The Teacher/Policymaker Divide

Classroomperspective's comments at the end of the previous post, I think, deserve a thread of their own. As eloquently pointed out in the Edweek commentary piece, we all know that the divide between teachers and education policymakers is huge.

To me, one of the main strengths of an interdisciplinary program like ours is that in any given classroom, I am sitting next to a Hill staffer, an education advocate, someone who works for ED, policy researchers, and current and former classroom teachers. How often in the wider system of education policy does this happen?

There are strengths and weaknesses in each of our backgrounds in education policy. I'm curious about how people think we can better learn from one another, maximizing our collective strengths as we move forward in our careers. To the extent that we find better ways to bridge the gap between classroom experience and policymaking, education in this country will be better for it.