U.S. Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellow to Lead ESOL Teachers in Roundtable Discussion

U.S. Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellow Greg Mullenholz will host a roundtable discussion on strengthening the teaching profession with educators from northern Virginia on Monday, April 30. The roundtable will offer an opportunity for local teachers to share with the Department their ideas, experience, feedback and insight on how to elevate the teaching profession and support student learning. Mullenholz will meet specifically with Fairfax County Public Schools educators who serve as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers as part of the Department’s RESPECT project—Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching.

RESPECT is a national conversation led by 2011-2012 Teaching Ambassador Fellows—active educators selected by the U.S. Secretary of Education to serve as the “voice of teachers” within the Department each school year—to help inform and support the Obama Administration's efforts to elevate and strengthen the teaching profession. This roundtable will offer an opportunity for teachers to share their ideas, experience, feedback and insight on how to elevate the teaching profession. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the RESPECT Project in February 2012. Since then, the Department's Teacher Ambassador Fellows have held nearly 100 roundtables with more than 1,300 teachers from across the country.

The Obama Administration's 2013 proposed budget includes a new $5 billion competitive program to challenge states and districts to work with teachers, unions, colleges of education and other stakeholders to comprehensively reform the field of teaching. The proposal touches on every phase of teaching from training and tenure to compensation and career opportunities.

To read the RESPECT program proposal, visit: http://www.ed.gov/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RESPECT_Program.pdf