Nevada Teacher of Year has some advice for D.C.

By Karoun Demirjian

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Since being named Nevada’s Teacher of the Year in December, Cheryl Macy has been thrust into the spotlight on education policy.

But never so much as this week, joining her counterparts from every U.S. state and territory in being honored for their exceptional work. But because a trip to the nation’s capital should be tapped to every advantage, the nation’s best teachers also are lobbying, and Macy has been urging Nevada’s most influential lawmakers to pay attention to teachers as they attempt a national education overhaul.

“The main message is that we have to include teachers in the discussion in terms of where we’re going from here,” Macy said Tuesday, a day that began in a meeting with President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and finished in meetings with Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Sen.-designate Dean Heller.

“We know that there’s a lot of problems in education, but No Child Left Behind was designed without teacher input,” the Carson High School teacher said, “and we have to include teachers in that discussion.”

The Obama administration has called for Congress to revamp the country’s education system this summer, with a focus on rewarding and emulating innovation instead of meting out punitive measures to schools on the back of testing.

For the Obama administration, innovation has meant promoting wired classrooms, developing curricula that train in the sciences and technology, and improving college matriculation rates.

But innovation takes on a special meaning when you’re the top teacher in the state that’s ranked last in the country in education.

Nevada’s underachieving system is facing severe cuts under Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed state budget, and a large portion of that hit will be felt by teachers, who will see reductions in their ranks and paychecks.

It’s a situation Macy — who campaigned for the other guy, Rory Reid, in the last election — seems to have accepted in part.

“We do have a lot of challenges in Nevada right now, but I think our teachers cannot work harder than they are,” she said. Teacher unions, in state and nationally, should be part of the discussion about education reform, she said. “I think we can find a way to work more efficiently, but we need to get more support to do that.”

But the programs that Macy has identified as being the sort of important innovative work that gets reflected in higher achievement — and the work she’s been recognized for by the state and now nationally as well — take extra time.

She doesn’t teach science, technology, engineering or math, which are getting the biggest push from the Obama administration, nor is she pulling in federal grants for technical innovation in Nevada.

But she revamped the curriculum in a way that delivered results in an underachieving state and pushed for a new graduation requirement that was credited with improving post-graduation attainment.

“It’s a research project, where students pick a topic or item that’s of interest to them,” said Carson City schools Superintendent Richard Stokes, who commended Macy on setting up the program, as well as for her teaching style in firsthand fashion: one of his children took her English class. “It’s a real-life event for them, like a job project,” he said. “It gives them a glimpse of postsecondary training or at the job site.”

For Macy, that development is key.

“I really enjoy the process of working with students on their writing, and helping them develop their own voice over the course of the year,” Macy said. “But I also like watching them decide who they’re going to be, separate from their parents and their friends. It’s exciting to watch that develop.”