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Real Stimulus

Excerpt from New York Times
January 11, 2009

"One of the smartest stimulus moves we could make would be to eliminate federal income taxes on all public schoolteachers so more talented people would choose these careers. I’d also double the salaries of all highly qualified math and science teachers, staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science — instead of subsidizing their educations and then sending them home — and offer full scholarships to needy students who want to go to a public university or community college for the next four years. J.F.K. took us to the moon. Let B.H.O. take America back to school."

-Thomas Friedman

Also of interest:

• Thomas Friedman's bookography

 

Wall Street Journal Ranks Jobs

The Wall Street Journal reiterates the importance of mathematics:

 

Predicting Teaching Potential

Excerpt from the Public Education Network
December 19, 2008

Writing in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell contemplates the issue facing education reformers around teacher performance, which he characterizes as "a quarterback problem." That is, in the same way you can't predict who will become a star quarterback in the NFL until that athlete is actually in the NFL, you can't predict who will become a star teacher until that person is actually teaching in the field. No other situation replicates the blend of demands, skills, and intuitions of either job. College football, or teacher certification, can't predict success, and the stakes are high.

According to research that Gladwell cites, students in the class of a bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's material. Students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half's material -- putting them an entire year ahead of their poorly-taught peers. "Teacher effects dwarf school effects," Gladwell writes. "Your child is actually better off in a ‘bad' school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. Teacher effects are also much stronger than class-size effects. You'd have to cut the average class almost in half to get the same boost that you'd get if you switched from an average teacher to a teacher in the eighty-fifth percentile."

The implications are clear: "After years of worrying about issues like school funding levels, class size, and curriculum design, many reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with the potential to be great teachers. But there's a hitch: no one knows what a person with the potential to be a great teacher looks like. The school system has a quarterback problem."

Also of interest:

• Malcom Gladwell Outliers: The Story of Success
• Check out the "Leadership" section in the bookstore

 

Listening to Students

The start of the school year for Dallas teachers included an inspired presentation by 10 year old Dalton Sherman. As a student in Dallas schools, he shared with teachers what he and his fellow students need. It's amazing to see the talent of this elementary student and how it is used for the betterment of education. Take a look at the video clip below.

Listening to students often reveals strategies to better connect with their learning. In a separate forum, Teacher magazine offers a glimpse at what students wished their teachers knew.

When we take into consideration the dynamic relationship between learning and teaching and reflect on ways to improve the relationship- educators have lots to gain from listening to learners.