Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates: An Educator’s Commentary on the 2020 Annual Gates Letter
Like many educators, I read the 2020 Annual Gates letter with great anticipation. Their work in education over the last 20 years has made a strong impact on U.S. education, which is now admittedly their biggest challenge. One statement about education policy and reform resonated with me deeply. I’d like to talk about why and propose my thoughts for change.
“Bill and I have always been clear that our work isn’t to generate ideas ourselves; it’s to support innovation driven by people who spent their careers working in education: teachers, administrators, researchers and community leaders.”
I want to speak on behalf of my peers, the teachers, who are capable of making the changes needed in policy and reform, but seldom get the chance to do so. While I don’t profess to know how to reform all of education, I am very experienced with making effective change happen in high schools and colleges with math reforms. I am an educator and a thought leader in trying to constantly evolve math education to help students learn and succeed. From the classroom level to the state level, I have led changes that scaled and benefited students greatly. Specifically, changes in math classes, programs, and policies that affect college readiness and completion. This work has exposed me to many events, meetings, initiatives and more, allowing me to see how many reforms are run, both successful and unsuccessful ones.
“All of us who have made lasting change happen at scale have something in common: we were, or currently are, faculty leading the charge for change.”
Through my years of work in this space, I have connected closely with educators who feel as strongly as I do about education. All of us who have made lasting change happen at scale have something in common: we were, or currently are, faculty leading the charge for change. We weren’t just participants. We were the faces of our reforms.
In my experience, I have found a consistent theme with reforms: extremely well-intentioned people with heads for business, connections in politics, or experience in policy trying to lead education reforms with little to no experience in education. Are there educators involved in these efforts to make change? Absolutely. But they are usually not leading the way. The actual leaders are not the “boots on the ground,” in schools teaching students day after day. Faculty may be consulted for information, but their role typically ends there.
There are valid reasons that this happens. Faculty have a full teaching load while doing other committee work, and leading a reform adds too much to their workload. They may not possess the knowledge, experience, or interest to do so or to know where to start. Also, faculty can be challenging to work with. With that said, I’ve worked with enough schools to know there are faculty I refer to as ‘faculty engines’ in most schools. And if not a school, there will certainly be one in a state or system who is a champion and thought leader for making improvements happen no matter what.
It’s easy to see why faculty don’t want to lead change even if they’re capable. Honestly, leading a reform of your peers is extremely hard. Part of this leadership includes endless criticism and scrutiny. Having the fortitude to withstand this is difficult to endure. Every faculty leader I know, myself included, can tell war stories of how challenging their colleagues were in such efforts. Fearing change along with concerns of protecting a particular concept of what education should be or how it should be done are common issues that arise.
But what if we encouraged teachers to lead? What if you found a leader with a thick skin who could navigate the process? The results can be amazing. Why? Because educators who possess the passion for students can also be born leaders and communicators. They know they are experts in their field, and possess great credibility with classroom data and stories of students who need the change to succeed. Faculty are skeptical of non-educators who claim to bring change and progress. But bring in one of their own, another educator with current or recent experience in the classroom, and faculty are more open to the conversation. [Note: See the end of this post for several examples of successful faculty-led reforms.]
So, should faculty be the leaders of all education reforms everywhere? Not necessarily. My suggestion is to have faculty as leaders within reforms with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as true partners. The reality is to make a difference in the classroom, where it really impacts students, you have to involve teachers at a high level, not in a perfunctory way. Does this change guarantee a reform’s success? Not necessarily. But not including them will almost guarantee immediate pushback and problems. A battle often ensues between administrators and educators, shifting the conversation away from students and into internal politics.
Administrators and policy leaders know the challenges that come with involving faculty at a high level of decision making, so they will often find ways around incorporating them. Change can still happen, but it does not last. The administrator will leave or the next initiative will come in vogue. The faculty members who didn’t have real buy-in or ownership before will move on as well. But when you do include faculty in a deep, integral way, there is more than the illusion of change with large convenings and press releases. There is actual progress and shifts that happen in the classroom.
“More than just participants, but instead are educators the faces of a reform?”
My challenge to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to look at their approach to making change and ask how they are including the very audience they claim to rely upon. That is, to make educator involvement at all levels a priority in 2020 and beyond. More than just participants, but instead are educators the faces of a reform?
Schools and colleges desperately need the Gates Foundation’s help in getting teachers at the forefront of change instead of just the recipient of change. It’s a hard road to pave, but much like learning, any path to success is fraught with challenges. Those willing to traverse these roads can come away with something significant, real, and lasting.
To the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I’m available to help. I know my peers are as well.
Yours in education,
Kathleen Almy
CEO & Founder, Almy Education
What are your thoughts on this 2020 Annual Gates Letter? You can read the full letter HERE.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the blogpost. You can reach us at: https://www.almyeducation.com/
Learn more about Kathleen Almy HERE
Want to learn more about Almy Education and the services we provide in improving math? Visit us at www.almyeducation.com.
Examples of successful faculty-led reforms
North Carolina has had math remediation work, including corequisites and transitional courses, led for years by faculty advocates. In particular, the North Carolina Student Success Center (NCSSC) is run by math faculty.
Tennessee has had multiple initiatives at scale for years including the SAILs transitional math program for high schools and course redesign for colleges. Multiple faculty led these reforms.
Illinois has had a developmental math pathways course since 2011, known as Preparatory Math for General Education (PMGE), that was implemented and accepted for prerequisite placement throughout the state (approved in 2013). The state also has the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act’s transitional math implementation at scale underway. Both initiatives were led by math faculty.
The Accelerated Learning Project is considered the premiere model for English corequisite remediation. It was led by an English faculty member.
The California Acceleration Project has been a leader in corequisite remediation reform for a decade and is led by an English faculty member and a math faculty member.
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