TeachMoore

...Do Something

2008-07-19T01:27:00-04:00

As if to answer the question I raised in my last post, I came across this comment by James (aka Mr. J, of The Mind Prepares) on a really great discussion over at The Faculty Room,:

I too have observed how decisions are made on the state and national level, yet it is the teacher in the trenches that has to find ways to implement them. That is one of the reasons I left teaching in the public schools because eventually they were going to catch me dancing around their rules and teaching my students the way I knew would work. I satisfied them by raising the test scores but I did it without their curriculum. Now, due the the bureaucracy, I teach in a private school where I am allowed to do things my way and still keep everything above board.

My question to others about “The Frontline” is: what are we going to do about it? I grew tired of complaining and made a lateral move that only benefits me and the select few students I teach. My state’s teacher’s union is weak and bogged down in their own ridiculous politics, out politicians talk a good game before election season and then suffer from memory loss after. I am tired of complaining and rubbing my woes with others, or closing my classroom door to “do my thing”, or making idle threats of leaving the profession. So I ask other teachers: what are we going to do about it?

James asks the right question: What are we going to do about it?

A good start might be: “A Call to Leadership: An Open Letter to America’s National Board Certified Teachers” contained within a recent report on National Board Certification released by the Center for Teaching Quality. Written by ten of my colleagues here at Teacher Leader Network who are also NBCTs, the full report is their analysis of the spate of reports released recently on the effectiveness of National Board teachers. Although the letter (pgs. 11-13) is addressed specifically to Board Certified teachers, I think there is much in it that all good teachers can agree upon and DO to move us from a place of just complaining or leaving, to one of actually taking charge of our profession.

The authors argue: "It is time for us to begin leading from the classroom, to be our own best advocates for positive change — for policies and practices we know from experience will work. We cannot wait to be invited to the policy table. Nor can we wait for any organization or initiative to guide us, endorse us, or train us. We invite their support, but we must begin at once to find our own voices, to hone our core messages, and develop our own leadership ideas and muscle, both personally and collectively" (12).

They offer six specific steps teachers can take, without permission, to help change both the perception and the reality of the teaching profession. I especially like the last suggestion: "Design our own collaborative experiences for professional learning and leadership development, creating a robust vision of what it means to be an effective teacher leader and pursuing that vision together" (13).

Another of my favorite bloggers, Ted Nellen of CyberEnglish, shared this quotation (which he also uses with his students and in his signature):

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." --Buckminister Fuller

While I slightly disagree with Fuller, (I don't believe we can change things just by fighting the existing reality), it is within our power to build new models of how to shape policy, how to prepare teachers, how to assess what students know and what teachers do. We have the means and the mediums now to build such models; do we have the will?

Without Permission

2008-07-14T01:02:05-04:00

A few of my colleagues around TLN, while dusting off our bookshelves and dumping computer files over the summer, have rediscovered some old favorite reads on education. Some of our finds include, Adler's, Teaching as Subversive Activity, Shaunessey's Errors and Expectations, and any number of "big" reports on the state of education--

Great ideas moving us towards solving the complex problems in education have been made, and made again. Getting a critical mass of policymakers or even educational administrators to move those ideas into action has proven extremely difficult. Excluding for a moment all the effects and side-effects of NCLB, are there any significant changes in education have come from the ground-up, so to speak. What are some examples of genuine teacher, student, or parent led reforms in education?

What aspects of school reform or redesign could we as teachers, students and parents rally around and implement without "permission"?

Homeland Security

2008-07-04T14:20:55-04:00

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

As we observe another National birthday, we would do well to ponder how we are preparing our young citizens---all of them---to be full participants in our democracy. Here are some thoughts on education and its role in our democracy that I find provocative given the current status of education in the United States.

In the introduction to their book, Educating for Democracy, Carnegie Scholars Ann Colby, Tom Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, and Josh Corngold raise the question: What kind of education should a democracy want for its members? (1).

