McKinsey Report On Education

What is your solution to the problem with education?
The four panelists all had very interesting approaches to improving our educational system. One point raised by Catherine Lewis was the importance of collaboration among educators. She mentioned how schools in Japan allow teachers to plan collaboratively and then observe how that lesson is carried out in an actual classroom setting. I think that the essential part of this approach is that the teachers are encouraged to evaluate and observe a lesson in an actual classroom. In my school we have very limited opportunities to collaborate with one another. At the elementary level we have only one teacher per grade. I have taken it upon myself to work with first grade teachers from other schools in order to collaborate on lesson plans and learning units. Though I have been able to collaborate with others, it would be very helpful to actually observe other teachers in action. Observations were an important part of my credentialing process. As students, we were required to spend time watching master teachers. This idea of observing, however, has been lost now that I am in my own classroom. As a young teacher I think that it is critical for me to continue observing others to gather ideas and to learn techniques. I think that all schools whether they are public or private should provide teachers with the opportunity to collaborate.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia also mentioned a good point that students coming out of teaching programs are not trained in how to use the resources available to them in a classroom. In my own experience I feel that this was very true when I first began teaching. I felt that my credentialing program provided a very good foundation for teaching and student teaching enabled me to apply the things that I had learned but I was very overwhelmed when I stepped into my own classroom for the first time. It would have been helpful to learn how to develop goals and procedures for an entire year. When I began teaching, my school did not have a mentor program. I worked with a first grade teacher from another school and she provided me with a road map of ideas to help plan my first year. She was very supportive and met with me throughout that first year. An important part of the mentoring relationship that was mentioned by Alan Miller is that time needs to be set aside in order for teachers to work together.


How would you reorder the focus of the priorities in the education system?
After listening to the podcast, I really support the idea of making professional development a priority in schools. I think teachers of all levels and experience should be required to attend classes to continue their education. Beginning teachers need the support of training as they start working in a classroom. I also think that it is important for older teachers to stay on top of new instructional strategies and educational theories. I think it is the responsibility of the school to make this type of learning more accessible. It is very expensive and time consuming for the individual teacher to attend workshops and college courses. Schools should provide teachers with funding and time away from class to attend these courses.

Another priority should be assessing the standards that we are being asked to teach. Catherine Lewis raised the point that we are trying to teach too many things at the expensive of deeper learning. I think that many teachers fall into the comfort and ease of following a textbook page by page. The result of this approach is that the focus becomes finishing the book rather then the content. I think that this is particularly true in the area of math. Teachers need to use a textbook as a tool and they need to evaluate the essential topics that need to be covered within a year.

What type of professional development works best for you?
At my school we attend professional development workshops four times a year. One day is a conference in which teachers from all over the area attend and listen to presentations. The other three days are spread throughout the year and we meet in smaller grade level groupings. This past year the focus of our professional development was writing. This program was outstanding. It was very hands on and actually taught us how to teach our students to write. I walked away from these workshops feeling better prepared and I had many new resources to use. In comparison, the focus of our professional development the year before was Curriculum Mapping. The purpose of this program was to improve how teachers plan lessons and evaluate their planning. After attending the last workshop, however, our school never discussed Curriculum Mapping again.

Follow through is the main problem that I have encountered with our professional development workshops. Each year we attend these meetings and then the programs are never reinforced or adopted by our school. If teachers are going to be required to attend these workshops, then schools should be ready to support these new programs. I would like to be able to choose the workshops that I would like to attend in order to meet the needs of my students.

What resources do you need to become a better teacher?
An interesting topic that was discussed among the panelists was examining how funds are used at a school. At our school I am fortunate to have an aid from 8-12 everyday. Having an aid allows me to work more closely with those students that need my attention. Another great resource that we have is a computer teacher. My class attends computer class once a week in the computer lab. Our school also has one traveling cart of laptops that are available to use, but these are often reserved for the upper grades. It would be great to have more computers in my own classroom. There are many times when I wish that I could have my students practicing math facts, phonics or reading on computers in our room. Another resource would be to improve upon the technology that we have in our classrooms. Many of the programs that we have adopted for math, science and social studies come with on-line tools. It is difficult to utilize all of these resources when I don’t have an In focus machine or computers for my students to access this technology.


How do you feel about the California State Content Standards and the curriculum you are assigned to teach?
This past year the teachers at my school gathered before school for two months and we evaluated our math and reading programs in comparison to the Content Standards. We reviewed the standards for each grade level and evaluated how these were being taught and how much of an emphasis each area needed. The goal of this process was to make sure that we are building each year and not reteaching things that should have been taught. For example, the third and fourth grade teachers were concerned with how their students were learning multiplication and division facts. We looked down a few grades and realized that we really needed to focus on addition and subtraction facts in grades 1 and 2 to get our students ready for that next level in math. This process really helped our staff to evaluate the content we are teaching in our classrooms. In these discussions we also reviewed how we were going to hold one another accountable.

In my credentialing program we were taught to lesson plan using the Content Standards. I think that the standards should be used as a tool to hold teachers accountable for the topics that they are teaching each year. Teachers, however, need to assess the standards and identify those areas that should be focused on in order to help the students learn and prepare for the next year.


What is your take on No Child Left Behind?
One important part of No Child Left Behind is the focus on hiring teachers that are highly qualified. There are many points that were mentioned by the panelists that relate to this topic. One important point is providing incentive for highly qualified people to enter the teaching profession. As mentioned by Tim Daly, the teaching profession must be able to compete with other highly desired careers. A second point, is meeting the financial needs of individuals that want to pursue classes and workshops to become more qualified educators. Alan Miller pointed out how many educators must face a heavy financial burden to become teachers. Teachers are often discouraged to pursue more education because there is little financial incentive for this effort. Schools need to start allocating money to support the development and education of their teachers.


How does class size determine your success as a teacher?
I currently teach at a school where I have 36 first graders from 8:00-3:00. In my opinion this is a very large group of students to work with each day. In particular, I think that this class size impacts my ability to work with my class on reading. It took me three years of trying new things and evaluating my programs to develop a system where I now feel that I can better reach all of my young readers. There are many times, however, that I still feel that I am not meeting the needs of all of my learners. One thing that helped me to better organize my class was attending a workshop for K-2 teachers on reading groups. This workshop showed me ideas on how to divide my class so that I could work with my students in groups of 4 or 5. In these small groups I am better able to read with students one on one. One area that I still work on is making sure that the other groups of students are learning and being challenged while I am working with a group. I think that Catherine Lewis made an important point that class size should not matter, as long as teachers are being taught how to teach a big class. Again, the issue comes back to better preparing and training teachers.

Why did you become a teacher?
I became a teacher because I felt that this was what I was best fit to do in life. I love working with my students and I get excited when I plan a unit, or if I find a topic or story that I think they will enjoy. It is an amazing experience to watch a group of young first graders develop throughout the course of a year. Both of my parents are teachers and I had the benefit of watching them both grow as educators. To this day we still run into past students of my parents. It is wonderful to hear how they still remember my mom or dad and how they appreciated being in their classes. I think that being a teacher is a tremendous responsibility and I want to continue to challenge myself to be the best teacher I can be for my students.

How did it feel to learn by listening to a podcast?
Listening to the panel today was my first experience listening to a podcast. At first, it was difficult for me to keep pace with the recording and I had to replay what I had listened to. One of the advantages of listening to the recording was that I did have the opportunity to replay any parts that I needed to hear for a second time. Once I began listening however, I became very interested in the interaction of the guests. I also liked hearing the comments from the teachers that phoned in to share their experiences and opinions.