Thoughts on the McKinsey Report

Wow, I certainly don't have a solution to the problem in education. I became a teacher, 6 years ago at the age of 44, to figure that out. It seems obvious to everyone, except the economically, racially, and academically privileged, that there is a problem. If you are one of the folks that the system works for you and your child, you're happy getting yours and getting out.

So far it seems that our federal and state governments feel like the solution is to legislate education. I began teaching at the beginning of the mandates and knew what I was getting into. I also knew that legislators making educational decisions was wrong and that the only way to really understand the problem was to work in the system. It is complex, multi-layered, historically exclusive, outdated, and out of touch with today's student and family needs.

I agree that the quality of teaching is the single most effective way improve education. We do need to attract the best candidates, support them with resources, training, and mentoring, and place them with the neediest students. But with the current financial constraints, this isn't going to happen and if it were to happen, it would require up front funding to organize and support. There is currently so much distrust in the system, most people (tax payers and legislators) are unwilling to take what they see as a big risk.

I think we have to work with what we've got. There is some quality teaching going on in most schools. All schools need quality instructional leaders. Principals are every school's first instructional leader; they need to identify, motivate, and support the skilled teachers in their schools to not only be great in the classroom but become additional instructional leaders in the school through shared leadership, professional development provided to colleagues by these teachers, and shared school goals and collaboration. When we utilize and share the best in the building, the best candidates, and resources will come. We can talk all day about what is not working; we need to identify what is and systematically help that grow. We need bright and creative principals to make this happen.

The professional development that works best for me is when I can learn from colleagues in teacher learning communities. If the community identifies something we can't provide each other, we seek an outside source, attend together, and share experiences during implementation. I learn the most from other teachers through, discussion, shared planning, and classroom and other school observation of instruction.

If there were one resource I need to improve my teaching, it is TIME. I like that we have standards. It assures high expectations for all students. I don't think they are perfect and definitely feel there are too many, especially in math. But standards give teachers curriculum structure and students access to the same education. I think NCLB is self defeating but don't waste my time complaining about it. I have a feeling it is going to defeat itself. I think class size effects student success more than the success of the teacher...although I'm actually thinking now that they are intertwined. If a student isn't successful than neither is the teacher. I think the complexity of our society and modern lives necessitates smaller classes for success even it is just to find or have some place for a child to experience a more human scale with more direct human interaction.

I enjoyed the podcast learning experience, my first. Control of time and pace in my wacky life was nice. I guess I had a little too much human interaction today.