At The Table @ The Minneapolis Foundation

Peter Hutchinson, Kati Haycock and Rudy Crew discuss the issue of teacher quality.

Today, over 600 people attended the first Minnesota Meeting.  It was the first in a three-part series on education titled Raising Expectations.  I was incredibly excited to have many of you join us at At The Table.   I think that all in attendance were both moved and alarmed by the cold, hard facts about the state of Minnesota education laid out by the speakers.  The panel included Kati Haycock president of the Education Trust, and Dr. Rudy Crew, former superintendent of New York City and Miami/Dade Public Schools.  The panel was moderated by Peter Hutchinson, President of the Bush Foundation and a former Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent.

Haycock started things off with some concrete data. “On state assessments in reading, about 80 percent of your white 4th graders meet the state standards.  For black 4th graders it’s more like 44 percent, for Latino’s about 33 percent and somewhere in the mid-50’s for both Asian and native American students.”

Perhaps most alarming, Haycock said is that for students entering the system behind grade level, the education system actually widens the gap, rather than closing it.  She stressed two fundamental factors to addressing the gap – quality teachers and a rigorous curriculum.  She said, we need to raise our expectations of all students and provide the teaching to support it.

Dr. Crew, a passionate speaker with a professional history as a reformer (including being named Superintendent of the Year in 2008 and being fired from the position in the same year) laid out three primary points.

1. Raise expectations of kids, teachers, schools and governance of the school system.
2. Teachers need to cultivate a deep understanding of effective and varied teaching approaches.  He referred to this as the development of a teaching repertoire.
3. Demonstrate a “high degree of human caring,” which, he said should be evident at the board, the district, and the classroom levels, as well as in how a community spends its dollars.

Both speakers agreed that the allocation – not necessarily the amount – of dollars is critical to closing the achievement gap. Poor students simply get less – “not less in terms of dollars but in terms of what a dollar buys,” said Haycock. Crew spoke bluntly: advocating for increased funding without demanding results deters change. He said many states, including Minnesota, have “put in more money to get the same results….Good leaders need you to push for results and back their efforts for reform.”

Both speakers identified a need for better board governance, better data, and above all, more support and accountability for teaching.  Crew commented that it isn’t about intention.  No one enters the teaching profession without wanting to make a difference, but with little, if any professional support, many beginning teachers don’t know “what an A looks like,” in teaching. He advocates introducing a master-teacher approach to allow for greater compensation for and knowledge sharing by effective teachers.

Haycock who often commented on the need for measurement and data to prove what is effective and what simply doesn’t work, talked about the  need to evaluate teaching, based not on student achievement but on student growth. Teachers need to demonstrate their “value added” for students; standardized tests measure student performance as opposed to student progress.

Hutchinson also added to the conversation by saying, “We can’t compete in the global economy by falling behind in educational achievement. Over a third of our young people who go on to college are taking remedial courses when they get there – essentially taking high school over again.

Throughout the meeting the audience could be seen taking notes, nodding in agreement to the ideas of reform, and gasping in response facts like Minnesota’s academic place nationally.

So, now how do we move beyond the chairs of the convention center to take steps towards reform?

If you weren’t able to join us, you can watch it here.

Also, here is a brief fact sheet that was distributed and a MinnPost article.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Achievement Gap, Education Reform, Minnesota Meeting, Teacher Quality