Youth Discipleship - It's Not About You

By Jamie Starrett

Youth discipleship is a vital component of both your ministry and the lives of your students. But in order for the process to be as effective as it can possibly be you have to remember one key idea. Discipleship is not about you. If you do not grasp and believe this then your discipleship ministry will never be successful. In this article I will help you understand this idea and show you who discipleship is in fact about.

Many student pastors make discipleship all about them. They have a model or a certain way that things should be done and they are determined that this is the way things are going to be. They also often think that all students should be just like them. Some of this is okay. You do want to have a plan. You do want to set an example for your students in the way that you live. But you have to always keep an eye on what the big picture is or instead your youth discipleship will become very self-centered. But what is the big picture? What is discipleship all about?

First of all it is about God. This process is about what God has for your students and what He wants for their lives. Your role is to seek Him and try to find out what this plan is. Then see what part you can play in that. If this plan goes in line with the way you like to do things then great. But if it does not then you must lay down your goals and plans and follow God.

Next, this process is about your students. Your students have many needs. Some of them need comfort. Some of them need direction. All of them need to grow spiritually. Your job is to meet those needs and to realize that each student is unique. They are not all in the same situations and do not all have the same struggles. You must listen intently and hear what your students are saying and discern what they are hiding from you. Then decide how you can most effectively minister to them.

Finally, a part of youth discipleship is about you. You do play a role. You are to be a humble servant and keep all the focus on God. You must not seek attention or acclaim. Instead you must just seek God and celebrate the fact that He is allowing you to be a part of someone experiencing life change and becoming a life-changer.

Discipleship is what we are called to and this needs to be taking place in your ministry. While you will need help from other people to disciple all of your students you must also disciple someone. But in that process do not make it about you. Make it about God, make it about your student, and make it about you clearly understanding your role in God's plan for this student's life so that you can fulfill that role faithfully and to the glory of God.

Discover other info about youth discipleship that student pastors use every day to reach students in their community.

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Jamie Starrett is a student pastor and has been at the same church for over 12 years and He loves it! He has two boys that he loves going camping and riding bikes with and a beautiful wife that is his best friend and partner in life.

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Youth Sunday School Curriculum - Setting Norms

By Jamie Starrett

If you are a teacher of a youth Sunday school curriculum, especially if you teach in a small group format, the key to your group's success will be setting norms. Norms are basically rules that the members of your group agree on and then follow. Each group is unique and therefore will have its own norms. Therefore this article will not deal so much with specific norms as try to give you some specific categories that you need to keep in mind when setting your small groups norms.

    Confidentiality- In any small group made up of teens there will be serious issues going on. Many of your students will be dealing with the divorce of their parents, addictions, abuse, and other serious issues. The place to deal with these issues though and find comfort is in your small group. But this cannot happen unless your students feel like your groups is a safe place. Therefore one of the first things you must do as a leader is set a norm that what is said at the table or in the room stays there. But be wise in this. You must realize that you have a legal responsibility to report some things so let your students know that while your group is safe you cannot promise them that you will not let someone know what they share.

    Communication- Much of the time in your study of whatever youth Sunday school curriculum you choose will be spent in discussion. In order for this to be an effective time though you will need some norms concerning who can talk, when they can talk, what can be shared, and how it should be shared. These will change slightly depending on the lesson topic and the age and makeup of your group, but for the most part should remain very consistent.

    New Member norms- One of the goals of your group should be growth. You should always be actively looking for opportunities for growth and outreach. Plus, whether you like it or not, your group will have new members as new families join your church. This is why you need to set some norms that ensure that new students feel welcome and comfortable in your group. There are a lot of different strategies to going about this so just think about the personality and needs of your group and then go from there. But whatever you do make sure that your group is a place where people are drawn in and made a part of strong Christian community.

Norms are the key to any successful small group study of youth Sunday school curriculum. Without them you will have mass chaos and no learning will take place and your group will definitely not grow. Therefore take a few moments at the beginning of your next small group session and set the norms for your group of students. This little extra time invested will make a great difference in your small group and the lives of those students who are a part of it.

Discover other info about Youth Sunday School curriculum that student pastors use every day to reach students in their community.

Drop by our site http://www.youthsundayschoolcurriculum.com

Jamie Starrett is a student pastor and has been at the same church for over 12 years and He loves it! He has two boys that he loves going camping and riding bikes with and a beautiful wife that is his best friend and partner in life.

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Disciple Now - Finding Leaders For Your Disciple Now

By Jamie Starrett

One of the biggest keys to any successful Disciple now weekend is finding the correct leaders. These are the people whom you will entrust with much of your weekend. And if you want your vision to become reality, they are the ones who will make it happen. So how do you ensure that you find the right leaders that will make your event all that you hoped it would be? That is what we will address in this article so that you can make the right decision when it comes to who you will bring in as leaders for your event.

The first suggestion I have when it comes to finding leaders is to find people you already know. There are usually two ways to go about this. One is to allow the small group leaders in your ministry also lead the groups for your disciple now weekend. This has many benefits. For one they already have relationships with your students. But also they understand how you work and what you expect from them. The other option is to think through former students who are now in college or may be working but could come in for a weekend. This is a great option because you give them an opportunity to serve and lead and once again you know them well. This is honestly the most popular option.

The next thing you have to consider is setting high standards. Just because someone is available does not mean that they will be good. A lot of people have free time, which can be helpful but they may not have integrity or any biblical knowledge. You need to be careful when you choose leaders and set high expectations in making your decisions. Then you need to communicate those high expectations. Do not settle for second best. I am not going to give you a list of qualities and qualifications but do not fall into the trap of scrambling for leaders and thinking that no one will want to help so you must just choose who ever is near by. With that we come to our last point.

Keep an open mind about what makes a great leader. I am not cancelling out my last point, just simply offering some clarification to help you keep from making a drastic mistake. When I told you to set high standards you probably immediately got an idea of what type of person makes a great leader. But I have been amazed how people who I never would have thought of made the best leaders. They were not "cool" and they definitely were not young, but students loved them and they had a massive impact. So ask for God to lead you and give you wisdom so you can make the correct decision.

Choosing your leaders may be the most important decision you make in planning your Disciple Now weekend and should be taken very seriously. Hopefully these steps will help you make these decicions wisely and effectively.

Find more great information on Disciple Now.

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Jamie Starrett is a passionate youth pastor with years of experience reaching the students in his community. He is also a loving father and husband.

