To Improve Teaching, Get Serious About Training
by Stephen Chiger
Although we are halfway through most teachers’ summer breaks, July is smack in the middle of a busy season for administrators designing the professional development curricula they will kick off this fall.
At least it should be.
The reality — as the Center for American Progress reminded us this month — is something far less inspiring. The group, reporting on the state of professional development opportunities for teachers, called the bulk of it “short-term, episodic, and disconnected” … and unlikely to move student achievement at all.
This reminder could not have come at a more critical time. With growing national focus on teacher accountability and academic standards, the poor state of teacher training is the missing third leg of a stool we’re all about to sit on. Without it, the best efforts of anyone hoping to improve our system will crash to the floor.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the Common Core academic standards – slated for implementation in 45 states – is that they will bring some collective language around our needs as educators. Shared standards mean new opportunities for districts to converse about technique, coaching, and training on like-minded initiatives.
It’s time to change the way professional developers do business, because we’re increasingly finding ourselves in the same marketplace. Before any revolutions occur,