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A100 Week 12

A100 Week 12. New Topic: Human capital. Prewriting Prompt. How might we go about improving the quality of the teaching workforce? . The Media View of the Human Capital Problem. The Rubber Room The battle over New York City’s worst teachers. by Steven Brill

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A100 Week 12

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  1. A100 Week 12

  2. New Topic: Human capital

  3. Prewriting Prompt How might we go about improving the quality of the teaching workforce?

  4. The Media View of the Human Capital Problem The Rubber Room The battle over New York City’s worst teachers. by Steven Brill One school principal has said that Randi Weingarten, of the teachers’ union,“would protect a dead body in the classroom.”

  5. A Broader View of the Human Capital Pipeline • It’s not all about rubber rooms! • Six parts of the human capital puzzle: • Recruitment • Training • Evaluation • Retention • Growth • Distribution

  6. What are the different parts of a Human Capital system? (A) Educator Preparation, “Entry into the Profession” (B) Performance Management, “Career Growth, Support, and Retention” (C) Leadership Development, “Building Capacity” Support systems and leadership development • Decentralized support systems offered by others (nonprofit service providers, technical assistance providers) • Centralized support systems offered by district (programs, mentorship, and career development) • Approach to leadership development • Transforming and sustaining professional culture Source: EdLd Human Capital Presentation, October, 2010

  7. 1. Recruitment: Attracting Teachers • Possible strategies: • Pay (see McKinsey 2010 study) • Changing the culture of teaching • British ad campaign • Making it difficult/prestigious to become a teacher (TFA) • Making teaching as a whole more selective (conventional professionalization) • Flexner report style • National Board of Professional Teaching Standards • INTASC – State teaching standards

  8. 2. Initial Training of Teachers • Variety of approaches • Traditional, alternative, residencies • Schools and depts of ed: 220,000 per year • Alternative cert and residency: 10,000 per year • As you’ve seen, more variation within types than across program types. • Rather, some consistent elements of good practice: • Subject matter knowledge • Extensive clinical preparation (see recent NCATE report) • Mentored induction • Assessment of program effectiveness and feedback

  9. Teacher Prep Programs Becoming More Linked to Outcomes • Teacher preparation becoming more linked to outcomes • NCATE (accrediting body for teacher prep institutions) emphasizing more clinical work • Teacher You (or Teacher U) – collaboration between KIPP, Ach First, Uncommon, and Hunter College • Louisiana – measure teacher prep by test scores of the teachers they produce • These decisions really matter: • Teacher policy project study finds that difference between average and best teacher prep institutions equivalent to difference between poor and middle class classroom

  10. 3a. Selection of Teachers • Current ideas: • Extend the time to tenure • Make it more like university tenure or partner at a law firm • Open the pathways to entry, but tighten the bars for selection • Evaluation (cameo from teacher evaluation group) • Mixed methods • Observations (objectivity challenges) • Value added test scores (psychometric challenges) • Other quantitative data

  11. 3b. Evaluation of Teachers • Formal quantitative evaluations • Observations (objectivity challenges) • Value added test scores (psychometric challenges) • Principal decision-making • Pros: Less cumbersome, more holistic judgments • Cons: Favoritism, subjectivity, lack of basis for judgment • Peer assistance and review • Began in Cincinnati in the 1980s • Teachers tend to be tough on other teachers • Fears of fox guarding the henhouse

  12. 4. Retention • While aspiring teachers value pay, existing teachers value working conditions • No phone or desk • Respect from students, students who are willing to work and think • Opportunities for collaboration • Retention tied to school success • Need to feel part of a successful organization

  13. 5. Growth, career ladders • Merit pay vs. career ladders: • Merit pay – differences in pay based on measured quality • Unpopular with teachers and unions • Career ladders • Changing growth and scope of teacher responsibility • With increasing responsibility comes increasing pay • Popular with teachers and unions • Ongoing job-embedded professional development • Sabbaticals and other opportunities to improve practice

  14. 6. Distribution of teachers • The previous was largely about attracting good teachers • Serious problem of distribution of good teachers, b/c with pay and seniority comes the right to move to more affluent districts • In comparison to more affluent schools, poorer schools have fewer: • Experienced teachers • Certified teachers • In field teachers • Teachers who score high on certification exams

  15. Needed Changes to the American Human Capital Pipeline Source: McKinsey (2010)

  16. Politics: Are Unions Helpful or Harmful Towards Achieving Better Human Capital Policies? • sdfa

  17. Politics: Are Unions Helpful or Harmful Towards Achieving Better Human Capital Policies?

  18. The Missing Link: Human Capital is Not an Issue in a Vacuum • What other aspects of school reform are linked to the human capital question? • sfads

  19. The Missing Link: Human Capital is Not an Issue in a Vacuum • What other aspects of school reform are linked to the human capital question? • Accountability and testing • Can’t “deskill” the profession • Leadership and the creation of high quality schools • People need good organizations in which to work • Knowledge profession? • Opportunities to grow knowledge; deepen practice

  20. New Topic: The Future of the Teaching Profession?

  21. What does it mean to teach today? • To teach means to: • Take responsibility for 3-4 groups of 20-30 students at a time • Teach them all the same thing • Do all of the functions entailed in teaching them (preparing, lecturing, grading, etc.). • Take responsibility for all of the learning for a class for a year or at least a semester.

  22. There are a number of problems with this model • They include: • More students than teachers can handle • Sizer -- Horace’s compromise – “treaties” • Students learn at very different rates and are interested in different things – our current system doesn’t handle this well • The functions in teaching range from photocopying to correcting papers to delivering content – is it efficient for one professional to do all of these things?

  23. Bundled and Unbundled • Bundled – Things come pre-assembled – everyone gets the same package of stuff • Example 1 (school level): Textbooks are a bundle • Example 2 (system level): District mandates are bundled • Unbundled – Things come in pieces, and you choose how they might be assembled or put together • Example 1 (school level): Lots of mini-lessons which the teacher or student assembles is unbundled • Example 2( system level) : New Orleans is unbundled (lots of decision points)

  24. A Thought Experiment:So What if We Unbundled All of the Things in Teaching? • Split up the functions of teaching (add more paraprofessionals): • Instructing • Preparing • Grading/responding to student work • Taking care of students’ social needs • Example: Match school

  25. A Thought Experiment:So What if We Unbundled All of the Things in Teaching? • Split up the content of teaching (School of One) • Have teachers teach to standards within subjects • Specialization • Multiple groups of students with the same teacher on the same standards • Vary the modalities of teaching across teachers (School of One) • Some teachers exclusively lectures • Others work exclusively in small groups • Others might facilitate remote content (and be paid accordingly)

  26. A Thought Experiment:So What if We Unbundled All of the Things in Teaching? • Student unbundling • Smaller periods – many more choices in content • Lots of mini-lessons • Choose your own adventure

  27. What Problems Might This Model Solve? We could get by with fewer “superpeople” It respects teachers by taking away some of their more menial duties It would help to avoid burnout, by structuring roles more sensibly It respects differences in students interests and learning styles. Specialization might lead to higher quality

  28. What Are the Challenges to This Model? Asks too much of students vis a vis independent work Union resistance to differentiating teacher roles Cultural resistance to differentiating teacher roles General institutional conservatism in education (no Carnegie units, etc.) Physical space not ready for this kind of change

  29. Unbundled Schooling: All of Nothing Infrastructure unbundling Teacher unbundling Student unbundling

  30. How would the human capital pipeline look different in an unbundled world? • Six parts of the human capital puzzle: • Recruitment • Training • Evaluation • Retention • Growth • Distribution

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