Teacher World

This is the last in my series on Diane Ravitch. I have been blogging about her recent article from the August/September issue of neatoday magazine. In her article, “Stop the Madness”, she explains why she no longer supports NCLB, and she ends her article discussing how we can improve our schools.

According to Ms. Ravitch, “We must first of all have a vision of what good education is.” We should be asking what constitutes a well-educated person, what we want students to learn before they graduate, what we want them to accomplish, and why we educate students. In other words, we need to agree on what education is, what it looks like, and why we want to be a part of it as teachers.

Second, she says we need to look beyond reading and mathematics and decide what other qualities are synonymous with a well-educated, well-rounded student. We want to turn out students who are able to think for themselves, have good character, are able to make good decisions, have courage and humor, and who treat others with compassion and fairness. And we need to teach students to be responsible citizens who make educated decisions by rationally studying different points of view.

Finally, she states that we need to send out academically well-rounded students who are able to use both math and science to understand and solve real problems in their communities and in their world and who can also appreciate and participate in their artistic and cultural heritage. In other words, we need students who participate in  significant ways, who enjoy the world around them, and who are willing and able to work to improve it. We need to teach them about the world in which they live and help them to find their niche within it.

What kind of test could ever adequately measure these truly important things? There is no such test because the true test of these qualities is life and the purposeful living of it. As Diane Ravitch states, “If these are our goals, the current narrow, utilitarian focus of our national testing regime is not sufficient to reach any of them. Indeed, to the extent that we make the testing regime our master, we may see our true goals recede farther and farther into the distance.” She concludes by stating that, if we continue on this current path, we are likely to produce a generation who equate learning with the drudgery of “worksheets, test preparation, and test-taking”.

In her final plea to turn the current tide by doing away with NCLB in the hopes of saving our public schools, Ms. Ravitch wraps up with this eloquent, heart-felt statement: “As we seek to reform our schools, we must take care to do no harm. In fact, we must take care to make our public schools once again the pride of our nation. To the extent that we strengthen them, we strengthen our democracy.”

(Diane Ravitch’s article was based on her book entitled The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,)

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This is a follow-up blog from the article in Forbes, June 7th edition, as promised. While I recommend that you read the article, “What Educators Are Learning from Money Managers”, for yourself, in case you don’t get the chance I would like to explain a little bit more about these charter schools in New York and Connecticut, how they operate, and how this might translate to public education. (See previous blog, “What Forbes Magazine Can Teach Public Schools”)

First, clearly the charter schools mentioned in the article have resources that most public schools do not, especially in terms of technology and the ability to offer teachers a higher income than traditional public schools can. So, how do they accomplish this? Well, Achievement First, the nonprofit discussed in my last blog,”has a $60 million budget and 17 schools with 4,500 students, making it the equivalent of a good-size school district. The company spends less than 10% of its budget on central administrative costs, compared with 15% to 25% at most urban school districts…The savings get spent at the school level. Teachers receive higher salaries-and help.” A typical ratio of “helpers” is about 23 teachers to 5 administrators, which includes deans and coaches. So, in other words, they pay teachers well, but the expectation is that they will be continually coached and trained to ensure that they are successful at closing the gaps in education and proving statistically that their students are making constant progress.

One would assume that teachers would be drawn to these schools due to the promise of a higher salary, but it sounds like a rigorous program. Achievement First tries to draw in young and creative teachers who have been in programs like Teach for America. While they get paid more, they work 10-hour days and the school year is longer. “Roughly 10% to 15% of its teachers quit each year; another 5% or so are fired for poor performance, compared with 9% attrition and 4.4% dismissal rates for public schools.” I can’t help but wonder if there is a higher burn-out rate due to the longer day and longer school year. Frankly, I find the concept of a 10-hour day outrageous. Not only would it be mentally and physically exhausting for both students and teachers, but it would make it extremely difficult for students to be involved in any outside activities such as sports, scouts, or any other outside lessons and would take away from family time as well. Likewise it would be restrictive for teachers. It would take a fair amount of sacrifice on everyone’s part, and therefore, this is one aspect of these programs which I would not advocate.

