By Jocelyn Huber, DFER’s Director of Teacher Advocacy
As state and federal legislators grapple over education budgets, teacher evaluation systems and tenure reform, education news becomes focused on political score keeping. So, I am grateful and rejuvenated to find two recent articles that help remind me why we do what we do. Because the ultimate goal is not for politicians or pundits to be victorious over one another. The motivation for policymakers should always be to have students emerge as the winners in any debate.
The New York Times On Education section features a story about Chris Doyle, an A.P. United States History teacher at Farmington High School in Connecticut, who developed his own course on current events to teach after students have completed their A.P. exams. Here is an example of a veteran teacher who defies the unfair stereotype of an older teacher stagnating in outdated curriculum and methods. Mr. Doyle built the curriculum on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars from scratch, and he invites combat veterans with different perspectives to speak to his students. And he does this all after “the test,” when a less motivated teacher might be temped to feel his work was done.