Bargaining for Better Teaching: follow up entry

I'm getting good emails and intelligent comments from great people lately. This morning, my DCAWP colleague, Elizabeth Davis, emailed me:

Hi Maria,

Attached is a Washington Post article I wrote with another teacher and friend regarding the current teachers' union contract talks. The article, printed in last Sunday's Close to Home section, was prompted by our concerns that the proposed WTU contract does not address many of the problems teachers face and will not make DCPS a better place to teach or learn. Successful reform of education in DC will require more than what we’ve seen, and I believe you know that too.

I couldn't agree with her article more and I already posted the article in this blog last week, when WaPo published it online (I am subscribed to WaPo RSS feeds so I got it online a day before WaPo released it in print).

An educator highly respected in our profession, a National Board Certified Teacher Leader co-author of the NBPTS report Measuring What Matters left a message on Elizabeth's article in my blog! Nancy Flanagan is also blogging at Teacher Leaders Network, also a lobbyist for education, and an Education Policy blogger. This is not Ms. Flanagan's first time to drop by my blog and leave a message, I am humbled by her visits. She said:

I am standing, APPLAUDING Elizabeth Davis' very salient questions on raising teacher quality in DC Public Schools--as well as all public schools. They are right on.

It is gratifying and encouraging to note that you are using "Measuring What Matters" in your quest to help the education community and policy-makers understand the impact of raising teacher professionalism on student learning and teacher practice.

Good teachers want to be responsible for their students' growth and achievement. But they also want to be part of the process that determines what best practice looks like, and what's most effective. I was happy to see that Davis pushes for teacher residency programs, one way to build teacher capacity over the long haul--rather than the "here today, gone tomorrow" programs that bring in new teachers who are not committed to becoming a part of the long-term solution to improving the schools where they work.

You have been posting some great things. Thank you.

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Indeed, great minds think alike!