Advancing the Teaching Profession

Can We Combine Teaching and 'Senior Leadership'?

This past weekend Bob Herbert of the New York Times offered a glimpse into how new generations of education leaders for America’s public schools might be developed. In his op-ed piece, Herbert offers a refreshing description of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's new doctoral program (the first in 74 years):

The three-year course will be tuition-free and conducted in collaboration with faculty members from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The idea is to develop dynamic new leaders who will offer the creativity, intellectual rigor and professionalism that is needed to help transform public education in the U.S.

What's refreshing is the new program's perspective that 21st century schools will require administrators who know how to manage like a MBA while still having knowledge of teaching and telling. That's just common sense, some might say. However, for the last decade the conventional wisdom has been those who run school systems do not need to know much about pedagogy.  Kudos to the Wallace Foundation for investing in Harvard’s more balanced approach to preparing senior leaders for school systems, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.

As the leader of an organization committed to making accomplished teachers full partners in school reform, my next thought is: Where is the high-profile approach to developing senior education leaders who still teach students? My New York City colleague Ariel Sacks, a young teacher in our Teacher Leaders Network, explores this same question in her blog On the Shoulders of Giants, drawing on the example of her father, a doctor who combines health research and consulting with a small patient practice "to keep it real." As is so often the case, Ariel's post has attracted thoughtful comments from her blog readers and from within our TLN Forum discussion group.

Ariel, by the way, is one of 12 talented teachers working on a book about the future of teaching to be published by Teachers College Press next year. Read Ariel’s blog and consider the possibilities of developing a cadre of "teaching leaders" who work in hybrid roles (in less hierarchical school systems) and are able to lead from within and without the classroom.

Peering into the Future of Teaching

I spent the three days recently working with our TeacherSolutions 2030 team at the North Carolina home of CTQ. With support from the MetLife Foundation, 12 expert teacher leaders from across the nation are defining how their profession must look in 20 years to serve students well in the 21st century.

Over the last nine months we’ve been involved in a lot of study and conversation -- mostly online in our 24/7 virtual community. We’ve  explored teaching’s historical roots, assessed the ongoing debate over how to recruit and retain new talent to the profession, and considered how emerging realities can transform teaching for 21st century learning.

We’ve discussed how web-based tools and newly designed statistical techniques will generate once-unthinkable ways for teachers to collect and analyze formative assessment data on student learning — and in doing so, inform policymakers and the public about a new brand of accountability. We’ve also talked about the role that teacher-preneurs (or pedagogical entrepreneurs) can play in spreading teaching expertise in a 24/7 environment and committed ourselves to ensure a future profession where students are known well by teachers – and teach much more than algebra to struggling 9th graders.

No doubt advances in cognitive science and the Kurzweilian vision of nanomachines will give teachers new tools to improve academic achievement. But we cannot ignore the continuing role of teachers like Keith Yow – who teaches woodworking in my hometown of Hillsborough — in assuring a meaningful future for our children. Policymakers, who are trying to figure out the whole strategic management of human capital thing, must not forget the lessons taught by shop teachers and the successful students that Keith and so many other teachers nurture. They understand that “highly effective” teaching has many dimensions, and some of the most important are not captured – yet – on the annual state assessment.