On Performance
Justin Baeder is a public school principal in Seattle and a doctoral student studying principal performance and productivity at the University of Washington. In this blog he examined issues of performance, improvement, and the changing nature of the education profession. This blog is no longer being updated.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Un-Flattening the Teaching Profession
One of the chief challenges to the teaching profession's status as a profession is its flatness. A first-year teacher has the same duties and working conditions as a 30-year veteran, and while the latter may be higher on the pay scale, not much else changes as a teacher (or a principal, for that matter) gains experience and expertise.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Putting a Value on Instructional Time
If teaching is to be treated as a true profession, as I believe it should, how much value should we place on teachers' time?
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Teachers, Blueberries, and Developing Your People
Guest Post By Sean Glaze of Great Results Teambuilding
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Charter Rhetoric Heating Up in WA State
Despite being voted down by citizens three times, charter schools are again up for consideration by the WA state legislature, with many backers.
Education
Opinion
A Change in Plans and an Invitation
Unless this is your first visit to this blog, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted in about a month. I owe you an explanation and an apology for the lack of communication.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Are We Expecting Too Much of Teacher Evaluation Systems?
I pay a lot of attention to teacher evaluation in this country, and it seems that the issue grows in urgency every day. Yet I have to stop and ask: How much can we expect teacher evaluation to accomplish?
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
An Odd Proposal for Teacher Education
Right now, teacher education varies tremendously within the US. Nearly all teacher training and certification programs are housed in colleges and universities, where they are widely regarded as "cash cows"—easy to get into, and profitable for their institutions. Some of these programs are excellent, many are fair to middling, and some are very poor. We have the kind of variation you'd expect in a country this big, with as decentralized an education system as we have. It is our way.
School & District Management
Opinion
Coherence, Innovation, and Local Control
It will be very difficult to raise the status of the education profession if our goal isn't to have an education system that's on par with the best in the world. At present, our school districts merely have to compete with each other for talent, so the profession isn't very competitive compared with other career options for the bright and driven. Many still choose it, but not in the numbers we see in Finland and Singapore, which have national "top-third" teacher recruitment strategies. If teacher salaries and status are going to increase, it's going to be due to a large-scale strategy to make the US more globally competitive. Local school boards have neither the incentive nor the resources to make these changes.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Our 'Social Security Crisis' in Teacher Compensation
There's little doubt that the Social Security system is broken. While it provides a critical safety net for senior citizens, it's one of the worst retirement investments I could possibly make. I honestly don't expect to see a dime of the Social Security tax I pay returned to me as retirement benefits.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Making Teacher Compensation a Non-Issue
Last week, I shared a provocative quote from Marc Tucker of the National Center on Education and the Economy: