Breaking Bad Causes the Federal Government to Shutdown

So admittedly the title of this post is intended to generate traffic but we are busy and do have lives outside of teaching and this award winning blog(that will be true when we win an an award of some sort).   There are at least a few notable events taking place around the nation connected to education.  As we await the fate of the outcome and a looming Federal Government Shutdown we ponder the demise of Walter White and Breaking Bad.  The members of the Underground had a conversation today that amounted to sarcastic banter for the benefit of a student teacher who was present.  But it went something like this;

"I'm trying to plan out this teaching thing but my brain is not really working anymore. I forgot how hard this teaching thing is." 

"Yeah, I thought after my first few years I'd have this thing all figured out, turns out it's still hard."

In other events there were a few pieces of news worth sharing.  

"Movies, Education...Same difference."

Critic Kyle Smith of the New York Post recently posted  this haphazard and merit-less attack on THE Diane Ravitch and her new book Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Public Schools 

He says things like "charter schools (which are generally just public schools freed from union red tape"  -OK?    Basically he's a movie critic with a shallow understanding on education.  He has a loose grip on the subject and while smart  he is forced cite experts like Erik A Hanushek who deals with economic analysis of educational issues.His review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is much better. 

I also stumbled across Ron Paul's vision for education reform in another post.  As comical as it seems

the fact he has a website and has created a website with teaching advice makes it more scary than comical.  As simple as abolishing Public Schools sounds we might suggest such an effort is neither that wise or that worthwhile.  I'd prefer to abolish dumb as there seems to be plenty of that among our nations leaders.  Utter stupidity as David Gergen called it is often tough to watch but our nation's teachers dealing with reform are getting fairly used to it.  Sadly there is no shortage of people promoting books out there.  We here at the Tu might get to work on one at some point if we weren't so busy doing a crappy job as teachers I suppose.  And they are the ones adversely affecting the fate of us all.  While we wait some who will put Paul's plan into action we'll just keep teaching. 

New York State is holding the  Summit for Smarter Schools sponsored by the Partnership for Smarter Schools and three State Senators.   It focuses on the effects of the statewide testing and possible and common sense approaches for positive change.  Time will tell whether the ideas discussed gain any traction but there are hints of such ideas in many states including our own.  

Bill Gates tipped his hand about the efficacy of his reform agenda in an interview and I and most other teachers I know could likely provide a more substantive change with the funds he is pouring into education through his foundation.  We've talked about Bill Gates before in our How do you Make a Teacher Great post.  That answer remains a mystery but there is no shortage of experts on the matter.  Accountability...only for teachers and students I suppose,

With that we leave you to another week.  Our hope is that even if you lose faith in the Feds ability to get anything done, you keep a bit of faith in your local public school.  We'd appreciate the help. 

How Do You Make a Teacher Great?

You make a great teacher by shaming or firing the bad ones.    Written with tongue firmly ensconced in my cheek!  But that is the approach currently gaining favor in a growing number of states.  Abolish tenure, hold teachers publicly accountable for test scores and make it easier to fire them.  Allow me to inject some sanity back into the fray and add my 2 cents.  "That's dumb". 

Gates' work in education gives antitrust a whole new meaning.

"How do you make a teacher great? You don't."  These words were spoken by Bill Gates during his speech at the annual TED conference.    Everything Gates then proposes suggests that you can in fact make a great teacher, by doing things like getting rid of all the bad ones.  Mr. Gates and I agree on many things and I admire his well publicized efforts to help and heal around the world. He penned a recent Op ed "Shame is not the Solution" condemning efforts to publish teacher ratings in New York.   The numbers were released anyway and I know for certain that no good will come of it in terms of teacher effectiveness.  No bad teachers will improve directly as a result of this.  Linda Darling Hammond does a much better job explaining why here. It took lawsuits and media pressure to force the scores out and their validity is certainly questionable.  Transparency is good.  This was bad.  Too bad no one seemed to care.  Gates spoke out as did many others against putting the scores out.    I and many others were a bit skeptical of his degree of conviction given Michelle Rhee also spoke against release the information.  Was he genuine in his objections? Worth pondering.

Gates and his foundations are known for their heavy handed approach to advance efforts and reforms that he sees as a remedy the perceived ills of our profession and education as a whole.   So based on what he supports actually we disagree on just about everything else when it comes to education policy.  What is the difference between someone with billions of dollars like Gates and someone who makes less than $50,000 a year in terms of their awareness of education like me?  Besides my amazing singing voice and skill with a fishing rod I have a firm grasp on what is happening in our schools.  If you don't believe me contrast some of what Gates says with some of the information released from the VDOE.  There's more to most stories than what you hear from the loudest people talking. 


Gates at the TED conference works to answer among
other things "How You Make a Great Teacher?"

Gates is not all bad.  He has saved more lives than I ever will and I admire his dedication to doing what he believes is good.  But he comes from a world where software glitches are remedied by patches and working hard to debug programs.  For each problem there is a practical and tangible solution derived from effort and re-invention.  It is natural he applies this model to education.  In his mind we are failing.  He is wrong.  In his mind bad teachers are responsible.  He is wrong.  Our profession is not immune from individuals who do not do their job well but simply "culling the herd" will do little to help where and how students need it.  It will likely accomplish the opposite.  Still the ratings measures and software systems pour from the minds of economists, statisticians, software engineers and other worlds who are curiously not involved directly with education. Are they really designed to improve education?  Worth pondering again.  More importantly what unintended consequences will these steps generate.  Consider the tangible example shared by Gates of having students log on and access great teaching.  On paper it sounds good.  For the average kid it is a bit shortsighted and noticeably unrealistic.  Worth pondering.  

In Gates' mind we can test away our problems and use the data it provides to guide or way.  That would put us back to the top of international comparisons. You guessed it, wrong again.  Now going 0 for 3 in baseball is not a huge deal but when you are a billionaire who has a firm grip of the keys to the reform agenda and the ear of every politician, we've got problems.  It has become difficult for the citizens of this nation to make informed decisions about our education system in our the current climate due to the negativity that has been aimed squarely at our schools.  It is hard to find good balanced reporting that paints a holistic picture of where we are educationally and why.  Maybe that's why the TU likes Jon Stewart so much.

Evidence Gates is moving away from his Charter support? What's next?

Gates correctly suggests that good teachers make a difference.  But instead of working with them to strengthen our profession, he slaps us with some labels and walks away.  He references the "Top Quartile Teachers" and admits that the way to measure variation with teachers is "based on test scores."  Gates and those at his megawealthy(yes that is a word) and influential philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation think it is data that will lead us to the promised land of learning where we apparently once stood as a nation.  They have advocated for charters, privatization and multiple measures which seem contrary to free and appropriate public school.  They argue the result will be a more learned population, better workers, international strength, restored prosperity...all that good stuff.  I'll admit education is key to the success of our students and our nation. 

What Gates either won't admit or doesn't realize is the path and measures he supports will attempt pave the road to improvement with the careers and enthusiasm of once good but now demoralized teachers.   Ultimately dooming any such approach to failure.   Education develops people not computers.  It is not a business.   Methods advocated by Gates will irrevocably alter how kids approach learning and not in a good way.   It will undermine quality public education and simply define us as improved numerically.  What makes things worse is Gates is quickly becoming the prophet to many like-minded school reformers and their 8 fold path is heavily laden with testing, value added measurements, elimination of job security, and numerous other things which few classroom educators can support.  Ask yourself this: If we all want the same thing(improvement) then why is that reformers calling for such measures do not typically inhabit classrooms?

Do I sound scared. I am.  I am fearful of what they are turning our profession into.   I fear my own children will face a diminished quality of schooling based on a narrowing focus.   The job and system I have labored in for more than a decade is being threatened by ill conceived legislation, short sighted leadership and profit driven corporations intent on getting their share of the tax income. Finally an utter inability to separate good ideas from bad makes people in the know very nervous.  The current path cannot coexist with quality public education as we know.  So the lines are drawn.

It's clear which side the TU stands on this and other similar issues.  You cannot simply make a great teacher.  You can make someone better and find ways to help them improve their professional practice.  Efforts to do so should not pit teachers against each other and must not be devoid of sound human judgement.    Beware attempts to use metrics to judge people.

