Conversations with Educators

A+ is pleased to present a conversation with Anne Jolly. Anne is a teacher at Burns Middle School. (view biographical sketch)

In addition to this conversation, be sure to check out Anne's year-long diary in which she documents her time away from the classroom to design and implement a site-based professional development process for middle school teachers.

What strategies do you believe should be in place to help prepare teachers, students, parents, and the community for the new graduation requirements, SAT, and exit exam?

I believe that communication is the most important strategy in preparing for educational change. Too often, teachers, students, and parents and the community are the last to realize the scope and impact of proposed changes in standards and requirements. Some ideas and strategies to prepare groups for the new standards might include the following:

1. Intensive, statewide efforts to inform educators, parents, and the community should be initiated. All groups need to understand the rationale for the changes. They need to obtain a clear, comprehensive description of those changes and the anticipated impacts - both short and long-term. Informed people are more likely to be supportive and better equipped to adjust to and assist with successful change. Town-hall style meetings would provide a useful vehicle for delivering information. Printed materials, such as newspapers, are also useful, but personal interaction is more appropriate for changes for this magnitude.
   
   
2. All teachers need to see the "big picture." Opportunities for collaboration among elementary, middle, and high school educators is crucial. Without proper preparation at every instructional level, our students will not be ready to succeed in meeting graduation requirements and exams. Therefore, teachers at each grade level need to know the specific skills and capacities that our students must develop, and should feel a part of the overall educational focus.
   
   
3. Elementary and middle school curriculum must be fine-tuned to be sure it includes the instructional elements needed to produce successful graduates.
   
   
4. Parents play an important role in the academic success of their children. Checklists and other materials need to be developed to equip parents with specific strategies for helping students with subject matter at home. Parent organizations, such as the Alabama PTA, could make this parental education a year-long focus. Additional methods would be needed to deliver assistance to parents who are not involved in their child's school.
   
   
5. The Alabama State Department of Education should take the lead in developing and/or disseminating strategies for helping students meet the new graduation requirements and exit exam standards, and for delivering assistance to school systems as needed.
   
   
6. A quality plan must be in place for students who do not pass the exit exam which addresses their area(s) of weakness and provides appropriate instruction. The focus should not be on simply "passing the test," but on truly filling in the gaps in a student's knowledge and learning.
   
   
7. Ongoing teacher professional development is the key to successfully implementing the block scheduling required for enabling high school students to meet new graduation requirements. Professional development is also key to helping teachers develop strategies to better assist students who need help in specific subject areas. I believe that ongoing, quality professional development is the single most important strategy for building successful students and schools.

How can teacher leadership be recognized and improved both at the state and national levels?

Teacher leadership is the key to survival of our schools. New Alabama state laws requiring teacher involvement and participation in school finances and budgets takes that fact into account. Several national and state initiatives are underway that focus on recognizing and generating teacher leadership.

1. The National Teacher Forum held in Washington D.C. brings in 200 exemplary teachers annually to provide input to the U.S. Department of Education policies, and prepares teachers to return to their states and become teacher leaders.
   
   
2. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has set rigorous but realistic standards for what teachers should know and be able to do. Many states, including Alabama, are providing incentives for teachers who meet these goals.
   
   
3. Dr. Ed Richardson, Alabama State Superintendent of Education, formed a Teacher Advisory Committee and meets with these teachers on a regular basis to get first-hand teacher opinions, reactions, and input.
   
   
4. Community and Education entities, such as the A+ Research Foundation, regard teachers as valuable leaders and regularly include teachers in developing educational policies and directions.
   
   
5. The Alabama State Teacher Forum was organized by classroom teachers for the purpose of helping teachers recognize their leadership potential and become key players in setting educational policies and goals.
   
   
6. A number of opportunities exist for teachers to be recognized for exemplary work. These include awards programs such as the Alabama State Teacher of the Year, the Presidential Award in Math and Science, the Teacher Hall of Fame, and the Alabama P.T.A. Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

If we teachers are to be recognized as educational leaders, we must lead the charge toward changing the traditional mind-set about the teaching profession. Teaching is a leadership profession. Teachers are college-educated professionals. For the sake of our students, we teachers must be proactive, positive, and vocal change-agents. Teacher professionalism, energy, and conviction will generate a climate in which teacher leadership flourishes.

Wouldn't it be great if the following situations were the norm rather than the exception?

• A relationship between administrators and teachers exists in which an attitude of partnership replaces the traditional "levels of authority" mind-set.
  
  
• Teachers regularly participate in school decision-making, and their decisions are implemented.
  
  
• College of education teacher preparation programs routinely incorporate teacher leadership components into courses.
  
  
• Local superintendents form teacher advisory committees and regularly seek "front line" input from teachers.
  
  
• Businesses recognize teachers as professionals by inviting them to participate in appropriate leadership training courses offered to their employees.
  
  
• Teachers carry business cards and say things such as "I'm a teacher!" rather than "I'm 'just' a teacher."

In conclusion, I like to visualize teachers and students as the hub of a wheel. Every group that surrounds that hub exists for one reason - to support the hub and to enable teachers to do our jobs effectively. For the sake of our students, we teachers must become the central group that writes the prescriptions that ultimately improve our schools. Who else could write those prescriptions as accurately, as realistically, and as well?

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