Widmeyer.com


	Bipartisan Commission: Time to Upgrade, Modernize Teaching Profession Is Now WASHINGTON, DC - The Teaching Commission, the non-profit advocacy organization founded by former IBM chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., this morning released a final report urging state and local leaders to go "far further, far faster" in transforming the teaching profession. The message comes as the Commission ends its work on schedule, three years after its inception. "If teaching remains a second-rate profession, America's economy will be driven by second-rate skills," said Gerstner. "We can wake up today - or we can have a rude awakening sooner than we think." In its final report, Teaching at Risk: Progress and Potholes, the Commission cites significant progress since 2003 - but, due to the urgency of the challenge of improving America's skills in an increasingly competitive global economy, gives state, local and federal leaders disappointing grades for their work in four crucial areas: Transforming Teacher Compensation. Grades: B for effort, C+ for results. The Commission praises the "considerable attention" given this piece of its agenda, especially in states like Minnesota and cities like Denver and Houston - but calls for far more innovation around the nation. Reinventing Teacher Preparation. Grades: C for effort, D for results. With a few exceptions, the Commission is "deeply disappointed by the state of teacher preparation and by leaders' failure to do anything about it." Overhauling Licensing and Certification. Grades: C for effort, C for results. Here, "the verdict is mixed" - with heartening growth of alternative routes into teaching but too little focus on raising meaningful standards. Strengthening Leadership and Support. Grades: D for effort, D for results. Though some cities have "started moving the needle," giving principals more authority to choose their teams and support teachers with mentoring, far too many obstacles remain. And on-the-job training and support for teachers remain largely inadequate. The Commission's final report can be downloaded online, or hard copies can be requested, by visiting www.theteachingcommission.org. In this new report, the Commission emphasizes the need for further action in each of the four policy categories initially spotlighted in its January 2004 report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action. Specifically, the new report urges the following leaders to take the following steps: Federal government. The U.S. Department of Education "should demand that states make good on the spirit and letter of the No Child left Behind law's promise to put a 'highly qualified' teacher in every classroom." States. Governors and other state leaders should "give more responsibility to schools themselves for who gets hired and fired," "recast how they approve teacher preparation programs," and "encourage local innovation in teacher compensation." Local districts. Superintendents and school boards should, among other things, "resist the pressure to continue paying teachers more money across the board without any meaningful changes in the way those increases are doled out," and "much more attention needs to be paid to how teachers are hired, moving up timetables and eliminating transfer rights on the basis of seniority." Universities. "University trustees should pressure the leadership of their institutions to attend to teacher preparation reform and demand an annual report on what the university is doing to put K-12 teaching at the center of the university's mission." Businesses. Businesses should understand "that this is not merely a cause to champion with rhetoric; there are concrete steps they can and should take to help strengthen the quality of teaching in America's schools." Also today, the Commission releases a companion report, a summary of recent state legislation in each of the four major areas identified in the Commission's initial report. That report, prepared by the National Conference on State Legislatures, can be downloaded from http://www.theteachingcommission.org/press/2006_03_22_pr.html. In addition to chairman Gerstner, the Commission is comprised of: former Governors Roy Barnes (D-GA), James Hunt (D-NC), and Frank Keating (R-OK); former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley; Barbara Bush; School Superintendents Arlene Ackerman (San Francisco) and Beverly Hall (Atlanta); Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of the City University of New York; Ellen Lagemann, former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Scott Painter, AP Physics teacher in Atlanta, Georgia; Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York; James McNerney, Chairman and CEO of the Boeing Company; Kenneth Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express Company; Philip Condit, former Chairman and CEO of the Boeing Company; John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; Richard Beattie, Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP; and Richard Krasno, Executive Director of the Kenan Charitable Trust. Gaynor McCown, the Commission's executive director, died in November 2005. # # #

Bipartisan Commission: Time to Upgrade, Modernize Teaching Profession Is Now

WASHINGTON, DC - The Teaching Commission, the non-profit advocacy organization founded by former IBM chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., this morning released a final report urging state and local leaders to go "far further, far faster" in transforming the teaching profession. The message comes as the Commission ends its work on schedule, three years after its inception.

"If teaching remains a second-rate profession, America's economy will be driven by second-rate skills," said Gerstner. "We can wake up today - or we can have a rude awakening sooner than we think."

In its final report, Teaching at Risk: Progress and Potholes, the Commission cites significant progress since 2003 - but, due to the urgency of the challenge of improving America's skills in an increasingly competitive global economy, gives state, local and federal leaders disappointing grades for their work in four crucial areas:

Transforming Teacher Compensation. Grades: B for effort, C+ for results. The Commission praises the "considerable attention" given this piece of its agenda, especially in states like Minnesota and cities like Denver and Houston - but calls for far more innovation around the nation.

Reinventing Teacher Preparation. Grades: C for effort, D for results. With a few exceptions, the Commission is "deeply disappointed by the state of teacher preparation and by leaders' failure to do anything about it."

Overhauling Licensing and Certification. Grades: C for effort, C for results. Here, "the verdict is mixed" - with heartening growth of alternative routes into teaching but too little focus on raising meaningful standards.

Strengthening Leadership and Support. Grades: D for effort, D for results. Though some cities have "started moving the needle," giving principals more authority to choose their teams and support teachers with mentoring, far too many obstacles remain. And on-the-job training and support for teachers remain largely inadequate.

The Commission's final report can be downloaded online, or hard copies can be requested, by visiting www.theteachingcommission.org.

In this new report, the Commission emphasizes the need for further action in each of the four policy categories initially spotlighted in its January 2004 report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action. Specifically, the new report urges the following leaders to take the following steps:

Federal government. The U.S. Department of Education "should demand that states make good on the spirit and letter of the No Child left Behind law's promise to put a 'highly qualified' teacher in every classroom."
States. Governors and other state leaders should "give more responsibility to schools themselves for who gets hired and fired," "recast how they approve teacher preparation programs," and "encourage local innovation in teacher compensation."
Local districts. Superintendents and school boards should, among other things, "resist the pressure to continue paying teachers more money across the board without any meaningful changes in the way those increases are doled out," and "much more attention needs to be paid to how teachers are hired, moving up timetables and eliminating transfer rights on the basis of seniority."
Universities. "University trustees should pressure the leadership of their institutions to attend to teacher preparation reform and demand an annual report on what the university is doing to put K-12 teaching at the center of the university's mission."
Businesses. Businesses should understand "that this is not merely a cause to champion with rhetoric; there are concrete steps they can and should take to help strengthen the quality of teaching in America's schools."

Also today, the Commission releases a companion report, a summary of recent state legislation in each of the four major areas identified in the Commission's initial report. That report, prepared by the National Conference on State Legislatures, can be downloaded from http://www.theteachingcommission.org/press/2006_03_22_pr.html.

In addition to chairman Gerstner, the Commission is comprised of: former Governors Roy Barnes (D-GA), James Hunt (D-NC), and Frank Keating (R-OK); former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley; Barbara Bush; School Superintendents Arlene Ackerman (San Francisco) and Beverly Hall (Atlanta); Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of the City University of New York; Ellen Lagemann, former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Scott Painter, AP Physics teacher in Atlanta, Georgia; Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York; James McNerney, Chairman and CEO of the Boeing Company; Kenneth Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express Company; Philip Condit, former Chairman and CEO of the Boeing Company; John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; Richard Beattie, Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP; and Richard Krasno, Executive Director of the Kenan Charitable Trust.

Gaynor McCown, the Commission's executive director, died in November 2005.

# # #