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Put some of the best brains in education in one room to tackle difficult issues facing schools, and what do you get? A lively discussion and an expansive set of innovative and intriguing ideas.
For example, how about creating a "mission" program that allows the state's most highly qualified teachers to take leaves of absence from their regular jobs to go into school districts with the greatest needs? Right now, those teachers tend to be concentrated in the wealthiest districts that can pay the highest salaries, but they are probably needed the most in poor urban and rural districts with the largest number of high-needs students.
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Nearly 100 of Wisconsin's 350 National Board Certified Teachers - the cream of the crop of the state's teaching corps - hashed out these difficult issues and potential solutions during a two-day summit Monday and Tuesday (August 7-8, 2006) at the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan. The meeting was sponsored by WEAC. Their solutions are being compiled into a report that will be made available next spring to the Department of Public Instruction, policymakers and the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
The main focus of the meeting was supporting and staffing the state's urban and rural "high-needs" schools - those schools that have relatively few resources and serve large concentrations of children from low-income families - children who tend to bring the biggest challenges to schools.
Often, these school districts are forced to pay low salaries and thus tend to be staffed with less experienced teachers. The educators at the summit agreed that bringing more experience into these schools would benefit the teachers currently there, as well as the students. But how do you do that?
One idea was to create a state program to subsidize teacher salaries in such districts to bring salaries in line with other districts so highly qualified teachers would not have to sacrifice their family incomes to work in a high-needs school.
Other ideas included:
In addition to tackling that formidable issue of bringing highly qualified teachers into high-needs schools, the educators also developed lists of ideas for improving teacher professional development, increasing the leadership role of teachers in the schools and communities, and increasing the diversity of teachers in the classroom.
With a critical need for more minority teachers, the challenge of attracting and retaining them became a key focus of discussion. Among the ideas generated to address this issue were:
The summit was one of six being held throughout the country. Participants expressed hope that the ideas they generated will lead to legislation that improves the quality of education for all children.
Posted August 9, 2006