i will preface this with: this is not a normal blog post for me-it is a description of what i have been involved with lately in the realm of education reform policy, because the past couple of weeks i have been breathing this stuff..it's like glue (i think...i don't know, i've never sniffed glue-i kinda like my brain cells). i described a little of what we did last week here.
ok, so..some of you may not really understand what i have been doing with the ed policy fellows, through the Teaching Trust. it has been a wonderful opportunity to learn about policy that is affecting teachers and policy that has the potential to affect our students. we have looked at local, state and national policy. we've had a LOT of reading and some writing assignments to flesh out our views. teachers have more of a voice than i think they realize, it is just a matter of looking into the issues and working together to try to promote changes that will help close the achievement gap in our schools.
the discussion panels have been enlightening-board members, SMU professors, advocates from various groups such as Educate Texas, Dallas Kids First, Stand for Children, the Dallas Regional Chamber, William McKenzie of the dallas morning news, recruitment personnel from disd and uplift education, and a few others.
after making contact with one of the advocates from dallas kids first, our group was invited to go to austin to meet different senators and discuss our program and our views in regards to one of the bills that was crafted around the texas teaching commission report of 2012. a couple of them were asked to testify on a bill that was up on the floor, impromptu, and they loved it!
about a week or two later, erika was contacted to see if we could come down again, so three fellows prepared to go back and had a great showing in the senate again. we were then contacted again to testify on two accompanying bills that dealt with smaller pieces in the house of representatives before the education committee.
the first bill that we testified on was hb 1751. the strengths of this bill are that it allows for development in a school district in various areas such as: building a strong mentoring program for the first 3 years of teaching, stronger teacher eval systems (including observations, teacher self evaluations, multiple points of student data including learning and growth), restructuring school days for collaborative communities, and instituting alternative teacher compensation-retention system, with a requirement of approval by teachers and school board.
while it certainly has its areas for improvement, it is a great jumping off point to begin dialoguing about.
the second bill is hb 2977. this bill could prove to be especially beneficial to students in the long run, by ensuring that we place an effective teacher in front of every student! It is powerful because it includes student achievement AND growth as one of the multiple evaluation measures, evaluations should inform individualized professional development plans, the commissioner must include teachers in the consultation process to review the evaluation framework, and all teachers would be evaluated at least once during the school year.
if i had students in school, i would be happy with both of these bills because they would impact the quality of teacher in the classroom. that is the goal of our program to look at policy, and learn to advocate on behalf of the teachers that are making a difference in order to impact our students.
i received a couple of thank you emails for being a part of advocacy in the capital. it takes a bit to turn a large ship, but if you don't even put your hands on the wheel, the ship will continue to trudge along in the same direction, and currently that direction is not producing thinking, cutting edge students who can thrive in today's college and workforce. we must do better!
CHECK OUT PICTURES OF OUR VISIT AND LIKE THE TEACHING TRUST FACEBOOK PAGE HERE, AND IF ANY OF THIS SOUNDS INTERESTING TO YOU (AND YOU TEACH IN Dallas ISD, DeSoto ISD, Irving ISD, Lancaster ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, Uplift Education, and KIPP DFW), there are links to apply for this program.
julie
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