Teachers Take Their Lessons to Capitol Hill

Advocacy

Back row from left: Sheryl Fontaine, Bill Jeter, Juliet Lee and Steven Crawford. Front row from left: Cathleen Cadigan and Judy Ellsesser-Painter

As the debate begins over the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (also called No Child Left Behind), the College Board wants to ensure that teacher voices play a prominent role in the discussions. So on Dec. 3, 2009, the College Board sent a group of teachers to Capitol Hill to personally deliver their messages to the United States Congress. They spent an entire day giving their views to policymakers on a range of important educational topics, including teacher and student assessment, teacher compensation, and teacher–student ratios. Alan Heaps, vice president of advocacy at the College Board, said, “We can’t have sensible school reform without ongoing and direct input from teachers, and we need to help amplify their voices.”

Six of the teachers who visited Capitol Hill — Cathleen Cadigan from Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas; Sheryl Fontaine from Reed High School in Sparks, Nev.; Bill Jeter from Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, Minn.; Judy Ellsesser-Painter from South Webster High School in South Webster, Ohio; Steven Crawford from Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Wash.; and Juliet Lee from South Bronx Preparatory in New York — were among the eight teachers profiled in Teachers Are the Center of Education: Profiles of Eight Teachers, a College Board report released in October 2009 that tells the story of a day in the life of eight teachers. It is the first of several reports that the College Board will issue in the upcoming months to ensure that teacher voices are heard in this important debate. As the report states, “The reasons for writing this report are simple: To highlight the critical importance of teachers, salute their great work and recognize that they stand at the center of education.”

Through both a panel discussion and individual visits to committee staff and legislators, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.; Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio; and majority and minority senate and house education committee staffs, the teachers shared with federal policymakers their experiences and insights to better inform the education reform debate. Teachers conveyed their requests on many topics, such as implementing multiple measures for teacher evaluations — including peer reviews, test scores, observations and value-added evaluations — in order to assess all aspects of teacher quality. They also believe it is critical for teachers at every level to receive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Teachers should be fully involved in their own professional development, because teacher-led and teacher-selected professional development models give teachers buy-in. Teachers want AP® in their schools, and they want it available to all students. AP classes raise the level of rigor and expectation for all students who take the course, not just the highest-achieving students. Although money is an important issue, they feel it may be more important to provide teachers with other types of incentives that will improve their teaching, such as professional development in their areas of interest.

Capitol Hill staff expressed  interest in many of the issues addressed, particularly identifying ways to assess teacher performance. The teachers believe that this could be best handled by a combination of measurements, including peer observation and student gains as measured not only by test scores, but also by portfolios that would include other kinds of assessments and work. Staffers were very interested in learning about teacher opinions directly from these working teachers.

Teachers were enthusiastic about creating ongoing channels of communications between active teachers and policymakers, because they were concerned that the many groups that represent them in Washington are composed of former teachers who do not have experience in the current classroom.

The visit to Capitol Hill was one of many recent efforts by the College Board to place teachers back at the heart of the dialogue on education reform. Two to four more reports using teacher voices are anticipated as a part of this effort, along with a comparable number of additional visits to Capitol Hill. In addition, there will be follow-up with Capitol Hill staff to discuss how to build upon this first effort.