McKinsey Report on Education

After listening to the KQED Forum podcast dated December 21st, 2007, I was intrigued by the various opinions that were shared during the discussion. It is clear that much change needs to occur for public education to improve in America. However, creating a clear solution to the problem of education is not a simplistic task. I agree with much of what the guests on Forum suggested. First, it is imperative that districts attract good teachers, train them, and then hold on to them.

In order to attract good teachers, I completely agree with Tim Daly's comments that we need to think about the overall job market, and must make teaching attractive. It is imperative that we make teaching a profession that is a high on the list for young college graduates and professionals to consider. Furthermore, we must make teaching a profession this has a higher standing in society, and a profession in which people can advance over time. How we do this, I'm not sure. I think making some type of career ladder, as suggested by Tim Daly would be helpful.

Next, once we attract good teachers, it seems clear that we must give them adequate training. I liked Catherine Lewis's suggestion of allowing teachers more time to observe well-trained teachers teach, and also observe students' reactions to teaching. This technique would be very effective for inexperienced teachers. Also, to train teachers, we need to allow teachers the opportunity to select the type of professional development they need and want. When teachers are forced to go to professional developments that don't pertain to them, there is no teacher buy-in, and it is a waste of money. Also, the state needs to provide districts more money for professional development. Carlos Garcia made the point that businesses spend between 6-10% of their budget on professional development, whereas, education spends less the .5% on professional development. This statistic is incredibly alarming, and it is no wonder that teachers leave the profession.

Once we train teachers, we must hold on to them. Teacher retention is a huge issue for many districts. Schools and districts must set up communities within their schools to allow teachers to feel a part of a close community. Teachers must also feel valued to stay in the profession. Finally, teachers must be allowed ample collaboration time during the week to work together so that they feel like they are part of a team, and not their own lonely island. Again, I believe that Catherine Lewis is right that the more that teachers have time to collaborate, the more they will stay at that particular school site.

I also agree that schools currently spend way too much time attempting to teach the standards. I appreciated Mr. Garcia's comment that studies on standards report that it takes 13 years to teach standards, but really, to teach standards you would need 22-24 years to teach them. Due to this emphasis on standards, Garcia argues that textbooks becomes the curriculum. For teachers to remain teachers they need more autonomy, and need to be engaged and have more choices. If teachers are forced to teach out of one textbook, they will most likely get bored and will not be enthusiastic about what they do. I believe that teachers and schools need more autonomy so that they have more buy-in to what they are teaching.

I would reorder the priorities in the education system by allowing schools more autonomy so that each school was more invested in what they were teaching. I would focus less on covering hundreds of standards each year, and dig deeper into various topics. Furthermore, I would want schools to have students learn through experiential learning. Finally, professional development must be on-going. Teachers must decide what they need more training on and be able to get the training that pertains to what they are teaching.

As a special education teaching my favorite form of professional development is observing other schools' special education programs. I like to watch the way special education teach, and then implement things that I learned in my classroom. I also like to attend conference on topics that I feel I need to further understand. For example, recently I attended a conference on Aspergers because I wanted to learn more strategies for working with students who have Aspergers.

Once resource that I need to become a better teacher is to be able to collaborate with other special education teachers. I always want to learn about best practices. I need to continue learning about disabilities that I'm not an expert on.

I think standards are important, but as a special education teacher, I focus on the current levels of performance of students that I work with, and then create goals and objectives that are based on their areas of need. At times I take grade level standards, but then modify them so that my students can master that standard. I think that teachers attempt to cover far more standards than can possibly be covered over the span of a school-year. Instead, teachers should go more in-depth on fewer standards.


No Child Left Behind has placed too much pressure on teachers to teach to state tests, and prevents teachers from teaching an exciting and engaging curriculum. It also prevents schools from being autonomous. It takes away buy-in from teachers because they are forced to teach to the standards. I do see the value on holding schools to some standards, but there should not be so much pressure on a single multiple choice test that is supposed to show how much a student has learned.

Small class size helps me to meet the needs of all learners. The larger the class size, the harder it is to ensure that all students are mastering the content that is being taught.

I became a teacher because I became aware of the education inequities that currently face America's public education system. I believe that all students deserve an equal oppurtunity to education.

I really enjoyed learning by listening to the podcast. It was very informative, and I appreciated the various perspectives.