The U.S. State Department, in its publication, The Principles of Democracy, proclaims:

Education is a universal human right. It also is a means of achieving other human rights and it is an empowering social and economic tool. Through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world's nations have agreed that everyone has the right to education.

Every society transmits its habits of mind, social norms, culture, and ideals from one generation to the next. There is a direct connection between education and democratic values: in democratic societies, educational content and practice support habits of democratic governance.

This educational transmission process is vital in a democracy because effective democracies are dynamic, evolving forms of government that demand independent thinking by the citizenry....

Governments should value and devote resources to education just as they strive to defend their citizens.

In 1924, the reknown and vibrant Black educator, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune pronounced:

“[We must] make known our educational needs and rights, and contend for every educational privilege, vouchsafed to our children as the coming citizens of a free democracy.”

Although we more often think of students' academic access and success in relation to their economic futures, perhaps we should spend more time thinking of the quality of public education as a national security issue.

(Image credit: School Room by Wade of Oklahoma. Licensed: Creative Commons, attribution).

Makes Me Wanna Holler

2008-06-26T22:47:15-04:00

I've been tagged! Fellow TLNer, John Holland at Circle Time passed this meme on from Jose Vilson's, "Howl If You Hear Me" post.

Maybe it's because my car needs a new set of back tires, but I've been much more conscious of bumps in the road lately. During this state of heightened sensitivity, I've also been more conscious of the unnecessarily bumpy transitions in American education between different levels of schooling.

First step. My TLN colleagues and I recently explored the persistent problems some groups of children have moving from pre-school or kindergarten to first grade.

Second step. We also had an invigorating conversation among the teacher leaders about 9th grade--in its many configurations around the country: the highest level of middle school, lowest level of high school, or set off (literally) from everyone else in their own buildings or academies.

Third step. In a response to a post on The Faculty Room that commented, among other things, on the contrast between American and European schooling practices, Joseph Scotese wrote: "...my European friends cannot get over how easy [U.S.] elementary and high school classes are--especially when compared to our colleges....They think it is ironic that we expect so much of our students when they get to college--which they felt are as tough as any in Europe...."

Fourth step. Community college has become the Ellis Island to American higher education. Yet, as Kevin Carey highlights, there is a good deal of conflict and confusion around the country over transfer of community college or dual enrollment credits even to four-year universities in the same state (or as Carey points out, on the same block!)

Fifth step. More and more Americans are attending college (as Carey also points out) everywhere. Physically moving from one place to another, taking courses online, more college courses being offered in conjunction with employers, open source courses.... However, many students still find transferring from one college to another to be a treacherous passage, full of hidden dangers (and fees). I could go on with the grad school entry hazards, but you get the idea.

Looking over the entire sequence of steps, it's more like playing dodgeball than advancing through a coherent, pedagogically designed system created for students . Surely, we can do better.

What can we do (or have some of you already done) to eliminate these largely unnecessary roadblocks to student progress at every transition point?

TeachMoore,

...who thinks kids' journey through education is rough enough without having to dodge political crossfire on the way....

Broader & Bolder, or Older & Wiser?

2008-06-20T16:41:44-04:00

With a vigorous nod to my colleague, Susan Graham, for her insights over at Teacher Magazine on the recently issued "A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" I offer a few additional thoughts.

On the surface, most of what the statement calls for is laudable and logical. But as I read it more closely, a few statements began to trouble me.

For example: "Education policy in this nation has typically been crafted around the expectation that schools alone can offset the full impact of low socioeconomic status in learning." Oh, really? The children of the poor have been the primary concern of educational policymakers? And what is the evidence (or better yet, the results) of that concern?

