Category: Educational Reform

To Compete or Collaborate

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Schools seem caught up in competition these days. When I was a student the competition was left for the sports fields and academic clubs like Chess Club, Quiz Bowl and Science Olympiad. These competitions promoted school spirit, pride and showed off student talents to the community. Competition is natural in between individuals, helping one strive to grow. This allows us to see if we are measuring up with others. Students feel pride with victory and return to practice hard in the face of defeat.

Now days schools are competing in more places. Since school of choice laws and for profit charters have popped up on every corner schools are competing for students, funding, rankings and staff. This competition is different than before, not friendly or for local pride but for survival. Similar to two rival businesses competing for consumers dollars. Is this new type of competition good for education?

District rush to be the first with a technology tool to market to students, many have forgotten to train staff and research best proposals. Money is spent on radio, billboard and television adds to lure students into choosing their school. Crafty vision statements and names have been used to make one school seem better than another. Wealthy district lure poorer districts top staff away by marginal increases in pay but hope for a future. It seems like we are running education like a highly competitive business.

Shouldn’t districts be collaborating? The majority of school funding comes from state school aid. All schools have the same goal to educate all students that walk through the doors. Should districts valuable financial resources be spent in competition as teachers re-create lessons that are being taught through-out the state? Wouldn’t we all be better served if lesson plans were shared. Instead of districts spend time creating their own PD each district could share their expertise with each other. Students would stay put, building strong schools in every community instead of leaving some districts abandoned.

Let’s make all schools succeed through district collaboration, leaving the competitions to the sports fields.

Teachers aren’t the enemy

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

From Chris Christie wanting to punch the teachers union in the face to John Kasich‘s desire to get rid of teachers unions the teaching profession is under attack by bullies. It isn’t just the politicians that want to use the teaching profession as a whipping post, non-profits like The 74 and The Mackinac Center regularly take jabs at teachers under the premise of educational reform. Teachers are becoming afraid to share their voice due to the constant attacks. Fewer teachers are now drawn to the profession. Teachers are afraid to share their voice due to abuse. Where will it end?

Teachers are not the enemy to educational reform, we are the solution. Without high quality dedicated teachers, schools would not exist. Think tanks like to spend piles of money to break up teachers unions and belittle the profession. WHY? Wouldn’t their money be better spent in building up the teaching profession? How about opening a model school and see how their policies would make education better? It doesn’t happen because their solutions are short term, focused on saving money on teacher pay not creating a better system. The best educational systems exist where teachers feel valued and have a role in decision making.

The Mackinac Center under the pseudonym Capitol Confidential likes to constantly badger teachers sharing their voice. In a recent post “Teachers Making Over $80,000 need second job to pay bill” the center just wants to focus on pay of teachers. The article is quick to point out that teachers work 184.5 days and 7 hours per day. Lets start with the hours: NO teacher works bell to bell it is impossible to do so, most effective teachers work 3 to 4 hours beyond the bells. Next, no teacher only works the district calendar. Just stop by a school in the weeks before or after the school year and see who is there, most teachers. Sure, eighty thousand should like a good amount of money but few teachers make this salary. The state average is $57,000 and that number has been going down. Starting teachers make less, Average starting teachers salary statewide is $35,000. Remember these teachers have students loans to pay off, taxes, pensions, health care, homes and families to pay for. Yes, teachers are struggling just like many in our country.

If the Mackinac Center were a student in our schools they would be written up for bulling behavior under state bullying laws. It has been repeated and constant. Educators share their story, Mackinac Center attacks, in the name of school reform. Stop the bullying. Focus on being a positive voice not an attacking one. Focus on helping teachers not beating use up.

We are not the enemy you are looking for. Your public bullying behavior makes our job harder. If a public group like Mackinac Center can bully, why can’t our students?

Teachers aren’t the enemy, they are doing the best we can in the world we live in. Schools are a reflection of our society. Education reform should be about making our society better, so our schools reflect it.

Teachers can influence policy 

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire
Photo by Todd Bloch

In July twitter was a buzz about pending legislative action mandating social media policies in all school districts. As a connected educator, I felt I needed to share how it could possibly impact state educators on my blog.  Fortunately for educators, the author of the House Bill 4791, Rep Adam Zemke of Ann Arbor desires educator input on this legislation.

After seeing my tweets of concern, Rep Zemke’s office contacted me to set up a time to talk to Rep Zemke. A day later we had a wonderful hour long conversation about the social media bill and my connected educator concerns. I was not speaking out only for my concerns but for the general concern of all teachers in Michigan who my be impacted by this bill and how districts might react. Not wanting to rely on one educator’s viewpoint Rep. Zemke asked if I could gather a group of educators to discuss this further with him.

On August 13, 2015 in Zeeland, Michigan Rep Zemke met with a group of seven connected educators from all over Michigan to discuss the intent and impact of this legislation. After a quick over view of the bill, the discussion turn to educator concerns. Rep Zemke listened and quickly took out a notebook and pen to record educator viewpoints. Everyone at the table knew the intent of the bill is to have policy in place to encourage positive social media use in our schools. Prohibition due to lack of knowledge was the largest concern.

At the end of the conversation, Rep Zemke asked for contact information of all educators and hoped to share final bill language with all (for input) when it was complete. I was impressed. This was the first time in 15 years as an educator I felt my voice was truly heard by a legislator. Rep Zemke drove across Michigan to listen to 7 teachers share their concerns, not one of which lived in his house district. Lansing and Washington, DC need more legislators who meet with people who are directly impacted by their policies.

Thank you Rep Adam Zemke, I hope our input on this policy helps create a bill accomplishes the goal on POSITIVE social media use in our schools. You did what all politicians should, looked for input and listened to concerns.