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Disciple Now - Finding Host Homes

By Jamie Starrett

Traditionally, one of the most important components of a successful disciple now weekend is finding host homes. In this article we will discuss what is a host home, what to look for in a good host home, and how to find people who are willing to be a host home.

A host home is a family that is willing to open up their house to a group of students for the entire weekend of your event. This is obviously a vital part of your event planning since if your students do not have a place to stay you basically have no event. This is also important though because other than your leaders, your host home parents will quite possibly spend the most time with your students.

Now that we know what a host home is we need to consider what to look for in a good host home. The primary thing is that the place where your students will be safe. I encourage you to have each host parent go through a background check. This should be done even if you have had a long relationship with the people who are volunteering. This way you make sure to not leave anything to chance and avoid any surprises. Plus the parents of your students can rest at ease that everything possible has been done to ensure the safety of their students. Another thing that I would consider is that the person have a growing relationship with God. If their faith is not important to them then you cannot be sure of what they might share with their students and what example they might set for your kids. The final thing that I might consider is their involvement in the church. This might be good just because it gives them a little more credibility and it may mean that they will be more able to answer questions about the events of the weekend and locations as they arise. Other than that, I would be pretty open to who wants to be a host home leader because you would be amazed about what type of people have been the best disciple now hosts. I am always pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less, at the people who love the weekend, and want to come back for another year even after their home is nearly left in shambles by a group of middle schoolers.

The final thing to consider in this process is how to find the right people to open up their houses. The big thing is that you have to get the word out. Spread the news through word of mouth. Make announcements in your worship services. Tell your kids to ask their parents. Put a message in the bulletin. Use social media. Post something to the church website. Do whatever it takes to make sure that the word gets out and keep going until you have more than enough homes so that you do not have to worry about kids not having a place to stay.

Host homes are a vital part of your disciple now weekend and hopefully these tips will help you successfully find all the houses that you need for your event.

Find other great info about Disciple Now that student pastors use every day to reach their community.

Drop by our site http://disciplenowcurriculum.com

Jamie Starrett is a passionate student pastor with years of experience reaching the students in his community. He is also a loving husband and father.

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Disciple Now - Handling Scheduling Conflicts

By Jamie Starrett

In planning a Disciple Now weekend one of the first things that you will discover is that there is never a perfect weekend. No matter when you schedule your event some students will have a scheduling conflict and will want to use it as an excuse not to come. But when handled properly you can get around these scheduling conflicts so that as many students as possible attend in your weekend event. In this article I want to share three strategies with you that can help you to handle these conflicts so your event can be a great success.

The first strategy is prevention. In planning your event you need to do everything you can to try and choose the best weekend possible. Again, no weekend will ever be perfect but the fewer conflicts the better. One way to do this is to get access to the school event calendars in your area. This may be time consuming if you live in a large city with many schools, but even then most of these are available online and are very easy to access. This way you can look and plan when the least amount of students will be affected by the scheduling of your Disciple Now weekend.

The second strategy is to offer time away cards. This is simply a card that the student and their parent or guardian fill out where they give you the info of where the student will be and when. The parents or guardians can then sign acknowledging that they are aware of this and giving permission. You then give this card to the host home so that they know what to expect. The great thing about this is not only that it removes a lot of the administrative hassle since it is a very simple process, it also removes many of the excuses that students want to give. This way the second they say they cannot attend your event because of a conflict you remove the excuse by telling them they can do both.

The final strategy is to just be straight forward and stern with them and tell your students they need to make sure they have the right priorities. This is because some students may have legitimate excuses and conflicts but some students are just trying to get out of coming. This is often because they do not want to grow in their faith and hear what God wants to tell them. It is in these cases and even some others where you need to tell your students that they need to choose what is most important to them, their faith or their activities. These conversations may not be fun or easy but they are quite often necessary.

Disciple now is fun and important event so you want as many students as possible there. While you can never schedule your event perfectly to where all students can come, hopefully these strategies will help you deal with the scheduling conflicts that do arise.

Find other great info about Disciple Now that student pastors use to reach students everyday.

Drop by our site http://disciplenowcurriculum.com

Jamie Starrett is a passionate student pastor with reaching students in his community. He is also a loving husband and father.

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How To Teach Kids About Fire Safety And Prevention

By Nick Sylvester

It is very important to teach kids what to do to prevent fire accidents, but it's very difficult to keep them interested on the topic without scaring them off or without boring them. This article will help you, as a responsible adult to teach kids fire safety and prevention - the fun way.

Before starting a discussion about this topic, you should first know your objective or goal when teaching about fire prevention and safety. Usually, it's important we teach kids the fire hazards in the home and teach them the importance of correcting them.

Start by getting their attention, by asking them if they know what fire hazards are and if they can name things usually in their homes that might be considered as such. They will possibly identify smoking, child cooking alone, towel near the stove, and playing with a lighter or a match stick as fire hazards, but you must be ready with other scenarios or examples so they'd understand more. Also tell them that these dangerous things can be present in their homes so they would realize that they are not safe after all unless they learn what to do to prevent it. This realization will make them interested to you and will listen to what you have to say.

After creating interest, ask any of them if they know why it's important to identify and correct home fire hazards. The kids may think it's important to prevent their families from being hurt in the fire. Emphasize to them that these situations may not seem dangerous at first, like having a fireplace without mesh screen, but it could cause fire anytime. Remind the kids that they have to act and inform adults to correct fire hazards when they have time to do so. Also warn them that fire usually happens at night, when everyone is sleeping and everyone is unaware that fire has already started.

Provide illustrations if possible, like pictures of the kitchen, living room, and bedroom, or you can also play a game with them. For parents or relatives, involve going from room to room in your home. Ask them to identify fire hazards. It doesn't really need to show the hazard, simply ask them to use their imagination. You can also ask what the adults in their homes, or their parents did to correct the fire hazards. Tell them that they need not try to correct these hazards themselves unless they are the ones introducing it (like by playing with fire or playing with things that cause fire). Their duty is to inform us about fire hazards so we'd keep it checked and corrected. You can end the discussion by asking them to create a poster so it will serve as a reminder and to keep everyone in their home safe.

Whether you're a parent, an aunt, an uncle, a family friend, or a distant relative, it is your responsibility to remind and teach everyone around you, kids and adults, about fire safety and prevention. And, you will be surprised that by spreading the word and by teaching kids, you've saved hundreds of lives.

