The teacher voice–or rather, voices � The Quick and the Ed

The teacher voice–or rather, voices � The Quick and the Ed

The teacher voice–or rather, voices

by Kris Amundson

Everybody, it seems, has an idea about how to improve the teaching profession. But often, those conversations don’t include teachers. So when Education Sector was planning “Finding the Link: Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development,” we decided to try a different approach.
The panel discussion, to be held on June 30 at 9:30 a.m., will bring together national experts including to discuss the link between evaluation (how are you doing?) and professional development (how can you improve?). You can see more about the panel and register here.
There’s no question that including the “teacher voice” is a challenge. The numbers alone are staggering—there are more than 3 million K-12 teachers, and they are a fiercely opinionated and independent group. In my former life as an elected official, I worked closely with teacher’s unions. I have enormous respect for the work they do. At the same time, I found that when you want to know what’s really going on in classrooms, you also have to talk to individual teachers.
So we are “convening” a second panel in conjunction with the first. Four teachers, all bloggers—will participate in