Here's the Deal: We already know what needs improving.

Education Post's sensational headline reads, "Here’s the Deal: We Can’t Help Teachers Improve If We Don’t Know What Needs Improving (11/29/16)." Author Thomas Toch argues that better teacher accountability metrics will lead to—what? Higher test scores? A stronger workforce?

How about we improve teaching with the aim of a more green, healthy, and sustainable America?

And we already know what needs improving.

Our country needs to improve family access to safe neighborhoods, healthy housing, meaningful employment, and balanced nutrition. We need to improve parents' and guardians' access to time and resources so that they can make sure their children are curious, energetic, well-fed, well-rested, and learning ready.

We need to improve student and staff access to green, healthy, and sustainable schools; beautiful schools that conserve energy and water, foster wellness, and advance equity between people, planet, and prosperity are good for students. This will help teachers.

We need to improve the capacity of educators to collaborate on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and policy that enriches students' love of learning, critical and creative thinking, and democratic civic engagement. 

We need to improve supports for educators as they exercise their professional expertise.

We need to improve teachers' stewardship of the profession. 

We need to improve our civic commitment to American values such as democracy, liberty, and justice for all.

We need to improve our courage. 

This will help teachers.

Check out the organizations below.
Green Schools National Network U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Green Schoolyards America Women Of Green Center for Green SchoolsEcoRise Youth Innovations Eco-Schools USA National Environmental Education Foundation Shelburne Farms Center for Ecoliteracy GreenFutures UN Sustainable Development Platform The Networked Teacher Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse Caucus of Working Educators Badass Teachers Association Center for Teaching Quality Teacher Powered Schools Teach to Lead Network for Public Education Sustainable Happiness

Effective personal learning communities (PLCs)

What are the characteristics of effective K-12 teachers' personal learning communities (PLCs), and can PLCs be digital?

I think that for PLCs to be effective, they need 3 things:  focus, responsibility, and authority.  The careful balance of these three results in teachers who are engaged, who have a sense of purpose, and who can influence the school's culture.  Most importantly, the PLCs need to cultivate individual's and/or the school's social capital.

PLCs will be more effective if they have a particular focus, whether its departmental (science or history teams), pedagogical (instructional or assessment strategies), operational (grant$ review or school culture), or interest-based (shared readings or other).

Effective PLCs need to have specific responsibilities such as completing a project, reporting back to the larger faculty and/or making policy recommendations.  Responsibility implies accountability, and the interaction between PLCs fosters accountability.  Schools need a deep leadership bench, and teachers can contribute to a school's strengths (and their own strengths) via PLCs.

A PLC's sense of authority is a tricky one.  Some teachers or administrators dispense authority to groups or individuals without proper and gradual experience with cost-benefit analysis, diplomacy, or communications etiquette.  If this is true, one solution is to have clear organizational goals and to understand how a specific PLC's aims fit into or advance the larger goals.  PLC members also need to develop 6, 12 and 18 months goals (more or less depending on the project) so that they can gradually raise the general social capital of the school overall.  The PLC's authority needs to be honored, and administrators, in particular, need to make sure they have provided enough context so that the PLCs understand the implications of their choices and recommendations.

On a side note, PLCs are more likely to be effective when administrators are participants.

Democracy & Educational Leadership

What is it that makes an effective educational leader? Of course we need leaders who can help reform and enrich education --- but to what end? NYTimes columnist Bob Herbert may have some answers.

There's one major problem with Bob Herbert's perspective on educational leadership. He assumes that public eduction exists to advance our country's international economic prowess ("In Search of Education Leaders," Dec 5, 2009). Alternatively, public education exists to cultivate democracy.

A vibrant economy is certainly a worthy goal for any society, but it is democracy that helps individuals make smart choices that advance the common good---both locally and globally. This lesson can be learned at home and in our schools. Yet public education should represent our civil commitment to a democracy that fosters liberty and equality. Worthwhile educational reform requires leadership that is guided by such a democracy.

As Ariel Sacks writes, we should also be careful about programs for educational leadership that are not explicitly linked to classroom teaching. Teachers make hundreds of decisions that help students navigate the complexities of democracy, i.e. the aligment of personal liberties with social equality. Without this direct experience of teaching and learning, what kind of reform can educational leaders provide?