It is that time of year when I hit the road to meet with fellow education leaders to hear what is working, what is not working and how we can do more to improve education. It is a veritable alphabet of conferences between now and mid-August:
- NASDTEC – National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification
- ECS -Education Commission of the States
- CCSSO – Council of Chief State School Officers
- NCSL -National Council of State Legislators
- ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council
These are especially interesting times in education and I hope to engage in lengthy discussions on:
- How the teacher shortage continues to impact schools and students
- How the Supreme Court ruling on Janus has a significant impact on teacher unions – $50M budget cuts and the possible loss of over 300,000 members announced already
- The Gates Foundation very expensive foray into Teacher evaluation research “finds scant evidence that those changes accomplished what they were meant to: improve teacher quality or boost student learning.”
- The lack of diversity in teaching
- Teacher testing – is it working?
Unfortunately – most of these topics are not discussed as I scan the agendas – so I guess we will just have to keep pushing since teaching does have the greatest impact on student success.
However I am very encouraged to be a part of the CCSSO working group on diversity in teaching with a very distinguished and focused group. And I will continue to push on the teacher shortage at every event with a laser focus on the teacher licensing issues that impact shortages and diversity!
If you are at any of these conferences, hit me up on twitter and let’s solve the worlds education problems over a beverage or two!
