DISD superintendent finalist Mike Miles responds to concerns | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com

DISD superintendent finalist Mike Miles responds to concerns | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com:

Mike Miles, DISD superintendent lone finalist, responds to concerns

by Tawnell Hobbs/Reporter

A story in today's DMN addresses concerns from community members concerning Mike Miles, the lone finalist for DISD's superintendent job. Miles and DISD board President Lew Blackburn responded to the concerns. They centered on Miles' support for tying teacher pay to student performance, his consulting business and lack of experience running a large school district. Miles is currently leading the Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs, Colo. He is expected to begin in DISD on July 2, pending contract negotiations. Here is a bit of what Miles said during a Tuesday interview: Pay-for-performance: Miles said it's too early to tell whether he will recommend a teacher pay-for-performance system in DISD as he did in Harrison. He noted that DISD is revising its teacher evaluation system, and he wants to learn more before making recommendations. "Every system is different; every district is different," he said. "I don't want to move too fast." Consultant work: Miles serves as an educational consultant and motivational speaker for school districts and other public organizations around Colorado. He said that he does the work through a for-profit company, Focal Point, where he is a partner. He said he won't have as much time to do consulting work but would like to do an occasional presentation or give a keynote address if the board approves. He said he wants to remain a partner at Focal Point. "The short answer is I plan to not leave the company, but I won't be doing the consultant work that I did before," he said. (Trustee Bruce Parrott is staunchly against Miles doing any consultant work). District size: Miles' school district in Colorado has 11,000 students; DISD has 157,000 students. He said that he is qualified to lead a district the size of DISD. "Sometimes people look at size and complexity," he said. "I look at systems and leverage points." To read the complete story, click here.

Focal Point

www.focalpointed.com/

The Principal’s Dilemma « School Finance 101

The Principal’s Dilemma « School Finance 101:

The Principal’s Dilemma

by schoolfinance101

This is a bit of tangential post for this blog, but it’s a topic a few of us have been tweeting about and discussing for the past day or so.
In a series of recent blog posts and in a forthcoming article I have discussed the potential problems with using bad, versus entirely inappropriate measures for determining teacher effectiveness.  I have pointed out, for example, that using value-added measures to estimate teacher effectiveness and then determine whether a teacher should be denied tenure, or have their tenure removed might raise due process concerns which arise from the imprecision and potential outright inaccuracy of teacher effectiveness estimates derived from such methods.
I have also explained that in some states like New Jersey, which have adopted

John Thompson: Neither Teacher-Less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Neither Teacher-Less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: Neither Teacher-Less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson.
The cover story in the American Educator "Putting Students on the Path to Learning," by Richard Clark, Paul Kirschner, and John Swelter should prompt a dialogue between teachers as well as with school "reformers." So, I want to preface my opinions with a request for the professional judgments of fellow teachers.

Twenty years ago, I was a true believer in progressive, experiential, "student-centric" instruction when it was done well enough to bring focus to the learning objective. I embraced the conventional wisdom that a teacher should be "a guide on the side, but not a sage on the stage." I later learned that the cooperative, hands-on learning that I aspired to was known as "partial or minimal instructional guidance."

The realities of the inner city convinced me, however, that teachers must take control of the classroom. I developed a hybrid pedagogy incorporating many constructivist methods, while insisting on "Old School" standards of behavior and "breaking it down" for high school students with elementary skills. In classes of thirty 

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY « Teachers Fight Back

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY « Teachers Fight Back:

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY

by alkleen

The director of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System is now saying that without additional revenues, the pension system will be insolvent in as little as 17 years. He warned that pension benefits promised to teachers, starting with those ALREADY RETIRED, may need to be cut.
I’m sure this statement will now embolden Illinois legislators to find a way to circumvent the State Constitution and enact punishing pension reforms that will cut into the pensions of current retirees and make working teachers pay much more into their retirement system.
I must issue a warning to any Illinois state legislators who are contemplating cutting pension benefits to ALREADY RETIRED teachers. Do you remember what happened at the capitol in Wisconsin last year? The protests, the occupying of the capitol building, the breaking of windows, the thousands of demonstrators and  the organizing of the current recall election ? That was “child’s play” compared to what is going to happen in Springfield if you even think about cutting the pension of already retired teachers.
You would be messing with the wrong group of seniors. We may be old and gray, but we are the generation who 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is there really any such thing as local control?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is there really any such thing as local control?:

Is there really any such thing as local control?

by Anngie

Yesterday some Missourians went to the polls and elected new school board members. Aside from positions in your town government, this is about as local as control gets. And while we may complain about things like local property taxes or trouble with trash pick up, the decisions made by school board members affect the one most important thing in our lives, our children.  If tax payers are going to have strong opinions and want to have their voices heard on any issue, it is going to be on things that impact their kids, like school. So why are mid term elections for positions on the school board so poorly attended? Perhaps its because these elections feel like our chance to send people into Area 51.

Area 51 is in plain sight.  There are government signs all around it telling you it's there and defining its boundaries. There is historical information about it was well as public speculation regarding what takes place behind its closed doors. Officials from there tell us that things that look really ominous are really just weather balloons.  We're asked to believe the official reports. There is always some fear that they are covering up something