Sylvester Electric, Inc, the leading electrical service company located in the heart of Massachussets, is dedicated to making MA and NH homes safer. They are now giving away $200 discount on every panel change-out service plus a complimentary safety inspection of your home electrical system.

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Looking With the Eyes - Driving With The Mind

By Russell A Chaplin

It's time to move off from the side of the road. The learner driver goes through the procedure of a five point plan. She checks the left blind spot, all three driving mirrors and then the right hand blind spot. She takes off the handbrake and then tries to pull out in front of the bus coming down the road. The pupil has been under the impression that carrying out a visual procedure would be enough to keep her safe but clearly it was not. She did not focus her attention towards the danger area and take notice of what was there.

Much is made of eyesight when it comes to driving. Part of the driving test is to read a standard number plate from a prescribed distance and if this cannot be done then the test is cancelled. If glasses are needed then they must be worn at all times when driving and a code on the back of the driving licence shows this for insurance purposes.

Though we may look and receive information from the eyes we actually see with the mind, which constructs the picture and makes sense of it. Much of what the brain tells us is happening is made up from memories which fill in the blanks and speed up the process of using visual information. This can be observed at junctions where a pupil simply has no idea how far away moving objects are or how much time is available before they arrive. By constant practice with some trial and error a pupil builds up memories of previous junctions which enable them to emerge safely as judgement improves.

The sense of side to side motion in the brain is very strong though the sense of away and toward movement is quite weak. Car drivers tend to pull out in front of motorcycles after looking straight at them because there is nothing to tell the brain the motorcycle is moving towards them owing to it's smaller size in the visual field. The forward motion of a car is easier to detect as it is larger. It has been said by experts that motorcycles should weave in the road slightly near junctions so other motorists detect the movement and refrain from pulling out.

A pupil of mine continually drove too close to parked cars nearly hitting them. Upon observing him I noticed one of his eyes did not move. Upon asking him about this he finally got round to telling me that he did in fact have a glass eye. When this was established a few exercises in passing vehicles and building up positional memory solved the problem and he was able to drive safely from then on.

Differences in light for different times of day have an impact as the eyes take a while to adjust. Extreme differences in light in the same scene such as oncoming headlights can effect sense of position and make objects seem closer than they are. Learner drivers will always attempt to turn away from oncoming headlights until they have enough experience to trust in their own judgement. Drivers should always pay a high level of attention to what they see.

Hello there. My name is Russ Chaplin. I am a DSA approved driving instructor giving driving lessons Nottingham area. I hold the Diploma in Driving Instruction and have passed both the Diamond Advanced and Special driving tests, qualifying me as a Diamond advanced Instructor. I teach driving at all levels and also deliver the Pass Plus post-test training course. I am also a member of the Nottingham driving instructors group.

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Challenges Involved in Teaching Older Drivers

By Russell A Chaplin

According to statistics older drivers above the age of 80 have a higher risk factor per mile driven than any other age group. As we get older our reaction times grow longer and physical weakness makes controlling a vehicle all the more difficult. Older drivers tend to make short local runs infrequently to carry out basic things like shopping or visiting friends. As they have little practise in longer journeys or in heavy or fast moving traffic they are increasingly ill equipped to deal with the modern driving environment. Owing to the majority of their journeys being on quieter roads over short distances older drivers are more risk to themselves than to other road users. Owing to frail physical condition they are much less likely to survive even only a minor crash. The highest third party risk is to any passengers being carried in the vehicle at the time. The highest risk seems to be to younger passengers such as grandchildren.

Teaching older drivers can be one of the most inspiring and challenging things an instructor can do. Having taught people over the age of eighty I have found it to be a very rewarding experience. To meet such determined and friendly people can be a boost to the working day.

The statistics do match real life experience however. An elderly driver will handle the streets around their home reasonably well until something unexpected happens and then those slow reactions really begin to show. The overall attitude of elderly drivers is to blame the other person and then make up as many excuses as possible as to why the incident occurred. This must be handled diplomatically and respectfully as they do not like to feel condescended to by an instructor younger than themselves.

As the journey moves away from the home location the standard of drive deteriorates rapidly, showing that they are driving from memory. When the time comes to deal with new information vehicle control and road position become more haphazard and we really do begin to rely on luck to stay safe. Large multi lane roundabouts which require reading of signs and complex lane markings are well beyond the limits of the elderly driver. Add to that the high speed movement of other vehicles and the driver becomes overloaded and seeks to ignore their surroundings only looking at the section of road in front of the car. Elderly female drivers can become easily panicked which may require use of the dual controls to calm the situation down. The instructor must not hesitate to seize control of the vehicle to avoid an accident.

We must be compassionate when considering taking a licence from an elderly driver. When you take away a licence you take away everything that the licence allows then to do, cutting down their personal freedom and leaving them house bound in some cases. As they cannot provide for their basic needs without a vehicle they become reliant on outside service providers.

A form of graduated licence may be the answer with restrictions on the carrying of passengers and distance travelled from a home address. Instructors must do all they can to preserve the self sufficiency of older drivers whilst maintaining a high level of road safety.

Hello there. My name is Russ Chaplin. I am a DSA approved driving instructor giving driving lessons Nottingham area. I hold the Diploma in Driving Instruction and have passed both the Diamond Advanced and Special driving tests, qualifying me as a Diamond advanced Instructor. I teach driving at all levels and also deliver the Pass Plus post-test training course. I am also a member of the driving instructors Nottingham group.

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Ways To Be a Better Physical Education Teacher

By Dominic Tasco

There is a problem when a great lesson falls apart due to the performance of a teacher. This article is here to provide tips to help Physical Education teachers improve their necessary skills. Many skills will be covered including, voice, speaking, motivation and creativity. These four are just a few things that teachers can use as a checklist to ensure performance at their full potential.

Lets start with voice. Physical Education is mostly taught outside or in a gymnasium, which means a teacher needs to have the correct voice for this environment. The students won't hear you if you are too quiet, but you don't want to scream. Being quiet makes a teacher look weaker and it gives off an appearance of not having the authority. A teacher who screams creates an environment not enjoyable for the class. The balance of these two is a powerful voice. One that is loud enough to get the attention of the class while still in the proper tone. Being able to cast your voice over a distance really helps students hear you and react while they are in the middle of an activity. If you try this and your voice still gets "swallowed up" in the air, then use a whistle. Make sure the students know that the whistle means to stop and listen for instruction before using it. Having the proper voice level is one step to making you a more effective teacher.

