CTQ in the News

Ending the Battles Over Teaching: Barnett Berry offers a new view and a third way

Everyone knows and research shows that teachers are the key--the single most influential school-based factor--to whether students achieve. But this may be the only point of agreement in the battles over how to improve teaching. In a commentary that appeared in the May 20 edition of Education Week, Barnett Berry speaks to these divisions but looks beyond them with a vision of teaching's future. His "third way" invites educators into a profession poised to give every student a well-prepared and effective teacher.

Everyone knows and research shows that teachers are the key--the single most influential school-based factor--to whether students achieve. But this may be the only point of agreement in the battles over how to improve teaching. In a commentary that appeared in the May 20 edition of Education Week, Barnett Berry speaks to these divisions but looks beyond them with a vision of teaching's future. His "third way" invites educators into a profession poised to give every student a well-prepared and effective teacher.

Strategic Management of Human Capital: Making Smart Investments in Teachers and Principals

The strategic management of human capital (SMHC) has emerged as a new and important topic in education. In a report commissioned by the Colorado Legacy Foundation, with support from the Rose Community Foundation, Barnett Berry examines issues and evidence central to understanding the role SMHC might play in transforming schools.

The strategic management of human capital (SMHC) has emerged as a new and important topic in education. In a report commissioned by the Colorado Legacy Foundation, with support from the Rose Community Foundation, Barnett Berry examines issues and evidence central to understanding the role SMHC might play in transforming schools.

Christian Science Monitor: Teacher preparation needs to move beyond "false dichotomy"

Barnett Berry encourages education reformers to focus on meeting the needs of kids - instead of re-hashing old labels - in this ongoing series examining America's preparation of our teachers.

Are America's children better served by teachers prepared through traditional university-based education programs or a host of alternative pathways to the classroom? Christian Science Monitor attempts to tackle this contentious question in an ongoing series examining America's preparation of our teachers.

But drawing the battle lines based on these camps is a "false dichotomy" argues CTQ president Barnett Berry, "since there is often far more variation in quality and design within the two camps than between them." Instead, we need to raise our teacher preparation bar higher and recognize that "the vast majority of both traditional teacher-education programs and alternative certification programs are not meeting the needs of kids," argues Berry.

See how others respond to the issue of teacher preparation by reading the full article here.

Metlife Survey of the American Teacher: A Quarter Century of Teacher Voice

Metlife Survey of the American Teacher: Past, Present, and Future gives us a glimpse into how teachers' views and ideas have changed over time, and the Center for Teaching Quality offers a perspective on what we can learn.

Since 1984, Metlife Foundation has conducted an annual survey that asks teachers what they're thinking about their experiences and important issues in education. The Foundation has painted a compelling picture of what teachers see every day in their classrooms.

And now, with twenty-five years of data, Metlife Survey of the American Teacher: Past, Present, and Future gives us a glimpse into how teachers' views and ideas have changed over time. Bloggers (including the Teacher Leaders Network's Tempered Radical) are taking stock of the data. One of the most surprising findings? The percentage of teachers who report that they are "very satisfied" with their career rose from 40% to 62% between 1984 and 2008. More teachers are also encouraging young people to enter the profession and feeling more recognized for the work that they do. And principals report that the quality of new teachers entering the profession has improved.

The Metlife data raises several red flags and questions in addition to bringing some good news. Teachers are changing their minds about standardized testing: 61% found it helpful for tracking student performance in 1984 versus just 48% in 2008. Survey data are confirming that challenges like lack of parental support and large numbers of English Language Learners are magnified in urban schools where teachers are also more likely to report tough working conditions. Today, teachers are more likely to report that their students' abilities are so mixed it's challenging to teach effectively (39% in 1988 vs. 43% in 2008). And teachers don't necessarily have opportunities to fully embrace new tools and collaborate with their peers.  A full third of teachers with 21 or more years of experience report that they rarely meet with a new teacher to discuss teaching and 85% of teachers surveyed in 2008 had never participated in a virtual learning community for professional reasons.

Read more about the findings and the questions they raise in the quest to make schools better for teaching and learning.

Education Week: NCATE updates teacher accreditation process

In an Education Week article about the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's plans to update their accreditation process, Barnett Berry weighs in on what meaningful, effective teacher preparation should entail--bringing clinical experience to the foreground.

In an Education Week article about the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's plans to update their accreditation process, Barnett Berry weighs in on what meaningful, effective teacher preparation should entail--bringing clinical experience to the foreground.

NCATE president James Cibulka has reported that accreditation standards will focus more on the student teaching experience and on ensuring that content area preparation is well-integrated with pedagogy. Further details will be rolled out in coming weeks.

Educational Leadership: Bill Ferriter shows teachers how they can digitally embrace their own learning

In the February 2009 issue of Educational Leadership, Teacher Leaders Network blogger Bill Ferriter explains how he has used blogs and wikis to fuel his own professional development and reveals how educators can make the most of the abundance of learning opportunities around the blogosphere. 

