Four Oregon state legislators wrote an "In My Opinion" piece for The Oregonian (December 6, 2010). They previewed an education summit to be convened by them on Tuesday, December 7. They, "invited education experts from around the country and from throughout Oregon," including, "school superintendents, education researchers, principals who've led school turnaround efforts and people who run Head Start programs for preschoolers." Who are these "experts"? And why is there no reference to parents, teachers, and students being invited other than through a day-before-the-summit newspaper opinion piece that relatively few will read and fewer still will be able to respond to.
The real experts will be deeply engaged on Tuesday in the daily work of educating students who don't have the time for the nonsense of summits that will have no impact on anything that will improve education in Oregon. The expert practitioners know what is required. They require adequate resources including: 1. Sufficient time to plan, prepare, and assess. 2. Greater autonomy to design, develop, and implement curriculum. 3. Competent administrative leadership. These require not only a redistribution of funds, but an increase in funding.
If you want quality, then you have to pay for it. So long as the state legislature is unwilling to fund education at a minimally adequate level (Quality Education Model) then there will be no way to meet the goal of the four legislators, "to ensure that the schools that educate the state's children are on a solid foundation and on a path to get better."
This is what I propose the legislators do if they want to hear from real experts. Don't waste money convening meaningless talk fests in Salem. Instead, go to at least one elementary school, one middle school, and one senior high school in their legislative districts. Spend an entire day in each. Arrive with the morning custodian and stay until the last teacher leaves. Observe, ask questions of licensed staff, classified staff, students, parents, and volunteers. Learn from the experts.
2 comments:
I have a really good response-in fact it's turning into an essay of sorts--I'm going to go to bed and work on it tomorrow. How odd--a teacher thinking about work at 11:40 p.m. on a school night! A fellow teacher friend once confided in me that she sometimes "fantasizes" about having a cubical job...and I told her "so do I."
Speaking of cubicles, I suggest following the Dilbert comic strip for it's pertinence to education. The likes of Catbert, the pointy-haired boss and egghead CEO are not confined to the corporate world.
I'm looking forward to reading your "essay" Jennifer.
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