Speaking compliments voice. There are a few common issues with speaking. First is using up speak. Up speak is when your voice goes up at the end of a sentence. Another big issue is saying a certain word too much, especially when it is not needed, such as "like". The final one is not being able to speak clear enough for students to understand you. These are things that students will catch and you may even hear them talking to each other about you. These are speaking skills that everyone can practice on preventing. The errors can be fixed through the experience of teaching or it can be done at home where you can practice speaking and get your thoughts ready before you begin a lesson.

Another way to be a more effective teacher is by being creative. Think out of the box for your lessons. If you are in a basketball lesson, you don't necessarily have to play traditional basketball. Create new games that don't exclude those who can't play traditional basketball well. New games and ideas will spark interest, because it gives everyone an equal chance to try without being embarrassed of their skills. This can also mean giving a quick "hook" activity to get your students laughing and ready to have fun. An example of this can be the Dollar Jump. Before you start your lesson. Find the class clown and ask them if they want to make a dollar. If they accept it, have them do this. They need to keep their hands touching their feet at all times. The teacher will place the dollar on the ground. Have the students try to jump over the length of the dollar, stick the landing, and now let go of their feet. It is a fun little activity the class gets to laugh at and since it is the class clown doing it, you aren't embarrassing anyone because they like the attention anyway. If they complete it, they keep the dollar and it is a way your students can gain trust in you as well. It is a creative way to get your students on your side.

My last tip deals with motivation. Teachers don't teach for the paycheck. They teach to help kids grow to become adults and to teach some life lessons along the way. The only way to do this is to wake up every day motivated to teach and make an impact on the lives of your students. Bringing it back down to lessons, you need to motivate your class to do activities you are assigned even if the activity isn't that fun. For example, yoga is an activity that is hard to get students to enjoy. As a teacher, you need to sell it. Be motivated to teach yoga and try to keep your class positive about the activity. If you are motivated and excited, there is a greater chance your students will begin to act the same way. A boring teacher leads to a boring class. When a teacher is excited and motivates their students, the class becomes a positive environment and students will be excited to show up everyday.

These are just a few tips to become a more effective teacher. Making a few basic improvements get your students arriving up to class excited and filled with energy. They will know you have a fun lesson waiting for them and will be more willing to participate. You can make a great lesson plan, but you have to be able to teach it!

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Derek Bok & the Path to Changing Faculty Teaching Practices

Last night Liam and I attended a talk by Derek Bok, Harvard's president emeritus, hosted by the Spencer Foundation at the meetings of the American Educational Research Association in Vancouver.  Due to a lack of Wifi and data service, I couldn't tweet the speech, which was probably good because we both got a little worked up. Here's a bit about why.

Bok is a thoughtful, experienced leader in higher education and I have long appreciated his efforts to get colleges and universities to pay attention to undergraduate education.  He's written a book on the topic, and found a set of Bok Centers on many campuses to try and get faculty involved (unfortunately, as he admitted last night, engagement in the centers is often low).

The main thrust of his speech was that professors need to get focused on rigorously improving undergraduate education because policy changes are bringing a reform agenda focused on student outcomes, and we'd best get prepared. We ought to do this, he suggested, by acting as the good researchers we are and attending to and creating new research on what works to improve student learning and graduation rates. We ignore those studies at our peril, he said, instead going about our teaching in un-informed ways -- lecturing, failing to use technology, failing to conduct formative assessments etc-- and it's partly because there's a dearth of good research on quality teaching in undergraduate education. It's time to wake up and embrace our role in the problems we "know" exist-- a lack of learning in higher education, students who don't study, and falling graduation rates.

His contentions were on the one hand laudable -- I'm always a fan of people who push the comfortable elite to wake up-- and on the other hand deeply problematic.

First, Bok spoke about the faculty as if we are a homogeneous bunch.  Only once did he mention adjuncts, and it was when he said they were the workforce of for-profits, which are organizations that do pay attention to pedagogy, according to him.  So my open question to him, and the first question asked after his talk was "It is increasingly the case that we research types are not 'the faculty' -- the faculty are the enormous number of part-time, contingent, and adjunct workers used by administrations to teach for cheap.  What are the implications of your argument for them-- and what are the implications for tenure?"   I don't think Bok really understood my question since he respond simply that they 'they' needed to care about good teaching too. (He also made some statements about the potential that the use of adjuncts reduces graduation rates and promotes grade inflation--things that I have commentary on but will take up another day.)

Well, part-time, contingent, and adjunct faculty do care about teaching practices -- and they are arguably more experienced than those of us who teach a few times a year.  They also know quite a bit about technology and contemporary teaching practices.  But the big difference between "us" and "them" is tenure, status, and pay. They teach very frequently with little job security, no perks like offices to meet with students, and for very little money.  They are not segregated to for-profits as Bok suggested, but are employed nationwide in all types of colleges and universities.  And they are the workers whom the accountability movement will hit first, hit hardest, and undoubtedly change forever.  

When it does, "our" response will have everything to do with tenure.  And it will have everything to do with the future of tenure.  If those without tenure respond in ways policymakers "like," then you can be sure that tenure will be deemed the obstacle to student success -- just as it has in k-12 education -- and will be under steady attack.  We tenured professors will be pitted against our students in a classic "who cares most about student achievement" false dichotomy, and that is the situation we must prepare for-- and work to avoid.  That is what I'd hoped Bok would address.

A few other thoughts.  I'm tired of the movement to improve undergraduate outcomes being led by people at institutions where everyone finishes college and money appears to grow on trees.  I'm not saying people at those schools don't care about these issues, but most  speak in ways that suggest they are out-of-touch with the 99.9% of the rest of us.  (There are big exceptions to this rule-- Bridget Terry Long is one.)   One could make the case that Harvard got us into this mess -- leading the arms race, raising the costs of attendance like it was going out of style, and setting up an idealized standard in the public imagination that could never be realistically achieved.  The more public higher education tries to be like Harvard in any way, the more our doors close rather than open-- leaving the vast majority of students outside in the cold, just waiting to be devoured by the for-profits.  Again, I'm so happy people at elite places care about these issues, but I wish that they would (at minimum) partner with people in settings where the real problems actually exist.  And I think that wonderful foundations like Spencer should elevate the stature and share the work of people whose research struggles in focused, daily ways with the reality of students dropping out of college and faculty working over-time and under financial constraints to serve them.