A recent ASCD Smartbrief highlighted TLN blogger Bill Ferriter's InService guest blog post "The Curse of the Digitally Illiterate" and his February 2009 Educational Leadership article "Learning With Blogs and Wikis". In his blog post, Bill gets tough on the issue of educators' digital skills: "There are hundreds of teachers that haven't yet mastered the kinds of tools that have become a part of the fabric of learning—and life—for our students." In Educational Leadership, Bill shows the path to using those tools effectively and explains how he has fueled his own professional development with blogs and wikis. He writes: 

Thousands of accomplished educators are now writing blogs about teaching and learning, bringing transparency to both the art and the science of their practice. In every content area and grade level and in schools of varying sizes and from different geographic locations, educators are actively reflecting on instruction, challenging assumptions, questioning policies, offering advice, designing solutions, and learning together. And all this collective knowledge is readily available for free."

Bill reveals how to use RSS feeds and aggregators to make the most of the abundance of learning opportunities available around the net. His blog The Tempered Radical is a rich example of these opportunities. At the Radical, which won the Edublog Award for best teacher's blog in 2007, BIll shares assessment tools and digital examples of student work such as voicethreads and wikis. He recently brought Readicide author Kelly Ghallager to his blog, drawing a national audience of educators into a conversation about literacy. 

Barnett Berry Featured in Medill Reports Story on Pathways to Teaching

 
A new report from Strategic Management of Human Capital could bring good holiday tidings to human resource professionals tasked with recruiting and keeping top teacher talent in traditionally hard-to-staff urban districts. The group uses case study analyses in areas such as New York, Chicago, Boston, and Long Beach, California to suggest that these large districts have made progress with potentially scalable strategies including early hiring and alternative preparation programs.
 
However, as Barnett Berry tells the writer of a recent article in Medill Reports, alternate pathway programs like Teach for America aren't necessarily a cure-all for urban schools' ills. "To think that you can get prepared to teach in an urban school in five weeks is foolhardy at best," he warns. However, Berry also doesn't offer a reprieve to all traditional teacher preparation. "The critics of (traditional) teacher education are spot on. There are education schools that aren't doing their job. But the fact that they're not doing their job doesn't mean we should do away with them at large."
 
See if you agree with Berry's recommendations for comprehensively preparing new teachers for the students who need them most by accessing the article, "Need a Degree to Teach ABC?" at Northwestern's Medill Reports online. 

 

Educational Leadership: Using Data, Changing Teaching

Barnett Berry, Carolann Wade and Paula Trantham report in Educational Leadership on how data from working conditions surveys shed light on needed changes in schools.

Barnett Berry, Carolann Wade and Paula Trantham report in Educational Leadership on how data from working conditions surveys shed light on needed changes in schools. If you are not a subscriber you can still read the abstract to learn how one North Carolina elementary school used its own working conditions data to inform improvements like creating professional learning communities.

Inside CTQ: New Report Synthesizes Research on Teacher Working Conditions

CTQ seeks to supply a missing piece of the teacher efficacy and retention puzzle through emerging initiative.

Much of the current conversation around the strategic management of human capital in education has focused on recruiting high-quality teacher candidates and compensating them as professionals. However, it is equally important to create the conditions necessary for teachers' success and their long-term retention. A new report from the Center for Teaching Quality synthesizes what we know and understand about this important piece in the teacher efficacy and retention puzzle, while also surfacing some of the limitations of the current literature.

While survey research, much of it conducted by CTQ, has suggested strongly that there are connections between working conditions and certain teacher and student outcomes, little is known about the causal links among a range of variables. CTQ, with support from the Ford Foundation, is embarking on a new study to more closely examine the impact of working conditions across four urban districts. Using our successful TeacherSolutions model, we will engage highly accomplished teachers from several districts to infuse their insights into a more refined understanding of the conditions that structure their daily professional lives.

Read more about CTQ's analysis of current research on teacher working conditions and directions for our ongoing granular work in the recently released white paper,Understanding Teacher Working Conditions: A Review and Look to the Future. 

 

Futures: Barnett Berry shares vision with PDK EDge, Colorado Association of School Boards

The November/December edition of PDK EDge features Barnett Berry's vision for and provocative questions about the future of teaching and learning. Listen to Berry expand on his insights through this newly released podcast from PDK EDge. You can also view the highlights of his presentation on the future of teaching to the Colorado Association of School Boards.

The November/December edition of PDK EDge features Barnett Berry's vision for and provocative questions about the future of teaching and learning. Berry transcends the traditional polarizing debates and asks us to imagine a dynamic profession prepared to teach, collaborate and lead in the 21st century. Members of Phi Delta Kappa can access the full article and accompanying podcast. If you're not a member, you can still read the executive summary or listen to the PDK EDge podcast interview with Barnett Berry.

On December 6, Berry presented to the Colorado Association of School Boards, highlighting several promising initiatives occurring in the state.

Look for more of the Center for Teaching Quality's work on the future of the teaching profession through TeacherSolutions: The Future of Teaching. Twelve teacher leaders join the CTQ team to examine future forces affecting education and to envision what teachers, students and schools will look like in the year 2030.

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