Women in Education

A Regional Collaboration

For the last eight years, Ingram's has brought our readers a special conference and a special edition of the magazine. Called WE/KC Women Executives - Kansas City Conference, this conference we and others have sponsored has typically attracted more than 300 women executives in the area to a full day of learning and sharing. It has provided the opportunity for women to gather, learn, and build alliances which are critically important to their growth and leadership. This year, we've kept the spirit, but decided to host a more intimate, invitational assembly. Consequently, this month we highlight the women of education by sharing with you what several of the leading women educators in the region have to say.

We do recognize the integral and true value of education in our community. It's more than the recent election hype and promises. At the time of this writing, we don't know if Congress will have managed to pass a $25 billion dollar bill for school construction and modernization by issuing interest free bonds. We don't know if the Democrats, who want to give money to hire new teachers and repair crumbling schools, or the Republicans, who want to give states the option of spending the money on other programs such as special education and reading lessons, will compromise. We don't even know who will be President - and thus will be shaping our educational direction and policies for the next several years.

Too often, our society pays inadequate attention certainly to the glories but more so to the trials, of our educational system. That's true until we are faced with some crisis. Student shootings get our morbid attention, accreditation failures force us to look up from the business pages, teacher strikes cause us heart palpitations. The daily business of education, however, is not at the top of the screen. We send our kids to school, pay our taxes, sign notes, and go to Back to School Night once a year. Well, maybe we do more, but often, not much. The kids finally graduate (most of them) and for most of us, our involvement, our passion, our commitment has been, in the grand scheme of our lives, pretty minimal.

Is it disinterest, really, that prevents us from paying attention? No, it's just that the schools have always seemed largely to run pretty efficiently without our help. But the very changes affecting our society are also affecting our schools - labor shortages, technological advances, choices offered as in charter schools, legislative effect. These changes will have a far-reaching impact, in ways we may not be able to foresee even now with directional signals pointing the way.

At the heart of change exploration must be a key institution like education. The people most intimately involved in the search, in the challenge, are our educators themselves. It is an important story, and because it is so vital, we invited some of these most committed individuals to come talk to us. We wanted to explore the issues and opportunities in education and women's role in this rapidly changing industry.

So, sixteen women recently gathered to talk about their schools and school districts, their role in our society, their profession, and the future. We "facilitated" the discussion - but they certainly needed little guidance or direction in their thought-provoking conversation. They came from different branches of the profession - from having responsibilities at elementary, secondary and collegiate levels, from inside the classroom to state supervisory levels. Their breadth of knowledge and experience were extraordinary, and they provided several solid hours, of insightful discussion about the role, and state, of our education today.

We are delighted to present that conversation in the following pages. We know there is much to learn from their words and we hope they, and you, might seek future collaboration because of it.

Women in Education

We Must Change the Future

When sixteen leading educators, highly articulate, highly educated, and highly passionate, get together for an early morning breakfast, there are few pauses in the conversation. The women included superintendents and presidents, members of state and city school boards and regulatory agencies, teachers and administrators on all levels from both Kansas and Missouri. The discussion, as befitting the variety of participants, was equally far ranging, and most illuminating.

The days of no choices for women in the workplace are long gone. Those of us whose mothers told us, "Well, dear, you can either be a teacher or a nurse. It's a good job, and you'll always have it if you need it," tell our daughters something far different today. In fact, most of us, according to these distinguished women, are surprised when people do pick teaching as a career. Part of the conversation involved the reasons for an already existing teacher shortage which will only worsen as a massive exodus of teachers, who began in the 60s and 70s, reach retirement age.

The Too Often Ignored Basics

Business people complain about the emerging workforce each year, saying that the skills, the ability and desire to work, the basic proficiencies are missing. While over 66 percent of high school graduates go on to college (up from 49 percent in the early '70s), nearly one third of them require remedial classes before they can handle basic freshman classes. And one in four 17-year-olds reads below grade level. Business leaders often blame the schools for the gaps they then must remediate. Over 25 percent of employers recently reported that they, too, must do remedial reading and math work with new employees. What's happening, they ask, bewilderedly.