I have long standing issues about "grade levels," and how they are determined, so I wonder about this emphasis on children coming to school equally prepared. "Every American child should arrive at the starting line of first grade ready and able to learn." Again, this sounds noble. But, to agree with that one has to buy in to the idea that all children should be able to do certain things by a certain age. Having raised 11 children and worked with thousands, that dog just won't hunt with me. I'm particularly leery of African American boys being mislabeled as non-verbal or having social or behavioral problems by pre-K and kindergarten teachers who are unable to connect with them culturally (sorry, that one was a grandbaby issue). Whether or not children are "ready" for school depends largely on what it is we intend to do for them when they reach school. Not having a home to sleep in before coming to school is an economic disadvantage; not liking or recognizing certain types of social customs is a cultural difference. Not everyone takes time to tell the difference.

I won't take time to go into it here, but the real history of the Head Start program, which began in rural Mississippi, is what I was thinking of when I read the statement's call for "increased investment in developmentally appropriate and high-quality early childhood, pre-school, and kindergarten education." That kind of noble talk has been heard before, and it translated into the worst kind of paternalistic racist usurpation's of parental rights and community-based cultural practices. It was well-intentioned educational policy during the desegregation of the schools that led to the dismissal of thousands of Black school administrators and highly effective teachers. Those same policies led to a dismantling of the cultural ties between communities (in our case Black communities) and our schools. These mostly unintended consequences were, nevertheless, debilitating. Collateral damage from poorly developed and implemented public education policy....Hmm...where have we seen that recently?

The same policy-making bodies that forced us, for example, to separate learning into discreet, unconnected bits of economically testable knowledge or to separate children into one-way developmental tracks, are now to be trusted to turn that around? Bold thinking for sure.

On another note, the statement's call for increased access to medical care by putting "full-service health clinics in schools" was enough to make me cry. Health clinics? The majority of schools here don't even have an occasional public health nurse visit. The shortage of nurses and medical personnel in our state is worse than the chronic teacher shortage, and affects the same high-need communities, urban and rural. Overcrowded school buildings or trailers, some with outdated, even unsanitary conditions for students and teachers, would make curious, but certainly welcome settings for such full-service clinics.

All that said, however, I'm trying hard not to be cynical, just pragmatic. Making 'broader, bolder" statements is certainly much easier than making and implementing effective policy. But I'm glad there are those who haven't given up, and I'm glad to partner with them (paraphrasing John Wesley) to accomplish all the good we can, or at least, to learn from our past mistakes and not do more harm.

Get It Right: Hitting the Pause Button on NCLB

2008-06-18T02:06:15-04:00

Responses to the proposed legislation to put a freeze on NCLB reporting and other requirements until the bill can be reauthorized have ranged from relief to horror.

Just for the record, in case I haven't said it lately: NCLB is a poorly conceived, horribly implemented piece of legislation. Anybody remember what the road to hell is paved with?

In much of the debate around NCLB, one area that is regularly ignored is the law's impact on rural schools. The recent article from Utah's Deseret News about the effects of NCLB on rural schools was disturbingly refreshing (yes, that's an oxymoron).

One well-meaning person argued recently, "Well, NCLB isn't perfect, but it's better than doing nothing to improve education, especially for the kids stuck in low performing schools." No, it isn't better to increase burdens on those who are already struggling under tremendous inequity and disadvantages, just so we can say we're "doing something."

I want to see the shift in this society to whenever a question or concern comes up about education, the FIRST people we turn to for answers are our best TEACHERS. The House Ed Subcommittee has begun to move in that direction during its hearings on NCLB by inviting a wider range of persons to the table than were in the drawing room when the legislation was initially developed. That includes highly accomplished teachers, effective administrators, perceptive parents, excellent homeschoolers, articulate students, visionary business leaders...

Crafting a thoughtful, effective, workable education policy is not impossible, but it is hard-work. For one thing, the planning needs to include a broad group of contributors. Those who have done (or are doing) education well should be the ones to whom we turn for leadership in re-designing education.

Dinner is Served

2008-06-11T23:04:32-04:00

A delicious read over at Susan Graham's blog, A Place at the Table, on how teachers are more likely to be on the menu rather than at the table of educational policy making. She also has some great suggestions for teachers on how to get from under the knife.

