Teacher Professionalism

Read more about efforts to professionalize teaching and improve its status, and hear what teachers think about their profession
Teaching Profession Opinion Teaching: The Most Valuable Human Resource
If districts, states, and the country don't make sweeping changes to public schools and the cities housing them, recruiting more teachers is going to be a waste of time and money and trying to retain those teachers will be a fool's errand. Great teachers should be rewarded for being great teachers, and they can be identified as such without an over-reliance on test scores. While financial incentives may work for some, increased autonomy and the ability to pursue customized professional development are equally important to others, and retaining great teachers will require both.
Nancy Flanagan, March 7, 2016
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4 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Defining Teacher Leadership
Is the goal of teacher leadership to "improve teaching and learning practices?" Well--it's one possible goal. But isn't there a panoply of goals involved in teacher leadership? What about the assertion that we're wrestling with leadership for one reason---to increase student learning and achievement? Pushing teacher leadership into the "practice" box and narrowing its scope to jazzed-up instructional strategies and "measuring" learning is precisely where "reformers" would like to lead us. Notice who's being "influenced" in the definition-- not policy-makers, the media or the general public. Stay in that classroom, teacher. We'll make the big decisions that shape your work.
Nancy Flanagan, February 12, 2016
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3 min read
Equity & Diversity Opinion Do 'Upper Crust' Teachers Ignore Our Most Critical Problems in Public Education?
Affluence makes even mediocre teaching look good and poverty can make masterful teaching appear mediocre. It takes many clock hours within classroom walls to decipher the difference. Few education change-makers and upper crust teachers dedicate that kind of time to our neglected classrooms. The essential resource that is missing is our presence. Detroit's inhumane classroom conditions didn't occur overnight; they existed for at least a generation. Where were we?
Nancy Flanagan, January 27, 2016
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4 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion What's Going Down in Detroit Today?
Today, a group of Detroit teachers--fed up with Darnell Earley, the same Emergency Manager who presided over the Flint water scandal, and a raft of further harmful offenses to real Detroit children and their education--organized a sick-out. They did so in frustration, knowing full well they would be accused of greediness, or keeping children from their federally subsidized meals. They did so knowing they will be labeled "unprofessional," led around by their unions (false)--when their actions represent what is ultimately the core of what professionalism means: autonomy over important work.
Nancy Flanagan, January 11, 2016
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6 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion When It Comes to Education, America Has a Lot to Learn
Themes around quality education are woven into Michael Moore's latest film: From France, delicious fresh-food school lunches, including a cheese course, designed to make students healthier and more conscious of good eating habits. Free college educations for all students in Slovenia (including American ex-pats, escaping absurd loan debt back home). Enlightened, non-punitive sex education. Teachers who feel entirely autonomous in their classrooms. European teachers who pity American educators, because their work is evaluated by their students' testing data.
Nancy Flanagan, December 28, 2015
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4 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Five Cynical Observations About Teacher Leadership
Who's really in charge of explaining school-embedded teacher leadership, selecting the right goals and purposes for individual classrooms? Who is inspiring teachers to find their own paths--based on the own carefully honed experience and observations--to lead? Is what we're seeing about teacher leadership in the media driven by the big cannons--the federal government, the well-funded organizations and grant-receiving universities--rather than actual teachers working in grubby classrooms, scattered across the country?
Nancy Flanagan, November 10, 2015
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4 min read
Teacher Preparation Opinion Certification, Genuine Teacher Leadership, and Power Struggles
When authentic, experienced teacher leaders step out of their boxes to speak about education issues, they always run the risk of stepping on the toes--or in the limelight--of someone above them in the pecking order. Simply expressing a widely shared viewpoint feels like subordination to some school leaders. When teachers have a national platform and thousands of readers or fans--when their voice and leadership are elevated--they become a threat.
Nancy Flanagan, November 3, 2015
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4 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Let's Blame the Parents!
Just try to read an editorial or feature piece on education, via any media outlet at all, without coming across a commenter who wants to righteously and indignantly toss all the problems--from low test scores to Security Guards Run Amok--back into parents' laps. It's as if the rest of American society didn't exist. As if grinding poverty, political corruption, greed, cultural debasement and racism had nothing to do with the so-called failings of students and their families. Let's blame the parents.
Nancy Flanagan, October 29, 2015
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3 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion Calling Parents: To Keep Kids in Line or Help Them Learn?
Parents don't just want to hear what's wrong with their children. Telling them what's right about their children earns trust and cooperation--from them and their children alike.
David Ginsburg, August 30, 2015
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3 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Professional Development Is Useless! Or Not.
I have to say I'm grateful that I taught for 30 years in a district that did not try to help me "understand my weaknesses"--a process that all teachers go through, with varying degrees of introspective pain and effort, even those (perhaps especially those) who have long-term careers in the classroom. The implication here is that teachers' own assessment of their effectiveness is worthless--they're oblivious to or ignorant of their shortcomings. This is patently absurd.
Nancy Flanagan, August 9, 2015
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5 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Five Things to Incentivize in Teacher Compensation Plans
Does "differentiating" teacher pay (beyond the usual salary schedule) result in Better Teaching and More Learning? Can we use financial incentives to build the teacher force every school leader dreams of: bright stars relentlessly pursuing the all-important data, working 60 hours a week, cheerfully compliant?
Nancy Flanagan, July 16, 2015
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5 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Thank You, Ordinary Teachers, for Doing Extraordinary Things
Teachers go beyond their everyday roles to support students and families every day. But they need better support from their districts.
Barbara Gottschalk, July 6, 2015
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2 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Stop Preaching and Start Teaching
Don't tell students they can be successful. Show them how to be successful.
David Ginsburg, May 31, 2015
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2 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Six Questions About Teacher Evaluation
Recently, nearly every story about improving teacher evaluation begins with the Bad Old Days, where substandard teachers slipped through the cracks, due to thoroughly inadequate attention to and assessment of their work. If you believe these op-eds, teachers' core work was essentially carried out without scrutiny. Until--drumroll--new and rigorous evaluation protocols, always including lots of student testing data, turned everything around. Evaluations! The cure for both listless teaching and anemic test scores!
Nancy Flanagan, May 28, 2015
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5 min read
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