By Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee
Of all the factors involved in giving children a good education at school, none is more important than their teacher.
Across the country, there are incredible stories of teachers having success in closing the achievement gap. Yet, despite their unmatched role in shaping our future, we still don’t treat teachers as true professionals.
There’s a reason why businesses provide ongoing training and development opportunities to their workers, why health professionals induct new nurses and physicians by doing rounds on actual patients, and why lawyers have mentors during their first years at firms.palauname
To help attract and retain bright teaching talent, we’ll need to make the teaching workplace look more like what other young workers expect: To be treated like professionals, with the respect, recognition, and resources needed to do their jobs.
We won’t be able to solve the many challenges facing our schools unless we change the way we think about teachers, talk about teachers and treat teachers. We can’t address the dropout crisis if we don’t also ensure that excellent teachers are placed in the neediest classrooms.
Improving the quality of assessments won’t get us far if we don’t ensure that teachers are challenging our students to think critically and solve problems. And adopting more rigorous standards won’t count for much if we don’t ensure teachers have access to the training and mentoring they need to help students meet higher expectations.
As we begin our work on writing NCLB/Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we have to do more
to support teachers and principals through the kinds of reforms that I proposed in legislation called the TEACH Act, including career ladders, mentoring and induction programs for new teachers, performance pay based on several criteria, not just test scores, and teacher residency programs.
We need to reward teachers whose students are making significant gains. We need to provide teachers with the means to help share their skills with less experienced teachers. And we need to encourage a team effort in schools.
These reforms will only be successful if they are done with teachers—not to teachers. At every step of the way, teachers must have a seat at the table. I was encouraged by the NEA’s recent plans to waive collective bargaining barriers to the fair and equitable distribution of teacher talent among schools. I hope this begins an honest conversation about how—together—we can create a modern teaching workplace that will help every teacher and every student excel.
President Obama and Secretary Duncan are serious about making the reforms needed to build the world-class education system we all envision for our children. If we treat our teachers like the professionals that they are, we’ll be much closer to the formula for lasting educational and economic success.
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Now it is your turn. What do you think?
All teachers are going to have to speak up, (and loudly) against teacher pay tied to student scores. The unions are not going to do it for you. You are your best advocate. All political officials that are for this need to be voted out of their positions at the local, state and federal levels. Enough is enough. Speak up! (And follow the money, there is some reason for the get rid of public education push)
I loved the comments from both Pamela and Lisa. These issues, and many others, are discussed as length in my book, The Twilight’s Last Gleaming On Public Education, available via Xlibris.com. Just search the online bookstore by title. You will find the discussion of politically motivated manipulation of “professional teachers” particularly insightful. See if you can identify with problems discussed. Let me know if you agree with the recommended solutions.
I can relate to this really easy, thank you. I have subscribed to your RSS.
I have always felt my administration treats me like a professional. POLITICIANS seem to know more about education and teaching than I do because the are constantly creating new laws and regulations that I must abide by that has little do do with making me a better teacher or even more professional. Most take away from the teaching experience and complicate the process by requiring additional paperwork.
We would be treated more like a professional if we could hold parents accountable for their child’s’ behavior. Bill the parents for detentions and behavior problems. Have a tax form to be filled out when they do or do not show up for conferences. It is a waste of my time preparing for a conference then the parents do not call or show up. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN OTHER PROFESSIONS. YOU WOULD BE BILLED FOR THEIR TIME.
Have you heard that joke about the teacher who tells the student he needs to get an education or he will end up driving a garbage truck for the rest of his life? The garbage truck driver gets more respect, earns more money, and puts in a shorter day than the teacher! Joke’s on us.
Pamela, loved the comment on garbage truck workers. What a total scream…..thanks for the good laugh! It’s so true! LOL!
Coming from a business background into education I can’t help notice the lack of basic management skills training for administrators. Few know how to manage adults to inspire self-esteem, loyalty, and productivity. There is also a complete lack of trusted opportunity to provide feedback to supervisors, something that was a given in my previous line of work.
Bringing the best out of workers is a whole set of skills and experiences. It is not enough to work your way through a school system to be capable of undertaking such an important leadership role. I see too many teachers micro-managed and disrespected as if they are children. Add to that their lack of professional grade compensation and the stress of living paycheck to paycheck, it is easy to see why so many leave this field in a few short years. It is a loss for our students of talented professionals.
Rep. Miller is to be commended for his recognition of the lack of professional treatment of teachers. I also strongly agree with Lisa’s analysis of the management issues. Teacher compensation needs to be totally redesigned in this country, and it needs to be done by us teachers, not to or for us. That’s one way to ensure that it will not be based solely on test scores. On the other hand, we and our representative organizations, such as NEA, need to push more strongly into the public view the other ways (along with standardized testing) that teachers use to evaluate students’ progress and performance and why they can trust those evaluations.
I totally agree with you about Principlas- they get degrees in “Educational Leadership” but some principals/assistant principals/supervisors/superintedents/board members couldn’t lead the Titanic to the bottom of the sea much less a school of 50+ adults/professionals.
Most teachers become principals for more money or to get out of the classroom, and have no idea how to lead.
Some would rather counsel than discipline.
I agree with each of the other people. I would like to share something else. During these difficult times not only are teachers not being treated as professionals they’re seeing their administrators take pay raises while their districts are not hiring substitutes. Teachers are rotating during prep. periods to substitute for colleagues who are ill. This is how our administrators make budget cuts. How on earth can they live with themselves?
Administrators live with their decisions just fine, it’s the rest of us that have a problem LOL…..
I am, with conditions, in favor of providing limited rewards to teachers who improve test scores, but I don’t think it should total more than a small percentage of compensation. Let me explain. Test scores in my class depend on several factors. Unlike an ice cream company which can demand a high quality raw ingredient, I can only work with the raw ingredient which walks through my door at the beginning of the school year. My dear sweet students come from home situations which are admirable, and home situations which shock and worry me. They come with books in their hands, or never having looked inside a book. On test day, they may be exhausted because there was a fight in their home last night, or someone is bullying them, or they just aren’t interested in taking a test and would rather randomly tap keys or fill in bubbles. By the time they take the tests, they may have been in several schools, with several teachers, taught in several ways. There are some issues the school can work on, such as feeding hungry kids, but there are many more issues teachers are powerless to change. And still, teachers who are bombarded with demands from some parents for more homework, and scolded for giving too much homework by other parents, who provide food rewards for classroom achievements, who keep a stash of clean socks in a drawer for kids who have wet feet, and give special attention to kids who just need a little recognition each day, — these teachers still manage to achieve academic growth for their students each year. I guess my point is that GROWTH, not some arbitrary achievement percentage number, should be the criteria for any compensation based on test scores. I also firmly believe that any additional compensation for test scores should be treated as a bonus, rather than as part of the compensation package.
I have to say, I don’t believe you. Your honest conversation is a non-starter when you don’t call out RTTT’s incentive pay scheme. There is no evidence base for any kind of so-called performance based pay schemes. NEA, as a dues-paying member, please stop giving this kind of doublespeak a venue.