71029 The Kid and Old Blue Eyes

The Stanley Fish opinion article in the Sunday New York Times is keyed on two great heroes of our (his and my) day, Ted Williams and Frank Sinatra.

Both had great initial success, were notorious for bad behavior, and had down times in mid-career. But Frank had a spectacular comeback as Chairman of the Board and Ted at age 39 batted .388 and hit a home run on his last at bat.

The defining message of Fish’s article: “It is neither their vices nor their virtues that appealed to me. It is their single-minded dedication to their craft.”

Frank Sinatra had a voice coach early in his career to fully develop his saloon singing and the lyrics he articulated with such precision. Sinatra records are still being used by English language learners.

Ted Williams wrote the book on hitting, really, “The Science of Hitting.” As Marine instructor pilot he mastered the Corsair in WWII and flew 39 combat missions in a Panther jet in Korea.

What if Arizona’s educators had the support these to heroes of the mid 2000th century had when they mastered their craft. Their individual drive and talent had both mentors and coaches and an integrated system to assured their success.

Arizona is taking policy steps in that direction. The Governor’s P20 council and last week’s 21st Century Skills conference are considering the linked-integration and transformationi of Arizona’s educator creation and support system from high school, communityi colleges, universities, professional development, continuous education plans, and coaches and mentors. Arizona must act now.

The expected K-12 growth of 40% within the next ten years with itsi $107 billion cost has only one limiting factor. Educators (teachers and leadership) are not being developed fast enough. Under legacy education working conditions about half of the newly minted teachers have left their profession. There is no forecast that comes close to having enough math and science teachers let alone the arts, CTE and other core subjects. In some districts have their new hires are skilled baby boomers that will never pass through Arizona’s colleges of education.

Arizona can step up and invest or just muddle along with a challenged K-12 system. The solution requires a system transformation to eLearningi and a one time investment of $3 billion over the next ten years. The leading investment from that package is a continuous $2200 per teacher per year for professional development and on master-mentor eLearning teacher for each 50 teachers in an eLearning centered school. With adequate funding, the educators’ intellectual, data, and broadbandi infrastructure will complete the support system.

In ten years Arizona will not just have adequate number of educators nor just highly qualified educators, but educators that are dedicated to their changing craft.