Category: Educational Reform

Teachers need to be accountable, but to whom?

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

On Thursday night, after working all day and attending a union round table discussion about education, I met up with an old college friend at the bar to catch up. He is a vice-president of a small financial services company, lives in an affluent community, and enjoys the finer things in life. After getting past the normal pleasantries and catching up with news about each others families, he asked me Why I was on his “side” off town. As I attempted to explain about the “education reform” movement in the state of Michigan and how it is affecting teachers, he asked “Shouldn’t it be about what parents and students want?”

This question rings true: Shouldn’t education reform be about what the community wants? Not what legislators desire. I agreed with him, since I have never had a parent complain about my instruction and the district where I work typically has strong parental support for what the schools are doing. Parents are always thanking the teachers for the job that they are doing working with their children. “I won’t want you job!’ and “You are a saint!” are comments often overheard at conference time.

“So why are we reforming schools?” Was the question he asked. I answer that it seems to be about accountability and money. Being from a sales background he agrees with these motives. Teachers should be accountable for sure but to what? Now teachers are accountable to their district, community and ultimately to their students. Reformers desire teachers to be accountable to a standardized test. Which is right?

From a business perspective the test is easier to measure and attach funding. Tests are part of a business model. Test producers also sell books, software and “canned programs” to schools. They can make it advantageous to schools to buy their products or use their online programs. In turn these companies can make millions off of educating our youth. Do these results show we have made a true difference using their measures? That can be debated. Many would argue the same or similar results would prevail if we stuck with what we have now.

Teachers should be accountable to their students. Students’ individual needs have to be addressed and accounted for on a daily basis. NO standardized test can measure all the “teaching” that goes on in the classroom. Communities and locally elected school boards have to monitor and decide if schools and teachers are doing what is necessary. Each community will be different, just like each child is different in the classroom. Society cannot us predetermined benchmarked norms to decided if a school is effective. That would be similar to measuring a parents effectiveness based on how the child meets development standards.

Society needs to stand up to the corporate take over of our education system. School boards are elected for a reason: to hire leaders that will create schools that meets the communities needs. We cannot let a publishing company mandate what every school district needs. It is funny that GOP leaders don’t want this to happen in health care (Obamacare) but support it with education!

Why teachers are frustrated….

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Education has been in the public spot light for the last year. Teachers have seen various pundits speak as if they were expert teachers. Many have stated education just needs more “dedicated” teachers who “care more”  and “work harder”. Some experts have been teachers, for Teach for America. Now they are policy experts, after teaching two years. Other experts are come from industry or policy think tanks, with no experience in teaching except having been a student. These attacks hurt and make teachers feel unvalued in their profession. This is not where the frustration sets in.

Frustration comes when the leaders of education, superintendents, accept these criticisms. These leaders except the changes based on political and funding pressures. They fear for their jobs and district funding. Money seems to have power over even the most intelligent educational experts. The best research out today, says the one size fits all models don’t work in education. When big money from state and federal government and private donors like the Gates and Broad Foundations are at stake, best research goes out the window.

Teachers are frustrated because they don’t have an advocate that is being heard. Sure Diane Ravitch, the AFT and NEA are vocal opposition to the  “reform” movement. They are viewed as radicals or groups with vested interest not to change. Teachers don’t fear change. They fear a world that leaves students that are poor or that have special needs behind. Teachers fear a educational system that believes all students learn the same way at the same rate.

Teachers believe that all students learn, in their own way, at their own rate. Do all children walk or talk at the same age? Teachers believe that standards are guidelines not rules that are written in stone. Teachers feel the pressure of the world, since any time society sees a problem, society wants schools to solve it. (Think childhood obesity and bullying)

The teacher frustration will end when OUR leaders stand up and say ENOUGH!! Schools need to focus on students needs and students learning. Not meeting an expected score one day on one standardized test. When the leaders stand up, the teachers and communities will stand behind them. Then and only then can education focus on REAL Change: Making schools a place where everyone can learn.

Conference Reflections

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

After spending a day last week talking to parents about how their children are doing in my class at school. My conversations seem to focus on grades and behavior and not on learning. Sure, the grades are a reflection of learning and the behavior affects the learning. I did not seem to have questions about learning directly. When conferences were finished I left with questions of my own.

  1. Why are parents fixated on student grades instead of student understand?
  2. Why do some parents want more homework, others less?
  3. In general What is the purpose of school?

