Recently, I had the privilege to attend the 5th annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Banff, Canada. I was part of a U.S. delegation comprised of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, teacher unionrepresentatives, classroom teachers (including a teacher from Spencer County, Ky.), chief state school officers from North Carolina and Nebraska and support staff from U.S. Department of Education.
Ky Ed Commish Terry Holliday
The international summits began in New York City and have expanded each year as their location has moved around the world. The primary focus has been to bring countries together to highlight key issues to enhance the teaching profession and take actions to address issues.
This year, one of the many interesting presentations came from Andreas Schleicher, who works at the Organization for Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD). Andreas is one of the world’s leading experts on education issues and he always has excellent presentations that are loaded with great information and policy recommendations. His presentation was based on a recent report from OECD titled Schools for 21st Century Learners: Strong Leaders, Confident Teachers, and Innovative Approaches.
One chart showed teacher perceptions of the value their society places on the teaching profession. It was no surprise to see that many Asian countries, Finland and several other European countries had the highest percentage of teachers saying that their society valued the teaching profession. One of the lowest countries in the survey was the United States. Why do U.S. teachers believe that our society does not value the teaching profession?
Recently, I spoke to the annual Kentucky Education Association Delegate Assembly and I offered a couple of reasons as to why teachers in this country do not think that the U.S. society values the teaching profession.1. Over emphasis on testing – the U.S is the only country in the world that seems totally fixated on annual testing. The U.S is fixated on using student test scores to evaluate teachers. The media reports are constantly focused on the singular issue of rankings on test scores and too many of our policy leaders “blame” teachers for poor academic performance of students in poverty.As I look forward to my retirement after 43 years in education, I am very concerned about the public’s perception of public schools and even more concerned that teachers in the U.S. do not feel that the public values the teaching profession. If policy leaders at the local, state and national level do not address teacher perceptions in this area, we will have extreme difficulty in the future recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers.
2. Lack of teacher voice and leadership – throughout the recent international summit, a key theme emerged: that we must engage teachers in decision making and provide opportunities for teacher leadership in our schools without teachers having to completely give up teaching. Most of our international competitors have been working on career pathways for a number of years. In the U.S., we have always focused on years of experience and postgraduate degrees for teacher pay increases rather than focus on teacher performance and leadership roles.
3. Working conditions – it comes as no surprise that teachers do not believe society values the teaching profession given working conditions survey results in areas like school leadership, professional development, time, resources, community support and facilities.
4. Teacher pay – in many countries starting teacher pay is similar to what comparable professions pay. In the US, starting teacher pay is well below what a starting engineer would receive.
5. Selectivity of teacher candidates – for years, the public has been bombarded with the concept that our teacher training programs are not recruiting from the best and brightest high school graduates. Countries like Singapore, Finland and South Korea are pointed to as examples of teacher training programs that recruit from the top 10 percent of high school graduates. An interesting slide in the presentation showed that this is not necessarily the case. This is an area that will need more research.
In the coming months, Kentucky will receive the 2015 results from the TELL Kentucky working conditions survey. Kentucky has the highest percentage of teacher respondents of any state in the nation. Using the results from this survey to address key policy issues during the 2016 session of the General Assembly could go a long way in addressing teacher concerns about the value the public puts on the teaching profession.
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Monday, April 13, 2015
Why aren’t teachers valued more?
This from Dr. H's Blog:
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9 comments:
It seems these comments from Holliday are a bit disingenuous and hypocritical. Perhaps with his upcoming retirement, he prefers to go out "supportive". Then again, I could be reading more into it than intended.
Who was the teacher from Spencer County?
If overemphasis on testing is really problematic, why does the Ky Dept of Education have policy requiring annual testing of all students in grades 3-8, and ACT and end-of-course exams in high school? "Teaching to the test" is bound to result if teachers and schools are "accountable" for test performance. No opt-out provision is available to students (unconstitutionally and unethically, in my view), because it is said (by KDE) to be essential that all students test so that accountability data are accurate. Testing is used to measure teacher and school performance, student learning/skill level, and ability to graduate. Money is spent on assessment that could be spent on providing resources to teachers and students. KY is the picture of overemphasis on testing if you ask me.
If overemphasis on testing is really problematic, why does the Ky Dept of Education have policy requiring annual testing of all students in grades 3-8, and ACT and end-of-course exams in high school? "Teaching to the test" is bound to result if teachers and schools are "accountable" for test performance. No opt-out provision is available to students (unconstitutionally and unethically, in my view), because it is said (by KDE) to be essential that all students test so that accountability data are accurate. Testing is used to measure teacher and school performance, student learning/skill level, and ability to graduate. Money is spent on assessment that could be spent on providing resources to teachers and students. KY is the picture of overemphasis on testing if you ask me.
It is not that I feel undervalued by the public, I actually felt undervalued by my education commissioner, Dr. Holliday and my former superintendents, Dr. Shelton and Mr. Silberman. Rach of these men made my job increasingly more difficult and prized paperwork and tired slogans over good teaching.
And now the last of these is leaving. Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, free at last.
As one of the comments notes, Holiday had influence over all of these elements with the exception of #5 and by my recollection did nothing but reinforce those conditions which devalued educators. If one were to go back and review comments from his first years as commish one will fine both a tone and message that calls into question the value of KY teachers and their efforts.
I returned to article today and was amazed that Dr. Holliday would make his final exit by saying teachers are undervalued. The implication is, of course, that he did all he could as Commissioner to make Kentucky teachers feel valued.
That being said, can any readers--or even the moderator-- tell me what Holliday did to make teachers feel valued?
Yes, I am one of the persistent questioners within the Fayette school system. A teacher by trade, I genuinely believe that since 2005 or so, men and women like Dr. Holliday and Michelle Rhee and Mr. Stu Silberman (no earned doctorate) have done everything they could to diminish the authority of the teaching profession. They brought us into line on the matter of testing, and silenced any opposition to their methods within in the teaching profession, and they knowingly worked with conservative critics to act as if they would take care of the "problem" (the teaching profession.
Good bye, Dr. Holliday. Let the final curtain fall. The tragedy is not that teachers are undervalued, but that you would make such a statement in your final days. Shouldn't this have been said your first year as Commissioner?
I think the departure of the commish being seen as a resolution of some sort of wishful thinking. Folks who have raised up through the leadership ranks are the ones who have not only drank the koolaid but been effective at forcing others to do so. He will just be replaced with another "reformer" who thinks he/she has all the answers and anyone who follows gets rewarded and any one who questions or challenges will branded lazy and harmful to kids - that is the way the game is played now.
I spiked a comment recently.
The Commenter claimed a "Discrimination complaint [was] filed by HRC" against specific FCPS board members. Also claimed, "OEA reports being filed on similar issues. Hopefully Doug will get the message and provide seats at the table for all."
Then the comment went a little too far.
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