Improve teacher quality
I would tell the president that in my opinion, the best way to begin improving education in this country would start with improving teacher quality. Then, I would suggest that his first task in addressing the issue would be to consider some obvious questions related to the teaching profession - questions that would hopefully lead to the development of a set of goals to improve the profession.
- Who is entering the teaching profession and why?
- Is there a reason why most teachers are female? How does the answer to this question impact the profession?
- Why are their teacher unions? Is unionization a good structure for the profession?
- How difficult is it to get into a college teaching program? Why?
- How has the quality of students entering college teaching programs changed in the last 30 years? Why?
- What are the other career options of those students who enter teaching? Do they reflect the intellectual rigor we want from teachers?
- What is the turnover rate of new teachers? What influences this rate?
These are fundamental questions that need to be considered to truly understand the state of teaching in America. To improve the teaching situation in the country the administration must consider why the profession is structured the way it is, and deal with some difficult, deeply ingrained beliefs about teaching.
(Note: A good sign is that a key adviser for the democratic candidate - Linda Darling Hammond - has written extensively on these issues.)
This post was submitted by Liz Wisniewski.
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