The article ends on a sad note for public educators like myself when it states, “It’s lamentable how many defective products the U.S. education industry sends out of its $660 billion factory. But it’s encouraging to see that there are ways to boost the output.” Then let’s really boost the output! Apply what is applicable to public schools nationally. Share the wealth, and let all students reap the benefits. If our goal as a nation is to send out young people who are adroit and capable of competing in our global economy, and we have evidence that the techniques to do so may be available, then it behooves us to make these techniques available to all. Hook up all schools to software that will do for public education what it is apparently doing in these charter schools; giving teachers the data and the resources to best meet students’ academic needs.

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The June 7, 2010 edition of Forbes featured an article entitled “What Schools Can Learn from Money Managers”. If you can pick it up and read it, I would strongly recommend that you do so, as it is well worth reading. In the next few blogs, I will be discussing some of the important concepts addressed in this article.

The article zeroes in on Achievement First, a nonprofit out of New Haven, Connecticut, which operates 17 charter schools in Connecticut and New York and is described as “more like an information-driven company than an old-fashioned school district”. The emphasis in these schools is on closing educational gaps, particularly among African American students and students from low income households, showing yearly progress as well as successful passage of state achievement tests, and increasing graduation and college-bound percentages.

In a nutshell, here is a basic outline of how these charter schools are attaining success. First, children in kindergarten through second grade are given one-on-one reading comprehension tests which are graded on a scale of 1 to 12. If the results indicate that the entire class struggled on the tested concept, teachers would reteach that concept. “But if individual students fall behind, the school pulls them out into separate groups for intensive instruction on their individual weak points. The extra lessons can be delivered on a computer or during a lunchtime tutoring session; the important thing is that teachers and administrators are constantly watching and adjusting their methods as test results come in.”

Additionally, some companies, like Wireless Generator, who have traditionally worked behind the scenes in the medical industry, are now in the business of providing software that teachers can use to regularly assess students in reading proficiency and math skills. “The software can differentiate causes of failure, distinguishing between students who are too slow and those who make errors; it can also flag kids (who don’t understand the concept).Then it prompts the teacher to group children at similar developmental stages together and provides proven instructional techniques for their particular problems.” How awesome! Software that is set up to evaluate individual weaknesses, compile lists of students with similar weaknesses, and recommend the appropriate remediation to resolve those weaknesses! And the article is quick to point out that this information is in no way used to discipline or call out a teacher, but rather to teach them how to be most effective in providing students with the skills they need to master problematic concepts.

It boggles my mind, and hopefully yours too, when I wonder whether such an approach to education is possible on the national level, which is the gist of this article! We have a head start already: nationally aligned standards. What if… now just imagine this…what if each school district was linked into a national data base like Wireless Generator with the same national assessments to be administered periodically throughout the year, and providing the same kind of feedback which is available to these charter schools? Imagine if teachers whose students scored well on an assessment were utilized to tutor those students at that grade level who were red flagged for that skill. Or, they could be used, along with the instructional techniques offered through the software, to help coach teachers at that grade level to work with students who were struggling. Imagine if we looked at our individual classes as the launching pad from which students would be moved throughout the tutoring time to different teachers in order to achieve the best results for all students. And imagine if all of this was orchestrated through a national program that all schools had access to rather than each school system doing their own thing and reinventing the wheel to develop formative assessments, evaluate test results, and decide what to do from there.

When I read about the success of these charter schools, I can’t help but be a little envious of the resources they have that most public schools do not. But, at the same time, it motivates me to use this information to get something going on a smaller scale in our school next year. Next year in our district, teachers will be meeting as a grade level once a week for both reading and math to look over results we are generating from formative assessments and use those results to plan effective teaching strategies to meet the needs of those students who are not achieving. After reading this article, I am hopeful that we might implement some of these same techniques. And in the meantime, I can always dream that at some point we will experience the kind of reform mentioned in Forbes on a national level.