I enjoyed the part of the video where Bill Gates plays Oprah and hands out free books. The response from those in attendance is lukewarm  at best and the applause are noticeably timid.  Maybe they wanted cars?

What if we spent testing funds on smaller classes?

Great teachers to me are like wizards or magicians.  Trying to "can" what they do and replicate it on scale is futile.  To be honest much of what keeps me from being better is simple.  What is missing is TIME.  I do not have the time to accomplish what I want to , and increasingly I do not have time to accomplish what I need to.    Why?  In part because of the measures stemming from efforts to make teachers great.

I'll close with simple advice to any education reformer who sees it differently.  When your work gets tough and you feel uncertain of what exactly you are working towards.  Stop.  Take two weeks off and don't even think about things related to school reform during that time.  Then quit and go find some other institution and profession to destroy besides education.  Those of us who are working in schools will reform ourselves just fine.

Fixing Education

“Either fix our schools or get used to failure”

News stands across the country will feature that statement top and center on the November 14 edition of Time magazine this week. To accompany the piece, its author, Fareed Zakaria, hosted a CNN GPS special “Fixing Education” on Sunday evening. In a sick economy, I suppose that another attack on education sells magazines and draws ratings at least, and lessens the economic downturn for someone. Of course in this case, that might be just fine. It turns out that the author has found the magic bullet for building an excellent system of education and turning the American economy around. Quite profound actually, here is the solution:

“work harder and get better teachers”

Why didn’t anyone think of that already? Well, according to the author the answer is very clear. Half of American teachers graduated in the bottom third of their college class. I guess there aren’t enough smart people in education to figure out the “work hard and get better teachers” formula. Mr. Zakaria arrived at this articulate solution to the education problem by looking overseas toward nations that seem to get education right.

He first points to South Korea. American school children spend less time in school than in South Korea (and many other Asian nations.) He uses the 10,000 hour rule described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” as proof-- 10,000 hours engaged in a task for one's skill set to reach 'expert' status. In a stroke of genius, he suggests that if American students just spent more time in school, we would see dramatic improvements in the system.

The second “global lesson” comes from Finland. These sneaky Scandinavians managed to stay under our radar while they built an education empire by selectively hiring the best and brightest as teachers. On top of that, they pay them well and treat them with the same professional respect as doctors and lawyers. They emphasize creative work and shun tests for most of the year according to Zakaria. That’s the second variable in our formula for excellent schools—find better teachers.

This article is so ground-breaking, its impact could spark a revolution. Why stop at education. Imagine the possibilities if this model were applied to other professions. The NFL- if we just find the best coaches and make them practice longer with the team we’ll win the super bowl every year. Investments- if we just find the best and smartest portfolio managers and make them work long hours we’ll get the best returns. Retail- if we just hire the best salespeople and have them put in lots of hours, our profits will skyrocket. Or what about industry- if we just hire the most productive workers and increase their hours, our profits will hit the roof. Maybe our government could even function better if we would just elect the best officials and make them spend more time in session.

I doubt I’ve been too successful in my attempt at humor, but honestly, this article had quite the opposite effect of making me laugh.

Further Reading on the burden
of schooling many children face.



Let’s look first at time. Most American school children spend thirteen years in school, one-hundred eighty days a year, at least six hours a day. Over 14,000 hours in class (not counting homework). This far surpasses the 10,000 hour rule. Personally, my children are involved in athletics that probably account for between 3-5 hours per week averaged over the year. My middle school son just began a weekly commitment to Destination Imagination and I’m sure that as he and my elementary aged daughter get older, their athletic and extra-curricular involvement will increase. They also have church related commitments that equal 3-5 hours a week. My family values each of these commitments as much as education and I don’t expect my children’s “earning potential” to suffer because they don’t spend enough time in school. I would actually think that my children would suffer from requirements that they spend additional time in school beyond what is currently required.

