Show-And-Tell Time

Professions demand proof of knowledge; teaching does not. Once a teacher gets past "registration" teh tenure system is applied.
As a pre-service teacher educator, I'll tell you that even with all the "research" that goes on in education, the real trick is helping children become self-directed learners and moving "authoritive, controlling and power-seeking" teachers to the sidelines. Most researchers rivet on teachers because there is a the notion that a child cannot teach him/herself. I've seen 4 year olds teach themselves to read and to perform multi-digit division. I've seen children, working in the right conditions teach themselves an entire year's curriculum in 10 weeks; however the well-prepared adult on hand only guided interactions and showed students how to interpret natural feedback. This adult didn't relay on power, authority or control. The educator aided the child to teach him or herself. Schooling systems and processes have over-complicated the most innate homo sapien sapien traits - to observe, to symbolize, to abstract the event or findings and to apply them later--to learn.
Most children are natural learners and need little else than an intellectually-emotionally supportive and trusted environment. When adults start treating children like "knowledge entrepreneurs" (entrepreneur as defined by Robert W. MacDonald, the children can and will build their own human capital/capabilities. When textbooks and "cutsey, child-fun" websites and activities are replaced by authentic/practical items and ideas and fact-checked information, then children will learn what needs to be learned. Anyone who deals with an lower SES urban children knows they have figured out really fast how to survival and succeed in their "real" life.
Teachers need to discover in "pre-service" training to recognize the natural and powerful abilities to learn and not a list of pedagogical strategies, techniques, 'programs' and schooling processes. Watching children learn, watching an 18 month-old figure out how to climb stairs) is more useful to any adult assisting children to learn than sitting through 280 hours of lecture, "learning activities" and reading 'theory'. Get out of a child's way, set up a responsive support system and learning will occur.

Teach

Hire,Train,Support and motivate ! Tone,vision,organization and team spirit. Coach and guide to develop higher level thinking skills and it's not about teaching to a test.School climate and listen to the ones that see it differently for objectivity and problem solving solutions.

The fundamental question in this article is: what do teachers need to do a good job? No one is better equipped than Linda Darling-Hammond to provide national leadership on addressing this question and making serious change in our schools. Dr. Darling-Hammond knows that real accountability that promotes good teaching has to be based on high quality assessments of both students and teachers. She has developed these assessments and has studied them. Accountability has to have ???stakes??? and interventions that school staff will respond to. And Dr. Darling-Hammond knows that even the best accountability system cannot work if teachers are not first provided with the real skills and opportunities to plan and improve that good teaching requires. She knows how to build a system that not only can terminate those who are not qualified, but that can make sure that the vast majority of teachers are as prepared and qualified as our students deserve. I was saddened by some of the inaccurate representations in this article, and am very pleased that Linda Darling-Hammond has a significant role in planning the national direction for our schools.

The fund

Obama will probably get some liberal fat cat to donate some money to fix up the school that his daughters will be going to and liberal sheep will say hooray! But what about the other schools in the area? I bet he leaves them out to dry like a typical polititian!

ademeyer- It is true that teachers have difficult times because kids from uneducated families enter the school system far behind their peers. This does not mean however that they are a lost cause.
My classroom of 2nd graders started out on the kindergarten level in reading and left on the 3rd grade level. THE BIGGEST VARIABLE IN A CLASSROOM IS THE TEACHER. The simple fact is that some of the teachers in low income schools are miserable, and the data ins our DC schools reflects that. In order to produce real change and show real growth, new teachers are necessary and bad ones need to be shown the door. Michelle Rea's proposal to allows teachers to opt into a potential $130 dollars a year while removing the right of tenure could promote an influx of new teachers and the new ideas that come with them, while at the same time giving DC the much needed authority to fire those who cannot perform.
I know first hand that all kids CAN BE EDUCATED regardless of the family that they come from, and the idea that they are a lost cause because of who gave birth to them is simply finding a scapegoat for a problem that we have yet to find the guts to solve. We need to give Michelle Rea a chance, and I hope that our future President supports that.

Just remember that the goal is to educate these children and help them to be globally competitive. The goal of education is NOT to have a jobs program for adults. If the parent(s) don't care and the teacher is not qualified, there is no amount of money that will help.

No doubt much needs to be done to transform the Washington DC public schools. President-elect Obama???s selection of Linda Darling-Hammond to head his education transition team sends a strong signal that he is serious about reforming the teaching profession in the District and across the nation. Counter to the perception of some Washington insiders, Darling-Hammond is one of the nation???s most accomplished education researchers who actually has designed and implemented important reforms in teaching and learning. She has created several charter schools in California that serve as professional development sites for preparing teachers for high need schools. She has called for the closing down of poor schools of education and streamlining teacher certification while helping create more rigorous 21st century teacher tests. She has led efforts to improve No Child Left Behind and the current, old-school, standardized tests in order to better measure higher-order skills that our students will need to compete in the global economy. When she has critiqued NCLB it has been to suggest improving its assessments and fixing its accountability provisions, not abandoning the law or its focus on student data and outcomes. For over 20 years she has been in the forefront of crafting new ways to pay teachers for performance while creating school working conditions that give teachers the opportunity to teach effectively. President-elect Obama can do no better by selecting Dr. Darling-Hammond to lead the transformation of teaching, the profession that makes all others possible.

No doubt much needs to be done to transform the Washington DC public schools. President-elect Obama???s selection of Linda Darling-Hammond to head his education transition team sends a strong signal that he is serious about reforming the teaching profession ??? in the District and across the nation. Counter to the perception of some Washington insiders, Darling-Hammond is one of the nation???s most accomplished education researchers who actually has designed and implemented important reforms in teaching and learning. She has created charter schools in California that serve as professional development sites for preparing teachers for high need schools. She has called for the closing down of poor schools of education and streamlining teacher certification while helping create more rigorous 21st century teacher tests. She has led efforts to improve No Child Left Behind and the current, old-school, standardized tests in order to better measure higher-order skills that our students will need to compete in the global economy. When she has critiqued NCLB it has been to suggest improving its assessments and fixing its accountability provisions, not abandoning the law or its focus on student data and outcomes. For over 20 years she has been in the forefront of crafting new, relevant, and valid ways to pay teachers for performance while creating school working conditions that give teachers the opportunity to teach effectively. President-elect Obama can do no better by selecting Dr. Darling-Hammond to lead the transformation of teaching ??? the profession that makes all others possible.

What is amazing to me, as someone with a doctorate in education, is that reform and accountability are now synonomous with standardized testing. Standardized, fill-in-the bubble testing is not a reform and does not equate with either teaching OR learning. If this were the case, it would be more in evidence in the private schools to which Pesident-elect Obama and other members of the ruling class send their children for a fine edcuation. Linda Darling-Hammond knows and understands this, which is why she is so scary to "reformers" like Michelle Rhee. Testing is easy; teaching, learning and real accountability for them are hard, time-consuming and expensive, just like private school education! Denise Stavis Levine, PhD

Just stop. Stop blaming the teachers. It's not our fault. Hell, the measures we use to compare the U.S. to the rest of the world are screwed up! You realize that we compare ALL our students to only the TOP students in other countries, right? The comparison is not apt.

Please, universal healthcare, preschool, and parental commitment to the education of their children is the fix; not firing all the teachers!