Quantcast
Channel: Jossey-Bass Education » Education Nation
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Highlights from NBC’s Education Nation

0
0

Highlights from NBC’s Education Nation

By Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt, Ph.D., (American Institutes for Research) and Allison Rizzolo (Public Agenda)

edunationlogo

This October, NBC’s Education Nation program made teacher voice in policy-making a central theme during their annual Teacher Town Hall and Summit. While many teachers have long been advocating for a place at the table, the teacher voice focus at such a prominent event signaled a shift that policymakers and the public too are eager for teachers themselves to weigh in and shape teacher policy.

The lack of voice that teachers have in their own profession contributes to the current all-time low in teacher morale and threatens to drive excellent teachers out of their classrooms. In a recent Atlantic Monthly  article, University of Pennsylvania Professor Richard Ingersoll said,

“Teachers in schools do not call the shots. They have very little say. They’re told what to do; it’s a very disempowered line of work.”

At Education Nation, recognized teacher leaders such as Glenn Morehouse Olson, Sarah Brown Wessling and Alexandra Fuentes, and many many more, had the opportunity to share the stage and their insights with education policy celebrities, ranging from Amanda Ripley, Andy Rotherham, Chelsea Clinton, and Jeff Duncan-Andrade to multiple state governors and school chiefs.

No matter what the topic—and there were dozens—these movers, shakers, and thought leaders kept coming back to teacher effectiveness. We heard calls for more teacher collaboration, teacher supports and tools to use the new Common Core State Standards to improve practice, higher pay and respect for the teaching profession, and more strategic, purposeful work to recruit and retain teachers.

The air was crackling with good ideas for elevating teacher voice in policy-making. Here are a few favorites:

  •  Policymakers need teachers at the table to understand the children behind the numbers.
  • Policymakers seeking guidance should always consult both teachers and those with other relevant expertise—at least half of those at the table making education policy decisions should be teachers.
  • Teacher voice in policy must be authentic—not mere lip service.

To keep up momentum seen and built up at Education Nation, and move the policy conversation from the rationale for more teacher voice to the reality of widespread policy conversations among teachers, more practical tools and resources are needed.

Our book, Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Evaluation Reform,

9781118526347_cover.indd was featured at a lively Office Hours session (see the photo above). Our tested how-to approach for productive teacher-led dialogue on policies affecting the profession covers:

  • Teacher-engagement planning
  • Discussion-starter videos
  • PowerPoint templates for introducing terminology and the policy landscape
  • Discussion guidelines and handouts to structure productive conversation using Choicework and other approaches to solutions-oriented dialogue on public policy

Shoulder to shoulder with both national teachers’ unions, new and established teacher voice organizations—including Teach Plus, VIVA Teachers, Educators4Excellence, America Achieves and Hope Street Group – kept the dialogue fresh, lively, and grounded. With the way paved for greater teacher voice in the national education policy dialogue, it is now up to teachers and school and district leaders to learn from these leading organizations and chart the next steps to locally empower teacher-led teacher policy.

***

Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt, PhD, is a senior policy analyst on educator quality at the American Institutes for Research. She led the Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers in Evaluation Reform initiative to increase teachers’ engagement in the process of designing policies that affect them, and she has supported both national teachers’ associations and state policymakers on improving teacher and principal effectiveness. She is a frequent presenter on such topics as teacher incentives, equitable teacher distribution, Generation Y teachers, and human capital management in education.

Allison Rizzolo is the communications director at Public Agenda. She develops and leads the organization’s communications strategy. Rizzolo writes frequently on such issues as K-12 education reform, teacher engagement, public engagement, and improving our country’s democratic processes. Rizzolo is a former middle school and high school teacher.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images