Educators if you have positive stories of Social Media use in your school please share them in the comments.

The Real Choice in School of Choice

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

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School of choice is a hot topic in political venues these days. From a teaching perspective it is cannibalizing our public education system. Student populations can swing drastically from year to year as districts spend money on marketing campaigns instead of in the classrooms. Creating unstable budgets and high teacher turnovers all in the name of choice. Recent studies in Michigan show that more than half of the school of choice students end up moving again. Is school of choice making the best educational system for ALL of our students?

Wasn’t a choice already made

Most parents make their school choice when deciding where to live. Real Estate brokers use the public school systems to market homes, apartment complexes proudly advertise the district where residents attend. Every friend I know took the public school system into consideration when choosing where to live. The decision is predominately made based upon test data and state ranking date. Do these numbers tell the true story of a school? No always, so of course many make a drive by of the community school to make a visual assessment and talk to parents who have children in the schools. After all this research housing choice is made that doubles as a school choice. As a resident of the community, parents will have a vested interest in maintaining quality schools.

 What if the community changes and schools slip? or Parents can afford to live where they really want to?

The REAL choice

Schools need parent involvement. Parents can’t just expect a district to have top-notch everything. They need to make the CHOICE to get involve in the school not abandon it. Communities need to rally around their school, asking what they can do to make student achievement happen. Instead school of choice has created a “its not problem, I will go elsewhere” attitude. Schools need parents in every aspect of the education process. From being on PTA to sitting on the district improvement team. Parents can coach sports teams, be hall monitors, and volunteer in the classroom.

It makes me sick when I see school of choice ads. Money that should be spent on students and learning is wasted to sell the dream that the grass is greener on the other side of the tracks. Pretty much same school just different zip code. Parents need to stop buying into this fade. Legislators need to end the concept as it exists today. Choice should be more about instructional practices not social economics.

Need for Teacher Code of conduct ….

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

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Last night as I was reading my twitter feed, I noticed a tweet about House Bill 4791, that would require districts to adopt a social media policy for teacher and student interactions. This bill is being introduced by State Representative Adam Zemke from Ann Arbor, with the best intentions of making districts have a policy where many have none.  I quickly tweeted my hopes of having connected educators input on the bill, Rep. Zemke quickly replied that he would love to have input including his office phone number.

 

Having a Social Media policy sounds great in theory. This bill allows local control for districts to come up with their own policy. This is where I get scared for many educators. A simple policy that many districts could take is prohibition of teacher/student contract via social media. Teachers would lose a valuable tool for connecting with their students where they are spending most of their time. Connected teachers in these districts would feel like they are losing a huge part of their practice. Other districts will spend money on this mandate by having their legal team research a policy draining a part of already limited resources. Some district might even feel that a policy gives them licences to monitor teachers social media accounts. (This would be costly and invokes visions of George Orwell’s book 1984.) Leaving teachers feeling paranoid of any social media use. Is there a better path than having to pass legislation every time new tools come about for teachers to connect with students?

What if Michigan Department of Education in collaboration with ALL stakeholders created a “Teacher Code of Conduct”? This code could be updated by MDE when needed. It would be similar to Hippocratic Oath that Physicians take. This code would be published on all teachers certificates, reminding teachers regularly. The Teaching Code of Ethics would address all the concerns with those few questionable teachers. A simple line like:

I will have only professional interactions with my students (and former students until they are adults).

This covers social media, letters, notes, phones and verbal conversations in one line, without adding burdens to the 500+ districts to create new policies. Laws already exist to cover the underlying concerns with inappropriate social media contact.

Will district policy (proposed by this bill) or a teacher code  of ethics stop the few perverted minds that the bill intends to stop? History says, probably not. A teacher code covers the societal concerns with teachers and social media without mandating districts coming up with their own policy.

Next we will be discussing bills requiring districts to have auto use policies, physical contact policies (covering hi-fives and handshakes) to bill covering every aspect of teachers day. The teacher code offers a more sensible path to the same solution for all teachers in Michigan.

Thanks for reading.

Are Teacher Evaluations Measuring Up?

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Every teacher wants to be highly effective in classroom. Spending hours researching best practices, planning lessons and setting up their classrooms. After just a few formal observations, teachers are handed their “report card” at the end of the year from their administrator in the form of an evaluation. Teachers receive daily feedback about their teaching from students and parents but often receive little to none from their administrators until the final evaluation meeting at the end of the year.  Educators can feel surprised by their evaluations if the results don’t match the feedback they received.

For evaluation systems to be accurate, they need to be administered with fidelity throughout our educational system. Using different tools and procedures creates a feeling of distrust in today’s schools, especially since teacher job placement is not based upon teaching evaluations. Deborah Ball and The Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness have attempted to address these issues; Sadly the Michigan Legislature failed to approve and fund their plan.

A recent addition to the teacher evaluation is student growth data from standardized tests thanks to the Race To The Top initiative by the federal government. This creates an entire new set of concerns about evaluations. Do all students grow the same? Is learning growth linear? NO, but these are the assumptions made when using student growth data in teacher evaluations. Many times teachers are evaluated in content that they don’t even teach. Using student growth for teacher evaluations focuses on linear academic growth, it does not take into account where students start and what is occurring in a student’s life. Students that are all ready ahead of grade level will have a harder time growing since the learning targets for the grade level have been mastered. This means teachers of advanced placement or gifted students will have the largest struggle showing growth. What we really need to remember is that learning is NOT linear.

Of course teachers desire learning to happen in their classroom: many struggle with how to measure it. Why? Because learning has so many variable that are beyond the teacher’s control.

Teachers deserve an evaluation that is equitable to ALL. Let’s work on making one!