The job of the School Board is to create and enforce policy. Our role in this arena is to be the leaders in defining "effective teachers". We need to set a standard in order to meet it. We need to ensure a system exists to evaluation teaching effectiveness. We should work closely with the Superintendent and expert her to provide the proper oversight, guidance, and leadership in this area. The issue is not unique to Seattle. We need to reach out to oth-er districts that have made progress in this area. We can also provide assistance to those schools that may require a social worker, or psychologist, or nurse so as to free up our teaching staff to focus on instruction. And finally, we must advocate for better teacher preparation at the universities and colleges. They must come to SPS ready to work with a vastly diverse population of learners. In short, the same methods that are employed to at-tract, retain and support effective teachers at high performing schools are the ones we need to use at our lowest performing schools.

As a board, we need to create policy that enhances our quality of teachers in EVERY school, not just low performing.

* We must create a strategy in collaboration with the universities in our state to "boost" our population of college students becoming teachers and ongoing teacher training and additional certifications being available at "special" rates for our teachers.

* We need to set up a fund that actually gives scholarships to students to become teachers, particularly in math and science where the need is greatest and create a matching strategy so our community can support this at large.

* AND, we need to reallocate resources so money flows to our classrooms having a direct effect on the quality level of instruction. We need to pay our teachers much more, but also demand a level of excellence and move away from an agrarian school year to an extended year calendar.

A simple solution to creating better schools AND enhancing teacher quality is to move to more International Baccalaureate (IB) schools, particularly at the elementary level. Currently, the board has planned only 9 IB schools within the next 5 years. I believe we should move to 20 within the next 5 years and 40 by 2010. Teachers in language immersion schools by definition are more qualified. They have additional certifications, more in depth training and all those skills come to bear in the classroom. An IB elementary school costs about $200,000 more per year to operate than the average elementary school. We must reallocate funds to provide these kinds of learning opportunities, particularly in low performing schools.

The school board should work with the district and unions on this question. Can the board mandate equitable staffing and what does that look like? I am an advocate of equitable staffing and professionalism. One measure of teacher professionalism is National Board Certification. I would need to know the restrictions on teacher movement and transfers before formulating any action plan.

The role of the school board should be to create and maintain a partnership with the teacher’s union in developing a merit system to sustain effective teachers, retain them with recognition of their work with students and incentives and giving them the necessary tools needed to support them. Placing these teachers in low performing schools would serve as a type of measurement tool necessary to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the children they serve as well as the teaching skills they provide. In addition, we need to provide effective marketing to reach the interests of teachers in and out of State. The school board also has the responsibility of maintaining a pool of qualified and effective teachers by partnering with All of the neighboring colleges.

The School Board has four primary tools for addressing teacher quality, retention and placement: 1) budget, 2) labor contracts, 3) regional and state politics and 4) policymaking. First, our budget should be structured around the instructional mission- making the classroom our highest budget priority with special support to high poverty schools. SPS is in negotiation with the Seattle Education Association presently which forecloses any comment on contracts. I do believe that SEA is a crucial partner in any efforts to address these issues. Much of the work around improving the quality of teaching will occur at the State Legislature, State Board of Education, regional Schools of Education and advocacy groups. An important challenge initially is how to measure teacher quality and performance. Accountability and incentive compensation both rely on fair and reliable metrics for teacher effectiveness. Multiple issues affecting teaching quality where incorporated into Basic Education Reform which was passed by the Legislature as HB 2261. The Seattle School Board supported this legislation actively. The SBE is working on policy to allow the placement of effective teachers at “failing” schools under their Innovation Zone work. Again the Seattle Board has participated in that work. The Board also has the responsibility to adopt policies which enhance and improve the quality of teaching and in cooperation with the Superintendent focus especially on schools most in need.