Arne Duncan, Director of United States Department of Education, emphasized that Iowa cannot rest on its laurels to assure our Iowa students return to #1 status in the world. Other states have surpassed Iowa In preparing students. Iowa "has stagnated" and "even declined," he noted.  Iowa is 53^rd in the world, following 22 other states and 30 countries. 

Four factors that have impacted this decline in education, according to Duncan, include 1) low standards, until recently; 2) limited innovations (e.g., extended learning time, charter schools); 3) ineffective education, including a poor evaluation system of teachers and lack of alternative systems like Teach for America; and 4) lack of free pre-school to all children.

High-performing countries assure the most talented professionals through quality education and appropriate pay.   They make sure they have lots of "hands-on" teaching opportunities and understanding and use of formative assessments.

We need more great schools, according to Duncan, whether they are charter or not! Kids need the opportunity to learn at high levels - and they need those opportunities 24/7!

He is hopeful for Iowa but encouraged us not to tinker. We must take the tougher challenge and deal with the "new norm." Education must be the great equalizer!

Key points made by the panelists included the following:  

James G. Cibulka, President of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education

• We have a very uneven system of comparing teachers; that must be changed.
• Extensive clinical experience is necessary with an emphasis on pedagogical content practices.
• Content expertise is a must! New INTASC standards go beyond delivery to address teachers' impact on students' learning.
• The best educators must be in the lowest-achieving schools.
• We tend not to look at teaching as a career continuum. We need to assure that the professional development is linked to the classroom and is developmental. If we do not, we will continue to lose 50% of our new teachers.

Kate Walsh, President of the National Council on Teacher Quality

• "Capable and competent" must be the goal of every teacher preparation program.
• Present programs are not producing what we need and want. If we are to teach to the National Core, our teachers need a broader program of development - including a focus on history.
• Iowa must get serious about teachers' knowing how to teach reading. We need to look at California and Massachusetts.
• Iowa must get serious about teachers' knowing how to teach mathematics.
• We cannot build an effective system based on firing, but we do need a system that assures the ineffective are taken out of the system.

Ross Danis, Executive Director of Newark Education Trust

• He is an advocate for early childhood education as were all the panelists.
• We need a continuum of practice development, beginning in pre-service and continued through the teaching career. Pick a framework and move forward with it.
• School reform should not have a pi�ata approach - we shouldn't beat something to death, hoping we will get the reward we want.
• Money and merit pay will never compensate for what teachers really long for - intellectual stimulation, nurturing of the soul, support for passion.

Linda Hammond-Darling, Professor of Education at Stanford University

• We need to build a profession of teachers and leaders, where they are trained and supported for their work! Leaders must not be an "afterthought."
• We can learn from other countries and states.
• ETS studies: Teachers are in top quarter - much like Singapore - but there is great variability across the states' expectations.
• Preparation to teach in Finland and Singapore are financed by the government, which results in the best becoming teachers.
• 85% of graduates of teacher program at Stanford stay in the profession.
• Look at the best and then scale it! Take those innovative steps!
• Look at restructuring time for teaching - providing for coaching and mentoring of each other. Successful countries assure 25% of time for observation and collaboration.
• There is huge variability of success of traditional programs as well as alternative programs. Content and content pedagogy must become the focus of both.
• Teacher Evaluation: Toledo, Ohio, has had a framework in place for a long time - getting help for those who needed it and eliminating those who did not provide the evidence. We cannot "Fire our Way to Finland." We have to have support systems in place, a necessary component to a quality education system.

Mike Johnston, State Senator of Colorado

• Teacher evaluation must be about "growth and balance."
• Teachers must have access to the best teachers across the state and nation - their profiles, their lessons based on learning outcomes, their wisdom.
• We need great principals - this is about leadership!
• We need to address "improvement" through quality evaluation. We need to focus on effective feedback.

Steve Tozer, Professor of College of Education at the University of Illinois in Chicago

• Most teachers' learning takes place when they enter the classroom.
• We must frame our work around quality instruction!
• Leadership is the most cost-effective way to advance the changes we need.
• We know how to produce great principals! We just don't follow what we know.
• We need to have better accountability for those programs that develop teachers, including traditional and alternative programs, large and small programs. We need to be looking at alternative data - number and success of teachers going into high-need schools, for example.
• The organization cannot do better than the level of its leadership! Get the right principal in place and you can get the results you want and need.

The Honorable James B. Hunt Jr., Chairman of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy and former four-term Governor of North Carolina, made the following key points:

• Evaluation - 1) look at student learning; 2) have qualified evaluators observe the teaching, including quality teachers; and 3) listen to the students (student feedback). Students can tell us how good the teachers were in controlling the classroom and in challenging students with rigorous work.  
• There should be some pay for performance. This might be for individuals or North Carolina's solution with Quality Circles, where they looked at the whole school. Those making a year's growth in progress get a basic bonus; if higher, then an additional bonus is given.  
• We need to support national board certification and increase the pay for those who achieve it. North Carolina provides a 12% pay increase.  
• We need to be paying  attention to school leadership by developing great programs, assuring quality principals, and focus, a laser-like focus, on student achievement.  
• We must give our families the supports they need by involving all of us in volunteering, revitalizing supports for parents, and getting involved with the faith community.
• Hunt wrote the book, First in America, challenging North Carolina to lead our nation.