Getting bad, ineffective people (I refuse to even call them teachers) out of the classrooms is one battle. Getting those who have proven ourselves effective into the realm of decision-making in education is another. Both are necessary.

Teachers and Principals Off-Key on Working Conditions

2008-06-01T01:28:25-04:00

The recently completed Mississippi Teachers Working Conditions Survey conducted by the Center for Teaching Quality (sponsor of this website and my blog) provides a glimpse of the serious discord between teachers and administrators over the reality of teacher’s professional lives in our schools.

The report highlights that teachers in Mississippi do not have as much control over our working conditions as we should have in order to provide effective instruction. More disturbing, however, is the apparent deafness or indifference of building level administrators to how big a problem teacher working conditions really are.

“School leadership and teacher empowerment are critical to retaining teachers” (7) “…teachers believe that the quality of leadership in their schools is the most critical influence on their future career plans” (19) [i.e., whether to stay at a school or leave] There’s a growing body of research that lack of teacher control over significant aspects of our work directly impacts the quality of instruction students receive. If teacher empowerment is not a reality, then real teacher accountability can not be

The problem in MS: “Administrators believe that teachers are central to decision-making and that they are empowered on many fronts, but teachers disagree. In fact, the gap between administrator and teacher perceptions of all working conditions is very large” (5)

The survey reveals some startling cacophonies:

• 89% of the principals said teachers are respected as professionals but only 57% of the teachers agreed.

• 84% of the principals assert that teachers are centrally involved in decision making about educational issues, but 63% of teachers said, “Not."

• 95% of the principals believe teachers are trusted to make sound professional decisions about instruction, while only 63% of their teachers said that was so.

There was closer agreement on whether the faculty is committed to helping every student learn — 95% of principals said, “Sure they are.” But only 83% of teachers agreed that their colleagues had that same commitment.

• 95% of the principals are convinced their teachers feel comfortable raising issues and concerns that are important to the faculty, but 46% of their teachers reported being slightly to totally uncomfortable doing so.

• 99% of the school leadership in the survey say they consistently support teachers when needed, only 64% their teachers agreed.

“…more than one-quarter (27 percent) of all teachers report playing no role in the selection of the professional development opportunities available to them, and more than half (58 percent) say they play no more than a small role. Additionally, teachers are not engaged in school improvement planning (60 percent play no more than a small role) or in determining how Education Enhancement Funds [state funds raised by a special tax and earmarked for classroom supplies] will be spent (over 40 percent report playing no role at all)” (21).

The report continues, “Research suggests that participation in decision-making of this kind is often associated with keeping teachers in the profession [Ingersoll, R.M. 2003 Who controls teachers’ work: Power and accountability in America’s schools], yet teachers in Mississippi appear to have limited involvement in many of these decision-making arenas. Indeed, many teachers want to play a role in school decisions to ensure that they can be effective with their students, but it appears that a large number of teachers in Mississippi are not playing a significant role in many decisions that ultimately impact their schools” (21).

What does this huge range in perceptions say about the working relationship between teachers and their instructional leaders?

I suspect many of these well-intentioned administrators believe that what they refer to as “teacher input” is sufficient for saying teachers are involved in the decision-making process of their schools. But this is not just semantics. Professional educators need the power to make decisions related to curriculum, instruction, assessment, their own professional development, as well as larger issues of school reform and management.

The findings from Mississippi are consistent with those heard around the country as highlighted in EdWeek’s Quality Counts 2008. In a Jan. 10, 2008 article, "Working Conditions Trump Pay," Debra Viadero summarizes the finding that distress over working conditions, not pay, is the primary reason for teachers leaving schools or refusing to teach in certain settings. The working condition cited most often in the exit surveys of departing teachers, according to the Mississippi Department of Education, is the lack of administrative support. That finding has been confirmed by working condition surveys conducted by CTQ in other states as well (Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and Nevada).

