Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, the new chairman of the Education Commission of the States, last week named a 17-member task force to help involve teachers more directly in the education-reform movement and to assess its effects on the teaching profession.
Governor Kean had announced at the ecs annual meeting in July that he would set up the task force of business and political leaders and educators and had said it would plan a series of national forums “to enable state policy leaders to listen to teachers discuss policy actions that could improve the [teaching] profession.”
The national forums are part of a “teacher renaissance initiative,” also announced by Governor Kean, to improve the teaching profession by bringing teachers more directly into the reform process, said Robert M. Palaich, a senior policy analyst for the ecs
In addition, the task force will “take a good hard look” at how state reforms have affected teachers and their work, Mr. Palaich said. After that assessment, the group will release a report on trends, unique state approaches for improving the teaching profession, and areas that remain to be addressed by policymakers, he said.
Members of the task force include:
Richard L. Thornburgh, governor, Pennsylvania; Robert McElrath, commissioner of education, Tennessee; Saul Cooperman, commissioner of education, New Jersey; Michael Timpane, president, Teachers College, Columbia University; Terry Dozier, National Teacher of the Year, Columbia, S.C.; Robert Lynch, teacher, Glen Head, N.Y.; Alonzo Crim, superintendent of schools, Atlanta; Howard Rawlings, state delegate, Maryland; Annette Morgan, state representative, Missouri; Patricia Graham, dean, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; Robert Koff, dean, School of Education, suny-Albany; Lewis Branscombe, chief scientist, ibm Corporation; Sue Hovey, teacher, Moscow, Idaho; Mary Helen Berlenga, member, Texas State Board of Education; Randall L. Tobias, chairman, at&t Communications; Kim Natale, teacher, Arvada, Colo.; Cliff Trow, state senator, Oregon.
