The 21st Century Teaching Profession...
Ensuring Every Teacher Succeeds with Every Child
Jack D. Dale, Superintendent
Fairfax County Public Schools

"We cannot be satisfied with only 10-20% of our teachers being highly successful.  That will be the consequence of merit pay or pay for performance.   We must completely overhaul the teaching profession and align it with the demands in today’s world, align it with what we know about very successful schools, and align the profession with what works.  Now is the time to ensure 21^st Century Teacher Leaders are in every school, working for everyone of our nation’s youth. The only question is whether we have the courage and conviction to make that change!" 

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Revamping the Teaching Workforce
Or "It's a Full Time Job Folks"
Dr. Jack D. Dale, Superintendent
Fairfax, Virginia County Public Schools

Dr. Jack Dale argues that to pay for "Merit" doesn't work; to pay for "performance" is difficult if not impossible to assess (even if sufficient fnds were available); and to pay for Knowledge and Skills still misses the point.  He argues that our schools need to first re-examine the evolving set of roles or expectations for teachers and pay appropriately for those added responsibilities - a more holistic approach to compensation and one that pushes our schools back to a professional approach, not an "hourly wage rate or piecemeal" approach.

In part, Dr. Dale calls for teacher leaders in five distinct areas, all in addition to an educator's traditional role.

1. School Improvement Teacher Leader - 11 months of work that includes the normal teaching duties plus additional school leadership responsibilities that are shared with the principal.
2. Feeder/Cluster Improvement Teacher Leader - 11 months of work that includes the nomal teaching assignment focused on connections and collaboration with schools within a K-12 cluster that students would attend during their school years.
3. New Teacher Trainer/Mentor - 11 months of work that includes the normal teaching assignment plus a focus on training new teachers prior to the start of schol, and mentoring the new staff during the school year.
4. Extended Student Learning - 11 months of work that includes the normal teaching assignment plus a focus on tutoring and nurturing students performing below grade level.  Such work would be done after school, during school breaks, etc as needed to leave no child behind.
5. Student Transition Leadership - 11 months of work that includes the normal teaching assignment plus a focus on analysis of individual student's academic and social progress and coordination of support services for children needing added social/transition skills.

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