Bailey Hampton (Eastern North Carolina '04) is the Manager of District and School Partnerships for Teach For America—Houston.
On October 5, 1994, UNESCO celebrated the first World Teachers' Day to commemorate the 1966 signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers by officials from the United Nations and the International Labor Organization.
Interestingly, it is not just in the United States that the profession of teaching is under-respected. UNESCO, with this year’s subtle slogan “Take a stand for teachers!” hopes countries will recognize the day by drawing attention to and discussing the profession and what we can do to support and celebrate our teachers. In that vein, I’d like to tip my hat off to efforts from around the globe to lift this holiday.
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Marcus Williams (Chicago ‘03) is on the Talent Recruitment Team at Teach For America.
Watching last night’s Presidential Debate, I heard references to Race to the Top, the success of schools in the state of Massachusetts, and inexplicably, “poor and disabled children.” If I had to choose a title to depict what I observed, I would go with Jay-Z’s “Politics as Usual.” Missing from the dialogue was the fundamental question of the status of the teaching profession and the value this country places on teachers.
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Listening to the presidential candidates on education last night was like listening to two friends talk about how they intended to fix up their house. President Obama intends to throw new shingles on the roof with 100,000 new math and science teachers. Governor Romney wants to replace the plumbing and let federal funding “follow the child.” And they both agree that the new wood floors installed by their Race to the Top contractors look better than the old ones.
Except the house isn’t just in need of a fix-up. The house is on fire.
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Jennifer Davis is the Co-Founder and President of the National Center on Time & Learning. Check out the NCLT blog, Time Matters.
Over the last few years we have seen a revolution in public education reform in America. One antiquated education structure that is undergoing dramatic change is the standard American school schedule of 180 six-and-a-half hour days. The long summer breaks and short school days are not meeting the needs of today’s students—especially those living in poverty. Exciting new school models are emerging all over the country.
For example, the Orchard Gardens K – 8 School in Boston is in the midst of a remarkable turnaround. Established in 2003, the school suffered from seven years of dismal student performance. Then, two years ago, with a new principal, the infusion of new staff—recruited with the help of TFA—an expanded school schedule, and “turnaround” funding from the federal School Improvement Grant program, the school began experiencing a renaissance. The teachers are talented, passionate, and relentless in their drive to transform their students’ education. Today the school can boast of rapidly rising student achievement, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently singled the school out for praise during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
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Vanessa Descalzi is manager of national communications for Teach For America.
I recently had the privilege of attending Education Nation, NBC’s annual summit about improving education in America (several TFA alums were also in attendance). Former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the high school dropout crisis, while Condoleezza Rice shed light on what an uneducated workforce could mean for our country’s global competitiveness. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro explored the broader challenges of poverty and education, and former first daughters Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush Hager both shared their experiences with forward-thinking schools.
Looking back at this experience of a lifetime, I’m astonished by how many game-changing arguments I heard. But one proposition that still troubles me is one presented (l believe unintentionally) by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney: that a parent’s presence in school is the single determining factor in a child’s educational success.
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Melissa Serio (St. Louis Corps '08) is a manager of teacher leadership development and real-time coach with Teach For America in Los Angeles.
Spoiler alert: Won’t Back Down ends with hope. Literally, the last word of the movie is “hope.” And you know what? I left the theater feeling just that.
As a former public school teacher who now coaches and supports teachers in both traditional and charter public schools, I know all too well the challenges our kids and teachers face every day. But the bottom line is: We have to have hope to work in public education, and it can’t hurt to be reminded of that.
Sure, there are some things the movie might exaggerate, glorify, and even demonize for effect, but a fair share of scenes reflect what I’ve seen and experienced firsthand. I’ve seen teachers scream at students and then sit back and do nothing. I’ve experienced the power parents have when they team up with teachers to provide better opportunities for their kids. And these are only a few small glimpses of the problems within education.
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Masharika Prejean Maddison (Bay Area Corps ’08) is the executive director of Parents for Public Schools—San Francisco.
It’s not glamorous, but it’s a critical piece of the education equation.
I’m talking about parent-school partnerships.
Decades of research has proved the connection between student academic outcomes and parental support. The new movie Won’t Back Down provides an entry point into the dialogue on the role of parents in schools, but it could do a better job of highlighting critical ways that this group can be a supporting force for positive change. Rather, the movie perpetuates an often-repeated non-truth: that parents, unions, and school and district administrators are in a constant state of disagreement and misalignment. It’s not productive, nor is it an accurate depiction of how our nation’s public school systems operate.
Photo by Walden Media via WBDToolKit
With today's nation-wide release of Won’t Back Down, Hollywood is shining a spotlight on some of the challenges facing families raising kids in low-income communities. The movie, which includes a character who is a Teach For America alum, also raises complex issues about the relationships among parents, teachers, students and administrators.
Here are some WBD-related links that caught our eye:
The movie is inspired by actual events and stars award-winning actresses Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal as two determined mothers—one a teacher—who join forces to turnaround a failing school, relying on a Parent Trigger law to achieve change for their kids.
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Vanessa Descalzi is Manager of National Communications for Teach For America.
Trending surprise of 2012: school lunch. From salad bars funded by Whole Foods to palm scanners that pay for meals, cafeteria coverage is popping up all over the media. Thanks to some innovative Pittsburgh students dissatisfied with their smaller portions, it even has its own hashtag: #brownbaggingit. While lunch is enjoying it’s time as the “it-meal” of the moment, another meal is going largely unnoticed. This is my nod to breakfast – the most important meal of the day, at risk for millions of our country’s kids.
Photo credit: Jean-Christian Bourcart
It’s the first Friday of the school year, and I’m perched on my desk, screaming at the top of my lungs. My students’ jaws drop; has Mr. Rigonan lost it already?
“I AM THE LORAX AND I SPEAK FOR THE TREES,” I yell in my best Mario Salvio-exhorting-Berkeley-students voice. The teacher next door knocks to make sure everything is OK (“I thought you were in trouble already,” she told me after school). I hear giggles, and 37 sets of eyes are glued to my next move.
“Remember to take observations on this mythical creature,” I whisper, switching from Lorax mode back to Mr. Rigonan. After 15 minutes of this one-man Seussian show, my students recite the Lorax’s final words in a rousing chorus: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Though reading a seemingly juvenile book to sixth graders who want so badly to grow up didn’t make sense to many of my friends and colleagues, I wanted to share my favorite piece of literature with my life science students. The Lorax introduces essential scientific concepts like note-taking, observation, systematic thinking, and the scientific method. More than that, I saw Dr. Seuss’s book as a foundation for the distinct culture I want to see in my classroom.
Photo by David Bjorgen via WikiCommons
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