How to Grow Good Teachers

Here is how those who have power could help teachers in public schools if they really wanted to. They are in no special order. I included these in the post about Nancie Atwell the other day, but I think they are worthy of standing alone. I didn’t want them overshadowed by the Nancie Atwell discussion.

Teachers and parents, feel free to add to the list. I will give you credit for your suggestions.

• Federal, state and local school district policy makers need to start proudly investing in public schools instead of withholding funds in order to eventually convert public schools to charters.
• Reduce the number of required high-stakes tests.
• End Value-Added Measurement which is not accurate and does not improve teaching.
• Support high school programs like Future Teachers of America to help young people think of teaching as a career.
• Help public schools be community hubs to bring people together, giving teachers visibility and support.
• Strengthen the PTA. Bring parents and teachers together.
• Lower class sizes, especially in kindergarten through third grade.
• All teachers should be fully-credentialed in their subject by a College of Education in an accredited university.
• Any non-credentialed teacher should only be hired in an emergency and it should be temporary.
• Create a new public relations program to welcome future career teachers to the university.
• Insist on well-prepared, credentialed teachers for all classes, including the arts.
• Create schools that have a balanced curriculum including the arts.
• Permit teachers to have a vested interest and a voice in their school.
• Increase support staff at the school, including guidance counselors, librarians, nurses, and school psychologists.
• Address special education with a continuum of services, including parental involvement.
• Look for better ways to devise unique school schedules that support a teacher’s ability to teach where learning is not disrupted.
• Give teachers adequate time to plan each day.
• Bring teachers together to collaborate for the benefit of their students.
• Provide fair due process for all teachers.
• Give teachers tenure and better job security after the first 4 years of a trial basis.
• Improve Colleges of Education that need it.
• Investigate the Common Core State Standards and any test that goes with it. Don’t force these standards on schools and teachers.
• Improve school buildings when necessary and make them clean and safe.
• Only permit teacher or educator run charter schools overseen by the school district.
• Enforce regulations when it comes to outside influences on the school and school district.
• Businesspeople with no vested interest in the school, should not override a teacher’s professionalism.
• Improve media/library centers. It doesn’t cost much.
• Provide technology to supplement, not take over, teaching.
• Make Teach for America and teacher fellow programs a teacher’s aid program.
• Ensure that those in educational leadership roles have experience working with children for several years at least.
• Insist that those in educational leadership roles earn a degree in school administration at an accredited university.
• Consider any teacher who graduates an accredited College of Education program a leader.
• Pay teachers fairly according to the step experience. It is fair and easy to understand and doesn’t divide teachers.
• Award innovation grants to teachers and groups of educators who write formal proposals for student projects.
• Do not fill a teacher’s time with irrelevant tasks.
• Don’t make teachers attend meetings that are a waste of their time.