A common theme in education is recognizing that quality teachers are required for improvement in schools. Many policies focus on recruiting and hiring quality teachers, funding training for teachers to improve, and empowering them to get involved in creating the policies and government for their communities. In the U.S. organizations like the NGA (National Governors Association) and NEA (National Education Association) support teacher leadership. Internationally, organizations like GPE (Global Partnership for Education) find ways to get teachers involved in policy and funding the improvement of teacher quality.
The NGA supports the idea that strong teachers make for strong classrooms. While many states and programs are funding the improvement and development of teachers, the NGA did a study on the effectiveness of principals and getting governors to support principal academies. Depending on the state, the program can last from on to three years. Instead of starting inexperienced principals in schools the programs can introduce mentors that guide the new principal through the difficult learning phases. Some states even offer incentives in salary bonuses for completing the courses. The principal academies target a smaller number of principals instead of all the teachers in an attempt to maximize the investment (Billings, J. and Carlson, D., 2016). The NEA targets a smaller group of teachers with their Minority and Women’s Leadership Training.
The NEA offers Minority and Women’s Leadership training in the U.S. and has been in practice since 1857. In the U.S. education was founded with primarily white schools and white leaders. In the 60’s, after the Civil Rights Movements the NEA helped establish training to improve the number and quality of minority teachers. The training still exists today, over several days, to educate minority teachers on topics like, “running for office, building messages, and sharing strategies around social justice and diversity issues.” (NEA’s Minority and Women’s, 2015). While the NEA offers help to minority teachers in the U.S. there is a focus in the training on getting teachers involved in the education policy, which makes it similar to the international organization GPE.
GPE has partners in foreign countries around the world. They collect data and statistics about issues impeding education in poorer countries and then find ways to improve standards. The findings show that teachers in poorer countries have high student to teacher ratios and that the teachers don’t receive training or don’t meet national certifications. (GPE) GPE provides training to teachers, improves the quality of the teacher through education strategies and policies, and like NEA, they try to get teachers involved in education policy.
The programs I described are similar in their goal to improve teaching leadership. They differ in their approaches or their focus but overall the end goal is to provide a qualified teacher. They also empower the teachers with skills to be leaders, either as principals, or elected officials and policy creators.
References:
Billings, J. and Carlson, D. (2016). Promising Practices in Boosting School Leadership Capacity: Principal Academies. Retrieved from https://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2016/1612BoostingSchoolLeadership.pdf
NEA’s Minority and Women’s Leadership Training (3 Aug 2015). (Video File). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RIHq-OJ8a6M
Teachers. (n.d.).Global Partnership for Education. (Website). Retrieved from http://www.globalpartnership.org/focus-areas/teachers
Cristal Cassel 