Let’s not give the game away – teacher career ladders need a timeout

With the return of college football comes an easy agreement on what to watch while completing house chores. My husband and I enjoy college sports for slightly different reasons. He enjoys feats of athleticism. The educator in me is drawn to the coaching staff.

I’m interested in how coaches make decisions to lead, support and develop the athletes in their care. In the strategic reflective moments of a timeout, coaches can refocus a team to accomplish a goal.

Each week it occurs to me that education policy makers could also use timeouts as a strategy to revisit their game plan for success and then realign on the tasks needed to meet that goal.

I have closely monitored the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, especially the design and implementation of its  teacher career ladders. Based on my analysis, the Accountability and Implementation Board members and staff would benefit from a timeout to assess current teacher career ladder models.

Specifically, AIB members and staff should huddle to determine if early approved career ladders match the goals of the Blueprint as well as the spirit of the  Kirwan Commission, which imagined the career ladder as a fundamental shift in pathways for career advancement, access to professional development and role differentiation for teachers.

It is clear that districts worked hard on the current career ladder models, and the process of transforming teaching positions is challenging, but the approved career ladder models don’t yet represent the transformative change envisioned by the Kirwan Commission and Blueprint. Few, if any, do much to transform their salary structures, increase the attractiveness of the profession or embed meaningful and robust professional learning directly into their career ladder systems.

I offer five considerations for AIB members and staff and school system leaders to contemplate if they were to embrace the timeout metaphor and plan an impactful huddle on teacher career ladders.

• Given Maryland’s current standing in measures related to interest in the teaching profession, do teacher career-ladder models increase interest in the profession and attractiveness of serving as a classroom teacher for both current teachers and prospective teachers?
• Given the value of embedded professional development, do career-ladder models create opportunities for classroom teachers to participate in high-quality professional development and coaching from colleagues?
• Given the importance of excellent classroom instruction, do career-ladder models give teachers opportunities to grow personally and professionally without leaving the classroom?
• Given the possibilities discussed in Kirwan Commission meetings and reports, do career-ladder models offer truly innovative compensation plans? Do they instead repackage existing compensation models with a new name?
• Given the cost of the Blueprint, how will the career-ladder models demonstrate to Marylanders the soundness of the massive investment in public education that has been made?

The work of the AIB members and AIB staff should be commended. They have continued to make progress on each part of the Blueprint despite numerous unavoidable challenges and delays. Time is a precious resource, so I do not suggest taking a timeout lightly.

The Blueprint is an interconnected piece of legislation, so the overall success of the Blueprint requires each part, such as the teacher career ladders, to also be successful. If the teacher career-ladder models do not lead to true innovation and high-quality instruction for every student, then it is unlikely other components of the Blueprint will be as successful as they could be.

The pressure and stakes are high for the AIB members and staff to support districts across the state in building transformative and equitable systems of education. Approving career-ladder models that do not align with the highest aspirations of the Kirwan Commission and spirit of the Blueprint is not the best game plan. We are at an inflection point in the teaching profession and I am concerned Maryland is going to miss a generational chance to reinvigorate interest and excitement in the teaching profession.

Timeouts can be a powerful tool, or they can be a waste of time. The ball is in the AIB’s hands. Either way, I will still be cheering for the AIB and Blueprint to be an educational game changer.