It starts with the culture, these educators respond. First of all, teachers as a group, as a profession, lack the respect they deserve. "Sure, sure," say businessmen, "But that's not really true. Why I remember old Mrs…." And therein may lay part of the problem. A profession dominated by women is, traditionally in America, unlikely to have respect, and its close twin, high pay. Dr. Marjorie Sirridge pointed out that when more women entered the veterinarian profession, pay went down. The University of Missouri Medical School now has an enrollment comprised of 60% women, and she wonders if the same thing is about to happen to doctors.

People say they know how important education is, even the recent presidential campaign emphasized it greatly, but the fact is, teachers are not respected in our culture. Getting to the heart of the problem, Dr. Marjorie Kaplan earnestly commented, "The public says they want good teachers, and they do, but the commitment to provide the resources to such social institutions is missing. We are struggling for resources in every area; we cannot pay people what they deserve, or what the competition (business) is paying . . . the true crisis is that while no one wants higher taxes, important social issues are crying out for these resources."

"Money equals power in our society," stated one woman, and that's no surprise. The basic attitudes about women in society have not changed believed several, and somehow those perceptions are going to have to change if we expect our children, from preschool to post graduate, to be educated. Cultural change is, of course, more than difficult, but the necessity is recognized by even the National Education Association which is currently running an ad on TV with a small boy who says he wants to be a teacher, not a doctor as his father repeatedly suggests. Without good teachers, he asks, how will others be able to be good doctors?

Finding good teachers is more and more difficult as fewer and fewer people are entering the teaching profession . . . and 40% of all new teachers leave after one year. Teacher shortages create emergency staffing. People without the requisite skills or training are then put in the classroom. But on the other side, standards for teachers also need scrutiny, according to one participant. "If we want teachers to be viewed as professionals, then education must raise the bar," said Dr. Karen Pletz. "We must change the evaluation process to receive better pay for better performance." But she noted that currently, money does not improve even after higher requirements are met or better performance evaluated. Nancy McRoberts concurred, and added, "The teacher shortage is affecting far more than just inner city schools. Compensation must be improved or the supply will absolutely run out. We are on the brink of a major change."

The Need for Growth

It is not just money, of course. Since teaching is so difficult (a fact those who never have probably never will understand), since it is, in a sense so isolating, since it demands such inner resources to do a great job, perhaps going beyond pay, finding the resources to provide sabbaticals would help. We should rotate teachers in and out of difficult assignments. Another mentioned the advantages of mentoring the younger teachers - difficult to do, however, when the mentor has a full day and 110 students herself. "Teachers need professional growth opportunities. There are few other professions with so few growth opportunities," stated Dr. Henderson. Dr. Kaplan noted that there are still very few female superintendents but this is changing because of a male shortage, but she also agreed that fewer bright women are entering the profession in any capacity because of increased opportunities. The result, whatever the reasons, will be increased and devastating shortages.

The Love of Learning

More than money may be at the root of the problem in attracting and keeping great teachers, but certainly money is also affecting the very nerve center of our educational system. A competitive society which emphasizes competition and the bottom line is the antithesis to the traditional spirit of education and the idea of the "whole" person. "The goal has become something other than being an educated person," said Dr. Lori Franz. A sense of the community and the necessity of contributing to it is important. When the only goal is to get high grades, we see surveys that say 70% of all high school students say they cheat. "Students don't make the connection that this is not a game, it's their life."

To communicate that love of learning is key to these professionals. Administrations must support those teachers who are able to do that. Teachers must be encouraged - if you've been teaching third graders for 25 years, communicating the fun of learning can be tough. And somewhere between kindergarten and sixth grade, most students seem to lose the thrill of learning and either "drop out" mentally for at least part of the time or turn into kids only wanting the results, and not the effort, of learning.

