Issue: Sensible Solutions for Safer Schools
Presented to: NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and his senior staff, and to senior staff of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
Recommendations:
- Put character in the curriculum.
- Practice and teach effective conflict resolution.
- Treat a school as a community.
- Improve and increase mental health support for students, educators and families.
- Ensure the security of school buildings.
- Strengthen connections between schools and communities.
- Change the debate about guns in schools.
Issue: The Value of Taking a School-Wide View Toward Students’ Life-long Success
Presented to: Chris Cerf, New Jersey Commissioner of Education
Recommendations:
- Help Schools Define and Build Cultures that Develop Non-Cognitive Skills, Then Assess Those Skills
- Establish Shared Vocabulary and Meaning that Fosters Character Development and Student Accountability from Preschool through High School and Beyond
- Develop Students’ and Teachers’ Ability to Navigate in a Diverse Society with Cultural Proficiency
- Reinvent School Discipline as an Opportunity to Build Character
- Design Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Character in Student-Centered, Student-Led Initiatives
Issue: Professional Evaluations & Roles: Teacher Leadership
Presented to: Vicki L. Phillips, Director of Education, College Ready – United States Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Recommendations:
- Teacher performance should have a higher weighting than students’ standardized test scores in all evaluation circumstances. Teacher evaluations have to focus on classroom activities, and we need to build the capacity necessary to use multiple measures of teachers’ work.
- Classroom teachers should have a regular, active and direct role in crafting the
- standards for effective teaching and the process for teacher evaluations.
- Student or parent surveys can provide useful information about classroom practice. However, surveys need to be used differently depending on grade level.
- Student formative feedback should be regular and informed by the data collected about their teachers’ effectiveness.
- Compensation and teaching performance need alignment.
- Develop a nationwide, searchable, digital database of K–12 Common Core Standard-focused lesson ideas, resources and models of effective teaching aligned to the core.
- Develop an interactive, cross-platform, social media network dedicated to educators to create a new delivery system for professional development.
- Increase access and use of technological hardware and software in K–12 classrooms nationwide.
Issue: Professional Evaluations & Roles: Teacher Leadership
Presented to: The Board of the Iowa State Education Association and members of Governor Terry Brandstad’s administration
Recommendations:
- Establish a process for choosing Teacher Leaders that includes input from teachers as well as administrators
- Clearly define the roles of Teacher Leaders
- Use Teacher Leaders to provide targeted, more effective, lower cost professional development
- Ensure that students continue to thrive academically while Teacher Leaders are away performing leadership duties
- Adequately compensate Teacher Leaders for their leadership duties
- Give Teacher Leaders the time they need to perform their leadership duties
ISSUE: Professional Evaluations & Roles: Teacher Evaluation
Presented to: Members of Governor Mark Dayton’s administration and the MDE Teacher Evaluation Work Group.
Recommendations:
- Ensure the evaluation reflects diverse student populations
- Use standardized, objective rubrics to ensure evaluator fairness
- Focus observations and evaluations on professional growth and self-reflection
- Incorporate professional development as a springboard to continuous improvement of practice
- Use multiple observations and observers for a reliable measure of educator effectiveness
- Train educators to be instructional coaches for observations
- Use value-added measures for feedback and determining professional development needs only, not for employment decisions
- Agree on curriculum-based assessments for student achievement data in non-tested subjects
- Create an appeals process for evaluations
- Provide full funding and personnel for teacher evaluation
ISSUE: Professional Evaluation and Role: Principals
Presented to: Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius
Recommendations:
- Evaluate principles in 5 areas: instructional leadership, positive school climate, fiscal/labor management, nurturing teacher leadership, and fostering equality
- Include all stakeholders – parents, teachers, community leaders, and students
- Create 3 tracks – successful principals, new principals who need additional support and struggling principals – to ensure all are high quality school leaders
Outcomes:
- Legislature receives principal evaluation framework from Minnesota Department of Education that is informed by VIVA Teachers
- Local school boards consider VIVA Teachers’ framework
- Parents promote VIVA Teachers’ framework to Legislature
ISSUE: Professional Evaluation and Roles: Teacher Evaluation
Presented to: New York Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education, Dr. John King Jr.
Recommendations:
- Use multiple measures over multiple years to create a true picture of a teacher’s effectiveness
- Use evaluation to help struggling teachers improve and make good teachers great
Outcome:
- VIVA Idea Exchange concept initial implementation successful
ISSUE: Professional Evaluations & Roles: Teacher Training and Professional Development
Presented to: U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan
Recommendations:
- Create a national teacher education curriculum
- Provide new teachers with structure, systematic support
- Provide “targeted teacher remediation” to struggling teachers
- Be creative about performance-based compensation
- Invest in parent and community involvement programs
Outcome:
- Presidential Teaching Fellows consistent with VIVA Teachers’ recommendations
ISSUE: Time in School
Presented to: Chicago Public Schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Teachers Union President, Karen Lewis
Recommendations:
- More well-rounded education and activities
- More and better use of technology
- Teacher planning and collaboration sessions
- Increase efficiencies
- Involving community organization
Outcomes:
- Recess is a right for all elementary students
- Added attendance days for Columbus Day and Pulaski Day
- Dramatic increase in access to technology for teaching and learning
ISSUE: Common Core and Student Learning: Closing the Achievement Gap
Presented to: Board of the Massachusetts Teachers Association
Recommendations:
- Treat multicultural English Language Learners as a resource in a global economy
- End the school-to-prison pipeline by keeping students engaged in learning
- Reinvent teacher preparation, professional development and evaluation so all teachers
can meet the challenge of multiethnic students, then trust teachers to do it well - Reinvent schools as a community resource
- Lengthen the school day and reorganize the school year
- Work together to seek federal funding for districts
Outcome:
- Board in direct dialogue with VIVA Teachers to create a policy agenda for Massachusetts urban education
ISSUE: Common Core and Student Learning: Common Core Implementation
Presented to: Arizona Superintendent John Huppenthal, Board President Jaime Molera
Recommendations:
- Ensure all schools and teachers have access to affordable teacher training
- Make the training available when teachers need it — at night, online, on demand
- Revamp professional development and teacher collaboration to fit new standards
- Revamp ADE website to make the tools more user-friendly
- Ease the transition from old standardized tests to new Common Core tests
- Revamp higher education teacher training to meet needs of Common Core
- Ensure parents understand the goals and challenges of Common Core
Outcomes:
- Superintendent revamps public information outreach on Common Core for teachers and parents
- Arizona Department of Education website redesigned with VIVA Teachers framework