Monday, July 23, 2012

Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: How do we Build the Teaching Profession? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: How do we Build the Teaching Profession? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:


Dialogue with the Gates Foundation: How do we Build the Teaching Profession?

Post #1 of 5 in this dialogue.
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
Two weeks ago I traveled to Seattle and spent most of the day meeting with leaders of the Gates Foundation, discussing their work around education reform. I have been critical of the impact their agenda has had, but they expressed an interest in opening up a dialogue. This blog post will be the first in a series of exchanges that will explore some of the key issues in education. We plan a process where we will take turns posting our perspective on a given theme, followed by a response from the other party. All posts will be carried here, and at the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimists blog. We will ask everyone to join in a lively discussion. The education reform debate has deteriorated at times - our goal is to engage in a constructive conversation, to turn down the heat and seek a bit more light.
In the weeks to come we will get into some nitty gritty issues, such as what it means to "measure" teacher effectiveness? What is the role of poverty in relationship to education reform? What is the purpose of a k-12