Then what about these “exceptional teachers.” In other contexts, just take sports for example, an exceptional athlete may never reach their potential until placed in the proper situation. Teaching doesn’t take place in a bubble. Current systems for measuring teacher quality focus almost entirely on how well they affect student achievement on standardized tests. Looking to Finland without addressing the fact that children in Finland are taken care of in a near socialist fashion fails to recognize that the highly qualified teachers of the nation are dealing with students who are highly prepared for school by a government system that fully addresses issues of poverty, health care, and safety that are left to the schools to deal with in the United States. In the United States, we’re labeling effective teachers by student test scores. In Finland, they are labeling effective teachers by their training and efforts.

Putting the two together, Zakaria interviewed Bill Gates for the article and news special. Gates and others assert that experience doesn’t have an impact on teacher quality. It would seem that if Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule was so strict, a teacher would have to practice for ten years before making it to “expert” status.

Mr. Zakaria, I appreciate that you are concerned about the public education system in the United States, but I worry that articles and news broadcasts such as yours do more damage than good. You have limited exposure to the reality of day-to-day education in the United States and your simplistic view of what we can do to fix it reveals the danger of the “arm-chair” administrator to our system.

I teach in a school district with average SAT scores of 556/554/544 (Reading/Math/Verbal). Eighty-Three percent of our graduates pursue higher education. Ninety-three percent of our students graduate on time. The College Board recently recognized us for efforts at increasing access to the AP curriculum while increasing the percentage of students scoring a three or higher on the exams. (81%) Of those, I taught AP to nearly 150 students last year with 90% scoring a three or higher. As an individual teacher and a district, we're doing pretty well.  We also recognize that status quo is not an option and consistently work to improve our effort on behalf of students.

The constant fixation on aggregate numbers paired with stories of great success and great failure at the expense of the commonplace paints an entirely unrealistic picture of what goes on in our nation’s schools every day. It also creates an unnecessary urgency for uniform dramatic change that will kill the success of systems such as mine while attempting to fix the problem of underperforming urban districts. The tagline on the cover of Time—fix our schools or get used to failure—unfairly labels a school such as mine, already demonstrating success and consistently moving toward improvement, as a problem. Instead of recognizing our efforts, we’re scapegoated as the primary obstacle to our nation’s recovery from an economic crisis.

Thanks for the quick fix, we’ll get started on it tomorrow and tell you how it goes. Unless of course you’d like to open real dialogue and acknowledge the diversity of the education systems in the United States and figure out how we target the areas that are failing, develop innovative solutions to consistent problems, and sustain and nurture the systems and teachers who continue to effectively prepare the next generation for a productive life in a global society.

Paying Attention to the School

As the "War on Our Schools" wages on the body blows are starting to take their toll. I try to avoid buying into the idea that someone is out to get us, but my ribs are pretty sore. Almost daily I have a conversation with a colleague whose ribs feel much the same. Certainly I can dismiss some of the concerns as alarmist or just complaining, but they have become so frequent that they are tough to ignore. Many good teachers are starting to leave. I'm a little worried that the current economic climate overshadows this and covers it up so no one notices. Is anyone paying attention?

As our nation looks in the mirror and asks itself some pretty important questions about the future one of those is what should our schools look like? I ask that with my knowledge as a teacher who just tries to get a little better each year. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I am not. I try to do the job I would want done for my own children. But that feels like it keeps getting harder and this is a reflection of a system that I think is not getting better each year despite flurried reform. To the person not working in the schools they hear political rhetoric calling for reform and improvement and generally welcome the idea. These seem innocuous enough and garner sufficient support to move forward or are introduced quietly enough to go unnoticed. These reforms are creating a system that drains resources from actual instruction and are impossible to maintain. They march forward unopposed until they reach the schoolhouse. By the time we at the ground level confront what their effect is on student learning and our teaching it is too late to stem the tide. Its like when a boxer plans to come on in the late rounds but the body blows took us out before we could do much about it.

Granting the point that education has problems and we need to work hard to improve and make some changes allow me to pose another question to that mirror. What if the decisions being made are wrong? Value Added, Race to the Top, International Comparisons, the list goes on. Arne Duncan(yes picking on him) and others might be doing something that no one is asking for, at least publicly. Destroying our Public Education system as we know it. Don't believe me? You're not alone. I think that our schools should be viewed as too big to fail and there are countless teachers that say current decisions are steering us in that direction. But no one is paying attention. There is a big difference between not serving all kids as we should and not serving any kids as we should.

