Stakeholders Respond to Federal Education Initiative
Local education and community leaders say that the federal governments proposal to turn a positive spotlight on teachers is welcome, but not enough.
In his recent budget proposal sent to Congress for the nations fiscal year 2013, President Barack Obama included $5 billion for a new competitive education program that urges teachers, unions, colleges of education and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to reform education. The program would involve all phases of teaching, including training, salary and additional career opportunities.
The Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching (RESPECT) project that U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced would affect teacher colleges, teachers salaries, professional development, collaborations, assessments and accountability, among other things. Full details of the program would depend on what the Obama administration can negotiate with the Republican-led Congress that has already blasted the budget proposal for additional spending instead of cuts.
Our goal is to work with teacher and principals in rebuilding their profession and to elevate the teacher voice in federal, state and local education policy. Our larger goal is to make teaching not only Americas most important profession, but also Americas most respected profession, Duncan said.
Supt. Donna Leak, Ph.D., of Rich Township High School District 227, told the Chicago Citizen that teaching is already a highly looked upon profession and much of what REACH would do for this country is already being done in other nations.
If you look at any other country where kids are performing, you see all of this. You see more about the profession of teaching as opposed to just being a teacher, she said. I think it is admirable but at the same I time do think its going to take some time to break through the paradigm of how we view teaching as a society.
Currently, nearly 2,000 Illinois schools dont meet the federal governments Adequate Yearly Progress education guidelines under the No Child Left Behind Act started during the Bush administration. The number represents over half of the schools in the states 868 school districts.
The reality is No Child Left Behind set our whole country back to a point that its going to take us years to get out of this, said Leak.
And in Chicago things are tense on the education front as the mayor, his public schools chief and hand-picked school board often lock horns with the Chicago Teachers Union. CTU represents over 30,000 teachers and personnel and is the largest local union in the state, third largest teachers union in the nation.
School turnarounds, phase-outs and closures, the increase in charter schools, and the June 2010 layoff of over 750 CPS teachers has made for public brouhahas between the mayors administration and the CTU. The union maintained that tenured teachers were wrongfully let go. CPS said then that the layoffs were simply economics. When CTU sued in the matter, lower courts sided with the union. But last month, the Illinois Supreme Court favored CPS in a 5-2 decision.
Some teachers and community stakeholders feel that the teachers get a bad rap in the media and hope that Duncans program will make a difference.
Rev. David Pope of Brotherly Love Baptist Church, 3801 W. Cermak, is part of a coalition of local faith leaders who have become outspoken on the citys public education system.
I think that just due to the fact that our children are doing so poorly, people are grasping at straws really to point the finger at, and who to place the blame on, said Rev. Pope. Im sure that there are some teachers who are not doing as well at their jobs or perhaps may not be as committed as others. And we certainly know that there are teachers who are totally committed to their jobs; they are the unsung heroes of our day. Many of them do things that go above and beyond the call of duty.
Duncans program will seek to attract and maintain those kinds of educators.
This effort will require the entire educational sectorto change, and teachers have to lead the change, he said. We need to change societys view of teaching where teachers are revered as thinkers, leaders and nation builders.
Obama was complimentary of teachers in his State of the Union address earlier this year.
Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending them, lets offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job and reward the best ones, the president said in his speech.
The compliment was wonderful but Leak wants education reforms that remove teachers as the face of failing schools. She listened to the speech knowing that next school year, due to unpaid state payments and money the district will lose to help fund charter schools, changes in the district will result in teacher layoffs. The state owes Dist. 227 $2.5 million.
Jeff Bonomo, a science teacher Rich Central High School in south suburban Olympia Fields, said his profession is already revered but stories in the media about a minority of teachers and administrators give the industry a bad rap.
I dont think its looked down upon. I really still think its a profession where people are like wow, good for you, he said.
If youre going to rebuild the profession just supply the funds to do so, Bonomo continued. Unfortunately because our kids are exposed to so much theyre desensitized to a lot and some of them lack the social and emotional skills. So besides teaching content and curriculum and growth, and trying to get the students education to where it should be, we also have to be mindful and be sensitive that the standard approach, the cookie-cutter approach doesnt work anymore.
Pope said that teachers certainly have their hands full.
By Rhonda Gillespie
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