My NYC colleague Stephen Lazar has published a thoughtful response to the US Department of Education’s (ED) Project RESPECT proposal in SchoolBook: In new federal program to reward teachers, flawed assumptions. ED has been holding teacher roundtables across the country to share and receive feedback on the proposal, which calls for a transformation of the teaching profession.
I had the opportunity to participate in such a roundtable at my school, which was great in that it pushed my colleagues and I to begin important conversations about the future of our profession that we probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. I applaud ED for starting these conversations across the country—and for ensuring that they are teacher-led (all were facilitated by ED’s Teacher Ambassador Fellows). The proposal suggests many steps in the right direction, but I am concerned about some of the same assumptions that Stephen points out in his article. It’s well-worth the read; I hope ED is listening.
