The Teaching Commission

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

On January 14, Lou Gerstner and a group of the usual suspects repackaged 
much of the corporatist "standards and accountability" program as a call to 
"fundamentally upgrade teaching as a profession." You can read their press 
release at http://www.theteachingcommission.org/

Here's the way the story was reported by Education Intelligence Agency, an 
anti-union newsletter I read regularly to find out what opponents are thinking.

*
Can Teaching Commission Succeed Where Others Have Failed? The Teaching 
Commission is a group that was put together by former IBM Chairman Louis V. 
Gerstner Jr. Its members are a distinguished panel of past and present 
members of the education establishment. Last month, the commission released 
?Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action.? The study?s recommendations are 
surprising only in the context of the report?s signatories, who are hardly 
wild-eyed reformers or members of the vast right wing conspiracy.

The commission has 19 members, including former Democratic governors James 
Hunt and Roy Barnes, former U.S. Secretary of Education (under Clinton) 
Richard Riley, current San Francisco schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman 
and, most significantly of all, AFT President Sandra Feldman. ?Our members 
have unanimously signed off on the report,? stated Gerstner, and 
immediately declared the report?s purpose to be to ?break through the 
barriers to meaningful improvement efforts ? such as low standards, low, 
lockstep pay, mistrust of efforts to identify what makes for effective 
teaching, education schools out of touch with current school needs, and 
outmoded and inflexible work rules and district regulations ? so that 
student learning, rather than teacher protection, is the number one priority.?

Gerstner calls for ?a new compact with teachers,? which would include 
raising salaries, ?while also asking teachers to be measured and 
compensated based on their classroom performance, including the academic 
gains made by their students. We also propose higher pay for teaching 
subjects such as math and science, and for working in our toughest classrooms.?

<SNIP>

The report calls the single salary schedule ?outmoded? and says it ?removes 
the possibility of reward for success and accountability for failure.? It 
decries seniority and tenure rules that protect poor teachers. It advocates 
higher pay for teachers, but states unequivocally that ?any 
across-the-board increase in teacher pay must be combined with a 
pay-for-performance approach.?

The commission also gives attention to a long-neglected area: the teacher 
career track. Under the current system, most teachers have the same duties 
and responsibilities for the entirety of their careers. Advancement similar 
to that of other professions only occurs by entering administration. The 
commission calls for a career track of mentor, master and lead teachers ? 
with commensurate increases in pay and responsibilities ? so that teachers 
don't have to leave the classroom to get ahead.

?The Teaching Commission will not measure its success by what it 
recommends,? said Gerstner. ?Its effectiveness will be determined by its 
ability to bring these ideas to life at the federal, state, and local 
levels.? The makeup of the commission brings some hope of revitalizing an 
education reform that was beginning to fade.

George Sheridan