I also fervently hope that leaders like Bok will stop repeating shaky empirical research findings that cast undergraduates as fundamentally lazy and underachieving.  Throughout his talk, Bok showed a recognition of the importance of rigorous research in establishing cause and effect.  Yet he gave great credence to studies of student time use that have enormous problems with measurement error, failed to recognize the role of technology in changing both study and leisure time, and again imposed a homogeneity assumption on undergraduates.   Ask yourself, what if undergraduates were mainly a hard-working bunch, with a strong desire to learn -- wouldn't you still want to work harder to teach them well? Why do we feel we must establish a crisis by saying they are unengaged partiers, playing more and doing less?

Finally, I take issue with a point Bok ended with -- the challenge of measuring learning outcomes in higher education. When asked whether he agreed that some goals of higher education are more difficult to measure than others, he responded that that's "mainly because people haven't thought through the issues of measurement enough and aren't clear enough on what those goals entail."   While I agree there is too much hand-waving at broad goals, and we often aren't specific enough about what we want students to actually learn, I disagree that everything is quantifiable and readily assessed.   College today is a place where life begins to come together for students-- and that happens alongside textbook learning and is a key piece of faculty work.  Those successes should be recognized and we deserve credit for them.  But they will not be easily measured.

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Focus On Developing Teachers, Not Simply Measuring Them

This cross-posted item is from a piece I wrote for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation's TOP-Ed blog.

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Amid the current flurry of state policy reform activity around teaching, I've been thinking about what's missing. My conclusion: A focus on teachers as learners....

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To read more, visit the TOP-Ed blog post.

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Baking Bread Without The Yeast

Among my son's favorite books are the ones in Richard Scarry's Busytown series. In What Do People Do All Day?, Able Baker Charlie puts too much yeast in the dough, resulting in a gigantic, explosive loaf of bread that the bakers (and Lowly Worm) need to eat their way out of.

The opposite problem -- a lack of yeast -- is present in Michelle Rhee's recent op-ed in Education Week. In it, she limits her call to "rethink" teaching policy to "how we assign, retain, evaluate, and pay educators" and to "teacher-layoff and teacher-tenure policies." (And she casts the issue of retention purely as one about so-called "last-in, first-out" employment policies rather than about school leadership, collaboration or working conditions.)

The utter absence of any focus or mention of teacher development either in this op-ed or in her organization's (StudentsFirst) expansive policy agenda leaves me wondering if Rhee believes that teachers are capable of learning and improving. If Rhee indeed does believe that new teacher induction and career-long professional development have value, then why does she consistently ignore it in her public statements and in her organization's strategic priorities? The alternative, of course, is a view that teachers are static beings, incapable of improvement. They are either born effective or ineffective. "Mr. Anderson's value-added score is an 18, thus he is an ineffective teacher and should be fired because his inability to teach cannot be ameliorated." We, of course, know this not to be the case. This alternative view also involves a strategy of simply trying to hire and fire our way to success. From research and international exemplars, I think most of us understand such a narrow approach to be ineffectual, albeit politically attractive in some quarters, especially among the Republican governors that Rhee is assisting exclusively.

High-quality development opportunities for teachers are like the yeast that helps the bread to rise. Comprehensive teacher induction has been shown to accelerate new teacher effectiveness and increase their students' learning. Likewise, personalized and purposeful professional development also can strengthen teaching skills and classroom impact.

It seems to me that a stated policy goal should be to ensure that as many as teachers as possible successfully pass educator evaluations being developed across the nation. Too many advocates such as Rhee appear to be eager to fire more teachers rather than make investments and restructure schools to maximize their effectiveness. A critical role for policy then would be to re-define teacher development in a way that raises the quality bar and invests public dollars in programs and approaches shown to have the desired impact on teaching and learning. Isn't that something we all can agree with?

Teachers are tremendously influential -- and we should do everything we can to unleash their full power. On teacher effectiveness, I'm unwilling to settle for half a loaf.

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ESEA Come, ESEA Go

The chatter among the education cognescenti this week is about what is and what isn't in the bipartisan ESEA draft released by Senate education chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) and ranking member Mike Enzi (R-WY).

Let me repeat my prior contention that, politically, ESEA reauthorization is an issue for 2013 -- not 2011 or 2012. The Republican-led U.S. House is not going to give President Obama any kind of a political victory, despite the solid compromise put forth by the Senate HELP Committee. For that reason, the work currently underway is in part about laying the groundwork for a future compromise, in part a genuine attempt to get something done (despite the House), and in part political cover.

The bill itself represents a sensible step back from a pie-in-the-sky accountability goal of 100% proficiency in favor of annual state data transparency, continued data disaggregation among subgroups, and greater state flexibility over educational accountability. Personally, I am not an accountability hawk and am unswayed by spotty evidence and advocates such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who contends that it was Florida's accountability system (rather than its major investment in literacy and other interventions) that fueled student test-score gains. Chairman Harkin nails it by saying that the bill "focuses on teaching and learning, not testing and sanctioning." Amen to that.

Seeing as I have a day job that doesn't allow me to analyze the entirety of 800-page bills, here is my quick take on a few elements in the draft bill:

Positives

• Accountability: Eliminates AYP. Requires states to identify 5% lowest-performing schools and 5% of schools with the largest achievement gaps.
  
• CSR: Tightens up the use of Title II, Part A for class-size reduction to ensure that those dollars are directed at research-based implementation of smaller class sizes. [UPDATE: This could potentially free up some Title II, Part A dollars for teacher professional development and new teacher support.]
  
• Teacher & Principal Training & Recruiting Fund: This Fund would support state & local activities that further high-quality PD, rigorous evaluation and support systems, and improve the equitable distribution of teachers. The bill's language significantly strengthens existing federal policy language regarding the elements of comprehensive, high-quality educator induction and mentoring.

Concerns

• Equitable teacher distribution: The bill would require states to ensure that high-poverty and high-minority schools receive an equitable distribution of the most effective educators as measured by new teacher evaluation systems that must include four performance tiers. Sounds good and fair. But given that teacher working conditions significantly impact an individual educator's ability to be effective in the classroom (and garner a "highly effective" rating [see DC]), wouldn't this just create a massive game of musical chairs and major disruptions in the teaching pool unless a determined effort were mounted to improve the often poor teaching and learning conditions present in high-poverty schools?
  

