Guest Commentary: The Releationship Between Teachers and EdTech: It's Complicated.

Roxanna Elden, author of See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers and  who teaches in Miami, recently completed a turn as a guest blogger for EdWeek venue "Rick Hess Straight Up."
Elden took the opportunity to share her thoughts--and what she says are the thoughts of many teachers--about education technology and classrooms.
"These days, we run into you everywhere. People who say you're just what we need have gone out of their way to introduce you, and are quick to criticize us for not showing more interest. So why aren't we more into you? Well, if you want to win teachers over, you have to understand where we're coming from," she wrote.
Click here to read why Elden says the relationship between teachers and technology is complicated.

Guest Commentary: A Teacher's View of Online Learning

Tami Caldwell's classroom is a loft that looks out through a bank of windows onto the calm waters of a lake in the state of Washington.
Her days are flexible enough that she can take her daughter to school in the morning, meet a student for a midday coffee or answer the regular buzz of students' text messages, though she tries to maintain a regular schedule.
Usually between 10 a.m. and noon each day, she sits in front of her computer for "lab" time, when students can dial in to a sort of virtual chat room and ask questions. And once a week, she and her students get together online for class.
Caldwell is one of the high school teachers at Insight School of Washington, which offers full-time online schooling.
Click here to read more about her school days and why she believes online teaching beats being in the classroom.

Guest Commentary: EdSurge Takes a Look at Former NYC School Chief Joel Klein Review of Terry M. Moe's 'Special Interest'

A recent edition of the email newsletter from EdSurge, which calls itself "a community watering hole and resource for those of us engaged in the emerging eco-system of education technology," contains an interesting post and links to two new book on teachers unions and education reform.

"Joel Klein does a dandy job of summing up two recent books, Steven Brill's Class Warfare: Inside the Fight To Fix America's Schools and Terry M. Moe's Special Interest: Teacher Unions and America's Public Schools. Brill so believes that unions must be part of any plans to revamp schools, he suggests American Federation of Teachers' Randi Weingarten should be the next chancellor of NYC's public schools. By contrast, Moe contends that the unions are crippling education but technology can help. Klein sees a role for everybody: parents "must become more engaged and enraged," reformers need to enlist the next generation of teachers and treat them like professionals, the public needs to back aggressive reform and the politicians who go for it."

The EdSurge Post adds, " Galvanizing public sentiment is a stiff order, particularly because a new PDK/Gallup poll (based on a survey of about 1,000 Americans 18 years and older) suggests that half of Americans seem to think their local schools rate an "A" or "B," even though only 17% would give that grade to other schools around the country. And there's widespread ambivalence around technology in schools: 2 out of 3 Americans think e-books are appropriate for high school students; half want to see them in middle schools and only a quarter approve of ebooks in elementary school. See the whole report here."

Click here to read the complete Klein review.

Click here to learn more about Liberating Learning's Terry M. Moe's new book Special Interest: Teacher Unions and America's Public Schools.

Guest Commentary: Former NYC Schools Chief Joel Klein on School Reform, Teachers Unions and Customized Learning

Joel Klein has been paying a lot of attention to what Liberating Learning's Terry M. Moe has been writing about teachers unions and their impact on school reform and the impact of information technology on education.
Here's what Klein wrote about Moe's new book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools earlier this year.
"America's public schools are broken, and Terry Moe sets out to explain why. In a bare-knuckled and brilliant account, he shows how the teachers unions use their unmatched political power to control virtually every aspect of educational policy and practice. The result, not surprisingly, is a system that protects the interests of employees at the expense of our kids."
Klein recently took a second look at Special Interest when he wrote a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal. In the review, Klein also critiqued Steven Brill's book, Class Warfare, which also takes a tough look at the impact teachers unions have had on education reform.
"At their core (Moe and Brill) share the reformist perspective and conclude that teachers unions—fueled by the manpower and money they can mobilize and the enormous political power they enjoy as a result—are the major obstacle to solving the education crisis. But they make their arguments from different perspectives, citing different evidence," Klein writes.
"Class Warfare, by Steven Brill, is an extremely well-reported survey of the modern reform movement that is likely to have a big impact and will appeal to a wide audience. Special Interest, by Terry M. Moe, is a carefully researched analysis of the power dynamics underlying today's policy disputes," Klein adds.
Click here to read all of Klein's review.
Click here to learn more about Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

Terry M. Moe: Will Young People Reform Teachers Unions? Drean On

Andy Rotherham is an astute observer of American education reform, but in his latest article in Time.com he engages in a flight of wishful thinking. He waxes eloquent about "renegade groups" of younger teachers who are rising up to demand a new brand of unionism--one in which the unions disavow seniority provisions, insist on serious teachers evaluations, make it easy to get bad teachers out of the classroom, and otherwise do whatever is best for children and effective schools. He strongly suggests that big changes are in the offing for America's teachers unions. A revolution from within.

