Khaaaaaaaaan! Academy

Shatner is clearly not a fan.

The future of education involves technology.  No one disputes this.  Less certain is how that technology will and should be utilized.  If you are savvy enough to locate this post then you have most likely heard of Khan Academy.  If you haven't then you need to watch the 60 Minutes segment linked below.  Everybody who's anybody in education including Bill Gates and everyone in the media seem to be falling in love with the potential of what Khan academy might mean for the future of our schools.  I'm in love too.  I love the simplicity and usefulness of Khan's videos.  But as a Star Trek fan and teacher, I am wary since Khan was formerly managing hedge funds and also has ties to Bill Gates. I, like Captain Kirk, approach the unknown carefully.  I wish I could say it is because I am smart.  It's not. 


Khan's emergence is nothing short of amazing and it illustrates how the internet has redefined our world and access to knowledge.  When I watch some of his videos I get sort of hypnotized.  They are great.  His intellect shines through; even just hearing his voice and seeing his illustrations you realize how capable his mind actually is.  But they are videos.   A lot of folks seem to forget this. To describe them as better than lecture is like saying DVDs are better than VHS.   It is a logic that is hard to argue with I suppose.

The brilliant Sal Khan seems to best understand how to use this as a resource.  He stresses the non-profit approach and that to me is a profound fact.  The technology use is meant to free the teacher up to help kids.   These videos have tremendous potential to achieve quick concise conveyance of knowledge and empower teachers to do more.

Yet as the phrase "flipping the classroom" shows, there are potential issues with implementation.  Please forgive me and other teachers for pausing and thinking but we do so with cause.   Maybe we are wary of how powerful people are drooling over this approach to learning.  Resources such as Khan's are perceived by decision makers as more than they can possibly be.  Another latest greatest thing.   You hear the phrase "the future"...that alone makes me cringe a little.  What will be the implications of all this?  I couldn't pretend to know(actually I could but won't). 

Some issues that arise:
Should all students everywhere access the same uniform version of the same set of information?  Is that a good thing?  (I get annoyed I can't ask questions or get simple clarification.)   There are few if any teachers working to develop this stuff...from what I can tell.  Some cite the "gamification" of math skills as they work to earn "badges."  It'd be better to tie that into the reliance on standardized testing as a whole.  I could go on, but I am a busy man.  Google for yourself,  but as always be mindful of the source.  You can't trust everybody as you can trust the TU.

For now, all I know is that I have used Khan's videos with my students as well as for myself.  Maybe he could put all these videos on one of those new laserdisc or something?

How Much is Too Much?

Let's dismiss for a moment all the academic things schools do.  I suggest this since I admit readily that kids learn as much  (perhaps more) about life outside of my classroom as in it.  I strongly believe that the rich nature of the experiences that kids encounter in school best enables them to succeed and thrive.

But, that is not why schools exist.  Schools were created to teach our young people what society determines they need to know.  For better or worse, this is how students and teachers are measured.  If a kid does not "get" what they need, the school shares an increasing amount of the responsibility.

In recent years the pressure has grown to maximize what kids learn.  Few would argue with the idea that we should try to teach all kids more.  What sometimes goes unnoticed is the price paid for such efforts and uniformity and even volume.  NCLB was clearly motivated by efforts to better serve populations that were traditionally underserved in public schools.  But it turned into a monster that must be fed. 

It’s not as much about what is taught as it is about what is measured.  We grew so eager to measure what kids learn that we’ve made the measurement the point.  With so much additional focus on testing, something has to go to make room.  Trying to keep good, fun, quality learning becomes a greater challenge by the day.

So, something’s gotta give.  There is just not enough time.  We could go to school every day all year. The problem would still exist.  

 Time has come today

Young hearts can go their way

Can't put it off another day

I don't care what others say

They say we don't listen anyway

Time has come today

Those are prophetic words indeed.  I see the relationship of these words to education as we continue to fit more and more into a full glass.  The constant is not the length of the school day or calendar, it is the fact kids are people.  More accurately they are young people.  They need time for themselves.  They need to decompress.  They need downtime. 

Each year it seems we ratchet up the pressure on them to do more to the point where the phrase joyless childhood might even apply to some.  Though I think of Chinese schools first with this description, I hear more and more from anguished parents and students who are reaching the breaking point.   

Most conversations about time come back to the topic of how much time students spend on homework.  I am aware that homework now consumes a significant portion of my students’ lives.  They have trouble finding the proper balance.  For too many it amounts to spending too much or none.  I always laugh at how we now control their access to sugar, fried foods, websites and the like but don't seem to recognize or seek to help them choose an appropriate course workload.

So how much is too much?  With 9th graders it is among the most commonly asked question. 

Our division moved from a schedule of seven periods to eight periods two years ago.  Is this too much?  Who knows, but is certainly has become for a number of students.  Maintaining high standards and continuously increasing achievement with a greater volume of coursework conflicts with some basic notions:  We want kids to enjoy school so that they choose to participate, we want kids to develop a love of learning, we want kids to be kids and have the freedom to explore a diversity of opportunities outside of the school environment.

A recent article from the Atlantic puts a focus on how much this emphasis on quantity and volume of instruction might impact our children.

