Spring Break
Securing a New Generation of Teachers
Creating a National Teacher Corps
Catharine Bellinger '12
Issue date: 9/30/09 Section: Opinion
When Barack Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, announced the Race to the Top fund this summer, they made the federal government a key player in education reform. In a July 24th op-ed for The Washington Post, Duncan wrote, "The Race to the Top fund marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the federal government to create incentives for far-reaching improvement in our nation's schools." We are now seeing the Department of Education partner with almost all of the 50 states to bring about the significant changes in early education, K-12 education, and higher education that our country needs to regain its competitive standing internationally.
But just where do we need the most change? Duncan is focusing on increased accountability, replication of highly successful charter schools, and rigorous national standards. All of these changes have been embraced by many prominent education reformers, from schools chancellors like Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein to advocates like E.D. Hirsch of the Core Knowledge Foundation and Joe Williams of Democrats For Education Reform. In fact, the only group not on board with Race to the Top seems to be the teachers' unions and their allies in traditional education schools. In addition, all of these reforms have one common denominator: the need for skilled, well-trained teachers who plan to stay in the profession long enough to help Duncan and Obama bring about radical change to the American education system. In order to meet that need, we need the greatest change in how we educate our teachers.
Barack Obama's education plan states that "teachers are the single most important resource to a child's learning," and that he plans to "invest in a national effort to prepare and reward outstanding teachers, while recruiting the best and the brightest to the field of teaching." Here is his chance: many college students and recent graduates are looking to teaching as a stable and rewarding profession in these troubling economic times. It is time for Obama to bring back the National Teacher Corps, which President Lyndon Johnson founded in 1965 as a Great Society program and Wendy Kopp '90 later replicated and reinvigorated as Teach For America, so that our schools will have the human capital to implement the changes that Race to the Top requires. A federally funded residency program is the best way to recreate the Corps and ensure that American schools are staffed by excellent teachers.
But just where do we need the most change? Duncan is focusing on increased accountability, replication of highly successful charter schools, and rigorous national standards. All of these changes have been embraced by many prominent education reformers, from schools chancellors like Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein to advocates like E.D. Hirsch of the Core Knowledge Foundation and Joe Williams of Democrats For Education Reform. In fact, the only group not on board with Race to the Top seems to be the teachers' unions and their allies in traditional education schools. In addition, all of these reforms have one common denominator: the need for skilled, well-trained teachers who plan to stay in the profession long enough to help Duncan and Obama bring about radical change to the American education system. In order to meet that need, we need the greatest change in how we educate our teachers.
Barack Obama's education plan states that "teachers are the single most important resource to a child's learning," and that he plans to "invest in a national effort to prepare and reward outstanding teachers, while recruiting the best and the brightest to the field of teaching." Here is his chance: many college students and recent graduates are looking to teaching as a stable and rewarding profession in these troubling economic times. It is time for Obama to bring back the National Teacher Corps, which President Lyndon Johnson founded in 1965 as a Great Society program and Wendy Kopp '90 later replicated and reinvigorated as Teach For America, so that our schools will have the human capital to implement the changes that Race to the Top requires. A federally funded residency program is the best way to recreate the Corps and ensure that American schools are staffed by excellent teachers.
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posted 12/06/09 @ 10:16 AM EST
All of these changes have been embraced by many prominent education reformers. I think it is good for education system.
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posted 12/15/09 @ 8:46 AM EST
I agree that "teachers are the single most important resource to a child's learning".
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