As a parent, local businessman, tax-payer, and current school board member, I am deeply aware of the need for high-quality public schools for all of our children. I am also aware of the fact that we cannot have high-quality public schools without having great teachers and leaders to staff those schools.
Yet, I am also concerned about the tone of our current conversation regarding the importance of teachers and school leaders. Too often, it seems we are more interested in blaming teachers for school failure, instead of thinking about what we all need to do in order to ensure school success. And too often, parents, students, rank-and-file teachers, and community members find ourselves being used as pawns in a larger, political battle that is less about educating our children, and more about union vs. anti-union forces.
We cannot afford to continue being caught up in these political distractions. Our children and our communities need real education reform that works for all of us, right now. Virtually everyone agrees that reforms like a longer school year, rigorous academic programs, and 21st Century learning experiences are necessary to better prepare students for careers, college, and life. But do we recognize what needs to happen in the classroom to accomplish this?
Teaching every child, every day is tough, complicated work. Each of our students has unique, and ever-changing, strengths and needs. If our children are to have the kind of teachers and leaders who can meet those challenges, we can’t buy in to trendy school reform strategies that treat our school staff as if they are disposable. Our children need and deserve teachers who have been well-trained and mentored, and who stay in the profession long enough to reach their potential as instructors. To provide this, we must make sure that Denver’s educators receive the preparation, resources and support they need in order to do their best for children.
That means we need to start working together, promoting collaboration within our schools, and between our schools and our communities.
As a district, we must also create a stronger educator pipeline into our schools. It is essential that we build more effective partnerships between DPS and local universities that will allow us to find, develop, and keep talented current and future teachers who are right here in Denver, rather than spending increasing amounts of money on out-of-state recruitment. We have numerous local examples of innovative training programs that grow great teachers, such as the Boettcher Teachers Program at the University of Denver and the Center for Urban Education at Metropolitan State College of Denver. We should foster and expand these kinds of programs to ensure that our schools are staffed well.
But putting great teachers in our classrooms is not enough. We must keep them there and make sure they get the ongoing evaluation and development they need to continuously improve their practice. That means we need to attract, develop, and retain great leaders for our schools. Unfortunately, we have seen the effects of poor leadership and high principal turnover in our schools, in the form of negative school culture, weak relationships between our communities and schools, and low student achievement. To turn this situation around, we need to develop and keep school leaders who foster collaboration among their staff members, and among staff members, parents, and the community at large. We also need principals who can act as instructional leaders to promote effective practice in their buildings, and who can act as good managers of the public funds we entrust to them.
As part of my commitment to recruiting and retaining effective teachers and leaders, I have helped to create portability between DPS pension participants and PERA. I have also started a productive dialogue with President Stephen Jordan of Metro State, and I established the Northwest Community Committee comprised of parents, teachers, and principals to promote the kind of collaboration we need to improve student achievement in Denver.
There is no single magic bullet, no one program, trick or curriculum that will work to fix all of our schools. Our best hope of creating a high-quality school system for our children lies in building a corps of teachers and leaders who have the talent, drive, and support necessary to make our schools work. I look forward to continuing to work with all members of the community—families, educators, and business leaders alike—to do exactly that.