Ironic extremes: Lauding and bashing teachers
Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post
How’s this for ironic extreme? Thursday an international conference on the teaching profession is being held in New York to do the following, as explained by the U.S. Education Department, a co-host: “To identify and elaborate on best practices from around the world for recruiting, preparing and supporting teachers in ways that effectively enhance the teaching profession and ultimately, elevate student performance.” Educators from countries around the world, some of them representing education systems hailed for excellence on international student tests, gathered to look at what commonly works across systems and what doesn’t. What the top-achieving school systems -- in countries including Finland and South Korea -- have in common is that teachers are well-respected. In varying degrees, teachers are also well-paid, well-supported with resources and development, unionized, and considered capable of designing curriculum and lesson plans themselves without interference from non-educators. Contrast that with what is going on in Florida. (more...)