The Global Achievement Gap-chp4

Reinventing the Education Profession-
I have to be honest, I felt like this chapter was very dated and a little close minded.  Wagner talks about how we need to do a lot of things that many schools in this area are already doing.  We have PLCs in place and the requirements for keeping your teaching license up to date in Wisconsin have a built in Professional Development Plan component.  I was also disappointed to see that Wagner had left education after 12 years of teaching and administrating.  Call me old fashion but I really respect people who stick with what they start, persevere through the tough times.  My brothers are great examples of this.  Neither has a college degree, but both are at the top of their field.  One who had a passion for writing and politics and now runs a newspaper that he started writing sports for part-time.  The other who was sweeping floors and fetching tools at a hydraulic shop is now running those hydraulic shops all over the country from the Mississippi to the Pacific.  Both started small, hit huge bumps in the road, but always stuck with what they loved and fought their way to the top!
     I did appreciate Wagner's comment, "Why can't administrators evaluate teachers more like in the business world?"(pg132).  I can argue both sides of this statement.  I would say that for the most part teachers are not evaluated, if they are it is early in their careers when things are fresh and motivation is high.  As the teacher progresses many times they are left on an island and administration does not do a good job of evaluating them.  I also think it is difficult to evaluate teachers the same way that someone is evaluated in the business world.  Our product is constantly changing and many of the checklist evaluations, with profit criteria that are used in the business world just don't account for the human nature of our job.  I don't think the system of evaluation in schools is broken, it may just be the fidelity and follow through that needs the work.
    A couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak to future teachers at one of the local universities.  I remember telling them that one of the main factors for my success as a new teacher was that I had stepped outside the world of academia for some time.  Wagner touches on this too, "The major problem in education is the adults, not the students.  They came through the system, and they were successful....It's all they know"(pg144).  In my short experience I have found that when my team and I think more like parents, community members and those outside looking in we are often far more successful with the things we do.  If all you have done since you were 4 years old is be a student and then a teacher.....well, I feel strongly that you are going to have a real hard time being a change agent in education.  The limited environments and experiences will leave you with limited inspiration and ideas for thinking forward.  This is not always the case, but I think the majority of the time this holds true.
  As I said before the rest of the chapter seems to discuss a lot of things that were, or are now in place in schools.  I will save what some of the problems of these new collaboration plans and professional development requirements have for a future post.
Kevin