"Since about 1955 ... children's free play has been continually declining, at least partly because adults have exerted ever-increasing control over children's activities," says the author Peter Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology (emeritus) at Boston College.  

Even in the form of additional opportunities and offerings, educational requirements are adding to the ever-increasing adult control of children’s activities.

The article concludes by saying:  

   

When parents realize the major role that free play can take in the development of emotionally healthy children and adults, they may wish to reassess the priorities ruling their children's lives. 

Perhaps it is not only parents who need to reassess priorities.

  

This article on "Play" of all things helps keep things in perspective.  

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/10/all-work-and-no-play-why-your-kids-are-more-anxious-depressed/246422/

Ignorance... Indeed

I sat in a doctor's office recently and overheard a couple sitting nearby in conversation(bad manners I know but you pick up this skill being a teacher). The gentleman reading the paper commented something to the effect "these kids aren't being taught anything about this nation anymore...we are in trouble." I bit my tongue and resisted the temptation to counter his claim with mountains of data that I carry with me on a notecard(not really). When he was called back I picked up the paper he was reading and found the editorial he mentioned. Walter Williams' Op Ed was an indictment of many people on many levels and I started to understand why this fella said what he did.

Liberty 101 references the NAEP(National Assessment of Educational Progress). See how you do on the 4th grade civics questions. or the 12th grade ones. How'd it go? Well from what Williams presents it might seem all the kids in this nation are dummies. But it is Williams who fails in some respect when he carefully selects information to support his points. His opinion piece borders on misinformation and he shamefully tempts the reader to the same conclusions using slight of hand. Referencing some college professor from Stanford who uses unnamed sources then tossing in some unnamed "surveys" to prove we aren't doing a good job teaching our kids. The answers are bad but they are hanging there with absolutely no context. Maybe I'm on the lookout for criticism but this can't all be chalked up to what schools aren't teaching as the gentlemen in the waiting room insinuated. Nevermind the role parents must play in educating their kids about the fundamentals of our history and government.

Williams is an accomplished and distinguished professional. When I read his work and that of other keenly intellectual people I quickly feel like Forrest Gump. But that does not mean Forrest Gump or myself are ignorant.

I disagree with the conclusions he draws here and think this lack of balanced thinking on education is way too common, and not just in opinion pieces. It is a subject where each and every person basically has an opinion and qualifies at some level as an "expert". He loses me when he writes in part "The ignorance about our country is staggering. According to one survey, only 28 percent of students could identify the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Only 26 percent of students knew that the first 10 amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. Fewer than one-quarter of students knew that George Washington was the first president of the United States." Sounds bad right? But is it really that bad?

Pay attention because all that bad news is not from the NAEP, it's from some survey. If you don't have a life you can check out the ACTUAL RESULTS HERE from the NAEP. I didn't need to look them up cause they are on my notecard. For those that actually understood those results I should point out that notecard thing is a joke. Those charts and graphs didn't make much sense to me other than it appears there have been minimal changes in the last 12 years. My measure of what kids know comes from time spent getting to know them in the classroom. But seems like in today's world you can't convince someone of something unless you back it up with some sort of data. Data trumps good old fashioned common sense.

So here's some anecdotal data(I really like that phrase). Earlier in my career I had the chance to teach a few honors sections and before we met the kids a group of us gathered in the summer to read some essays they wrote the previous year. They were some of the worst things I ever read! I literally thought, "wow these kids are all dense.". That year as I got to know those individuals I realized they were some of the most brilliant kids I have ever met. Harvard, MIT, Rice, UVA, William and Mary among the top notch schools from which they have since graduated. But not all went to college or hold steady high paying jobs. The numbers collected from them don't tell their whole story as people. So going back I suspect that since this thing they wrote wasn't the all-important NAEP and didn't matter to them they didn't give much effort. Interesting to note that one change I have observed over the past decade is that the tests have become what is important to these kids. Their value as individuals is measured not by what they learn or know but by what they score. Kids have a funny way of stepping up when something is important to them. I think we need to make sure to stress the right things.

Sure ignorance is out there and schools combat it every day but older generations are never satisfied with the knowledge of the next. There are things every American should know and appreciate. There are roughly 50 million kids in our schools and a lot of them know what they should. Some of those kids don't and too many schools and kids are in trouble. DC, near where Williams works, makes the news a lot but there are some 75,000 kids in DC public schools total. Assessments and ideas based on experience there might not reflect the greater whole beyond the beltway. So yes, kids are kids and often by their very nature are ignorant of things we as adults just know. But sit down and talk to them for spell before calling 76% of them ignorant.

The piece descends towards the end and concludes Barack Obama's election is evidence of the "contempt for American values, civics and history". He and the other supposed "Marxists" he brought in. The only thing missing there was the call for the birth certificate. So Williams throws stones at the brainwashing educational establishment, the President, the media, the educational elite(obviously a group I know nothing about), High-School kids...did I miss anyone? Attacks aside I'll give Williams benefit of the doubt and assume he is asking for a return to pride and appreciation for our nation and the ideas it is predicated on. I think that sentiment might also be valuable if applied towards our schools. A little pride and support aimed at our schools right now would go a long way. I do sometimes ponder how curriculum requires me to teach my kids more about how people survived in Asia, Africa and Europe than in Early America or where we actually live. But I do teach primarily Ancient World History. In no way in my efforts to destroy ignorance towards the rest of the world do I de-emphasize the importance of this great nation. Quite the contrary.

