The State’s role is to attract the right people to the teaching profession, keep the wrong people out of it, and to support effective teaching everywhere in the Palmetto State.
Recruiting
Our teachers hold our State’s future in their hands. We should have a concerted effort to recruit strong teachers for our students. As the next State Superintendent of Education, I will actively engage in changing the perception of the profession and increasing the productivity of those in it.
One way to do this is by recruiting the best and brightest college students to lead our classrooms. We need to change their thinking about teaching by creating new avenues to recruit our strongest students to enter this most honorable profession. We can give them a vision for a new era of teaching that recognizes and rewards effective teachers and limits entry into the profession to the best candidates.
This new era of teaching is a commonsense approach in which the way we license teachers makes more sense. First, we need to keep increasing the performance requirements to enter teacher training. Licensure should be limited to the strongest candidates. Next, the training required to become a teacher must be overhauled. The current system emphasizes theory over reality and encourages a person to major in education instead of a subject. This means a teacher-candidate will spend a considerable amount of time outside of the subject area that they will teach. Furthermore, the current system fails to adequately address how to manage student behavior, be masters of their content, and learn to facilitate instruction. Teacher candidates should spend more time in their content area of study, more time practicing teaching in real-world teaching settings, and less time studying the theoretical concept of pedagogy.
I will attract the best teachers for our students by bringing down the barriers that keep potentially great teachers out of the classroom. One way to do this is by leveraging underused recruiting tools such as Teach for America, Troops to Teachers, PACE, and others.
As I focus on preparing high schools students for work or college, I will promote teaching as a profession for high school students to consider entering. I commend the State’s Teacher Cadet Program as a great life experience for our students. I will focus on converting more cadets to effective teachers in our schools.
Retaining
We also need to support current teachers more effectively. I will individualize professional development. The vast majority of our teachers want to be the very best they can be. Each year our State and local school districts invest millions of dollars on professional development and training that we hope is tied to improving what our teachers are doing in front of their classrooms. I would like to make better use of taxpayer resources and teachers’ time by providing teachers with specific feedback on their performance and individualized training so that teachers can grow, students can learn, and taxpayers can rest assured that the money they are investing into the system is spent wisely.
Not all teachers are equal. Schools and districts across the State are already recognizing and rewarding teachers who are doing well. The State can expand such efforts by rethinking the way we use current resources to invest for the outcomes we want. Options such as performance bonus pay, geographical relocation bonuses, and high-need subject area bonuses must be considered.
Zip codes should not dictate destiny, but the sad reality is that it often does. Some school districts are in a better position to recruit and retain effective teachers that offer high-quality instruction than are others. Where the capacity is not sufficient to mitigate this problem in our struggling districts, I will work on reinvesting the resources that taxpayers send these challenging schools to provide incentives that draw effective teachers in. I will engage in a concerted effort to leverage virtual education to “pipe in” high quality instruction, giving school leaders and parents additional options to improve access to great teaching.
As your next State Superintendent of Education, I will fight to ensure that every child receives high-quality instruction in every classroom, every day, every year.
Recruiting
Our teachers hold our State’s future in their hands. We should have a concerted effort to recruit strong teachers for our students. As the next State Superintendent of Education, I will actively engage in changing the perception of the profession and increasing the productivity of those in it.
One way to do this is by recruiting the best and brightest college students to lead our classrooms. We need to change their thinking about teaching by creating new avenues to recruit our strongest students to enter this most honorable profession. We can give them a vision for a new era of teaching that recognizes and rewards effective teachers and limits entry into the profession to the best candidates.
This new era of teaching is a commonsense approach in which the way we license teachers makes more sense. First, we need to keep increasing the performance requirements to enter teacher training. Licensure should be limited to the strongest candidates. Next, the training required to become a teacher must be overhauled. The current system emphasizes theory over reality and encourages a person to major in education instead of a subject. This means a teacher-candidate will spend a considerable amount of time outside of the subject area that they will teach. Furthermore, the current system fails to adequately address how to manage student behavior, be masters of their content, and learn to facilitate instruction. Teacher candidates should spend more time in their content area of study, more time practicing teaching in real-world teaching settings, and less time studying the theoretical concept of pedagogy.
I will attract the best teachers for our students by bringing down the barriers that keep potentially great teachers out of the classroom. One way to do this is by leveraging underused recruiting tools such as Teach for America, Troops to Teachers, PACE, and others.
As I focus on preparing high schools students for work or college, I will promote teaching as a profession for high school students to consider entering. I commend the State’s Teacher Cadet Program as a great life experience for our students. I will focus on converting more cadets to effective teachers in our schools.
Retaining
We also need to support current teachers more effectively. I will individualize professional development. The vast majority of our teachers want to be the very best they can be. Each year our State and local school districts invest millions of dollars on professional development and training that we hope is tied to improving what our teachers are doing in front of their classrooms. I would like to make better use of taxpayer resources and teachers’ time by providing teachers with specific feedback on their performance and individualized training so that teachers can grow, students can learn, and taxpayers can rest assured that the money they are investing into the system is spent wisely.
Not all teachers are equal. Schools and districts across the State are already recognizing and rewarding teachers who are doing well. The State can expand such efforts by rethinking the way we use current resources to invest for the outcomes we want. Options such as performance bonus pay, geographical relocation bonuses, and high-need subject area bonuses must be considered.
Zip codes should not dictate destiny, but the sad reality is that it often does. Some school districts are in a better position to recruit and retain effective teachers that offer high-quality instruction than are others. Where the capacity is not sufficient to mitigate this problem in our struggling districts, I will work on reinvesting the resources that taxpayers send these challenging schools to provide incentives that draw effective teachers in. I will engage in a concerted effort to leverage virtual education to “pipe in” high quality instruction, giving school leaders and parents additional options to improve access to great teaching.
As your next State Superintendent of Education, I will fight to ensure that every child receives high-quality instruction in every classroom, every day, every year.
