We know that highly trained teachers, given autonomy and resources to meet high expectations, work around the world. Number 7 is the only thing that addresses that. Require beginning teachers to have a Master's Degree. Promote collaborative teams of teachers. State accountability is political. Have a state evaluation where a team of teachers visits a district to collaborate on best practices and school improvement. Keep state-wide evaluations to a minimum, as they only serve the politicians. Have teachers send home periodic progress reports rather than test scores. Teachers know how their students are learning; you don't need to pay Pearson for information that teachers already know more thoroughly. Keep evaluations within the districts to guide instruction and achievement. Promote the whole child, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical. Recess is necessary. Get academic goals out of kindergarten; it is a place for social/emotional development, not reading, writing, and arithmetic. Don't get starry-eyed over any science of learning. Incorporate the research systematically with all theories of learning, cognition, and child development.
I'm all for recess, promoting the whole child, and teachers sending home evaluations (so long as those evaluations are real).
But...is there any evidence for the Master's Degree? Everything I have seen is that it's mostly just something that filters out a lot of prospective teachers and I haven't seen much research that it adds value.
A good teacher knows more about a child's learning than a 6-month-old test that was Christmas treed. We have to insist that our teachers are highly trained!
The quality of both undergraduate and graduate education training has to be examined. Some of my training was frivolous, as in one graduate class, we had to practice handwriting. I facilitated learning community Master's programs in which participants had to demonstrate new learnings in the classroom through monthly action research. Master teachers must have a thorough understanding and ability to apply theories of development, research on instructional methods, curriculum theories, and assessment of both class and individual achievement. Master teachers must be able to synthesize and integrate this knowledge to ensure effective learning for all students.
We know that highly trained teachers, given autonomy and resources to meet high expectations, work around the world. Number 7 is the only thing that addresses that. Require beginning teachers to have a Master's Degree. Promote collaborative teams of teachers. State accountability is political. Have a state evaluation where a team of teachers visits a district to collaborate on best practices and school improvement. Keep state-wide evaluations to a minimum, as they only serve the politicians. Have teachers send home periodic progress reports rather than test scores. Teachers know how their students are learning; you don't need to pay Pearson for information that teachers already know more thoroughly. Keep evaluations within the districts to guide instruction and achievement. Promote the whole child, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical. Recess is necessary. Get academic goals out of kindergarten; it is a place for social/emotional development, not reading, writing, and arithmetic. Don't get starry-eyed over any science of learning. Incorporate the research systematically with all theories of learning, cognition, and child development.
I'm all for recess, promoting the whole child, and teachers sending home evaluations (so long as those evaluations are real).
But...is there any evidence for the Master's Degree? Everything I have seen is that it's mostly just something that filters out a lot of prospective teachers and I haven't seen much research that it adds value.
A good teacher knows more about a child's learning than a 6-month-old test that was Christmas treed. We have to insist that our teachers are highly trained!
The quality of both undergraduate and graduate education training has to be examined. Some of my training was frivolous, as in one graduate class, we had to practice handwriting. I facilitated learning community Master's programs in which participants had to demonstrate new learnings in the classroom through monthly action research. Master teachers must have a thorough understanding and ability to apply theories of development, research on instructional methods, curriculum theories, and assessment of both class and individual achievement. Master teachers must be able to synthesize and integrate this knowledge to ensure effective learning for all students.
If states should be phonics, focused early in the need to switch to a content rich curriculum later on. With real books
See natalie wexler's excellent book, the knowledge gap