To jump this far suggests a serious lack of judgment. To learn about the world might somehow fuel fears of Williams' and others who perhaps see globalization as the end of American sovereignty and influence. If I was writing this article I might lean towards a greater focus on the economic factors influencing this and the role of multinational corporations. Easy for me to say as this has taken a dramatic toll on many in our nation as jobs and business have globalized their way over to where people are paid far less in an effort to reduce cost. Is this the fault of the schools? Too many including Williams(an economics professor) have narrowed the role of schools as a mere vehicle to train future employees and empower them with the necessary skills to operate in the world and keep our country strong. To me the highly centralized system that we are moving towards where a shrinking number of people control policy has echoes of the old Soviet system. If all we do is continue to toss out facts and figures out about how bad we are doing and how ignorant our kids are...we are in trouble.

So maybe that man in the doctor's office was actually the one who was ignorant, not the kids. He fell victim to Williams' dimly lit view of our kids, our teachers and a more balanced view of what is really going on. I see people every day who suffer from a lack of knowledge, education and awareness. We must remember we can only battle ignorance by avoiding ignorance ourselves.

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.

Creativity and World Peace in Fourth Grade

I teach in the same school district as John Hunter, but I won't pretend to name drop, I have never met him so I can't pretend that we are any sort of colleague aside from shared geography and profession.  A documentary film (created by Charlottesville local, Chris Farina) features Mr. Hunter and a unique learning experience he created.  The film is titled World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements.  I have not had a chance yet to view the film, but Mr. Hunter recently addressed the TED Conference in California and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.  I've embedded the video of his talk below, it is around twenty minutes long, but definitely worth the time.

This film and the creative work of John Hunter continues to draw praise from an increasingly wider audience.  Both the specific content and method of the game and the educational philosophy communicated by Mr. Hunter in his various appearances resonate with a variety of audiences; the public seems to really get him, and understand the value of his approach to education.  I would almost venture to say that most people (myself included) would identify him as an asset to public education and a quality teacher.  One only has to read the myriad comments that abound on the internet to conclude that he has made an impression.

Yet this impression comes without any reference to student performance or outcomes.  Our nation seems willing to judge positively this individual teacher based on the creation and implementation of a single (yet substantial) learning experience, statements about his educational philosophy, and observation of his classroom performance.  How is this not good enough for the rest of us?  In an era where teacher effectiveness is measured by student performance and proposals for teacher merit-pay are based on student achievement, we are willing to label Mr. Hunter an excellent teacher without any such evidence.

I believe I know the answer.  In this case, we meet an individual who interacts daily and pours his life into young minds.  We are not considering a massive pool of public employees expected to do a job.  We get a chance to hear the voice behind the instructional decisions and the intentions and motives that drive them.  We are not listening to a filtered mouth-piece trying to synthesize the diverse minds that collectively educate our young.  And finally, we're introduced to students and care about what type of people they grow into instead of worrying about what kind of data-points they're creating for evaluating teachers or schools.

Ultimately, the public is able to see the wonder of human interaction that can take place when adults who care about the future of our children meaningfully engage with them in individual classrooms across the nation.  Peeking through this window of the open classroom and witnessing real education transpire melts away the false illusion that somehow the quality of this experience can be captured and measured through simplistic mass-produced and mass-scored assessement.  World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements has opened that window.  I hope that the American public will take the opportunity to peek inside and recognize this illusion.

Hear what John Hunter has to say and let us know if you agree. (or don't)

Measuring Value

Last week, my son had the pleasure of taking his fifth grade writing SOL (standards of Learning) test. He spent a little time worrying about the writing section the night before and I tried to comfort him by saying “writing is a genetic thing; this should be a breeze for you.” He replied by saying, “what if I take after mom?”

I really wanted to tell him not to worry because in reality his score on this test means nothing whatsoever to him or his future; there is no consequence for failure, at least for my son. This is troubling, because there are serious consequences for his school and teachers if pass rates are not adequate. Imagine that, a system that holds teachers and schools accountable on a metric that means nothing to a student.

I grow more disappointed in the education of my children as I witness the focus on math and language arts instruction increasing to the detriment of other subjects. My fifth grade son spends nearly as many hours per week in school on math and language arts as he does on every other activity combined, including lunch. He attends an excellent school and his teachers are exceptional, but this is the result of flawed educational policy. With accreditation depending on student performance in these two areas, schools have little choice but narrow their focus on these subjects until they are certain their students (who are not accountable for the outcome) will earn a passing score.

This will only get worse when the state of Virginia jumps on the “value-added” bandwagon and representatives in Richmond consider “growth-model” legislation tying teacher evaluations to student standardized testing results.

In our race for accountability to guarantee qualified teachers and quality schools, we have made a terrible mistake:

We have begun to value what is easily measured and we’ve stopped measuring what is valuable!

Several years ago, I dropped my son off at school and watched his P.E. teacher assist him out of the car and into the building. In those few seconds, I learned perhaps the greatest teaching lesson of my career. When I leave my children at the schoolhouse door, more than anything else in the world I want them to be surrounded by loving, nurturing adults who I can trust to have their best interests at heart.