This kind of argument is quite common and has a long lineage--although in the past, the agents of change were "progressive" union leaders rather than young teachers.

Click here to find out why I believe these arguments are so common and to read my complete post on the Public Sector Inc. blog

Michael B. Horn: Why Digital Learning Will Liberate Teachers

I spend a lot of time writing about how digital learning can transform our education system into a student-centric one. In my last blog, I wrote about why parents—of all stripes—matter for digital learning and make it fundamentally different from past “reform” movements. Digital learning should similarly be a game changer for teachers.
Teachers will be critical to our nation’s future in a world of digital learning. Of course, teachers’ jobs will also be quite different from the way they look today—and if we do this right, they should not just be different, but they should also be a whole lot better, as it liberates them in many exciting ways.
Basically, as software increasingly handles direct instruction, this will create big opportunities for teachers to facilitate rich and rewarding project-based learning experiences for their students to apply their learning into different contexts and gain meaningful work in the so-called 21st-century skills. And as software increasingly simplifies administrative tasks and eliminates a significant need for lesson planning and delivering one-size-fits-none lessons, there will be significantly more time for teachers to work in the ways that motivated many of them to enter teaching originally—to work one-on-one and in small groups with students on the problems where they are in fact struggling.
Click here to read more on why I believe digital learning will liberate teachers.

Terry M. Moe: 'Special Interest' Ed Next Book Club's August Selection

My latest book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools is the August selection for the Ed Next Book Club.
Michael Petrilli, education analyst and executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, interviewed me about the book which looks at the impact teachers unions have had on the education reform movement.
Click here to learn more about the book club and to hear a podcast of my interview with Petrilli.
Click here to learn more about Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

Terry M. Moe: My Radio Interview on How the Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power

Earlier this week, I was on the radio in St. Louis, the Hancock & Kelley Show on KMOX-AM, to be specific.
Our topic was my recent Wall Street Journal essay How the Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power.
I gave Hancock and Kelley an overview of how information technology is changing K-12 education. While the impact of this historic change may still be flying under the radar, the unions see the future: as virtual education grows, the need for more teachers will be reduced.
After my interview, Hancock and Kelley launch into a debate that is being repeated at the kitchen tables around this nation.
Click here to listen to the complete 10-minute segment. Make sure to click on the button below the description of my part of the show.

Terry M. Moe: The Internet Will Reduce Teachers Union Power

In an essay I wrote for the July 18, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal, I show why over the long haul, teachers unions are in grave trouble--for reasons that have little to do with the tribulations these unions have had this year.
One of the greatest challenges teachers unions face is the information technology revolution in education.
This tsunami is only now beginning to swell, and it will hit the American education system with full force over the next few decades. The teachers unions are trying to stop it, but it is much bigger than they are.
Online learning now allows schools to customize coursework to each child, with all kids working at their own pace, receiving instant remedial help, exploring a vast array of courses, and much more. The advantages are huge. Already some 39 states have set up virtual schools or learning initiatives that enroll students statewide, often providing advanced placement courses, remedial courses, and other offerings that students can't get in their local schools.
Click here to read my complete essay.

Guest Commentary: North Carolina's John Locke Foundation on How Teacher Certification is Hobbling Virtual Schools are Virtual Irrelevant

Terry Stoops is Director of Education Studies for North Carolina's John Locke Foundation. In an article written for the foundation, Stoops says looks at how teacher certification is slowing the growth of virtual education.
Here are Stoops key facts:
• Teacher-certification requirements are among the most onerous rules enforced by state education agencies and have the potential seriously to limit the scope, quality, and accessibility of virtual schooling for years to come.
• By design, certification requirements prohibit unlicensed individuals who reside within a state — such as higher education faculty, private-sector professionals, private school faculty, and independent scholars — from teaching virtual courses.
• States should allow their virtual schools to have the flexibility to focus on hiring candidates who possess the requisite skills and relevant knowledge and experience, rather than those who possess mandated credentials.
Click here to read the complete article.

Terry M. Moe: Reviews are in on 'Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools'

Here are two reviews of my new book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.
"This is a superb and historic book. Terry Moe, the first scholar to brave unions' wrath by revealing how they operate, now also shows how their dominance of public education will wane, due to political change and productivity-enhancing technology. Reformers, foundation heads, elected officials who have up to now been afraid to cross the unions, and union leaders and their allies should read this book as soon as they can get their hands on it."
--Paul Hill, University of Washington
"Anyone who wants to understand education reform and its challenges should read this extraordinary book. Over the past few decades, teachers unions have become some of the most powerful actors in American public education. Terry Moe fills a crucial gap by exploring how the unions work; how they veto important reforms in ways that are detrimental for children; and how their power might be waning. As with his prior work, this book will make a tremendous difference in how we run our schools."
--Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools
Click here to learn more about Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

Terry M. Moe: Government, Markets, and the Mixed Model of American Education Reform

