Southern Nevada Teacher Leadership Symposium 2014 Talk

This is the talk I gave to the inaugural Southern Nevada Teacher Leadership Symposium in Las Vegas Nevada on November 21st 2014. I was honored to be asked to speak to such  a distinguished group of teacher leaders and look forward to helping to build teacher leadership in Nevada. 

My name is Jeff Hinton and I am the 2014 Michael Landsberry Nevada Teacher of the Year, National Board Certified Teacher and teacher leader. Before I begin my talk this evening I would like to thank the many organizations that made this conference possible and for inviting me to share with you my thoughts on the important topic of teacher leadership so thank you to the, Clark County School District, Clark County Education Association, Nevada Department of Education, Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, Nevada Succeeds, Public Education Foundation, Teach for America, Got Core Values, City of Las Vegas/Downtown Achieves, Boys and Girls Club, and the United Way.  

Thinking about the various organizations involved in this conference, I think it is obvious that this is not going to be an ordinary seminar. In fact in my many years of attending such events I have never seen this many outstanding and diverse organizations gathered together to further teacher leadership and professionalization of the teaching field. They are here because they realize that teacher leadership is the sleeping giant of education reform, it is the most obvious way to advance student learning, while at the same time creating a way for our district’s most highly accomplished teachers to share their wealth of knowledge and expertise with others, while at the same time allowing them to grow professionally without leaving the classroom where our best teachers are needed most.  Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come and teacher leadership is indeed a very powerful idea. 

We Have Work to do in Nevada

As you all know Nevada recently celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary. In the last 150 years our Battle Born state has experienced booms and busts, triumphs and defeats, but no matter how desperate the times, we managed to come back, and come back stronger than ever before. And we’re doing it again as we throw off the last vestiges of a great recession that crippled our economy but not our spirit.

Our economic future is bright as new businesses open their doors and many others like Tesla Motors gigafactory prepare to do so. Despite Nevada’s incredible economic comeback we have a lot of work to do in other essential services, but in my opinion none is as important or as dire as our public education system. In a recent Las Vegas Sun article, Nevada ranked last in the nation in high school graduation rates with only 63% of its students earning a degree. In the 2014 Kids count data book, an annual publication that assesses child well-being in four domains: economic wellbeing, education, health, and family and community.  Across the 50 states and District of Columbia, Nevada ranked 48^th  overall. The National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do. The test is given in grades 4 and 8 and covers reading and math  It is considered the “gold standard” of educational achievement. The report shows that 66% percent of Nevada’s fourth graders and 72% of its eighth graders fell below proficiency in math. 73% of 4^th graders and 70% of eighth graders in Nevada fell below proficiency in reading. I should point out that there has been slight gains over the last few years, but clearly more needs to be done. The Brookings Institute recently published a report indicating that Nevada is quickly growing jobs in the STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math but unfortunately Nevada is not producing enough workers with the necessary skills to fill those jobs.

Nevada clearly needs to do more to improve our education system. As we look back at the past 150 years and celebrate where we have come from, it is now time to plot a course for the future. We have a unique opportunity to reimagine what is possible in education, to break down old barriers, and overcome the challenges of antiquated thinking and archaic approaches.  We can choose to be idle observers of change, or we can decide right here and right now to be leaders of that  change. To create a system of teacher leadership that will be held up and admired across the nation. It will be hard work, but it will be work worth doing. Teacher Leadership is that new way forward.

What is Teacher Leadership? 

Over the last few weeks I have been asking my colleagues and friends to tell me what they thought about teacher leadership. A few teachers remarked that they didn’t know teachers could be leaders, some were excited by the notion of teacher leadership, most, however had no idea what I was talking about. Sean McComb the 2014 National Teacher of the year told me that teacher leadership is about recognizing the instructional expertise that teachers bring to the table and structuring roles to capitalize on those strengths to improve instruction and thereby achievement for all. The Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium defines teacher leadership as “the process by which teachers influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.”     