I do not want my son’s fifth grade teacher to earn an evaluation of exceptional or adequate because his standardized math test grades increased two points from last year to this year. I do not want my daughter's third grade teacher deemed unsatisfactory because her students did not manage to show growth on the standardized language arts testing over second grade. I want to commend them for making my children enjoy learning and encouraging them to take their lessons out of the classroom and into their world.

Let’s stop valuing what is easily measured and do the hard work of measuring what is truly valuable for our children.

How to Not Be a Terrible Teacher

OK so that title apparently got your attention. The picture helps as well(this is too easy). In that sense we at the Underground are as traffic hungry as some media outlets but much more ethical in our quest to attract readers. Since you were unfortunate enough to find your way here you might as well read a bit.

When I was new to the job I should have been let go. In fact, I was...three separate times, when I received my reduction in force letter(RIF). For reasons I still cannot fully explain I kept coming back for more and was rehired each August. During that time a more experienced teacher once said to me "Get better or get out." OK...I made that line up but I wish someone had said it. Because that's kinda how I feel today. Despite what seems a coordinated and organized effort to demoralize America's teachers we stick around. And despite what you hear, many of the problems in our schools can't be just written off to "bad" teachers. Certainly a nebulous and political charged label in today's climate. The "good" teachers, the people I respect the most at my school, share a common trait, a continual desire to improve things and do better. So how does one go from surviving as a new teacher to really growing as a professional? Admitting I have much growing left to do, this is not a discussion of the growth-model value-added data driven edujargon reform currently proposed and supported by individuals who will never ask about what I have learned in teaching. Take it or leave it, here's some advice:

PERSONALITY MATTERS-A great deal of research tries to point out that in fact anyone can be a good teacher...and at least in principle I agree. I also believe strongly that as in any profession, when you expand the pool of people you hire, you also acquire those less able to perform. Like most places of employment, we've got those that work hard and make things better, and well, then we've got those that don't. One factor in that is personality. Teaching high school is unique. In how many other jobs do you interact with a hundred or more people(ones you see regularly) in more than just a minimal way? There are a few that come to mind and with them I know personality matters. Many other jobs involve very limited and simple interactions. In teaching you engage with many more folks in greater depth.

STEAL-The old re-inventing the wheel line still applies. While flashy PowerPoints and technology integration contribute, in most subjects it is still about content and basic lesson. White boards and markers work as well as a Promethean board. Why can't people get that? The digital age has ushered in many changes and as schools go 1 to 1with computers, I hope people recognize how that could potentially complicate what might otherwise be simple. Computers are great, until they start designing and building themselves. Yikes. I digress. Older teachers have more stuff, so steal from them! Resources, ideas, unit plans, etc. I did in fact have a more experienced teacher once tell me "teaching is sharing". That stuck with me. Remember to give and take.

KIDS BEFORE CONTENT- Remember you are teaching people, connect to them and make them matter. You never know when something you say can change the direction of a day or even a life. Smiley faces, positive comments, casual conversation before class all help create connections. Think about their lives and reach out(not on facebook), maybe even try to make their experience a positive one....

ARRIVE EARLY, LEAVE LATE-This is pretty much the norm but you need to put in the legwork to succeed. Yeah your family and relationship will suffer but hey you are a teacher...stop complaining. No one one in a position to do anything about it seems to care.

DO SOMETHING BESIDES SITTING IN THE CLASSROOM-Find other ways to get involved, sponsor stuff, coach, stand in the hall, volunteer. Speaking and Interacting with kids in a different setting can be as rewarding as anything else you do.

FIGURE OUT WAYS TO DO SOMETHING BETTER-Reflect and do things better in the future. You don't need data to accomplish this. I know for a fact that my 1st period classes might get short changed because it is the first time I attempt to do stuff. When 4th period rolls around my delivery is polished and fluid. I've worked out the kinks. Practice makes perfect.

ASK KIDS FOR FEEDBACK-They are brutally honest. If they all say you stink. You probably do. Consider appealing to their interests and changing up to something that works.

INVOLVE PARENTS-Parents are your best ally or worst enemy and sometimes both. Which would you prefer? E-mail updates about the class can go a long way in helping people feel connected. Include what the class has been doing, upcoming assignments and even some info about the school as a whole. It only takes a few minutes I get more thanks for this than just about anything else.

SOMETIMES YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PUNT-Don't be scared to use a movie once in a while. Use that time to grade or get ready. Just be sure you make the movie useful and relevant or the kids will see right through the effort. Another way of saying this is some teachers make the mistake of feeling like they need to be up in front "teaching" for things to get done. Mix it up.

RED DOTS MEAN SOMETHING-Grading is not always a science and there isn't a rubric for everything. When listening to a song you know within the first 10 secs whether something is good and student responses can be much the same. Once you realize its good...Use red dots. Provide the needed feedback and move on. Example: 1 essay x 140 students x 5 mins each essay = 11+ hours of grading. Good luck with that.

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS-You may work really hard and still not be any good. Welcome aboard!

