The Report of the Teaching Commission

Abstract

At beginning of this year, New York City-based Commission, established and chaired by former IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, released Teaching at Risk: Call to Action (The Commission, 2004) on status of teaching in America's schools. Supported by private donations, 19-member blue-ribbon Commission was made up of prominent leaders from business, government, and education. Directly linked to goals of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (P.L. 107-110, 2002), purpose of Teaching at Risk was to create a sense of national urgency about recruiting and retaining highly qualified and to propose a plan of action. In opening pages, Gerstner warns that nation's role as a world leader is in jeopardy and that an educational system that does not promote quality teaching is part of problem: The United States enters 21st century as an undisputed world leader. Despite difficult challenges at home and abroad, we still have world's strongest economy, and American business continues to inspire growth and development across globe. But our nation is at a crossroads. We will not continue to lead if we persist in viewing teaching ... as a second-rate occupation. (pp. 9-10) The report asserts that despite two decades of reform, achievement is still disappointing (p. 12) and overall test scores are still at about levels they were in 1970 (p. 13). The report also notes that there continue to be large disparities between academic achievement of poor and minority students and their peers. The commission calls for four reforms. First, teachers' salaries would be made competitive with other professions with potential of higher pay for those who increase pupils' achievement or teach in hard-to-staff subject areas and schools. Second, college and university presidents would be held accountable for revamping teacher preparation by raising admissions standards, recruiting stronger students, and ensuring that prospective teachers have knowledge of subject matter, scientifically based practices, and schools. Third, there would be drastic revisions of state licensing and certification, including more rigorous teacher tests and encouragement of streamlined certification programs. Fourth, school principals would provide scientifically based mentoring and professional development for all teachers and would have increased authority to hire and promote teachers who raise test scores and get rid of those who do not. The commission's action plan includes working with governors, state school officers, and university presidents on teacher quality goals and joining hands with federal government to support goals of NCLB. AT RISK, REDUX The report of Commission reflects a recurring historical pattern of blueribbon critiques of teaching and teacher education based on assertion that nation is in danger of losing its global position (Cochran-Smith & Fries, in press). The immediate past iteration was A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), published when country was in an economic depression and there was concern it was not keeping pace with changing world economy. In 20 years since A Nation at Risk, there have been debates about whether there actually was a crisis in educational achievement at that time and whether teaching and school quality actually are linchpins in nation's ability to compete in global economy (e.g., Berliner, Biddle, & Bell, 1995; Bracey, 2003; Cremin, 1991). In addition, there have been differing assessments of legacy of two decades of reforms set off by report (see, for example, range of viewpoints in Gordon, 2004). Twenty years after A Nation at Risk, its namesake, Teaching at Risk (The Commission, 2004), asserts that the capacity of America's educational system to create a 21st-century workforce second to none in world is a national security issue of first order. …