The truth is teacher leadership can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and there isn’t one single definition or job description that encapsulates all that teacher leaders can do. To further clarify what teacher leadership means The National Education Association created seven domains for teacher leadership they are:

Domain I: Fostering a collaborative culture to support educator development and student learning
Domain II: Accessing and using research to improve practice and student learning
Domain III: Promoting professional learning for continuous improvement
Domain IV: Facilitating improvements in instruction and student learning
Domain V: Promoting the use of assessments and data for school and district improvement
Domain VI: Improving outreach and collaboration with families and community
Domain VII:  Advocating for student learning and the profession

Looking at this list it soon becomes apparent that most teachers are “teacher leaders” in some way and to some degree already.   

Barnet Berry the founder and CEO of the Center for Teaching Quality or CTQ coined the term “teacherpreneur”  to describe this emerging field. Teacherpreneurs  are teachers who lead, but don’t ‘leave’ their students or schools. They have taken on leadership opportunities to further their career, yet are still able to devote time to classroom teaching. They mentor new teachers, lead school improvement efforts, develop curriculum and provide professional development for their colleagues. In addition, teacher leaders may serve as policy advisors, liaisons between schools and the communities they serve, and conduits for building parent relationships. A recent Metlife Survey of the American Teacher found that half of teachers already have leadership roles in their school. Teachers serve as department chairs, instructional resources, teacher mentors, or leadership team members. The report found that half of teachers are at least somewhat interested in teaching in the classroom part-time combined with other roles or responsibilities in their school or district, including 23% who are extremely or very interested in this option.

Professionalization of the Teaching Field & Need for Teacher Leadership 

The education reform debate is complex and multifaceted, there are many proposals as to how to effectively improve student learning to include raising standards, holding teachers accountable for their student’s learning by tying their achievement on standardized tests to teacher compensation, lengthening the school year, decreasing class size, higher per pupil funding and activating market forces by giving students a choice as to where they can go to school by providing vouchers and promoting charter schools, but most would agree that the first and most important step to improve education is to make sure that there is a high quality teacher in every classroom. Unfortunately teacher morale is at an all-time low. A recent survey indicates that teacher satisfaction has declined 23 percentage points since 2008, from 62% to 39%,  including five percentage points since last year alone. Teacher satisfaction is the lowest its been  in 25 years. Half of teachers report feeling under great stress several days a week, an increase of 15 percentage points, over 36% of teachers reporting that level in 1985.  In addition, nationwide, enrollments in university teacher-preparation programs have fallen by about 10 percent from 2004 to 2012, according to federal estimates from the U.S. Department of Education's postsecondary data collection. 

With fewer students interested in entering what has recently been called the “embattled  profession,” the question becomes, how do you attract & retain the best and brightest students into the field?  The Clark County School District started the year with over 600 teacher vacancies, requiring the need for substitute teachers in critical areas such as math. Many of the vacancies occurring in at risk schools, which disproportionately affect kids who can least afford it. The New York Times recently wrote that “At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14% less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education.” Those individuals who possess the qualities the teaching profession is looking for have been lured away from teaching to careers that can offer real incentives for motivated individuals. There are few career paths for classroom teachers who desire to take a leadership role and become part of the process.

Traditionally, if a teacher wants to take on more responsibility, earn more money and gain prestige they would go into administration. But for many teachers leaving the classroom is not an option. Their passion is teaching students and most teachers do not want to give up what they love most. In addition, it is these highly effective teachers that should stay in the classroom where their talents, knowledge and experience can be best put to use and shared with their colleagues and students alike. According to the New Teacher Project (TNTP) 20 % percent of teachers “who are so successful that they are nearly impossible to replace” leave their schools as a result of “neglect and inattention.”  Research indicates that in order to increase the likelihood that Gen “Y” teachers remain in the profession they need opportunities to participate in decision making at the school and district level; a positive and supportive school culture which fosters teamwork and effective lines of communication; professional opportunities that include collaboration and technology; in-depth feedback and support from administrators and colleagues; time set aside for regular collaboration, with a fair and a differentiated compensation structure which includes rewarding outstanding performance, acquiring new knowledge and skills, and assuming new roles and responsibilities.”        

