Stotsky: questions from the audience

Councilor Lukes: was trained as a teacher "education courses long on puff and short on substance"
"can't teach somebody how to be a teacher...have to prove themselves in the battlefield of the classrooms"
tenure, seniority, contract provisions
"once we hire those teachers, and they prove to themselves and to us that" they can't do it
one party politics in Massachusetts, power of teachers' unions
I seem to have missed her question here, which was on the importance of actual classroom experience in evaluating teachers, and being able to get rid of those who are not doing a great job

Sandra Stotsky on teacher quality (with commentary)

Sorry for the late posting on this one. Professor Sandra Stotsky was the Research Bureau's guest lecturer yesterday at a breakfast at Mass College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. I thought it very cool to see, by my count, one city councilor, two upper level school administrators, and the city manager (!) at an event on teacher quality. As you'll see below, I question some of the information they got, but nonetheless, the interest is good. Note that the Research Bureau also has the video of this posted on their website. (I stand corrected; it isn't up yet!)
My comments, as always, in italics.

Stotsky: examinations for new superintendents in the 19th century

"the Race to the Top application that came out from the US Dept of Ed" made it "very clear that the US Dept of Ed doesn't think that we have the type of teachers we need"

"far more weight given to" improving the teachers we have, rather than getting good new ones" (okay, can I put out there that both might be important? Speaking as someone who has a small role in running a school system, we've got 24,000 kids in Worcester who are going to show up tomorrow morning at school. We need actual teachers in the classroom.)

"not much about how we make sure that those who get in are like those in Finland, Singapore, Korea and so forth" (I'll post on greater length on this later, but I find it interesting how only parts of the systems in these countries are the ones that get spoken of. How they chose to run their schools is VERY different from the national direction of education in the US right now, for example.)

Sandra Stosky in Worcester on October 27

I've been remiss in posting this. Sandra Stosky (former member of the Board of Ed, conservative education policy person, and Endowed Chair in Teacher Quality, University of Arkansas) is speaking as part of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau's 25th anniversary series of lectures. The event is open to the public, but they ask that you RSVP.


Thursday, October 27
7:45-9:30 am
Mass College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
25 Foster Street, Worcester
RSVP to info@wrrb.org

Weigh in on Common Core Standards!

h/t to Lisa for catching this first!
The Commissioner of Education is asking that the public weigh in on Massachusetts possibly adopting the Common Core standards. You'll remember we had to promise to do it in our Race to the Top application; it appears the Commissioner has not entirely committed the state, after all:

"Our goal is to provide every student in the Commonwealth with the best possible schools, teachers, curriculum and opportunities they need to be successful in school, college, careers and in life," Chester said. "We will take the time to evaluate the Common Core Standards before making a decision, and if we ultimately find that the final product represents a decline in expectations from our state standards, we will not hesitate to walk away."

You might consider reading Sandra Stotsky's reasons why she is not endorsing the Common Core. Stotsky, a conservative member of the Massachusetts Board of Education, was appointed to the validation committee for the Common Core; she was one of two members not to sign onto their adoption.
You can also write to the Board of Ed. While they won't write back, I have it on good authority that at least some of them read their mail.