Ask this of top reformers and see what they respond: What have your policies done to improve our current state? Usually they'll just verbally dance around and try to appeal to their audience. What they won't say- we think we are spending too much on education, we don't support public schools, teachers are professionals, other factors affect learning, poor children have a tougher time keeping up and we should do something about poverty, standardized testing is unreliable, our teachers are overworked, rating tests are different from ranking tests, we don't know if this works, this is popular so that's why we are doing it.


So as changes are made and teachers are "consulted" it becomes increasingly difficult to tell if we are getting a seat at the table, or are on the menu. Either way the public better wake up and start paying attention before it is too late. Seems the only ones that really pay attention are those with kids in school. Smart leaders pay attention to feedback. I don't see much if any of that but instead see the political spin machines plucking and presenting a desired outcome of a change from all the information out there. It can be massaged to show what they want, not what is accurate. Aaron Pallas pointed this out when he did in fact pay attention to statements by former NYC chancellor Joe Klein. Click Here to read his response

Pay attention when private companies convince you they can do a better job with public tax dollars. Pay attention when Bill Gates, Oprah or some other billionaire gains influence over education policy solely because of their wealth(they seem to pay for attention). Pay attention when the politicians say their schools are failing but don't say specifically why or blame anyone or anything else in the community besides the school itself. Pay attention when school leaders start making claims about success based on their leadership. Pay attention when exhausted teachers leave the job citing shifts in what they are being asked to do. Pay attention when no one in the upper echelons of the educational establishment is willing to do anything except support the latest and greatest idea to come from the private sector. Pay attention when your child comes home and says their teachers complain about how testing affects them. Pay attention when your local school district makes a change driven by top down reform. Pay attention to anything labeled as "data driven decisions".

We as a nation simply need to do what we ask of our kids each day, pay attention.

Breaking the Public Schools

My colleague mentioned we are immersed in testing season...and to a teacher that imagery might more closely be associated with being water-boarded.  Watching your kids take one is awful...simply awful.  I am also passing through the busiest period of the tennis season and my coaching obligations, while very worthwhile, are quite extensive.  So below is assembled a hodgepodge of ideas I had recently that perhaps don't warrant their own post but I thought might be worth sharing via TU.


School Funding and Vouchers
One of the worst things we can do to education is continue the push to privatize it.  There is a role that for profit companies can play but when they get too big a piece of the pie they become like a dog fed at the table.  Once they get a taste of public funding they won't go away.  They become dependent on it and only want more.  Their presence is driven exclusively by one desire, to get what they want, profits.  In the case of schools it will come a very stable and reliable source, the government.  When profits are placed ahead of what's good for kids and schools, we've got trouble.  

As changes in funding continue to rattle the establishment things like vouchers come up.  I try to avoid discussing them as they tend to be a polarizing issue. I only ask that a few things be kept in mind.  They will not "fix" the schools we have.  Taking money from already underfunded schools(not necessarily where I work) is bad.  I've sat in private school classrooms and short of the the obvious they aren't a whole heck of a lot different from public school classrooms. But...those classrooms lie in schools that have the power to exclude kids and keep them out.  You want to fix public schools...give them that power.  Problems solved.  Wait .... what?    I would never actually suggest that.  I was a literary device called sarcasm and it illustrates how representing vouchers as the solution is way off base(that's a metaphor).

Vouchers are hard to nail down as they mean different things in different places. One of the few worthwhile efforts to figure out their impact came in Milwaukee where some smarterer folks than me looked at their impact(See the study summary here).  I only really remember one sentence as I perused it during an emotional episode of Deadliest Catch.  This was the sentence..."A full eight years after the school district expanded the voucher program, it is still not possible to measure whether voucher students in Milwaukee perform better or worse than their counterparts who remain in public schools."  Any questions?