We need to create within the system career paths or trajectories that do not take the teacher out of the classroom fulltime but develop hybrid roles in which teacher splits their day between teaching and teacher leadership responsibilities. This is not a novel idea, some of the best performing school systems in the world already have advancement opportunities for their best and brightest teachers. The International Summit on the Teaching Profession recently released a report titled “Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from Around the World.” In the world’s leading school systems teachers have a variety of paths for career advancement that involve “horizontal movement” that is a greater range of responsibility that does not take the teacher out of the classroom.

The National Network of State Teachers of the Year published a report titled “Re-Imagining Teaching: Five Structures to Transform the Profession.” In it they cited the need for a career trajectory to attract and retain top teaching talent.  According to the report “Research on continuums in other fields tell us that it takes ten years to develop expertise in a profession, and that such expertise is developed through deliberate practice. A loss of over 40% of teachers annually, inhibits the ability to develop a solid cadre of expert practitioners. Given the time it takes to develop expertise, the annual loss of teachers is exacerbated by the long period of time it takes to replace the experienced teachers that leave. This lack of a  cadre of expert practitioners not only impacts the profession but impacts efforts to distribute leadership as there are fewer expert practitioners to take on leadership positions within a school.” This is especially so in at-risk schools, where teacher turnover is highest and our students most in need of highly accomplished teaching talent. 

In addition, “while many professions are moving to flatter organizations with greater value placed on middle-level experts and fewer top-level positions, leadership in teaching is still organized as a top-down structure.”  There has been modest movement across the nation to formalize teacher leadership. A survey of the country finds that two states and one jurisdiction currently have comprehensive teacher career initiatives, Twenty states currently have multi-tiered certification systems with tiers for advanced or master teachers, eight states currently have certification endorsements related to teacher leadership, three states have “designations” for master teachers, four states have adopted continuums of teaching practice rubrics, and only one state has adopted policies for and nine states are exploring the development of teacher licensing systems linked  to teacher effectiveness. As I have stated earlier, we have a unique opportunity to capitalize on the cooperation and shared enthusiasm of so many disparate organizations to see teacher leadership develop in our state.       

Advocating for our profession

Teacher leaders need to advocate for their profession. We can no longer sit on the sidelines and wait for reforms to be done to us, but rather we must take an active role in shaping policy and changing perceptions of what teacher leaders are and can be.  We must initiate the conversations at our work sites, talk with other teachers and administrators about teacher leadership. Teacher leadership must develop at the grassroots level, it cannot be another top down mandate, and we must be the voice. I recently had a conversation with a colleague about teacher leadership and Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) in particular.  She told me that she didn’t trust it, that she believed that PAR was a way for the school’s administration to use their pet teachers to spy on underperforming teachers. She perceived it as another top-down mandate and obviously didn’t have much buy in or faith in the idea. After talking with her about teacher leadership, what it is, and who teachers leaders are. She began to understand the way in which highly accomplished teachers can be a useful resource for new and remedial teachers.

But advocating for our profession can go beyond face to face conversations. Social media can be a powerful way to deliver our message and connect with others who share similar ideas. Today social networks have cache, as more and more individuals and institutions use social media it has become increasingly more important to have a digital presence. Doing so will help you connect and be connected to important voices in teacher leadership and it is an excellent way to stay informed and keep abreast of the latest research and initiatives in this emerging field.           

Teacher leaders need to be engaged in policy and understand the issues so that they can clearly explain them to parents and stake holders. As the state teacher of the year, for example, people want to know my position on a variety of issues like the Common Core. You will have people ask you your thoughts about the Nevada Performance Framework,  merit pay, charter schools, vouchers, alternative routes to licensure,  tenure reform, first in last out,  and the list goes on. It is important that as a teacher leader that you be able to speak with authority to these issues. As a teacher leader your colleagues and the public will come to you with their questions and concerns regarding education policy, and when they don’t come to you, must go to them as a an advocate for what we are trying to do.