TREAT STUDENTS LIKE THEY ARE YOUR KIDS-They are the most precious thing in the world to someone. Most young teachers don't yet have kids. Imagine entrusting your kid to someone else you barely know. You have to live up to that responsibility

BE A LEADER-Schools need competent, concerned and involved people or all the those that bash our schools will be proven right.

STAY MOTIVATED BY MOTIVATING OTHERS-There are few professions where each and every day so many depend on you. No you are not a pilot, nurse, surgeon, soldier or saint. But you are important. Find ways to make that mean something each and every day. Easier said than done. But fear not, for now most systems still have this thing called summer. :) Then you can just call your friends and gloat.

AVOID BURNOUT-Worry about and focus on one of the few things you can actually "control", your classroom, Don't worry about all the other stuff. If it deals with education don't watch too much news, read too much of the paper, attend too many meetings or read too many blogs(except this one).

In appreciation for our low morale we at the Teacher Underground are considering a series of posts to lighten the mood.

In the meantime share some of the tips those of you out there have picked up?

Why Data-Informed Trumps Data-Driven

Plot, characters, and setting, the three primary qualities of a story; but imagine a story with only a setting. Well, you no longer have a story, we call that a painting. Data-driven decision-making runs the risk of turning one element of effective education into the primary element and in the process, turning beautiful stories of educational success into static pictures of moments in time.

Data is the setting in our story of education. Within this setting, the characters (students, teachers, parents, etc.) create the plot in their daily interactions. To call for an end to “data-driven decision-making” is sure to raise a few eyebrows. Data is the constant, the solid ground; data takes the guesswork out of what we do. However, focusing on the data to the exclusion of all other elements of our story does not advance the cause of effective education for our students.

Data-Driven Decision-Making Kills Crickets!

“Diana Virgo, a math teacher at the Loudoun Academy of Science in Virginia, gives students a more real-world experience with functions. She brings in a bunch of chirping crickets into the classroom and poses a question:” So begins a story related in the book “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath. They applaud the teacher for providing a concrete lesson to understand the notion of a mathematical “function.”

I learned a different lesson altogether from this story. After gathering all the data relating to chirp rates and temperature, the students plug the information into a software package and--- AHA! The hotter it is, the faster crickets chirp and even better, IT’S PREDICTABLE! Now students have a concrete example of what a function is and what it does. Next comes the point where the story grabs me. The Heath brothers mention (in parenthesis no less, even calling it a side note, as if this isn’t the main point) that “Virgo also warns her students that human judgment is always indispensible.” For example, if you plug the temperature 1000 degrees into the function, you will discover that crickets chirp really fast when it is that hot.

The moral of the story is this: Data-driven decision-making kills crickets!

Unfortunately, it can also kill good instruction. Recently while attending a district-wide work-session on Professional Learning Communities, a nationally recognized consultant suggested reasons why teachers at a small middle school without colleagues in the same subject should collaborate with teachers from other schools in the same subject. He suggested that when these inter-school teams see that one teacher has better data in a given area, the others could learn what that teacher is doing to get such good results.

I’m not against this type of collaboration, but could it be possible that a teacher from one school whose student testing results (data) are not so good is still better than a teacher in a different school with excellent data? For example, might the data at school A look better than school B because students are getting better support at home. Perhaps school B spends more time making sure students are fed and clothed before concentrating on the job of instruction. What if school A has stronger leadership and teacher performance reflects teacher moral, support, or professional development?

Teachers must collaborate and share stories relating to instruction that works, but if student test-data is the only metric used to evaluate effectiveness we are essentially determining that crickets chirp very fast at 1000 degrees. There is a better choice than “data-driven.” Next week I’ll share my thoughts on this alternative and together we can strive to “save the crickets.”

Follow-up Post: Why Data-Informed Trumps Data-Driven

Education Reform Lessons from Egypt

History teachers live for a time like this.  The "Jasmine Revolution" blooms.  Following popular demonstrations and protests in Tunisia, the news of Egypt has captured the world, and we wait to see what will happen in Yemen, Algeria, and Jordan.  Remember 1989, across Europe, oppressive governments crumbled and the world changed seemingly overnight.  I wonder if the world is about to change again.

Across the nation, people are calling for a revolution in the way we do education even if they stop short of using the word revolution.  Many people are taking the opportunity in light of the recent resignation of Hosni Mubarak to point out that Egypt has achieved the beginning of democratic reforms in just eighteen days, contrasted with sustained efforts to create democratic reforms in other countries in the world despite millions of dollars and years of effort.  Are there lessons from these developments that could serve our quest to lead improvements in education?

First, the "social media" impact on the Egyptian protests may be overstated, but clearly, openness and communication were vital in the spread of ideas and the linking of like-minded individuals able to make a difference in the nation.  Social media didn't spark this revolution, but it certainly facilitated.  Some of the primary work needed to facilitate revolution in education will occur when teachers become more connected and find ways to effectively spread their ideas; more than just "lessons that work" but deep ideas on how we educate our students.  That is part of the inspiration for this blog, and the reason we try to encourage comments and feedback from readers.

