A Teacher in Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: Five Exchanges over Core Issues in Education
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
I have been in conversations with the Gates Foundation for the past two months. In my early exchanges with representatives of the Gates Foundation it felt as if we were barely scratching the surface of the many issues that I thought should be explored. I thought that this dialogue might serve to delve into the issues more deeply.
Yesterday the Gates Foundation responded to my last post, focused on the problems associated with a market-driven approach to education reform.
I want to revisit the ten posts in this exchange, and have chosen excerpts from each to provide an overview to the discussion. Below are links to each of the ten posts, on both my Education Week blog, and over at the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimists blog. (Note: there tended to be more comments posted over at Impatient Optimists.)
Exchange #1: How can educators create a strong professional culture in our schools? How do we build the teaching profession?
My post went first: How do we Build the Teaching Profession?
At Living in Dialogue.
At Impatient Optimists.
Gates Foundation response is by Irvin Scott: "How do we Build the Teaching Profession?"
At Living in Dialogue.
At Impatient Optimists.
Exchange #2: How do we consider evidence of student learning in teacher evaluation?
The Gates Foundation's Vicki Phillips writes the first post
I have been in conversations with the Gates Foundation for the past two months. In my early exchanges with representatives of the Gates Foundation it felt as if we were barely scratching the surface of the many issues that I thought should be explored. I thought that this dialogue might serve to delve into the issues more deeply.
Yesterday the Gates Foundation responded to my last post, focused on the problems associated with a market-driven approach to education reform.
I want to revisit the ten posts in this exchange, and have chosen excerpts from each to provide an overview to the discussion. Below are links to each of the ten posts, on both my Education Week blog, and over at the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimists blog. (Note: there tended to be more comments posted over at Impatient Optimists.)
Exchange #1: How can educators create a strong professional culture in our schools? How do we build the teaching profession?
My post went first: How do we Build the Teaching Profession?
At Living in Dialogue.
At Impatient Optimists.
We need to pursue the conditions necessary for solid reflective, collaborative cultures at schools. These are dynamic processes that rely on the leadership and inspiration of everyone involved. They require trust to be invested in our school leaders, who in turn need to trust their teachers to engage in this often open-ended work. Constant pressure to raise test scores and top-down mandates destroy this. These external pressures do not add coherence--they subtract it. Teachers need autonomy and time, and they need support, access to partners, the use of strong models of collaboration, and small class sizes so they are not overwhelmed every day. We need to strengthen, not eliminate due process, when we ask teachers to open their classroom practices to one another and reflect honestly about their practice.-- Anthony Cody
Gates Foundation response is by Irvin Scott: "How do we Build the Teaching Profession?"
At Living in Dialogue.
At Impatient Optimists.
I think the elevation of the teaching profession we seek not only can happen - it's already happening. Over the past year, I have had the honor of meeting and engaging with hundreds and hundreds of teachers across the country. From these experiences, three things have become very apparent. First, teachers are not monolithic in their views and perspectives. This is why it has been so important for us at the foundation to engage with many teachers as frequently as possible. Second, while teachers may not all share the same views on how to build the profession, most seem to believe that the challenges faced by our students and teachers warrant significant shifts in the profession. Finally, teachers welcome the opportunity to play key roles in building the profession. The foundation will do all that we can to ensure that this happens.-- Irvin Scott
Exchange #2: How do we consider evidence of student learning in teacher evaluation?
The Gates Foundation's Vicki Phillips writes the first post