"How do you teach people values?" asked Dr. Pletz. Values must be learned at home, and reinforced by the schools. If a passion for learning has been lost, community service helps bring it back agreed the group. Several cited programs which have been successful in connecting students to the community. Amy Cameron pointed to the fact that her alternative school students must participate in community service of one kind or another. Since the demographics of the family have changed so radically, it is important for the schools to step in and help students see the connection. We desperately need to move away from the competitive focus of our society. "Will it make money is always the question," said Dr. Diana Swezy. "The horrible rush to be number one. It's just scary - we have to be about more than that." High schools that focus on values by engaging students in community service projects and holding students accountable for the service performed do a great service to the community at large, according to Helen Ragsdale. This was a key point of the discussion, restoring the passion for learning. "Moving students away from the consumer mentality and back to the essence of why we read, and study, and communicate ... to learn and try to understand. The most success- ful women (and men) that I know have a deep appreciation for the power of education," reiterated Dr. Sally Frost Mason.

The Role of Business

The educators were somewhat ambivalent about the role of business in education, although it was clear to them that due to the public's lack of support for institutions and businesses' need for well qualified graduates, this role was destined to be greater than it is today. Technology has influenced coursework, a trend which will continue. Industry needs could dominate what students learn, not necessarily an advantage according to most. The role of education is not strictly vocational, these women strongly believe, reiterating the love of learning concept. A dialogue should be continual with the business community, and that is often difficult to start and maintain. Karen Cavalluzzi indicated that educators and business executives have much in common if one thinks about what a good employee is. Business looks for someone who will be a team player, make decisions, take a role in leadership, work to get a job done, she said. They want people with social values such as honesty, integrity, and loyalty. "The ultimate goal in education is to provide our society with good citizens." The skills needed in a principal are the typical business skills - running an organization takes high interpersonal skills, great communication skills, the regular organizational skills of excellent managers. With the same goals, business and education should come together more readily, both listening to each other's needs. Educators may need to take a leadership role in this regard and control the process.

Creating Women Leaders

The educators gathered at the Central Exchange that day are all clearly leaders in their fields. How did they get there? Few had a straight-forward and directed path. Few set out to become what they now are. All were concerned about the future role of women in our society as well as what will be the professional role of women in education in the future. They talked about how girls learn compared to boys - and there is often a difference. For instance, girls tend to learn better when they work in teams on math. Since there is a shortage, still of women in math and science, the change of methods at the primary and secondary levels should have results for the future, pointed out Amy Cameron. We also need to "focus on how to teach girls to be confident.

It is not about just competition," pointed out Dr. Pletz, but about confidence. "There is something missing," said Dr. Franz. "Our young women are confident, but this does not translate into leadership. Where is the gap?"

The leadership issue took a personal turn when Dr. Franz asked if the women in the room felt an obligation to take on new or additional leadership roles in order to further women. The consensus seemed to be a qualified yes. Dr. Sirridge responded that many times in her long career she had felt that women were never going to be seen if she had not been willing to do more than her own job. "I want to make a difference," she said as the others nodded agreement. "I cannot do that unless I do something that perhaps I really, for personal reasons, might not want to do. If we have something to say and a message that is important, we have to do it."

These women, leaders all, face many challenges as they look to their, and their profession's, future. In a society which may only give lip service to its basic and foundational institution, the school, they are well aware of these challenges. Dr. Frost Mason summarized the meeting when she indicated that, "We've made many positive strides in the forward direction over the past 20+ years. The fact that so many of us were in the room with so much to say is so very different from my early days in education. I came away very optimistic about women and education in general. While we all had our particular concerns and challenges, we are nevertheless clearly dealing with these things, and quite effectively."

These sixteen women, among thousands of others in Kansas and Missouri, are pursuing the opportunities available to them for improvement; they are vehement spokespeople for their cause. And after all, is there really a stronger, and more far reaching cause than supporting and improving the education of our children who, despite the platitudes, really ARE the future?