To start our educational system has created a culture of grades. We have a system where “A” is what parents want, “B” is okay if the student tried hard, “C” is bad and we have to take some action, “D and F” mean parents will yell at the child right in front of the teacher. Does this grading system work anymore? No, first it does not talk about what a student knows or doesn’t know. Second, it creates a ranking and expectation system. Parents will look at how many A’s are on the report card and rank their child above students who have fewer. Parents will begin to expect the same grades from year to year, without thinking about their child’s ability, passion and work ethic. The learning expectations change each year and with each teacher. Science jumps from biology to physics to geology. Social Studies jumps from state to state, continent to continent, geography to history. Math and language arts are more progressive but they have jumps also. Schools need to move away from grades and focus on what a student knows and doesn’t know. Colleges would have a better idea if a student was a candidate if they knew the knowledge levels not the letter grades of applicants.

This moves us to question #2: My parents at conferences always ask about homework, “I have not seen any (or very little) work at home.” Well for staters, I don’t believe in homework, so only work that is not completed in class goes home. Some of my parents get upset and ask for MORE homework. I always ask why, and it is so their child can do better in my class. I don’t understand the correlation, if you want your child to do better, spend time with them. Go over the work we did in class. Have them read. Look up the topics on the internet and discuss. Parents are to be partners in the teaching process. I always offer resources for the parents, few have taken me up on this offer. I have also heard of the parents who want less homework. I would say, that school is the job your child is doing now. If you feel the homework isn’t meaningful then have a discussion with that teacher. If the work is meaningful then do it. Hopefully teachers are only giving meaningful homework but I have seen some work that sure seems busy.

Finally the big question: What is the purpose of school? I often feel I am a babysitter for 12-13 year olds. During their time with me I feel I need to instill in them the values of society and show them how to gain knowledge. Are teachers too overloaded with content nowadays? I was asked that by one parent. Yes, we have more content standards now. Schools have SO much content to teach. Students come in with a wide range of ability and background knowledge. Should schools be focused on content? No, schools need to make an impact. If they try to teach too much content knowledge it is not covered in a way that students can critically think about the content. Covering a broad range of content also creates problems with the disadvantaged students. The speed at which each topic is covered puts them at a disadvantage.

So what should schools focus on? Schools need to focus on knowledge obtainment skills. They need to teach student how they are to learn. Different tools, strategies and processing skills that give students the ability to learn on their own. The old proverb comes to mind:” If you give a man a fish he eats for a day, if you teach him to fish he eats for a life time.” So if you give a man knowledge he only has the knowledge you gave him, if you teach a man how to obtain knowledge he can have all the knowledge he wants.

The purpose of schools is to create independant learners, lets not complicate them by adding to much content that the essential skills of knowledge obtainment are missed.

What teachers need is time

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

What educators need in today’s schools is time. The public perspective is that teachers work from 8 to 3 (when students are in school) and they have all of the school holidays with summers off. Most publicly wish they had the teachers schedule. Teachers and Administrators alike know it just isn’t that cushy.

When students are in school, teachers are on every minute. With class sizes are running over 30 in most public schools today, a teacher never stops moving in the classroom. They have to teach the lesson, check for understanding, help students who need it, while maintaining an atmosphere that promotes learning. When teachers are lucky enough to have a prep period, they have meetings, planning to be done, papers to grade, parent phone calls to make and not to be forgotten a much-needed trip to the bathroom. A teacher’s prep period is much like most people’s work.

If that is not enough work for a teacher, when the bell rings at the end of the day, teachers begin preparing for the next. Feedback has to be given on all work turned in. Engaging lessons have to be created. Still more meeting with departments, grade level or special education  providers. Parent phone calls are still needed for those that could not be reached . Run to the store to purchase supplies needed for class. Sounds like a repeat of what is done during prep time, but you can only accomplish so much while students are in school because teachers are often interrupted. Teachers are also expected to help out and attend after school events ranging from band concerts to sports and everything in between.

So after all the school work is done teachers can enjoy their families? Well sort of, most teachers also are engaged in improving their craft. During summers, school holidays and breaks many attend professional development. Most states require a number of PD hours or college credits to stay current.

After all of this is done a teacher may enjoy their free time….. or just take a nap to get up and do it all over again.

Forced Malpractice?