Key points include the following from the participating panelists:

Thomas Forsgren, Des Moines Central Academy International Baccalaureate Teacher and Global Youth Institute Director:

• The International Baccalaureate teachers are teachers of their content but also of reading and writing.   
• There is an innovative focus on global education for these students.
• Critical thinking is a focus of all learning.   
• Multiple measures are used to assure the learning.   

Jim Gibbons, Alberta School Boards Association Senior Education Advisor:

• Each province has its own educational council.  There is not a national organization like our United States Department of Education.
• Ongoing assessments are important and the exit exam counts for 50% of the final grade.
• The goal is to have learning anytime, any place.
• Many high schools have a college on their campus. 

Pasi Sahlberg, Finland's National Center for International Mobility and Cooperation Director General:

• Norway is 2.5 times the size of Iowa and has twice the people.
• They are  a country with a "spirit of survival."
• There is no standardized testing; teaching for learning is based on trust and responsibility.   
• All teachers have a master's degree.
• Curriculum and Learning have priority over Standards and testing.
• Students start school when they are seven years old; students have a shorter day and shorter school year than those in the iowa.  
• Reform must be inspiring, moving our hearts as well as our hands.
• Don't look to your past as the solution for the future.
• Equity is key in Finland. 

Vivien Steward, Asia Society Senior Advisor for Education:

• PISA Exam:  Five of the top eight are Asian nations.
• Singapore
• Focus is on "nation building"
• In order to survive, they had to assure 1) vision leadership and 2) rigorous standards. (Note:  Their students are two years ahead of U.S. students  in mathematics.
• There is a commitment to equity.
• International benchmarking allows them to continuously look for new ideas and practices.
• Teacher candidates are recruited from the top third; they are paid during their training and must then teach for at least three years.  They are evaluated on multiple measures, including impact on under-performing students, parent engagement, contributions to the school.
• Go beyond reading and math.  Prepare your students for a global job; make languages a priority. 

Dave Wilkerson, Waukee School District Superintendent: 

• Our top students continue to score #1 but others keep passing us.
• Waukee will have all 15-year-old students complete the PISA exam.
• Algebra is beginning in grade 5 and all students will have completed Algebra I by the end of grade 8. 

• First of all, we all need to see Michael Fullan's article (www.michaelfullan.ca/home_articles/SeminarPaper204.pdf) on the drivers that make a difference in education: collective capacity, group quality, quality pedagogy, and "systemness"
  • The "wrong drivers" are accountability, individual quality, technology (should be in service to pedagogy), and fragmentation of strategies. These four need to be in the reform, but should NOT drive the reform. They should be in service of the right drivers.
• High Minority, High Poverty, High Achievement - Moving from the Low Achieving to the Higher Achieving Schools
  • Get the structures in place for increased learning - and teaching for that learning.
  • Core practices with rigor of implementation and analysis must address a focus on kids and their learning, assessment for learning, and deep relationships.
  • Leadership is key - set expectations that each will learn, monitor for demonstration of those expectatons, and help teachers build the learning environment.
• Getting it right!
  • Specialized expertise of principals get the results when we focus on the following:
    • Curriculum - making curricular choices/revisions that respond to kids' needs.
    • Quality Instruction - assuring systems/structures that allow for improvement all the time!
    • Assessment - generating assessments that change teaching for the learning.
    • Personnel Management - counseling out those who aren't making the positive impact on kids.
    • Professional Learning Communities - assuring they are robust and support the previous four. 
  • Body of Expertise in Today's World
    • We must go beyond just assuring good relationships with kids. 
    • We must make a change for the low-SES kids.  If we are not doing that, then we are not a master principal.
• Brand New Principals: Principal as Leader (PAL)
  • Assure them an effective mentor. 
  • Focus on Iowa Standards for School Leaders and the Iowa Teaching Standards and Criteria; they create a common language
  • Focus on evaluation of teachers - observations around quality instruction
  • Support conversations with and among these new principals.  Talk about effective teaching and its impact on learning.
• What makes a difference?   Being effective with students! Using resources smart! Eliminating "islands of excellence"!
• Benchmarking the data and partnering with the community is key.
  • An effective strategy is the SAM's (School Administrator Manager) Project, allowing  principals to become instructional leader.
  • The "job description" of principals has to change; and they need the time and "how to" to make that change.  
  • Data walls is another effective strategy where teachers share the progress of kids - individuals and as a group.
  • One Team! One Mission! Success for Each and Every Student!
• Preparing great principals is the most cost-effective way to increase the success of non-proficient students.
• It takes "collective action" for the change to happen. No one can do it alone! No more "lone cowboys"!