Good Coverage & Analysis

Alyson Klein - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Joy Resmovits - Huffington Post
Stephen Sawchuk - Teacher Beat - Education Week
The Quick and the Ed (Education Sector)

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It Rhymes With 'Tool'

UPDATED, 8/11/2011, 1:10 pm



Thursday morning in Washington DC -- the only city that could host such a vacuous, inane event -- the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is hosting (the hopefully one-off) "Education Reform Idol." The event has nothing to do with recognizing states that get the best results for children or those that have achieved demonstrated results from education policies over time -- but simply those that have passed pet reforms over the past year.



It purports to determine which state is the "reformiest" (I kid you not) with the only contenders being Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin and the only judges being: (1) a representative of the pro-privatization Walton (WalMart) Family Foundation; (2) the Walton-funded, public education hater Jeanne Allen; and (3) the "Fox News honorary Juan Williams chair" provided to the out-voted Richard Lee Colvin from Education Sector.



With the deck stacked like that, Illinois is out of the running immediately because its reforms were passed in partnership with teachers' unions. Plus it has a Democratic governor. Tssk, tssk. That's too bad, because Illinois represents the most balanced approach to education and teaching policy of the five states over the past year. And the absence of a state like Massachusetts from the running is insane. It has the best NAEP scores of any state and has a long track record of education results from raising standards and expectations, not by attacking teachers or privatizing our schools. But that's not the point here, of course. This is ALL politics. [UPDATE 8/11/2011: Yes, all politics. Mike Petrilli of Fordham says that "the lesson of Education Reform Idol" is --- ba-ba-ba-baaah ... ELECT REPUBLICANS. "When Republicans take power, reforms take flight."]



So I digress.... The coup de grace of ridiculousness for me is the inclusion of Wisconsin among the list of "contenders." What exactly has Scott Walker and his league of zombies actually accomplished for education over the last seven-and-a-half months OTHER THAN eliminating collective bargaining rights, a historic slashing of state school aids, and a purely political expansion of the inefficacious school voucher program?



What's even worse than the inclusion of Wisconsin among the nominees is the case made by Scott Walker's office for the 'reformiest' award. As a policy advisor to the former Wisconsin governor, I am amazed by the brazenness and spin from Walker's office. I would expect nothing less from a political campaign. But someone's gotta tell these folks that while they theoretically represent the public trust, the content of their arguments suggests we can't trust them as far as we can throw them. And here in cheese curd land, that ain't very far.



A quick look at Walker's argument reveals an upfront invocation of Tommy Thompson (Wisconsin's version of Ronald Reagan) to pluck at Badgers' heart strings and make them long for the good old days of the 1990s (when the rich paid their fair share in taxes). It is soon followed by the refuted and refuted claims that Walker's deep education cuts "protect students in the short term" and give districts "tools" to manage the fiscal slaughter. Just read the well-respected Milwaukee school superintendent's opinion of such "tools." Then there's this gem: "Districts immediately began to set aside more time for teacher collaboration as well as money for merit pay." I'd LOVE to see the data behind this claim because as I am aware there is no state survey that measures collaborative time for teachers for starters. Walker's staff probably lifted it from a single school district's claims detailed in this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story -- claims trumpeted by dozens upon dozens of right-wing bloggers such as Wisconsin's own Ann Althouse -- claims which since have been exposed as "literally unbelievable".



The irony is that this event is taking place in DC just two days after the recall elections of six seemingly vulnerable, incumbent Republican state senators. The repudiation of Walker's slash-and-burn policies will be testament enough to the destructiveness of his leadership both for public education and for the Badger State as a whole. In Wisconsin, recall would appear to be a far more effective 'tool' than the tools tentatively running the show under the Golden Dome in Madison.



[UPDATE 8/11/2011: For anyone who cares ... Indiana apparently is the "reformiest" state. By reformers' preferred metrics, I believe this means that Indiana will have the top NAEP scores in the nation next time 'round. Right?]





Image courtesy of Democurmudgeon

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A Few Thoughts on Faculty Productivity

Richard Vedder isn't an easy guy to get along with, but he's good at one thing: pushing the agenda, sometimes in students' best interests.

I totally disagree with the guy when it comes to financial aid-- there's no way it's making students lazy on average, or causing them to party. On the other hand, he asks some good questions about our college-for-all movement that offers no alternatives for students who don't want to go to college right away, and he also raises good questions about institutional resistance to change.

In his latest piece, he takes on faculty. Boo-hiss, I know... The guy has the nerve to suggest that on average we don't teach enough. His analysis comes from Texas A&M (so popular these days, eh?) and finds a “sharp disparity in the teaching loads for individual faculty members” at UT. Strikingly, they find that the top 20 percent of “faculty with respect to teaching loads teaches 57% of all student credit hours” while the bottom 20 percent teach “only 2% of all student credit hours.”

His point, while overly aggressive (heck, I know something about that), is mainly that we established a way of putting students and teachers together a long, long time ago-- and since then colleges and universities have tried to save money on that approach by shifting to a part-time contingent workforce (reducing average teaching load), allowing more and more professors to buy out of teaching with grant money, and keeping class sizes about the same even while enrollments expanded dramatically and technology made other solutions possible.

When Richard says it, people freak out. A rebuttal from a Texas A&M political science professor tries to bat down the accusations. But he seems to miss the point of Vedder's approach, which is to say that every decision about staffing matters-- so we should lump together faculty in different categories given that theoretically the distributions could be changed. Case in point: "First, much of the skew in teaching duties observed by the CCAP report authors is simply a function of the fact that UT employs a large number of part-time faculty." Well, yes, but that's part of the point-- and a big problem. Universities do that NOT to serve students better but to save money on benefits. PT faculty are perfectly good at teaching but are overworked and underpaid so don't have time for out-of-classroom interaction. His second point, that there's a potential consequence for education quality is right, in theory, yet he cites not a single study showing that large class sizes are associated with diminish instructional quality in higher education. And that's because he can't-- such studies don't exist. Doug Harris and I covered this at length in our La Follette working paper released last year. I do agree that there should be adjustments by field, but this needs to be carefully done because decisions about offering fields with lower enrollments are also strategic decisions and institutions have to be accountable for them. I'm not saying don't offer them, but you can probably only do it if you high-demand fields are very productive. Finally, I see nothing about the use of our resistance to technology, especially blended learning, about faculty in the professor's rebuttal. Technology breaks the iron triangle between access, quality, and costs -- it makes it more possible to offer a high-quality lower cost accessible education. I'm on-board with that and it may be one thing that sets me apart from most other professors.

