Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog: Are We Ready to Overhaul the Teaching Profession?

A long article in AEI's Education Outlook on this issue:

In today's school reform discussions, the teaching profession is often mistakenly viewed as a singular activity. Evaluating teachers for their performance in the classroom assumes that the focus should be on each individual teacher. Merit pay and performance pay both assume that student achievement is the result of only the individual teacher. But it is not. In this Outlook, I use my experience as a school superintendent to articulate a vision of twenty-first-century teacher leaders--who work collaboratively to accomplish their goals--and explain the issues that might arise for schools and districts implementing this new model.

Key points in this Outlook:

· Calls for merit pay and performance pay for teachers still miss a crucial point: teaching must be a collaborative team effort, and incentivizing individual teachers will not accomplish our ambitious goals.

· Twenty-first-century "teacher leaders" would take on additional responsibilities and work outside the traditional school day and school year, with a 10-15 percent increase in pay.

· While adopting a teacher-leaders model may raise short-term issues, education needs this culture shift to attract better teachers and benefit all students.

-------------------

Dangerous Mind Games

Are We Ready to Overhaul the Teaching Profession?

By Jack D. Dale | Education Outlook
(June 2011)

http://www.aei.org/outlook/101053