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

When thinking about the education climate today, I feel that teachers are being placed in a situation where they are almost forced into malpractice. Now most people think of malpractice as medical or legal term. Malpractice as defined by the free legal dictionary:  

“The failure to meet a standard of care or standard of conduct that is recognized by a profession reaches the level of malpractice when a client or patient is injured or damaged because of error.”

Teachers are supposed to create learners in their classrooms. Schools should need to create authentic learning environments that are relevant  to young minds. Lessons should allow students to explore open-ended questions and learn should be accomplished at an individual’s own pace. All students learn in their own way on their own time table. All educators know that student learn in many different ways and this learning can be expressed in all forms. These are the standards and conducts that teaching professions need to accomplish.

In our RTTT and NCLB world, legislators have created laws that measure student learning on strict linear growth charts. Teachers are then ranked and judged by the yearly growth. This growth is measured using one single expression of knowledge: answers on a multiple choice test. These test are given frequently to constantly monitor growth.

At this point I hope you see the stark contrast from professional standards/ principals of learning and how we are attempting to measure learning. SO how is it Malpractice?

Teachers are being forced to test, test and test students to measure their learning. When most teachers know every child’s ability level. This testing takes away from the true purpose of school: To teach students how to learn. Instead of teaching how to learn teachers feel the need/pressure to teach how to take tests. This environment removes the relevance from all topics. Teachers often lose sight of the WHY, and resort to “You need to know it because it is on the test” answer to the why question.

Principal, Donald Sternberg, from New York State recently wrote this about the testing environment in a letter home to parents in his district:

“One significant issue as we move into this new school year is that we will, at times, find it difficult if not impossible to teach authentic application of concepts and skills with an eye towards relevancy. What we will be teaching students is to be effective test takers; a skill that does not necessarily translate into critical thinking – a skill set that is necessary at the college level and beyond. This will inevitably conflict with authentic educational practice – true teaching.”

The testing nature of schools today is hurting our students. Teachers are turning to practices that create great test takers but not true thinkers.   This system is falling apart due to over regulation by legislators who champion education in speeches  but not in-laws. It is time to stop the system that damaging our students.

When looking at education in this light, I am surprised nobody has sued for malpractice. As a teacher we can say we were forced to by  the legislature.

Measuring Growth

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Since the “Race to the Top” initiative/competition the education world is all a buzz about measuring student growth. Many states have adapted teacher evaluation models or are creating models that incorporate student growth into how teachers are going to be evaluated. I find it quite odd/disturbing that the most dominant measure of student growth is from Standardized tests.

So I spent some time thinking about growth. I take all 3 of my children to the doctor for an annual check up. The doctor measures their growth: Height, Weight, size of head, potty trained, talking, etc. The data is then placed on a graph and plotted against the “standard’ or norm. My boys height and weight are well above the 100% mark, but they have speech deficits. Are they ahead or behind? or are the just moving at different rates than the average child? My daughter is not above 100% but around 70% on height and weight and she speaks at level. Should I be concerned that she is not at 100%? No since 50% is average or the middle of the “bell” curve.

How does this relate to education?

1. Are we measuring many different skills and judging a composite? Not from where I sit. I see us focusing on 2 basic skills of math and English Language Arts.

2. How much growth is expected? I keep hearing we need to have a years worth of growth in a year. What is that? 100%? Even trees don’t grow the same amount each year. Anyone who has cut down a tree and counted the rings knows this.

So what do we do?

Hard question to answer but lets STOP measuring growth against an average which was calculated using a bell curve where the expectation is 50%  of students will score above average  and 50%  below! Half the teachers will fail on this model!

We also need to expand the model to include all aspects of growth: The PIES.

Physical growth: are students become coordinated, stronger and more fit. – This might help with the current obesity issues in the US.

Intellectual growth: are the students become better thinkers and problems solvers.

Emotional growth: are the students better able to cope emotionally and hand different emotional situations.

Social growth: are the students gaining social skills that will help them in employment.

The current systems are only focusing on a student’s intellectual growth. Teachers have an impact in all 4 areas. Students need to achieve certain base levels of growth in each area. All growth needs to be taken into account if Student Growth is going to be used in teacher evaluations.

I have personally observed a student grow in social and emotional areas but not in intellectual. In time due to the social and emotional growth in one year the intellectual growth will come. As a society we can not just focus in one area. As educational reform moves forward, remember that All growth is important.

We don’t judge parents when their child does not walk, talk or reach a certain height due to the date on a calendar. Lets make sure we do the same for teachers!

All students can learn, just at different rates and in different ways!