Minnesota teacher to Secretary Duncan: To improve teaching, put teachers in charge.

Carrie Bakken is a member of a teacher professional partnership (TPP) that runs Avalon High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Through a TPP teachers run the school themselves much as partners do in law, medicine, and other professional industries.

This compelling article discusses a meeting held in DC earlier this spring between Bakken, Brenda Martinez of a teacher-run school in Milwaukee, and Secretary Arne Duncan and many of his senior staff. In the meeting Bakken and Martinez described how the TPP arrangement fundamentally changes and improves school conditions for teachers and students. They argue that when teachers are put in charge very different types of schools emerge, and today’s issues around tenure, compensation, and teacher evaluation are resolved.

Take a look -- it's worth the read.

Image: Carrie Bakken, MinnPost