I'll try to keep this short.

I have had a lot of thoughts today about education in America. Those of you in education know the problems so I won't go there. If people don't know what is happening they probably aren't interested in what I have to say. Also, since my only experience is in secondary education that is the only focus I have. Maybe it will lead to ideas elsewhere.

In the imperfect world of CoachT High School this is what I would want to see:

Teachers who teach. Have lesson plans as detailed as they need to be to help YOU teach. No more or less. If you are a new teacher those plans may be very long and detailed. If you are experienced it may be a general course outline. No standards necessary and don't worry about being on the same page as every other school in the state at the same time. Good teachers will do what it takes which is why they are good teachers. At 3 PM, go home. Think about what you need to do the next day, unwind, then come back and do it!

In-service should be totally optional as to content. If you want to stay in your room and preview material to make you a better teacher then that is where you'll be. So, don't spend a lot of money on professional in-service entertainers.

(Note: the best evaluators of teachers would be teachers. Every teacher on a hall knows what is, or isn't, happening in the other rooms. But, this would never work. Too many friends, etc.)

Administrators are the answer. So, superintendents or directors of schools had better find some great ones if you want a great school. Principals should be the ones to directly do the hiring and firing at each school. In order to do that, they need to be all over the school all of the time. They need to have enough assistants to handle all of the discipline and initial contacts with parents who need to speak to an administrator. They need to be understanding, compassionate, but must dismiss teachers who can't handle the job. It is clear to most administrators who those teachers are in their schools, right now.

Principals also need to occasionally be out in the community (or perhaps designate one assistant) talking to businesses about the placement of students in the work force, part time, who aren't college bound but need an incentive to stay in school until graduation.

Every year teachers need to also have the opportunity to evaluate administrators with those results going to the director of schools and the school board for yearly evaluations. These evaluations need to be taken very seriously and be a large determinant as to the rehiring of each and every administrator.

I think most teachers realize that tenure is outdated. Since I am retired that is easy for me to say but I think that is just a fact.

What this all boils down to is that the communities are the ones who really care how good their schools are. What difference does it make how our students compare to selected students in China or South Korea? If you want to compare TN schools' standardized test results then do so.

We have got to get education back to the local level.