Challenges:

As promising as teacher leadership is, it is not necessarily right for all teachers. Some may not want to, or be able to take a leadership role in their schools. There will be many challenges to implementing teacher leadership. I recently asked my State Teacher of the Year colleagues what they thought the greatest challenges to teacher leadership are. Kathy Collins Assini 2014 New Jersey Teacher of the year pointed out that:

“Not every teacher wants to be a leader, but teachers should look to support those who do and who have the capacity to be leaders. However, every teacher that wishes to be a teacher leader does not necessarily have the skills and demeanor to be one. Working with adults is not the same as teaching students. Where does the training come from? Does it come once someone is identified or do you train and see who passes the test? Does the Administration always see the same characteristics in a teacher leader as the staff does? Often times very different skills are needed. So often we have heard that it is tough to be a profit in your own land. I think often times the most resistance comes from within our own ranks. "What do you mean she will only have to teach 4 periods when I have to teach 6?" There has to be a clear definition of what the teacher leader will do and what they will be responsible for. Also there has to be a clear delineation between teacher leader and administrator if the leader’s job is to coach and assist fellow teachers. In many districts there is not a lot of trust, so it is hard for teachers to let someone in, both figuratively and in reality.”

I would like to take the opportunity to point out that Administrators are absolutely essential to making teacher leadership work and it is important that we include them in designing teacher leadership models. According to the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium “Teachers in leadership roles work in collaboration with principals and other school administrators by facilitating improvements in instruction and promoting practices among their peers that can lead to improved student learning outcomes. By doing so, they support school leaders in encouraging innovation and creating cultures of success in school. Teacher leadership can neither be effective nor successful without principal support, but neither can the principal maximize his or her effectiveness without harnessing the talents and expertise of teachers in leadership roles.”  A recent Metlife report indicated that 75% of principals feel the job has become too complex.  Job satisfaction among principals has decreased nine percentage points in less than five years, to 59% very satisfied down from 68% very satisfied in 2008. A distributive model of school leadership could potentially take pressure off of the principal as teachers and administrators work together to improve student achievement allowing principals to focus their time and energy on the day-to-day operation of the school, and highly accomplished teachers focused on student achievement through various teacher leader initiatives.      

My path to Teacher Leadership

            I want to talk a little bit about my path to teacher leadership.  Before I was a teacher, I was a U.S. Marine. There were certain principles that the corps instilled in me that I carry with me to this day. The Marines taught me to accomplish the mission no matter what, to be dedicated to the task at hand, but most importantly the Marines taught me the importance of teamwork. Marines also lead from the front, that is to say that I would never expect another Marine to do something that I wasn’t prepared or able to do first.

I knew that I wanted to be a teacher leader before I knew there was such a thing, using the lessons I learned in the Marines I honed my skills in my content area and pedagogy by earning master’s degrees in both curriculum & instruction and U.S. History from UNLV. I also sought out every new opportunity I could find to expand my repertoire in regard to teaching and learning. Through the last thirteen years I have been involved in numerous professional development opportunities to include being a  James Madison Graduate Fellow, Barringer research fellow at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, veteran of several Gilder Lehrman summer seminars for teachers, and the Rock n Roll Foundation’s summer seminar at New York university among others. These wonderful experiences have helped me grow as an educator exposing me to new experiences and giving me the opportunity to collaborate with teachers across the country. Over the years I have done my best as a department leader and colleague to foster collaboration and teamwork within my own workplace, unfortunately there has been a persistent and stubborn legacy of teachers working in isolation. Classrooms become fiefdoms of which teachers seldom stray, and visitors seldom enter.            

But the most impactful  professional achievement of my career by far has been earning National Board Certification. When I meet another National Board Certified teacher I know they are a teacher who takes their profession seriously, they are committed practitioners who are dedicated to student achievement, they are teachers who go above and beyond what is required to hone their craft. National Board Certified Teachers are reflective practitioners committed to becoming better teachers to drive student achievement. Of course there are teacher leaders who are not National Board Certified, but it is the mark of professional distinction and in district of almost 18,900 teachers, only a little more than 2% are National Board Certified. It is an exclusive club, but one in which I hope becomes less so in the near future.    

