{"id":15705,"date":"2011-11-20T10:49:46","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T15:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=15705"},"modified":"2014-07-14T13:14:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T18:14:45","slug":"stirring-the-education-policy-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/11\/stirring-the-education-policy-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirring the Education Policy Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you change the world with a conference? Patch things up with a few panel discussions? The answer, of course, is rarely yes. So I don\u2019t make any huge claims about what was accomplished at the conference, \u201cFresh Paths: Ideas for Navigating Wisconsin\u2019s New Education Landscape,\u201d on Nov. 17 in Eckstein Hall. (I say that as a person who worked on organizing it.)<\/p>\n

But stirring the pot can move the cooking process forward. Spreading important and provocative thoughts can get people thinking along lines they might not have considered previously. Bringing a wide range of committed people together can lead to conversations \u2013 informal, as well as formal \u2013 that start something rolling.<\/p>\n

I hope, and I\u2019m even a bit optimistic, that we served some of those purposes at the conference, sponsored by Marquette Law School and the Marquette College of Education and attended by almost 200 people. The audience included key education policy figures across the spectrum, from union leaders to an advisor to Gov. Scott Walker.<\/p>\n

I thought of the conference as a musical piece in four movements: What can be learned from what has been done in developing a new school system in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005; getting a handle on the rapidly developing movement nationwide to overhaul teacher evaluations as a key to improving teacher effectiveness; a look at community efforts to improve educational outcomes overall in Milwaukee; and general assessments of what is needed in educational thinking to move Wisconsin forward. That meant we had three keynote speakers, all of them figures of national standing who were fresh faces to Wisconsin\u2019s educational debate, and more than a dozen panelists, including important \u00a0figures in state and local education policy.<\/p>\n

Feel free to sample the nearly five hours of video<\/a> that we have posted online from the conference. And let me share with you a few moments that stick out for me:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Paul Pastorek<\/strong>, the former superintendent of Louisiana schools who was one of the architects of what has happened in New Orleans, railing against conventional school systems that he said are broken when it comes to giving many kids a chance to succeed. Pastorek said, \u201cMy argument is not against unions, it\u2019s not against teachers, it\u2019s not against administrators, it\u2019s not against legislators, it\u2019s against the damn system. If people work in a broken system, the system designed to achieve the results we\u2019re getting, they cannot be successful.\u201d He called for systems that support strong leadership of individual schools, with strong accountability for results.<\/p>\n

Pastorek and Sarah Carr<\/strong>, an education reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, touching nerves in the debate over\u00a0the impact of high levels of poverty in shaping educational outcomes. They were joined by Marquette\u2019s Howard Fuller, who has also worked extensively in New Orleans, and Prof. Brian Beabout of the University of New Orleans. (If you\u2019re going to watch one thing from the video, go to this exchange, starting at 1hour and 23 minutes.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Carr said, \u201cI do think the leaders in New Orleans have made a mistake in viewing school change in isolation from broader societal change.\u201d She said poverty cannot be used as an excuse for why children don\u2019t succeed in school, but issues such as early childhood education, criminal justice, and mental health services need to be addressed as part of \u201ca broader revisioning\u201d for New Orleans.<\/p>\n

With some heat, Pastorek responded, \u201cI would argue that as far as educating kids is concerned, what comes first in getting success with kids is getting success with the classroom. . . . Educate the kids first in the classroom successfully and then the dynamics in the outer environment change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fuller said, \u201cThere\u2019s a difference between saying you got to end poverty before you can improve schools and saying ending poverty is a critical factor in our overall effort to improve schools.\u201d He said if people such as Pastorek and himself don\u2019t listen to what Carr is saying, many people won\u2019t regard them \u201cas real.\u201d And he drew applause when he added, \u201cYou can\u2019t support stuff that says, I\u2019m all for the kids in schools, but I\u2019m going to take away health care, I\u2019m going to take away jobs, I\u2019m going to take away housing, I\u2019m going to take away every single thing those kids need — but I\u2019m with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Almy, director of teacher quality for the Washington-based Education Trust,<\/strong> pointing to places around the country, as close by as Illinois, that are making major strides in improving the way teachers are evaluated and using the results to spur more effective teaching. Mike Thompson, deputy Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction, followed by describing how Wisconsin is joining that effort, and Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers\u2019 Education Association, said a joint management-union initiative in Milwaukee Public Schools is well ahead of what the state is doing.<\/p>\n

Republican State Sen. Luther Olsen<\/strong>, a key figure in legislative action around education, saying that the goal is to improve teaching and not to be vindictive against teachers, as many teachers fear. \u201cThe most important thing in teacher evaluation is the professional development that comes afterward,\u201d Olsen said. (But, so far, seeing that this happens is a question that hasn\u2019t been addressed.)<\/p>\n

Dan McKinley, executive director of PAVE<\/strong>, an organization that primarily has assisted private and charter schools in Milwaukee, invoking the Dalai Lama, with a simple prescription for improving the overall scene: Do more of what works and less of what doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bill Raabe, director of the National Education Association\u2019s Center for Great Public Schools<\/strong>, calling for teachers to be given an important voice they often haven\u2019t had in figuring out how to accomplish better results for children. He said that beyond disputes over collective bargaining, there need to be ways to use the knowledge of those who know the most about what is going on in classrooms.<\/p>\n

The conference\u00a0certainly filled a central goal for public policy programming in Eckstein Hall: to provide a forum for intelligent, fair-minded discussion of important issues. And maybe it did more. At a time when Wisconsin’s educational landscape has changed dramatically and every educator and advocate is trying to figure out how to move forward, maybe we gave the pot a useful stir.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you change the world with a conference? Patch things up with a few panel discussions? The answer, of course, is rarely yes. So I don\u2019t make any huge claims about what was accomplished at the conference, \u201cFresh Paths: Ideas for Navigating Wisconsin\u2019s New Education Landscape,\u201d on Nov. 17 in Eckstein Hall. (I say that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,48,47,99,122,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-law","category-marquette-law-school","category-milwaukee","category-milwaukeepublicschools","category-public","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}