The Governor's Commission on Teaching Success, Ohio
February 20, 2003
In November 2001, Ohio governor Bob Taft appointed a blue-ribbon "Commission on Teaching Success" to rethink teaching and teachers for the Buckeye State's public schools. Ably chaired by Nationwide CEO W.G. Jurgensen, it had 46 members, mostly representative of public education's so-called "stakeholders." Parents, employers, private-school people, newspaper editors and other informed agents of the "general public" were in short supply. Given its slanted and establishmentarian make-up, some of this group's 14 recommendations (contained in its newly issued 48-page report) are unexpectedly visionary, such as differentiated compensation for teachers, tying teacher standards to the state's academic standards for schools, a pilot "career ladder" and greater use of alternative certification (in the upper grades). Unfortunately, most of the rest of its conclusions and suggestions are predictable, conventional and either banal or wrong-headed, above all the suggestion that policies for training, certifying and setting standards for teachers and administrators should be set by a new "educator standards board" to be comprised entirely of--what else?--stakeholders. Aaargh. Talk about urging the governor and legislature to place the foxes in charge of the poultry. In sum, a mixed bag of a report, like most such sprawling committee efforts. If you'd like to see it anyway, visit http://www.teaching-success.org/documents/AchievingMore.pdf.