Paul T. Hill, the John and Marguerite Corbally professor of Public Affairs at the University of Washington-Bothell, director of the Center of Reinventing Public Education, and a colleague on the Hoover Institution's Koret K-12 Education Task Force, and I co-authored an essay for Education Week's blog "The Futures of School Reform."
Our article is part of a series written by members of a working group organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The group's goal is to seek "seeking to engage a wider audience in an “urgent” conversation—one that it hopes can advance the national dialogue on improving public education for all children."
Over the next few weeks, Education Week will run essays from the group.
In our essay, Hill and I call for a new education model, one that has "different mixes" that meet the needs of "different states and communities, depending on their distinctive values, concerns, and local conditions."
Here are some highlights from our article:
-- The current system of district-run schools can simply be left in place, but required to compete for children and money in a much larger marketplace of educational options.
-- A core rule is that money should follow the child (with more resources attached to the disadvantaged) and flow to the school of the family’s choosing.
-- Policy rules should encourage the proliferation of new educational options, chief among them (for now) charter schools—with no ceilings on their numbers or enrollments, funding equal to that of district schools, access to buildings and seed grants, the right of for-profit firms to manage them, and no requirement that they be unionized.
-- States should open the marketplace to online learning and the new forms of schooling that offer it: virtual charters, blended (hybrid) schools, state-led virtual schools, and more—which may enroll “whole” students taking full curricula or just “parts” of students taking a few courses.
Click here to read the entire essay.
Click here to learn more about my new book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

Terry M. Moe: My Discussion with Radio Talk Show Host John Batchelor About the Power of Teachers Unions

Earlier this month, I was interviewed by John Batchelor on his nationally syndicated radio show. The topic: the political confrontation between the governors and teachers unions.
My latest book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools provides context and background to this fight, which will be ongoing for some time.
What can get us out the the current mess? The revolution in information technology. Virtual education, be it in a blended learning environment or as part of a home-school program, is a game-changers, especially when it come to the power of teachers unions.
Click here to listen to my conversation with John Batchelor (my part of the program starts at the 29.25 point in the podcast).
Click here to learn more about my book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

Terry Moe: Technology Will Accomplish What Vouchers Never Could

Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia recently interviewed me in my office at Stanford University, where we discussed the radical new shape of 21st century schools, the "sheer power" of teachers unions, and how Barack Obama has delivered on his campaign promises of education reform.
We talked at length about the revolution in information technology, which has placed huge amounts of information at everyone's fingertips, will do to teachers unions what a meteor did to dinosaurs: wipe them out and make way for new life forms.
The interview is scheduled to be published in January, 2011. Click here for an early look at the interview.

Guest Commentary: California Fails at Giving Children a Quality High-Tech Education

K. Lloyd Billingsley is the editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute which is the publisher of the soon-to-be-released book Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California.
In an op-ed published by sfexaminer.com, Billingsley wrote. "Countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, India and China, along with the European Union, are taking full advantage of online education. California, home to Silicon Valley and major high-tech companies, lags far behind. One of the reasons is opposition from teachers unions. "
Billingsley added: "It will soon be 2011, but these unions still operate under a 19th-century industrial model completely unsuitable for education. More technology means better efficiency, which means fewer workers are necessary to perform the same job. So unions fight to block technological innovation."
Click here to read Billingsley's entire article.

Guest Commentary: Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward on Credentialing Online Teachers

Does an outstanding online teacher need another credential?
Maybe not.
In a short Reason.com post (Happiness is a Warm Body on the Other End of the Computer) Katherine Mangu-Ward writes that she is not convinced that additional credentials for online teachers is such a good thing.
"Nothing will slow the process" of exploring online education options "than a bunch of state rushing to adopt mandatory teacher certification for online schools," Magnu-Ward writes.
Click here to read her complete post.
Magnu-Ward is in good company in her opinion about the necessity of additional credentials for online teacher.
Karen Cator, the Department of Education's director of the Office of Educational Technology, suggested that "professional development" are often redundant for teachers who are more tech savvy than we think, according to Education's Week's Digital Education blog.
Click here to read EdWeek's complete report on Cator and her thoughts.

Tom Vander Ark: States Adding Mandatory Certification for Teaching Online

Idaho is moving toward a mandate that online teachers have additional training to teach in a solely virtual environment. Most online teachers in Georgia must pass a professional-development course in virtual instruction. And many other virtual schools in other parts of the country require that their cyber educators complete professional development aimed specifically at teaching in an online environment.
Yet many states and education groups still have not addressed the issue of teacher quality for the online classroom. And dissenters say added requirements for cyber educators could exacerbate existing teacher shortages, and even be detrimental to teacher quality.
Those supporting additional certification see it differently. They say the goal is to make sure students aren’t getting shortchanged.
I believe it's clear that most of these hurdles will not add quality (just guaranteed work and revenue for state offices and colleges). Here’s the full story. Let me know if you think certification for online instruction can add value.