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Over the next few weeks, I will be blogging about Race to the Top, the national contest to find creative ways to improve education in the United States. First, let me give you a brief summary of the goals of Race to the Top, or RttT, as it is called.

It all started last February with the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 by President Obama. The purpose of this legislation is to “stimulate the economy, support job creation, and invest in critical sectors, including education. The ARRA lays the foundation for education reform by supporting investments in innovative strategies that are most likely to lead to improved results for students, long-term gains in school and school system capacity, and increased productivity and effectiveness”. This act is providing $4.35 billion in grant money to the RttT fund, to “encourage and reward states that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform; achieving significant improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school graduation rates, and ensuring student preparation for success in college and careers; and implementing ambitious plans in four core education reform areas:
 
Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;

Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;

Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and

Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.”

The states chosen as finalists in this national competition are Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. Winners will be chosen in April, and the school systems that were part of their state’s application process will be the models for implementing their detailed plan of recovery for their state.

Wow! Quite a venture with some awesome potential! If you haven’t read anything else about it, follow my link above, and do some other reading about it because, in my next blogs, I will be discussing my state’s plan and what I think of the process and the proposals. Interesting reading! Talk to you again after you’ve done your homework! Enjoy!

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Okay, by now we’ve all read about it and seen news reports about it, but it continues to shock me as I consider all of the ramifications of the recent firings of all teachers in a poorly performing school in Rhode Island. As educators, we need to watch what is happening very carefully because clearly, this is coming down the pike for other schools as well. Here are some of my thoughts about what happened.

First, I find it ludicrous to buy into the philosophy that the answer to turning around ineffective schools is to fire all of the teachers in a building. Are we serious? Do we really not get the fact that the main reasons these schools are ineffective is because of their environment; the poverty, the crime, the drug and alcohol abuse, the gang violence, and myriad other factors that make more than just the schools ineffective. How do teachers get students to care about test results when they are wondering where their next meal is coming from, whether they will get beat up on their way home from school, if they will be the victim of robbery, assault, rape, or a drive-by shooting? We all watch the news. We know the prevalence of crime in these high poverty areas. Isn’t that what needs to be resolved? How will shutting down a school help solve crime and poverty; clearly roadblocks to achievement in school? And how much parental support do many of the students in these schools get? Is education a priority in these homes? How do teachers educate children who place no value on education because their parents don’t? Don’t get me wrong, I know there are many hard-working, good parents in these areas who are pushing their children to succeed, but it doesn’t change the simple truth that environment is a critical issue.

Second, is the school board in Central Falls really trying to tell us that all of the teachers on that staff were ineffective? There were no teachers on their staff worthy of retaining their jobs? While I am sure that there were teachers who were burned out and just going through the motions (which is somewhat understandable given the atmosphere in which they teach), it is beyond my ability to grasp the idiocy of lumping all teachers in that school together as incompetent. Mark my words, there were teachers on that staff who were battling against factors we cannot begin to imagine trying to elevate their students out of the environment they live in by providing them with the tools a good education would give them. How dare this board of education tell them that because the test scores have been very low, they are under qualified and do not deserve jobs! Again, when does environment take the blame? And shame on the superintendent of this school for not taking stopgap measures along the way to avoid this bloodbath. She bears equal responsibility since it is her school, and she ultimately determines who gets hired and what their credentials are. Why isn’t she being fired as well for not doing her job more effectively?

Finally, in the New York Times article reporting on the firings in Rhode Island, it was reported that Frances Gallo, the school’s superintendent, originally planned to extend the instructional hours and make additional changes to turn this school around but decided to fire all of the teachers when the union fought for extra pay for the additional 25 minutes to the teacher work day. Okay, I understand being annoyed, but is this taking it a little too far? Surely, some intermediary steps could have been agreed upon. The article goes on to say that Dr. Gallo later agreed to the possibility of hiring back some of these teachers, but she and the union could not reach an agreement. It makes me want to scream! Careers are at stake here, and an agreement cannot be reached? Preposterous! 

