Elevating the Teaching Profession

Arne Duncan, the US Secretary of Education reviews the current state of teacher preparation. He proposes that we have a broken system: a system of training, induction, evaluation, professional development, and promotion that are artifacts from an earlier era and are incapable of meeting the needs of the nation or students in the 21st century. Teacher promotion and compensation policies are based on equally outdated conceptions of education based on models created 100 year ago with pay based on skill in the classroom or the difficulty of their teaching assignments, but on the single-salary pay schedule started in 1921. Duncan outlines many of his recommendations in addition to the relevant policy changes found in the Race to the Top program.

go to the website:  http://www.neatodayaction.org/2009/12/09/elevating-the-teaching-profession/