Rethink Teacher Appreciation Week
Great teachers build nations. They inspire, awaken and raise our children’s expectations. They coax imaginations and lead students to discovery. Teachers shape the next generation of decision-makers.
While this work is deeply rewarding, teaching is also incredibly hard—as intellectually rigorous as it is emotionally draining. Over the next five to ten years, at least one million teachers will be eligible for retirement, roughly one third of the work force. Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to draw talented folks into a profession that, in many cases offers:
- the 50-50 chance they won’t last through their first four years,
- the likelihood of underwhelming support and development,
- a lifetime of low and moderate pay, and
- the strong likelihood that they’ll reach a point where continuing to teach poses substantial financial hardship.
On this Teacher Appreciation Week, let’s think more meaningfully about what it means to appreciate teachers so that we build a profession that retains its best teachers and recruits the next generation of great talent.
For most teachers, Teacher Appreciation Week is a time when schools bestow small demonstration gifts to staff: mugs, reusable lunch bags with the school logo, chair massages during planning time, lunch catered by the PTA, and so on. While we value these tokens of support, it is far more important for us to reflect meaningfully on the teaching profession and consider what we can do to support great teacher leadership.
True appreciation means understanding what teachers bring to the table and creating meaningful opportunities for them to contribute to the policies and practices that affect their school communities. Let’s engage teachers in policy more directly at all levels. Boston, Massachusetts leads with a strong example. Teachers who serve as Teach Plus Fellows there produced a policy paper advocating for evaluation systems that train evaluators effectively, include peer evaluators and identify high performers. At the district level, districts could create Teacher Advisory Committees where they regularly solicit teachers’ feedback on policies and programs. At the school level, principals could create hybrid roles for teachers, which would allow master teachers to direct new teacher training, perform research on best teaching practices, or design curriculum materials without being completely removed from the classroom. Let’s create a space in which teachers can truly engage in how our schools are run. That is true teacher appreciation.
For the 16 Teaching Ambassador Fellows at the U.S. Department of Education, part of our work has focused on the RESPECT Project, a national conversation we have been having with teachers all over the country about transforming our profession. The RESPECT Project seeks to elevate the teaching profession by proposing a vision that embraces better training, richer opportunities for professional advancement, time for collaboration, higher pay, sustainable hours, and a culture of shared responsibility. We want to attract the best candidates, support our colleagues as they develop, and retain those teachers who are getting it done.
The RESPECT Project and the growing movement to elevate the teaching profession is, as one educator in Rhode Island noted, our generation’s “moon landing moment.” This is the moment when we can rally the entire country around a grand vision to comprehensively remake our education system for the 21st century.
For Teacher Appreciation week, we encourage everyone to honor our teachers by listening respectfully as teachers rethink and reshape the American education system. Let’s collaborate to find practical, community-based and student-centered ways to bring teachers to the table to weigh in on the crucial decisions that affect them and the students they serve.
Now that’s teacher appreciation.
The 2011-2012 Teaching Ambassador Fellows work with the US Department of Education to facilitate the involvement and understanding of teachers in developing and implementing policy efforts at the federal, state and local levels, to improve the likelihood of their success.
- Robert Baroz, Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA
- Kareen Borders, Key Peninsula Middle School, Lakebay, WA
- Dexter Chaney II, Martin A. Ryerson Elementary, Chicago, IL
- Juan Govea – Salinas High School, Salinas, CA
- Leah Lechleiter-Luke, Mauston High School, Mauston, WI
- Madonna Ramp, Austin Independent School District, Austin, TX
- Angela McClary-Rush, Williamsburgh County School District, Kingstree, SC
- Gamal Sherif, Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia, PA
- Sharla Steever, Hill City Elementary, Hill City, SD
- Bruce Taterka, West Morris Mendham High School, Mendham, NJ,
- Bruce Wellman, Olathe Northwest High School, Olathe, KS
- Geneviève DeBose, Bronx Charter School for the Arts, Bronx, NY
- Claire Jellinek, South Valley Academy, Albuquerque, NM
- Gregory Mullenholz, Twinbrook Elementary School, Rockville, MD
- Shakera Walker, Young Achievers Science and Math School, Boston, MA
- Maryann Woods-Murphy, Northern Highlands Regional High School, Allendale, NJ
Call with Education Grantmakers
On May 4, the Department of Education hosted a quarterly conference call for education funders with Secretary Arne Duncan.
Secretary Duncan talked about waivers to No Child Left Behind, the Department’s Blueprint for Perkins Reauthorization, and interest rates on student loans. He also discussed the key role that foundations and corporations can play in the Department’s grant competitions for i3 and Promise Neighborhoods, and answered questions from several audience members.
Read the transcript, or listen to the call
.
Secretary Duncan talked about waivers to No Child Left Behind, the Department’s Blueprint for Perkins Reauthorization, and interest rates on student loans. He also discussed the key role that foundations and corporations can play in the Department’s grant competitions for i3 and Promise Neighborhoods, and answered questions from several audience members.
Read the transcript, or listen to the call
.