On Friday I am on a panel for the New America Foundation to discuss how we can dramatically improve education in the US. This is a group of Hispanic business leaders who are tired of the poor performance of our education system. They want to come out of this meeting with actual action items that can have a positive impact on students.
Since we are involved in the teacher quality aspect I really want to focus on the fact that we are never going to find 3.5 million highly skilled, highly motivated, outstanding teachers. One stunning fact I just pulled for this event:
• In 1974, 24% of teachers scored in the top percentile on high school tests, in 2000 it was down to 11%
So if we start with the premise that we cannot find all the talent we need and still need to educate every child then we need to somehow find a more efficient way of delivering education. If only there were some sort of machine that every other entity in the world uses to maximize efficiency……………sigh.
In my daughter’s school they used computers to conduct research and do powerpoints. They did not get curriculum that was customized to their needs, they did not work on practice problems and they did not see classes delivered by the best teacher in a given subject.
So my pitch is going to be that we have got to start training more teachers to use digital content (see CA) and we have got start re-thinking our school structure to better utilize the talent we have and get that talent in front of more kids.
Will this meeting change anything? I will keep you posted.
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About Me
- Dave Saba
- Dave has been successful in education because he draws on such a wide base of experience. He is a Naval Academy graduate, Navy helicopter pilot, has a Master's in Management from the University of South Florida. Dave has led complex operations for health care, manufacturing and education organizations through rapid growth. He took a struggling Kaplan Test Prep region and created a lasting high growth team that consistently performs in the top of all Kaplan regions. He took the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence from almost closing to a sustainable business model - a first for a non-profit where fees generated cover all costs. He worked hard to pass legislation in three states and have four state boards adopt the ABCTE teacher preparation program. Along the way, Dave has developed an extensive group of contacts that can be tapped to help your organization achieve success.
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