CTQ tactfully suggests: “The state should encourage and help its administrators to assess their leadership and empowerment practices, along with their interactions with teachers, in order to move toward improvement in these areas and toward establishing stable faculty communities” (9).

Thankfully, the state now has a Blue Ribbon Commission examining how to improve the quantity and quality of school administrators, including changes in the preparation and on-going training of principals. We’re hopeful this will start to bring some much needed harmony between teachers and administrators on to best serve our students.

Making the Grade (Meaningful)

2008-05-21T12:46:40-04:00

Click here to find out more about the K12 Online Conference. Everyone's invited; no dress code!

A recent article in USA Today on changes in grading policies brought some much expected reaction from the public.

One of my former school districts, briefly adopted the policy of giving no score lower than 50 on student report cards. The well-intentioned purpose was to make it possible for students who failed earlier in the school year to have some chance of passing should they pull their grades up later in the year. It was a common scenario. Students would glide through the first semester, especially at the high school, enjoying football season, homecoming, and anything other than schoolwork. Then, sometime after Christmas, some of them would wake up (or get shaken up by a conscientious parent) and realize they were not going to make it unless they got serious about their assignments. Setting the floor grade at 50, it was thought, would give these slackards a fighting chance at redemption. One problem with this system, however, was it made the grades at the top and the bottom of the scale worth less.

Of course some students were truly struggling all the way along, but some were just plain lazy.

As I shared with folks over at Shrewdness of Apes, where this same conversation is raging from teachers points of view, certainly, there are problems on all sides of this puzzle. Students who won't do what they're asked, then lie about it. Unethical, unprofessional teachers who grade based on emotions, family history, or the moon phase. I actually reported one former colleague who sat down with coffee in the faculty lounge and went through his empty gradebook at the end of the semester making up grades for each student. (Principal's response: "Oh well, he's about to retire anyway.")

And what can you do with parents like the one who showed up at my house one July evening having JUST learned that her son had failed 10th grade English, and begging me to change his final grade because "he really wants to be in the 11th grade with his friends." BTW, while she was standing in my doorway crying, the aforementioned son was blasting rap music in my driveway from behind the wheel of the brand new truck his mother had bought him.

That we have these debates about grades and fairness this time every year should tell us something. For one, grades are not the reason for education and are not the motivators of student learning many would like to believe. They are prized by some, but not usually for the right reasons. An on-going challenge in many schools and classroooms is to make the learning experiences more substantive and engaging, and making our evaluations of student learning more meaningful. Raising eleven children, my husband and I never asked "What grade did you get at school today?" but "What did you learn new today?"

Grades are, at best, muted directional signals: Straight A's usually mean the work is boring and non-challenging, but I'm behaving well in class. F's signal there is a problem, and I need to investigate to find out exactly what it is. My dear, departed, former Army sergeant father used to say: "D's stand for 'didn't do a d--- thing'." C's and B's suggest there's work going on, maybe some real learning, and probably some learning challenges; we (parent and teacher) need to work with student and find ways to support the learning.

I would much prefer to move away from a system of letter grades or scores into more of an evaluative feedback system. This of course would require more time by instructors to prepare and more time by parents to understand (are you listening administrators). It could also be the basis for some real discussion about what children are learning and how, rather than some of the inane fingerpointing that passes for parent-teacher conferences in too many places. This has been tried in some schools with generally unfavorable results. In many instances, parents resisted the move away from a single grade or score, sometimes on the basis that evaluative comments wouldn't help their child get into college. But higher ed institutions have been complaining for some time about the relative uselessness of grades and grade point averages as accurate measures of student ability. Of course, the colleges are fighting their own battles over grade inflation and inequities.

Still, I think it's a battle worth fighting for the sake of students, teachers, parents, and sanity.

Party Over at Nancy's!

2008-05-21T11:25:19-04:00

My TLN colleague and good friend, Nancy Flanagan is hosting this week's Carnival of Education over at Teacher in a Strange Land. Some great readings from around the blogosphere. BYOB (Bring your own blog...)