Education Reforms Depend on Teachers, Honig Says

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, addressing some of the San Diego city schools’ best teachers, said Thursday that the second phase of the nation’s educational reform movement depends on teachers, who will determine the characteristics of quality education and define the standards of their profession.

Speaking to the San Diego Unified School District’s 200 “mentor teachers,” Honig said that “you cannot solve the more complex questions of quality from the top. Day by day, how do we teach history to our students? How do we get true engagement from our students?”

Under a state-sponsored program, mentor teachers are chosen each year to provide training and assistance to both new and experienced teachers. Usually experienced teachers themselves, the mentor teachers receive a $4,000 per year stipend for adding the training duties to their regular classroom work.

Teachers, Honig said, will help school districts “reach agreement on what we mean by quality education at a school level.”

Most importantly, teachers will be asked for advice on how to arouse student interest in their education, Honig said.

The United States’ educational reform movement began in 1983, when a commission appointed by President Reagan published “A Nation at Risk,” a report detailing what it called a climate of mediocrity in public schools. The report led to a nationwide push for higher test scores, tougher graduation requirements and upgrading of standards in public schools.

The reform movement’s second phase stems from the publication in May of “A Nation Prepared,” by the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, calling for a restructuring of the teaching profession.

The panel suggested establishing a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and increasing teachers’ salaries so they are competitive with other professions.

Teachers, particularly the nation’s best, will be involved in determining standards as teaching evolves into a true profession, Honig said. The issues will include the future of mentor teachers, whether teachers should be certified through a testing procedure like physicians, and how to improve collegiality among teachers, Honig said.