy-makers to begin to "repay the debt," by addressing these fundamental inequalities.

(For more on Darling-Hammond's views on reforming NCLB, see her "Marshall Plan for Education.")

In their responses to her essay, sociologist Pedro Noguera, National Urban League VP Velma Cobb, and education scholar Deborah Meier expand on the idea of equity as a fundamental goal of education policy.

Noguera:

If we want to insure that all students have the opportunity to learn, we must insure that their basic needs are met. Students who are hungry should be fed, children who need coats in the winter should receive them and those who have been abused or neglected should have counseling and care. Expanding access to healthcare, preschool and affordable housing, and providing more generous parental leave policies should be included on the education reform agenda.

Cobb:

It is no small coincidence that poor schools are in poor neighborhoods. If we are to get serious about education reform for the twenty-first century, we must talk about community development. Only a full-empowerment agenda will address the unequal access to quality education.

Meier:

There are two important areas in which we could work toward narrowing the achievement test gap aside from directly through schooling: narrow the health gap (as Richard Rothstein argues) and narrow the income gap. Both paths would positively affect test scores as well as real learning. Since NCLB has been in effect, we have instead widened such gaps. Although we claim to be worried about our poor international standing on tests, we might better worry about the fact that we rank nearly last in measures of childcare. These data lead me to be somewhat suspicious about our will to upgrade educational outcomes.

In the classroom I felt a tension between wanting to believe that really good teaching could counteract the effects of poverty and knowing deep down that long-standing inequities would continue to impact my students no matter what I did. Is it enough to be an excellent teacher...or do teachers need to also find a role as activists for social justice?

Labels: conversations

In early March, I went to a performance of Harmless, a new play by local playwright Brett Neveu. In the play, three characters - a professor, college president, and army psychologist - square off over the fate of a student who has written some extremely violent material in his creative writing class. The student, an Iraq war vet, is never seen.

As the three authority figures discuss the student's fate, they struggle to define their positions, to determine what the real issue is. Is the real issue the creative writing professor's directive to his students to push the boundaries of their writing? Is the real issue the student's possible post-traumatic stress disorder? Is the real issue the intersection of authority between the school and the military/medical establishment?

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, I think we've all been thinking about the issues in Harmless, especially the role of teachers when it comes to students who produce disturbing or violent material in class. As pre-K-12 teachers, our relationship with students - and their parents - is different than for college professors. So, I've been thinking a lot about Allen Lee.

Lee, a senior at an Illinois high school, wrote an essay - more of a free association ramble - for his creative writing class a few weeks ago. In it, he described violent acts and denigrated his writing teacher. The teacher took the essay to her administration who reported it to the police. Lee was arrested on disorderly conduct charges, expelled temporarily from school, and discharged by the Marines. (Read more about Lee in the Sun Times or Tribune).

Over the last week, Lee (or, perhaps, Lee's lawyer) has done a fairly good job of reframing himself as a misguided kid who let his attitude get out of hand. I read the essay and honestly, to me, what stands out more than the violence is his contempt for his teacher. Every time I think about it, I wonder how I would have responded to this essay if I had been in her shoes.

Sometimes as teachers we push students to open up their interior lives for us. I'm not sure we prepare ourselves adequately to respond to what we find there.

Labels: conversations

Governor Blagojevich's controversial proposed business tax increase is heating things up in Springfield this week. House Speaker Michael Madigan is planning a special hearing on the issues, and both Democrats and Republicans are starting to denounce it. (Tribune coverage, Sun Times coverage)

The Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) increase was proposed as a solution to Illinois' school funding crisis. (For more background on the funding crisis and the GRT, this TEN blog post links to a whole series of Tribune editorials that outline the situtation.)

A fascinating twist on the action in the last few days: according to the Tribune,

While rally organizers said they talked to Blagojevich and several legislators about addressing the crowd, plans to invite any politicians were scrapped when it became clear that not all education groups supported the governor's tax plan, said Jim Reed, a lobbyist for the Illinois Education Association.

None of the rally's speakers spoke in favor of the governor's tax plan. Instead, they simply asked lawmakers to step up and solve a school "funding crisis."

Whether or not they came out in favor of the GRT increase, the failure of the education community to rally around something--anything--specific, seems like a missed opportunity, doesn't it?

(photo from the Tribune: King College Prep students rally in Springfield)

UPDATE 5/31/07
A new poll shows a majority of Illinois residents would support a "tax swap," where income and sales taxes are increased to provide more money for schools, while property taxes are decreased slightly. The governor, having pledged not to raise taxes, opposes the tax swap plan.

Labels: conversations