Needless to say, I am befuddled and angry over this decision. But the final straw for me is that President Obama supports it and applauds it. This was just the start, ladies and gentlemen. So, what that tells me is that we all need to fasten our seatbelts because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

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For the second year in a row, I have been working in a co-teaching classroom, and, while I love the premise behind this innovative approach to teaching SPED children, I contest that something may be getting lost in translation. Is the purpose to improve the motivation and job performance of the SPED student, or is it to overload these classrooms to such an extent that success is difficult, if not downright unattainable?

I team teach with another colleague, and both of our classes have a 25% SPED population. Now, that alone is a significant challenge, but there seems to be a misconception that our classrooms should be used for those other at-risk students who might benefit from small group and one-on-one instruction, too. Unfortunately, as a result, our classrooms are so overloaded with students who did not pass last year’s OAT tests for math and reading that we feel that we have been set up for failure. How do we provide services to our IEP students, even with an intervention specialist or paraprofessional in our room, when so many of our regular education students require the same degree of intervention and additional instruction as our SPED students? Making matters even worse is the fact that between the two of us, we do not have even one gifted child. Zero, zip, nadda! Does this sound like a formula for success?

I think the premise behind co-teaching is awesome. I saw its benefits last year when we had a more heterogeneous grouping of children, and we were very successful. And that is the key: there needs to be a range of students from gifted to SPED students to make this teaching strategy work. That means that teachers need to alter their view of the co-teaching classroom. They cannot make promises to parents of every struggling regular education student that they will place them in the co-teaching classroom where their needs will more adequately be met. Because, frankly, when the number of students who require extra services far exceeds those who do not, everyone in that classroom suffers, including the teachers who can never do enough to keep up with the wide variety of demands in their classroom.

If co-teaching is worth doing, and I believe it is, it’s worth doing right!

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After spending quite some time reading a variety of articles both for and against the issue of merit pay for teachers, I feel, as all teachers should, the need to weigh-in on this important issue. Especially as President Barack Obama plugged teacher bonuses based on student achievement in the first education policy speech of his presidency.

We all know that in education, as in any profession, there are employees who produce average work with average to little success, and are unmotivated to do much more. A common fallacy in the teaching profession is that it is predominately the veteran teachers who fit this scenario as they have become burned out and are simply waiting to retire. While I do not deny that I have seen my fair share of this condition, I must also adamantly state that this attitude has no age requirement. I have seen the same attitude in teachers fresh out of college, and some who have a few years under their belt. In teaching, as in any profession, our labor force ranges from the dedicated, hard-working, and tireless to the “I’ll-do-the-bare-minimum”, and various stages in between. The difference between the business and education world is that our teachers’ unions, which protect us in a multitude of important ways making our work places fairer and safer places to work, also do our profession the disservice of fighting to protect teachers, both young and old, who legitimately deserve to be let go. In the business world, job retention is directly related to job performance. If our unions did not work so diligently to protect teachers whose performance necessitated their being weeded out, does it not stand to reason that we would be left with a higher caliber of teachers who, by that very definition, are all deserving of merit pay?

I propose that unions should establish strict and multi-layered guidelines for teacher dismissal and should ensure that these guidelines are followed to the letter. But when thorough documentation proves a teacher’s unwillingness or inability to take the necessary steps to improve their teaching skills after a methodical, multifaceted evaluation process established by the union, it becomes counterproductive and hurts a school system when its union fights for that teacher. Allowing the administration to release these teachers from their contract would ultimately create a higher caliber school system which encourages respect from the community and makes it far more likely for these community members to support levies that pay all teachers in these schools the salary they deserve.

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