Earlier this year state teachers of the year met together in Arizona to discuss educational issues and to prepare for the upcoming year as teacher leaders. One activity that stuck with me was a role playing scenario in which teachers assumed the role of a teacher, concerned parent, administrator, community member and public official. We had the opportunity to look at key educational policy issues through the lens of various interest groups, and I became very interested in the political side of education. So much in fact that I became a candidate for the Nevada State Assembly this past election cycle. Early this month voters in my district informed me, however, that my services would not be needed in Carson City this coming legislative session. While I lost the election, I did learn about how our political system works, and more importantly I stepped out of my comfort zone by putting myself in a new and sometimes uncomfortable situation. I see teacher leadership the same way. Teacher leaders will have challenges, and we will be required to step outside of our regular routines and will undoubtedly find ourselves in difficult and maybe even frightening situations, but this is how we grow. This is how we become teacher leaders.                                        

In Summary

In conclusion, we have a lot of work to do to realize our vision of teacher leadership. Leveraging institutional change will not be easy, as it is natural to cling to the status quo even when that means persistent failure. The time is right for a paradigm shift and I believe we have the support to do it. The Teacher Leadership Exploratory points out that  a prerequisite for successful and effective teacher leadership, is changing the cultures of schools so that teachers are accepted as leaders among their peers and that old norms of teaching, working in isolation are replaced with new norms of collaboration and teamwork. Of course this is going to require a restructuring of the teacher work day so that teachers have the time built into the day for collaboration.  This requires a clear articulation of school wide goals, training of principals as well as teachers to understand the role of teacher leaders and support for teachers and other education professionals to work together to serve the needs of all students in the school.”

Teacher leadership is in its infancy in Nevada.  We will need to work hard to deliver our message to policy makers and stakeholders so that they will see that empowering our highly accomplished teachers to take on leadership roles within their school communities is in the best interest of students and their learning. This must be a grass roots effort. We have seen the backlash over the years at perceived top-down mandates, and as a result, we need to have this effort led by teacher practitioners if we are to have the support of our colleagues. One of the biggest obstacles to this effort will be our perennial nemesis, time! We need time to collaborate, time to reflect, time to assess student data, and time for meaningful professional development.     

  Historically the field of education has been slow to adapt to change, and when change comes, it is seen by many to be the “reform of the day” soon to be forgotten as the next “new thing” is foisted upon teachers weary from the last reform that didn’t work. Teacher leadership however is not a new concept, it is not a new reform, we have been doing it for years, but we just called good teaching and professionalism. The difference is now that teachers need to be recognized, supported and compensated for their leadership. We must have a way to share our experience, knowledge and passion with our colleagues for the benefit of student achievement. I hope that you will join me and the other passionate, dedicated professional educators gathered here tonight to commit to furthering teacher leadership in the state of Nevada, the stakes have never been higher, the opportunity has never been greater and the future has never been brighter.    

         

How will the Republican Party Reform Nevada Education?

I posted this to Facebook last week in response to the Republican wave that took over all Nevada Constitutional offices as well as both houses of the state legislature. In case you missed it I am re-posting it here.  

I'm curious exactly how the Republicans are going to improve education in Nevada without raising taxes to pay for it. With Tea Party Republicans entrenched in the state legislature, to include Chairwoman Fiore (Taxation) the only thing that is going to rise in Nevada is the ire of teachers tired of being attacked and scapegoated by legislators and policy makers who have no experience in the real world of education. I suppose by sitting out this election we did it to ourselves, but "reforming" tenure due process rights, collective bargaining, and implementing performance bonuses based on a dubious "value added" model will catapult Nevada to best in the nation status in regard to education. Then it again may not.

Please let me remind you that we started the school year with a "staggering teacher shortage" of over 400 educators. This was not some strange anomaly particular to Clark County, but is a national trend afflicting our education system. A recent Edweek headline warns that "Steep Drops Seen in Teacher-Prep Enrollment Numbers: California and other big states particularly hard hit, raising supply concerns." As a society we can beat up on teachers for only so long before young people decide it is not worth it, despite the missionary calling to do good work. I believe we have already reached that point. Many believe that we can shore up our teacher shortage by expanding the Teach for America program in Nevada. TFA educators are smart and highly motivated, but statistically they don't stay in the classroom very long, moving on to administration, think tanks, and non-profits after only a few years, creating turnover that is antithetical to positive student outcomes. Let me be clear, teaching is a craft that takes years of hard work and experience to develop, and should not be a resume builder, before going off to do "real" careers.

The reformers erroneously believe that dismantling public education by redirecting tax dollars to voucher programs and charter schools is the solution, my only question is, who are they going to get to teach?