All that said, Vedder's analysis is far from perfect. It doesn't introduce the issue of impacts on students in any rigorous way. It doesn't take on strongly enough the political and economic reasons why part-time labor is being exploited across higher education. It doesn't question a business-style approach to measuring higher education "outputs." And it doesn't take seriously the need for faculty to LEAD this discussion so that reforms stand a chance of really being implemented.

I've long wondered why I teach today in approximately the same way my colleagues did a half-century ago. Why stand in front of classrooms of 30-50 undergraduates several times a week, rather than meeting with 300 of them twice a month and the rest of the time online? Some will inevitably say that will produce lower-quality instruction but they have nothing to point to-- studies of blended learning are strongly suggestive of positive impacts. Forget online-only, I'm not talking about online only and neither are most proponents of bringing technological advances into university teaching.

And let's get real: right now there are hundreds of professors who have to cancel classes in order to attend conferences, meetings, and such. They resent the requirement to be in-person all the time to teach, when nothing else in their lives requires that anymore. Some of them never reschedule, others hold makeup classes, and some use Skype to teach. The latter is a very low-tech approach and it's used because we're not given other options. What if we were? What if faculty could teach more students, more flexibly, and even with better pedagogy (for example by getting more regular feedback on student performance, rapidly, to use in our teaching) -- and this, together, helped preserve public investment in higher education because it demonstrated productivity gains? Why not?

I suspect part of the reason "why not" is because when you hear "online" you think "for-profit" or "business." When you hear "big classes" you think "community college." When you hear "improved pedagogy" you think "someone's going to tell me how to teach?" And when you hear "productivity" you think "neoliberalism, market-driven education." I know, I sometimes do too.

This is a problem-- professors are thoughtful, careful people and it's essential we not have knee-jerk reactions to ideas that aren't yet being shoved down our throats in propaganda-spun-out policy proposals. This is one we can help shape and get in front of, and make it our own. Or, we can wait until the Republicans bring it to us, and tell us what to do.


PS. One more thing. Richard's claims that faculty can do more because he's done more--juggling research and teaching--that's just plain silly. There's been a major change in the faculty workforce--it's feminized. Something I know for sure-- Richard never juggled teaching, research, breastfeeding, and taking care of small kids. We can and should do more, but there's no reason to base the model on Richard Vedder's style.

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Building A Better Teacher

If you haven't been reading the excellent "Building A Better Teacher" news series in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, you should be. It really doesn't matter whether you're from Wisconsin or not, or particularly interested in this state's policy context. The series is taking an expansive look at the various issues related to human capital development, teacher effectiveness and teaching quality. And it's not quoting the same overused Beltway prognosticators to drive its points home.

The fourth installment in the eight-part series, funded by Hechinger, ran this past Sunday and was entitled "Trying to steer strong teachers to weak schools."

My main quibble with this particular article was that it gave short shrift to one of the most effective answers to the question posed: How do we steer strong teachers to weak schools? The answer: Improve the teaching conditions at those schools.

Here's the extent of what the article offered on this issue:

So what else might be done, in hopes of having more impact? A few ideas in nutshells:

• Make schools better places to work: This is both the simplest and most complex solution. The New Teacher Project report in 2007 said, "The best way to staff high need schools is to make them attractive to great teachers." But how do you achieve that?

Mike Langyel, president of the Milwaukee teachers union, listed things that would attract teachers: "A competent and fair principal is key not only in getting teachers there but in keeping them.... We're also looking at schools that are safe."

My suggestion would have been a much more robust treatment and discussion of the issue of teaching conditions. I have extrapolated on its importance in a series of blog posts, and the New Teacher Center (my employer) has unique national expertise in administering statewide Teaching and Learning Conditions surveys. The NTC has a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to administer a Teaching & Learning Conditions Survey as part of the foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project. The Survey is being administered in select schools and districts participating in the MET project across the country.

Perhaps Wisconsin and Milwaukee, in particular, should consider administering such an anonymous full population survey to its educators -- teachers, administrators and support staff -- and see what they have to say. Why do they stay or leave a given school or district? What's working and what isn't? States and districts that have administered such surveys have used the data to improve principal preparation, rewrite professional standards for teachers and principals, and strengthen teacher mentoring and professional development. This is not data to be afraid of but data that can empower policymakers, school leaders and teachers alike.

Teaching and learning conditions are highly correlated with issues such as teacher retention and the presence of such conditions explain as much as 15 percent of the variance in student achievement between schools (Helen 'Sunny' Ladd, 2009). This stuff matters greatly in the current policy debates about teaching and student outcomes and it gets far too little attention as compared with value added, teacher evaluation and teacher pay.

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The Manifesto, Income Inequality & Credibility

On Friday, I wrote a blog item ('Misleading Manifesto') chiding a group of urban superintendents for misstating educational research in a 'manifesto' published in Sunday's Washington Post. Teacher quality *is* important -- but it does not matter MORE THAN family income and concentrated poverty.

I am convinced that too many educational reformers are happy to 'spin' the truth for rhetorical purposes. I think this is exactly what we saw in this manifesto. While this may help to simplify messaging, target solutions at a more narrowly construed problem, and focus in on what education leaders have direct control over, it carries an inherent policy danger along with it. That danger is two-fold: (1) teacher policy reforms may be set up for failure by overstating their potential impact; and (2) more comprehensive strategies desperately needed to combat rising income inequality and growing poverty in our nation may be discounted and ignored.

For me, this isn't an issue of setting low expectations for children from poverty. We must train and support our teachers to have high expectations and develop the potential in all children. But, from a policy perspective, which is the world in which I work, to not even discuss poverty and inequality -- even though the research evidence points to its preeminence -- is akin to taking it off the table as a policy priority.

Nor it is a lack of belief in the ameliorative benefits that sensible teacher reforms can have on student outcomes by expanding the recruitment pool of teacher candidates, improving initial training and on-going support of classroom teachers, improving teaching and learning conditions within schools, providing differential compensation to teachers for leadership roles, difficult assignments, shortage fields, and demonstrated effectiveness, and more....

