Where We Live: Governor Malloy on Education

What job sectors require higher education

I heard Gov. Malloy and an NPR reporter talk about a study by CREC (right initials?) that showed the sectors where jobs are growing. The fact they both pointed out was that half of all jobs in manufacturing (47%) require post-high school education. Can you tell me the name of the group that did that study, and where I can find the list of jobs that are fast growing?

Listener Email from Rachel

It seems to me that many of the proposed changes in SB24 are founded on incorrection assumptions: 1. that the greatest reason for ineffective teaching is the lack of an effective evaluation tool and the protection afforded by tenure, 2. that better evaluation measures will attract better people into the profession, and 3. that individual teachers are solely responsible for their students’ learning growth each year.

As others have pointed out, tenure has always simply been a guarantee of due process and protection against teachers being fired for political or personal reasons having nothing to do with their classroom performance. With evaluation, the challenges are in the implementation, not the tools. Good management theory sets the ratio of manager to employee as 8-12 to 1. Few public schools have such ratios, limiting the ability of any principal/assistant principal/dept. chair to effectively supervise (and evaluate) those in their charge, no matter what the instrument. How does SB24 address issues of management capacity for individual school administrators?

Teaching is a profession where +/-50% of teachers leave after 5 years. Where in SB24 are the provisions focused on keeping good people in the job by addressing the working conditions that often make them leave? Firing the least effective of the 50% who remain doesn’t seem to be the key thing we need to focus on.

As someone who was highly effective according to my students’ test scores, I always knew that my students’ success was never solely a result of my teaching. As the Common Core State Standards and 21st Century Skills rightly state, literacy and skills such as critical thinking and problem solving are taught by all teachers. There’s no test created that doesn’t in some way rely on students’ ability to use these skills effectively. It seems illogical to assume that students’ performance on a math test that requires them to read and solve word problems doesn’t in part depend on the effectiveness of those students’ English teacher(s) and not solely on the effectiveness of their math teacher. Yet the proposed evaluation system seems to assume that each classroom teacher’s work in the classroom occurs in a silo with no effect on the work of his/her colleagues. How does the proposed evaluation system address the fact that teachers don't teach in isolation?

Listener Email from River

one fundamental problem with this approach to and focus on teachers is this: teachers are put in some of the most difficult situations and expected to perform at a high level. in addition, the teachers in the most difficult positions are often those with the fewest resources, and frequently the least experience. so given this, a decent, but not great, teacher might become a "bad" teacher, due to these circumstances and lack of support. and inexperienced teachers might not reach their potential to become great.

it's the equivalent of saying to someone, "here, see if you can win this foot race. but first i'm going to tie your legs together. good luck."

i think the conversation is incomplete until inequities are addressed, and teacher support and classroom resources are dramatically improved.

Listener Email from Mark

I asked this question of the superintendent and I would like to hear the Governor's opinion:

My daughter, who is in the fifth grade will be taking CMT tests this March. It is crystal clear that the school has been teaching that test to the exclusion of all other teaching. In fact, no Social Studies is in the curriculum until AFTER March, because that subject is not on the test.

The schools do not get test scores back until August. This means that my daughter's teacher, who is teaching her now, cannot address any issues she has real-time. So I have to ask if the CMTs serve any purpose, save to simply punish schools and not address any issues for the students real time (either in real time performance of teachers or students).

I would mention that my daughter makes straight A grades. As a parent, it is MY job to make sure she is getting the most out of her education and we will hire tutors, we will sit down with her and help her in any way we can, we go to ALL parent-teacher conferences (not just required ones) and are VERY involved

Listener Email from Adam

I actually wrote an email to the Governor's staff about the education issues. Not inflamatory, just cautionary. Change is good. Change for the sake of change is not helpful. Let's not break something that's already broken but in a different way.

Where is the concrete correlation that better students (higher GPA requirements) make better teachers?

It sometimes seems like we're looking at this issue from the bottom up - and I don't think that's valid. The best case scenario would be too look at both the administration (which is the larger problem at some schools) and the educators (which can be the problem at others) while still understanding the vast importance family/homelife plays in a child's education. We need administration in place at each school system who can understand the breadth of these issues and is willing to back them up as much as we need educators who can motivate students to achieve higher standards. That includes backing the teachers, when needed, and backing the parents when the situation warrants. All too often, the parents are either given what they want due to a weak administration/fear of lawsuits or are blindly pushed to the side because "how could they know anything about education?" We need to find a better way to get to the middle-ground that will help the school systems, the parents and the students