Breaking the Teachers
What I am seeing is what I fear most.  This wave of reforms are getting rid of the good teachers not the so called "bad" ones.  High stakes testing doesn't reward the best teachers it frustrates them and drives them away.  Is the business model the best approach reformers on the outside can come up with?  What else should we expect when you have people who aren't really teachers making decisions.  While reading a recent article in The Daily Progress about how some Divisions Superintendents had approached the state about possible changes to Elementary SOLs, I was struck by a quote from Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia Wright. While leaning against the requests she stated "I am a teacher at heart … and I just find it hard to believe that teachers can't be creative and they can't teach enriched curriculum while at the same time making sure that students have basic knowledge and skills"

I harbor no ill-will towards Wright and she might even be correct on the issue above.  But the teacher at heart part stuck in my craw(For those taking the biology SOL the "craw" is in your gut near where you get side stitches and next to the gizzard).  I googled her and found she "served as chief deputy superintendent, acting superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent for instruction, director of secondary instruction, associate director of secondary instruction and state mathematics specialist."  So its evident her ascension is well earned.  But to me that simply meant she has not worked in a Public School in 26 years.  Let's see...early to mid 80s... I was in school in the same county where I teach and if you are unaware, they have changed a bit since.

I flash back to a local elementary community classroom that had no separation between rooms and might be linked to my short attention span.  What was I saying?   Oh yes, I can't remember what we learned but I do remember some things.  I recall among them finding out I'd be re-districted to a new middle school in the coming year and how that affected my grades, watching the solar eclipse...dispensing with the cardboard contraption we made in science class and using my naked eye at various points, playing soccer during lunch and the day they wheeled in the Apple II so we could learn "LOGO" programming language.  The landmark I.D.E.A had even been thought up yet.  Some say education was better then, some say better now, but both agree different.

But Wright's no dummy.  She's articulate, highly educated, well-informed, and most importantly well-intentioned.  Here's what she is not.  She is not a teacher.  I'm a teacher.  No one thinks quite like me.  I know my school and I know my kids.  Why then do people listen to those who aren't teachers before listening to teachers?  Makes about as much sense as staring at an eclipse without that stupid cardboard box device on your head(see post for real facts here).

Before coming to VDOE in 1985, Dr. Wright taught mathematics for 10 years at the secondary and middle school levels in Sussex County and Chesterfield County public school.  But she no longer thinks like me, a teacher.  Not at all.  I suspect she thinks more like a politician.  She has served as the Super for both Democratic and Republican Governors and no one, I mean no one, thinks like a teacher, unless they teach kids each day, every day. 

Privatizing Education-The Market
Some argue to improve education we should let the markets control the direction of policy and decisions.  That's exactly what we shouldn't let happen as the "market" can be a very de-stabilizing element.  If nothing else public schools are stable.  They are admittedly hard to change but the good thing is that stability should be seen like a rock solid retirement investment.  Should we let Wall Street drive the decisions that prepare our children as it did for the economy in the period leading up to the end of 2007, or with the dot-coms bubble, or the oil spike of the 80s and 90s, or in the 1920s(the list goes on)?  High Risk, high reward?  I'd hope not but I think we are a little late. For 10 years now things have been leaning more and more in that direction.  What's changed for the better? While public confidence in schools is seemingly at an all time low, scary to think how readily talk of competition and improvement echoes a financial firms commercials.  But how much more fragile would schools and our confidence in schools be if we let Wall Streets or Gates and Broad lead?  One year's decline in scores or a principal's departure might undermine confidence as it does the market's confidence following a news headline or singular event.  One thing I know is that while funding our schools may be been more challenging during these periods of economic volatility, we should not take risks and cede control to those with divided loyalties.

All that is required for these things to occur is that smart level headed people, perhaps like those of you reading this blog, to say and do nothing.  Before you scurry down to the registrar and sign up to run for school board, get more informed.  Get more active and at the least more vocal about the issues affecting our schools. Talk to teachers and avoid claims of being on their side and ask what they think.  Most of all make sure the positions and decisions you support will not break what isn't yet broken.  Too many people already fit that mold.

Fact-Flawed Policy

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts" - Daniel Patrick Moynihan   

That quote very much explains the flaws in current thinking and direction of Education Reform Policy.  Visit the link below and see how Richard Rothstein alludes to the fact that the most influential education policy figures today might be guilty of choosing their facts. 

http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/fact-challenged_policy/