About This Blog
News, analysis and opinion on reforms being offered to improve schools, whether the ideas originate in Washington, Austin or Dallas. The online discussion will take education policy debates seriously, while it connects them to students from grade school through college. We welcome and read all letters from readers. Letters are selected for publication based on their clarity and brevity. They also are chosen to represent a diverse set of views on as many issues as possible. March 2010
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How do you know if DISD or any district is serious about its failing schools? Big urban districts: How do they get effective teachers? Thomas Ratliff's triumph in the second most important race The Bush Institute focuses on educational leadership State Board of Education: Texas' second most important race tomorrow Obama's right to elevate standards, but what if schools don't meet them? UT-Austin: What about using more of its endowment? Categories
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(Editor's Note: As part of this blog's exploration of how progress can be spread across big urban districts, The Education Front is focusing on how districts can develop strong teachers. They, after all, are the key to progress being shared around a district. After reading Bush Institute fellow Jim Guthrie's observations about developing education leaders, Marisa Wolf, Dallas site director of the Texas Teaching Fellows Program, responded with her ideas. Below is an excerpt of her email from last week, along with an explanation of the program.)
What is the Texas Teaching Fellows program? Here is an explanation: Texas Teaching Fellows, an initiative of The New Teacher Project (TNTP), is taking a comprehensive approach to improving teacher quality in Texas. The program works hand-in-hand with partner districts in Austin, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio to build a pool of talented teacher candidates and provide innovative teacher training and certification. Since 2005, Texas Teaching Fellows has recruited and trained over 1,000 talented career-changers and recent graduates to teach in high-need schools. www.texasteachingfellows.org In response, TNTP develops customized programs and policy interventions that enable education leaders to find, develop and keep great teachers and achieve reforms that promote effective teaching in every classroom. Since its inception in 1997, TNTP has recruited or trained approximately 37,000 teachers benefiting an estimated 5.9 million students. TNTP has also released a series of acclaimed studies of the policies and practices that affect the quality of the nation's teacher workforce, most recently including The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (2009). Today TNTP is active in more than 40 cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York, and Oakland, among others. For more information, please visit www.tntp.org. |