- Part 1: Clearing the Path examines the importance of being college- and career-ready, what this level of preparation includes, and what it may take to get there. (Do I hear CCRS? In Texas, we have things called "Career and College Readiness Standards" which were developed by a joint effort between businesses and teachers to emphasis and make an official list of qualities and skills that students will need to succeed in careers and college. http://www.txccrs.org/ )
- 'Part 2: Teaching Diverse Learners looks at differences in student needs, how teachers address them and how well students feel their needs are being met.
1. The surveyed Fortune 1000 executives valued teamwork over independent work. Whereas teachers, students, and parents polled slightly leaned more towards valuing independent work than teamwork.-- My reaction: D'uh. In school, students MUST learn how to work together and how to solve problems they have with their classmates. Teacher should be facilitator. However, social skills aren't in state standards, nor are they tested. Communication and problem solving are essential for the workplace, but are many times lacking in the classroom. Easy fix, just use cooperatives structures (see Kagan or his 52 structures.)
2. Priorities for college and career preparedness emphasize higher order skills over challenging content - Again: D'uh. I personally think this is an issue of control. In teaching challenging content, the teacher has more control over the direction of the class and what all students are doing. But once higher order skills are involved, the teacher switches roles from director to facilitator and that can be scary for the many control freaks (I used to be one of them) out there.
3. "Parents and executives show the strongest support for 'giving schools more ability to remove teachers who are not serving students well,' with 75% of parents and 83% of executives saying this must be done as one of the highest priorities in education." - As an educator, I actually agree with this view. If you are not effective as a teacher, then it should be possible to remove that person from the classroom fairly quickly (i.e. sooner than the 3-5 YEARS that it seems to take now.) I would like to know more about evaluations in the business world and how they conduct performance evaluations - my hunch is it is MUCH different that those I've experienced as an educator. I think sometimes we're too "sugar-coated" and political.
4. "Parents who have low incomes themselves (a household income of less than $35,000) are among those most likely to consider [strengthening programs and resources to help diverse learners is of critical importance] a top priority (76%), as are parents who are African-American (73%)." - Just interesting. I wonder if they have any specific feelings or comments on how they feel that the school isn't reaching their kids or what kinds of resources they would support.
5. "Two factors that do distinguish teachers’ views on their ability to differentiate instruction are the subject areas they teach and their schools’ college-going culture" - Having come from a district whose superintendent uses the phrase, "All means all!" I am no stranger to differentiated instruction and how it is really a never ending journey rather than a destination. Unfortunately, science teachers were not mentioned as a group on their views of DI, they are lumped in with 'other' subjects. I am curious about the science teachers perceptions on their ability to differentiate.
Again, I'm left with a feeling after reading this report of, okay, now what? How do we make our students more successful and globally competitive in math and science?
3. "Parents and executives show the strongest support for 'giving schools more ability to remove teachers who are not serving students well,' with 75% of parents and 83% of executives saying this must be done as one of the highest priorities in education." - As an educator, I actually agree with this view. If you are not effective as a teacher, then it should be possible to remove that person from the classroom fairly quickly (i.e. sooner than the 3-5 YEARS that it seems to take now.) I would like to know more about evaluations in the business world and how they conduct performance evaluations - my hunch is it is MUCH different that those I've experienced as an educator. I think sometimes we're too "sugar-coated" and political.
4. "Parents who have low incomes themselves (a household income of less than $35,000) are among those most likely to consider [strengthening programs and resources to help diverse learners is of critical importance] a top priority (76%), as are parents who are African-American (73%)." - Just interesting. I wonder if they have any specific feelings or comments on how they feel that the school isn't reaching their kids or what kinds of resources they would support.
5. "Two factors that do distinguish teachers’ views on their ability to differentiate instruction are the subject areas they teach and their schools’ college-going culture" - Having come from a district whose superintendent uses the phrase, "All means all!" I am no stranger to differentiated instruction and how it is really a never ending journey rather than a destination. Unfortunately, science teachers were not mentioned as a group on their views of DI, they are lumped in with 'other' subjects. I am curious about the science teachers perceptions on their ability to differentiate.
Again, I'm left with a feeling after reading this report of, okay, now what? How do we make our students more successful and globally competitive in math and science?
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