Second, in the media we are hearing many comparisons with efforts at democratic reform in Iraq to the popular movements underway int the middle east.  Whether one agrees or disagrees with U.S. involvement in Iraq, the shift toward democracy has been long, expensive, and difficult.  In Iraq, the democratic reform has the appearance of coming from the top down, or perhaps even imposed rather than grown.  Imposed reform is not organic.  It is too disconnected from the reality of the people.  When I cast my vote for legislators in Washington to represent my interests, the reality on the ground in a nation thousands of miles away is vastly different.  The gulf between classroom reality and the thoughtful minds of those who believe they have the ideas to reform has grown too deep.

From WikiLeaks to the Jasmine Revolution, the lesson of the 21st century is becoming increasingly clear.  Meaningful change and reform is no longer vertical.  Thomas Friedman noted that "The World is Flat."  The longer this fact is resisted in education the longer it will take for our American education system to move out of the 20th century.

Image: http://images.wikia.com/simpsons/images/c/c9/OrigianlChalkboardS1E06.png

Innovation in Education: The Missing Link

I predict that “innovation” will soon become the newest addition to the famous Lake Superior State U list of “Banished Words.”  So confident that I just submitted it on their website and I encourage you to as well.  I do not oppose the idea, indeed I embrace it, but I think we’ve exhausted the word's usefulness to our lexicon.

Despite my misgivings, I must use the word here to describe why in education, true innovation is so rare.  A recent TED Talk by TED Curator, Chris Anderson helped me gain a better appreciation for innovation and led me to think about why this sort of innovation is so elusive in the world of education.

Anderson coined the phrase “crowd accelerated innovation,” but in his talk he argues that innovation has always been a group process.  The difference today lies in the internet’s ability to ramp up the group process to a level never before achieved.  So for Anderson, innovation requires three elements—a crowd, light, and desire.  The crowd is a community of individuals with a shared interest or purpose.  Light refers to the need for each member of the community to be visible, to see what every other member is up to.  Finally, without desire, no motivation exists for creativity or moving forward rather than taking satisfaction in the status quo.

On the surface, all of these elements appear to be in place within the world of education.  We have no shortage of community, countless parents, teachers, administrators, and even business leaders are committed to elevating the level of education in the community and the nation.  A ready supply of desire exists few causes more noble than preparing young minds to reach their full potential in life.  I contend that light is the missing link in true innovation of our profession.

Light requires individual connection and the visibility of all members of the crowd.  We have a façade of light in the world of education, but we still lack the true connection and visibility required for effective innovation.  In Anderson’s talk he gives several examples of how internet video has sped innovation in several areas. 

One example refers to a Unicyclist.  Today, a unicyclist may watch his or her community of cyclists perform various tricks and stunts on YouTube.  Rather than passively watching, the cyclist may then take the ideas seen in the video, practice them, make them better, then share the innovation with the community where other cyclists may repeat the pattern, thus accelerating the rate of innovation among Unicyclists worldwide. 

A more sober example refers to scientific procedures caught on video which serve to make replication of such procedures easier and more accurate versus the traditional method of pouring through pages of text and making assumptions in order to confirm scientific findings.

In both cases, the practitioners of the discipline openly share their ideas and practices with the community.  This open sharing facilitates crowdsourcing as everyone in the community is now free to take these ideas, shape them into something new, and share the results back to the community.

So what’s stopping this from happening in education.  First is the drive toward standardization.  We have standardized tests from common standards leading to a common curriculum.  The myth that arises from this is that we can have standardized instruction.  With other types of innovation, the crowd is free to adopt what works, adapt it to their situation, and share successes or failures.  The more we expect standardized instruction from teachers, the less freedom they will enjoy to experiment with what works and what doesn't in their classrooms. 

We bemoan the effect of teaching silos, but when innovation is more top down than lateral, innovation is not really innovation.  It is a manager with an idea expecting his or her employees to make it work.  Teachers do have opportunities to avail themselves of each others expertise in order to benefit from crowd accelerated innovation, but it gets harder by the day.

Time has become a great issue.  Under the auspices of economy, teacher workloads have increased across the nation.  I suspect though that economy is the scapegoat for this action.  Political and educational leaders alike pay lip service to teachers with general statements about their hard work and ability, but their policies and agendas treat them more like assembly line workers than artists.  School districts must provide teachers with the space for reflection and innovation rather than working them non-stop while expecting others outside of the classroom to be the innovation minded.

Just in the last three days, I've been able to watch my fifth grade son engage with his classmates on "Edmodo."  At lunch I shared the story with a colleague.  By the end of the day he was showing me how he had begun to integrate it into one of his electives and the useful features that I hadn't even noticed while watching my son work.  While showing me this, I talked about some ways that I had been using my blog to supplement some of our class activities and he explained how certain features were more suited to the "wiki" spaces that he had set up for another project.  Later, over this weekend I showed my wife how to create a Prezi presentation for a grad school project.  I got the idea when another teacher sent several links to resources that she had used successfully in her US Government classes.

All of this took place with no more than one hour of interaction at the most.  I would love to take all of these resources-- the blog, edmodo, wikispaces, and prezi-- for the next month and really integrate them into instruction to find out what works, what doesn't, and what is worth pushing on to my colleagues as we collaboratively engage in the process of innovation.  As a teacher, I will take all of the isolated minutes that I can scrap to engage in the collaborative process of innovation.  I would ask from the public, politicians, and especially the educational leaders who directly make decisions to protect this space for classroom teachers, and facilitate innovation in education by allowing us to become a greater part of this process.

