Teacher Quality: What are we talking about here?

There is so much going on in education this week, especially in Tennessee. This isn't a complete list of happenings, but it's a sketch.

NATIONAL STUFF: First of all, the Obama Administration releases its Blueprint for fixing No Child Left Behind. People are worried about what this law would mean (see the comments on that article) for our schools.

STATE STUFF: Next, Knox County Superintendent Dr. James McIntyre testifies (this link is about the process--the interviews aren't yet available online) with others on behalf of the Tennessee's application for millions of dollars to reform education in our state. The TN Teacher Evaluation Advisory Committee met yesterday (according to this SCORE Blog post)--not sure what they talked about, though. The elected vs. appointed school superintendent bill always spurs controversy.

This is all interesting if you're REALLY INTO EDUCATION.

But, as I continue to talk to people in East Tennessee, especially some non-traditional parties who have a stake in education, it's not really at the top of the list.

One thing that IS of interest to a lot of people is what exactly we expect from our teachers. Do we have a definition of teacher quality in our state? The TN Advisory Committee will be dealing with that, but there other factors at play that will have a say (like the Memphis Gates grant, the Chattanooga Public Education Foundation, etc.)...

The United Way of Metro Nashville has been working with their school system to have a definition of "teacher effectiveness" that everyone can agree on (seems nearly impossible, eh?). I wanted to share it here...

"Effective teaching produces authentic and purposeful learning through which students gain an average of at least one year of academic growth as measured on standardized tests, and successful teachers possess the following characteristics:
- A strong belief that all students can learn along with high expectations of all students
- Knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject matter and teaching
- Collaborates with other teachers, administrators, parents and education professionals to ensure student success; benchmarks against best practices already established in research.
- Utilizes effective communication strategies with students and parents
- Contributes to positive academic, attitudinal and social outcomes for students such as regular attendance, on-time promotion/graduation, self-efficacy, and cooperative behavior.
- Monitors student progress using both formative and summative measures and adapts instruction as needed.
- Employs multiple sources of evidence for use in grading and evaluating students.
- Uses diverse resources to plan and structure engaging learning opportunities."

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Is this reflective of what we expect from teachers in East Tennessee?

Of course, there are a lot of school systems that are trying to think about how to measure various dimensions of "quality teaching" (see Cincinnati, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, etc.). We'll get to that later, but I'm wondering if there's an agreement on what we expect from teachers. Stay tuned for Chattanooga, too. More to come on that...

Big wheels keep on turning...