Education Commission of the States in TN

Governor Jeb Bush and me!

The past two days I have been in Tennessee attending the Educational Commission of the States National Forum on Education Policy. This has been an interesting conference as the attendees are mostly policy makers and State Teachers of the Year. There are governors, state board of education members, department of education members, senators, representatives, deans of universities, researchers, and sponsors. I wish I could somehow have shared the experience (and the food- incredible) with everyone as it is hard to put it all into words but I am going to try! It was at times exciting and enlightening and a lot of the times frustrating. The State Teachers of the Year have repeated over and over - almost to the point of chanting: "You need TEACHERS AT THE TABLE" on all these issues. However, what I found frustrating is we seldom are. Research was shared, studies were shared, recommendations were shared...SELDOM were teachers involved in any of the process. College Board did a huge study on Education and the American Future. Their recommendations include (there are actually 10).
1. Provide a program of voluntary preschool education available to children from low-income families.
2. Improve middle and high school college counseling.
3. Implement the best research-based dropout prevention programs
4. Align the K-12 system with international standards and college admissions expectations.
5. Improve teacher quality and focus on recruitment and retention.
6. Clarify and simply the admissions process.

I find it highly ironic that the people involved in telling me how to fix K-12 education did not include any teachers. It doesn't stop with College Board. ACHIEVE has basically written the national curriculum for math...guess how many practicing math teachers were involved? Yep- zero. When will this madness end? Teachers must have a voice in the process. It was frustrating to be here and be talked TO rather than being talked WITH.

Ahhh- now that I have all that off my chest, there were some great speakers and I walked away with a greater appreciation of research and an appreciation for all the passionate policy makers that took the time and energy to attend this conference. One of our incredible State Board of Education members, Sally Cauble, attended and I had the opportunity to visit with her extensively. Mrs. Cauble is truly dedicated to improving student learning in our state, passionate about keeping Kansas on the leading edge, and proud of our teachers and learning achievement. Thank you, Sally for your service and the service of the entire State Board of Education.

Some highlights of the conference were:
1. Former Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. His 5 recommendations were: Raise Standards (but have fewer), Create a system of learning where teachers are a profession, Harness and embrace technology, Allow school choice, and Create a culture of lifelong learning.


2. Dr. Uri Treisman. He was amazing. His research and message spoke directly to me. Dr Treisman teaches math at UT-Austin and he said the College Algebra course needs to be blown up and recreated. This course has a very high dropout rate and is useless curriculum for 80% of the students enrolled. I have been saying this for years. The data he shared is incredible and will change how you perceive colleges and the math curriculum. Be sure to check out his PowerPoint (see below for link). At the left is Dr. Treisman pictured with me.


3. Clayton Christensen. He is the author of Disrupting Class. Also very thought provoking...he predicts that by 2012, 50% of the courses high school students take will be online.

4. Dr. Uri Treisman. He was so great, I thought I would mention him twice! He is also sending me all his calculus information - he has taught Calculus for 50 years!

5. Dr. Richard Elmore. He shared the crisis in public education starts in the 6th grade. Dr. Elmore has done research in Canada, Boston public, and also in 3rd world countries. In my opinion, he was the most knowledgeable about what is actually happening in the school system as he observes public schools twice a week. Some things he shared were:

• Outraged at what we are doing to adolescents. Kids are denied access to higher level work because teachers deem them unworthy of learning higher problem solving skills due to lack of lower skills.

• Teaching is a skill and the US has mismanaged this skill (compared to other countries). Human resources are the majority of the budget and that is were the money should flow. The first item that should be budgeted is professional development.

The resources and PowerPoint's are posted on their website. Check them out here. I continue to learn more about the people, organizations, politics, and research that goes into the educational system and am awed by how all this effects our classrooms. Policy does effect teachers - we definitely better start paying attention and getting our voices heard. Change is coming. It is exciting and scary and big and could be revolutionary....let's be sure teachers are at the table through this!!