Images: 

http://www.cooltownstudios.com/images/crowdsourcing-cartoon.jpg
http://www.extremeunicycles.com/Unicycles.jpg

Teacher Quality, No Easy Solution.

In his State of the Union Speech on Tuesday President Obama said the following: "If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money.” I like the idea of money but am not solely driven by it. I chose to be a teacher after all. Education reform seems increasingly motivated by the idea that incentives will improve teaching and ultimately student performance. The logic goes if you pay teachers based on how their kids do, teaching and learning will improve. Perhaps they will...but I have my doubts.

One frightening prospect educators are facing in my state is the implementation of the "growth model" for teacher evaluation(more frightening than the included graphic which is meant to clarify the plan). It really is not that innovative and that's what concerns me. This is presented by policymakers as a simple way to judge teachers and implement merit pay and it is hard to argue against.  It even sounds good. But beware the obvious or easy solutions in education. This model looks at student achievement between grades and measures growth rather than looking only at whether a student is proficient on certain standards. ( See Developing a Growth Measure in Virginia ) If your students do better, you get paid more.

This effort to evaluate and reward teachers oversimplifies what we do. To attempt to implement a fair system is almost impossible and all those involved should face this reality instead of doing something for the sake of doing something. UVA Psychologist Daniel Willingham briefly explains this here. So besides not being fair I am also concerned about this reliance on a single indicator.

Public perception of these tests and the perceptions by those who deal directly with them might differ more than just a little. I spent the last 48 hours questioning the validity of my recent SOL results. It has in fact made me rethink whether I should trust these tests at all. It is after all only 1 test. As a tennis coach if I made decisions about my roster solely on how fast athletes were or whether they had a good serve some of the most successful tennis players I coached would never have made the team. Further, some players on my team might not have improved but instead gained a great deal more from competing. Why can't we see similar flaws with high stakes testing? Education seems one of the few places this is acceptable.

Much good has come from the SOLs my state uses but the impact on the school and classroom is not all good. Yes we are accountable but now we may focus too much on these tests. Schools often consume vast resources to just to give these tests. We teach to them, develop remediation plans, give thousands at each school, bring in extra staff, reshape our schedule, all for these tests. Right after the results come back schools shift gears into remediation mode in the name of meeting AYP. We might get these kids past the test but are we really serving them long term? Some research suggests simply taking the test again might yield the desired outcome and that perhaps remediation might not be as worthwhile. Too bad in my subject area they have only released 1 test. SOLS are good but should only be part of any plans for improvement.

Kids should be tested and held accountable. I think a better measure of accountability is called a grade. A more global measure of achievement, knowledge, skills, and effort. I reflect often on whether my grades are valid and SOLs in fact have helped with this. But grades rarely even come up when talking about my class and my evaluation. Talk is about SOL results and what I am doing to improve them. Actually it would be fair to say all schools worry about is pass rate. So in theory a teacher's class average could fall but they have fewer kids fail and they would be seen as a success. So SOL results should only be one part of the way we measure and evaluate teachers.

Teacher quality in my opinion(and some research agrees) is probably the single biggest factor in outcomes. That's simple. But finding a way to make us all better teachers is not as simple. I am wary of politicians that develop simple ways to make us better. I am also wary of whether current plans and money will really improve teacher quality overall and especially in at risk schools. We need to strengthen our current compensation practices in education and some level of incentives may be part of a more comprehensive approach. But alone I am skeptical they will fix what need fixing. I welcome positive change and know we can come up with something better. As we seek to recruit quality teachers for the future will they be ready for the new way they will be judged? Or will they seek other employment when they encounter some of the current reforms and solutions.

What's My Average?

In the debate over current school budgets the "average class size" statistic has become increasingly significant. The statistic is misused and covers some disturbing trends that directly affect the quality of what I am able to do.

Admittedly most concrete data and studies indicating benefits of smaller class sizes exists at the lower grade levels but class size matters( See: http://www.heros-inc.org/star.htm or http://www.heros-inc.org/factsheet.htm ). At higher grade levels class size clearly impacts instruction and learning as well. Yes kids can learn in a big lecture style class and they can also learn in a small hands on interactive class. But as a teacher it is more difficult, sometime impossible, to operate as effectively when student loads continue to grow. Am I complaining? Yes.

It is imperative that we work to keep classes with at risk, special education and similarly challenged students small. This is as much for behavioral reasons as it is academic. That means that core classes with "typical" kids are forced to grow. Not being a math teacher that simply means I must devote less attention to each student.

In an educational landscape dominated by hard choice decisions distanced from the classroom, increasing average class size seems an enticing way to increase efficiency. Having more students jeopardizes many of the more engaging and perhaps rigorous activities. Quality feedback and interaction with the teacher declines. This is not good. Can we still teach and kids still learn, yes. But simply put, one can only grade so many essays or homework effectively. That reality somehow gets lost between the desktop and the budget.

We all agree better teaching can mean better learning. While adding students might save money the true cost can never be measured in dollars.

