Teacher Report Cards

There's a storm a-brewin'. Each year there's an annual report called Quality Counts. It's a state-by-state measurement of how public schools are performing. And each year there is both great rejoicing and also great gnashing of teeth in regards to the findings.

Locally, the story is going to be about how Minnesota did in terms of teachers and teaching. Ranked 39th and receiving an overall grade of D+ in the measurements about teachers, this year's report is going to rile up the masses and over the course of the next few days, it will be interesting to see how people react to this disturbing data. Here's a local article describing the findings.

What's going to be especially telling to observe will be how Joe Public reacts to this disparaging news about teaching. If this news came out about students, most of us would say, "We have go DO something!" When it comes out about teaching, will we react the same way or treat it punitively towards the educators?

If you pick apart the data, little of it is about the actual teachers; rather, it's about the systems in which they work. Will this be another "what's wrong with those teachers?" moment or will there be real conversation about real reform. Stay tuned.

The Debates I'd Like to See

I'm a bit of a political junkie, so it will be hard in the next year to resist exploring the elections on any given forum, including this one. I think if I sit on my hands, I can avoid it.

But generally speaking, I've been ruminating the kind of information about candidates that is bereft from today's political discourse. Here are the kinds of questions I'd like to know the answers to as I choose my candidate:

- What book are you presently reading?
- If you were to choose a national piece of fiction for all citizens to read, which book would you choose and why?
- What historical period would you hearken to in order to formulate your own understanding of our present times?
- What great piece of art best symbolizes your understanding of our time?


I could go on. I would be most curious if all the candidates could even come up with an answer to these questions. I'm not saying you couldn't be elected president without having answers, because I'm guessing it's highly likely that we're presently being proven that you can. But I sure would love to hear those answers. What would yours be?