For teacher quality specifically, as I argued in my previous post, playing fast and loose with the facts isn't necessary. There is a powerful argument to be made based on the fact that teachers are the most important school-based influence on student learning. That's exactly what my colleagues at the New Teacher Center have done. We've made careful and honest declarations about teacher quality being the most critical within-school variable, but haven't framed the issue in a way that would make us education-industry Pinocchios.

And this leads us directly to the question of credibility. While I am personally inclined to support elements of what the superintendents' manifesto calls for -- and inclined to support elements of broader education and teacher reform agendas -- I am disinclined to associate myself with a clarion call that is dishonest on its face and misserves the national need for a critical conversation and accompanying set of public policies to address issues of economic inequality. That need extends well beyond the education system and requires responses much broader than merely strengthening the teaching profession and overhauling human capital systems.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently has been banging the drums challenging policymakers -- and Democrats, in particular -- to address our nation's historic levels of income inequality and rising levels of poverty. As reported by the Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein, since 1976 "virtually all of the benefits of economic growth have gone to households that, in today's terms, earn more than $110,000 a year." Further, UNICEF reports that the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty among 24 OECD nations -- over 20% -- and the second-worst rate (barely ahead of bottom-dwelling Great Britain) of childhood well-being in the industralized world. Further, as Walt Gardner recently noted, a September 2010 U.S. Census Bureau report showed that the percentage of Americans below the poverty line in 2009 was the highest in 15 years. And the rise was steepest for children, with one in five affected. Think this has any bearing on U.S. students' relatively poor performance on international student assessments? Uh-huh.

So, let's talk about how to strengthen teaching and its central importance to student outcomes. But let's not fence ourselves in with self-serving rhetoric. Let's be honest in our communications and expansive in our thinking about policies needed to improve the lives of American children.

It's about education -- and a whole lot more.

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LA Times Value Added Editorial

The Los Angeles Times editorial page gets it mostly right today on the value-added issue ("Good teachers, good students," September 3, 2010). It says a number of smart things that I agree with, such as:

• "Test scores are indeed just one indicator of a teacher's performance."
• "But it's revealing, and disturbing, to read the comments of some teachers who don't seem to care whether their students' scores slide. They argue that they're focused on more important things than the tests measure. That's unpersuasive."
• "This page has never believed that test scores should count for all of a teacher's evaluation — or even be the most important factor. But they should be a part of it."
• "Right now, the "value-added" scores The Times has been reporting are more useful for evaluating schools than teachers. Many factors can throw off the data at the classroom level."
• "That's why we think the Obama administration has been too hasty to push states into linking test scores to teacher evaluations and to reward states that overemphasize the scores, making them count for half or more of a teacher's worth. The administration's first priorities should have been developing better tests, which it's working on now — if we're going to judge teachers in part by these scores, it's unacceptable to say that top-notch tests are too expensive — and statistical models that minimize random factors and make the scores a better evaluation tool."
• "Current teacher evaluation practices are ripe for overhaul. Performance reviews should include, at minimum, classroom observations, portfolios of student work over the academic year and, yes, objective test data."

I just wish its news division had taken some of these points to heart, namely having patience until the methodology was ready to be joined by other measures of teacher effectiveness, such as classroom observations, and not publishing the value-added scores of individual teachers and definitively labeling some as most effective and least effective.

Heather Horn of The Atlantic magazine offers a nice summary of some of the related issues and links to relevant sources in this September 1, 2010 blog post.

And Dana Goldstein offers a smart retort (and a preview of her upcoming The Nation feature on value added?) to a vacuous and vitriolic Slate post by Jack Shafer on this topic.

Related Posts:

• Education Optimists: "Adding Value to the Value-Added Debate" (August 31, 2010)

• Education Optimists: "More Grist for the Value-Added Mill" (September 1, 2010)

• Education Optimists: All "value added" related posts

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More Grist for the Value-Added Mill

Here is additional smart and pithy commentary on the current value-added conversation that I wasn't able to incorporate into yesterday's post or have only discovered since.

• Dr. Douglas Harris - "Not By Value Added Alone" (The Blog of Harvard Education Publishing)
• Dr. Aaron Pallas - "Value-added measures: The cardinal rule and the cardinal sin" (A Sociological Eye on Education)
  
• Stephen Sawchuk - "Some Scholars Slam Value-Added for Teacher Accountability" (Teacher Beat/Education Week)
• Jay Mathews - "America's Best Teacher and the L.A. Times" (Class Struggle/Washington Post)
• Dr. Daniel Willingham - "3 Key Factors in Teacher Evaluation" (The Answer Sheet/Washington Post)
• Sherman Dorn - "Please leave your magic numbers on the magic carpet with your magic wand" (Sherman Dorn)
• Bill Tucker - "My Value-Added Number" (Quick and the Ed)
• John Thompson - "High-Ranking Teachers Ignore Pacing Standards" (This Week In Education)
• Walt Gardner - "Why Not Name and Shame Teachers?" (Walt Gardner's Reality Check/Education Week)
• Claus von Zastrow - "The LA Times Goes Astray" (Public School Insights/Learning First Alliance)
• Alan Borsuk - "Where newspaper goes in rating teachers, others soon will follow" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Andy Rotherham - "LA Story" (Eduwonk)

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Teachers' Voice

An important survey was released this week that captures teachers' perceptions of their professional working environment. The national study of 900 teachers by Public Agenda describes educators as falling into one of three groups: "Disheartened," "Contented," and "Idealists." It also raises some serious policy implications for the placement, retention and longevity of teachers based on teachers' perceptions about working conditions, why they entered the profession, and their opinions about proposed policy reforms.

But as useful as this survey may be in defining these issues at a 30,000-foot level, it does not approach the power and utility of teacher surveys that offer entire populations of educators in individual states and districts the opportunity to share their voice about working conditions, leadership support, resources, opportunities for professional learning, etc. In turn, these anonymous surveys also provide contextualized, customized summary data at the state-, district- and school-level based on the perceptions and opinions of local educators.

Teaching and Learning Conditions surveys have been led by the New Teacher Center in states such as Alabama, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina and West Virginia, and in school districts such as Fairfax County, Virginia. They provide state and district policymakers and educational leaders with powerful data to define issues that need to be addressed in school and districts that have major implications for the quality and effectiveness of teachers and principals.

Read the Public Agenda report, but also think about conducting a Teaching and Learning Conditions survey in your state or school district. What do the teachers where you live and work think?

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