True Reform Cuts Too Deep

My Psychology class has just finished learning about the theories of Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis. An underlying principle of these theories is that some things are too painful or hard to deal with so we protect our ego through defense mechanisms. I'm not sure if it is just the leadership of our school systems, or American Society in general, but I believe that public education bashing has become a communal defense mechanism to displace the blame of our national problems.

Just over a decade ago, states across the nation began moving toward accountability through standardized testing. From my observations in Virginia, schools largely rose to the challenge. Virginia SOLs viewed as a minimum standard became a benchmark for certain under-performing schools, and a starting point for others. If the Virginia Standards of Learning are quality measures of student performance and school success, our students are doing well. Statewide results can be found here.

After looking at statewide results for all students, with the exception of one category at 83%, every other category shows pass rates of 86% or higher. We can do better, but we're not doing bad. In my classes, when less than three-quarters of my class performs up to par, I question my overall approach. When ten to twenty percent of my students aren't getting it I question my approach to those students. Public schools in the United States are not failing the majority of our students. Our political and educational leaders continue to look "outside" for the answers and demand greater measures of accountability to drive improvement.


Perhaps the answers to "fixing" our system of education can be found within the system itself. What stops us from looking at the qualities of schools, teachers, and students who find success in and through school? For one, I realize that part of the problem is that a "one-size-fits-all" system of education cannot work. That is one reason that some students succeed while others struggle, we use the success of the majority to justify our methods to educate the population. However, I also think that we are somewhat afraid of asking that question because of what we would find.

Two recent articles illuminate part of the answer to this question. The United States ranking in the international results of the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) administration has renewed criticism of the efficacy of American Public education. In a Washington Post op-ed piece, Robert Samuelson states "what we face is not an engineering problem; it's overcoming the legacy of history and culture." In another piece regarding the reform agenda of Michelle Rhee, the media's infatuation with her ideas, and the results of PISA, we get this comment: In large part, the answer is drawn from our brutal history, a history “reformers” don’t like to discuss.

The American public education system is exemplary. We have long realized the necessity of making every effort to guarantee an education to all children within the borders of our land regardless of race, parentage, disability, or attitude. In the drive toward accountability and the results of subsequent testing (whether this is valid or not would require more treatment than available here) we realized that we were doing well in educating the populace, but we are certainly falling short with some.

Now that we know which students are failing, we continue to do our best in the classroom to reach those at risk of being left behind. I can't take credit for all of my successes in the classroom. I've had great mentors, helpful peers, and most importantly some excellent students who sometimes perform well despite my efforts rather than because of them. Likewise, I cannot bear complete responsibility for the failures of my students. Critics of our system(s) of education from within or without do a disservice to our nation's children by leveling the blame on "failing schools" and "under-performing teachers." I agree that those problems should be addressed, but I will candidly admit, we can't do it alone.

Education reform that simply introduces new technologies and instructional strategies won't get us there. Calls for greater accountability and greater testing won't move us forward, they will simply continue to illuminate the problem that we all know exists. Privatization and business models will sell to the public and make someone rich, but won't get us where we need to be.

Any honest discussion of education reform must address the societal issues that impact the students we serve and their varied needs from community to community. That's hard work and requires us to think about more than just changing the way schools do business, but changing the fabric of our communities.

Exceptionally Effective- Caring About Students

“Exceptionally Effective- showing the ability to go beyond the ordinary in producing desired results.”  

This is part three of our series on the qualities that make an "exceptionally effective teacher."

As a twenty-something taking Ed School classes to become a teacher, I grew tired of the cliché “students don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”  Fifteen years later, I cannot remind myself of that fact enough.  Rating in the top five qualities of the Exceptional Teacher study, “caring about your students” is an absolute prerequisite for a k-12 teacher.

Caring gets easier the longer you teach.  I have established many relationships with the parents and students in our community.  So when a brother, sister, even cousin or family friend of a former student enters my class for the first time we already have a little “history.”  Even when a student comes into the classroom unconnected with my life, I usually find something in their life with which I can relate:  a common friend, sport, community organizations, etc.  

Sometimes caring gets harder the longer you teach.  This might sound strange, but I keep a spreadsheet with the name of every student I’ve ever taught.  That number is approaching two-thousand now.  When you add over one-hundred to that every year, remembering names gets tough.   I would argue that a class should never start without students sharing their names.  On the first day of class this year I taught a senior coming into our school for the first time.  When I saw him in the hall the next day I called him by name.  I was taken aback the way his eyes lit up and he responded surprisingly, “you really remembered my name.”

We also show that we care by holding students accountable for their behavior and their academic performance.  It is easier to “go with the flow” and keep everyone happy than to hold students accountable.  A caring teacher knows that sometimes “caring” means consequences while other times it means forgiveness.

I’m not surprised that “caring” was near the top of the list of effective teacher qualities.  Several of my colleagues, Lindsay included, sat down to lunch today with a former student who came back to visit us.  A student who experiences a caring teacher does not learn from them for a year, they learn from them for life.  This is all the data I need to know the importance of caring about my students.

Exceptionally Effective- High Expectations

“Exceptionally Effective- showing the ability to go beyond the ordinary in producing desired results.”  

This is part one of our series on the qualities that make an "exceptionally effective teacher."

Challenging/ Has Reasonably High Expectations

In my class, I strive to balance the fact that my students are in a twelfth grade college level class with the fact that they are still twelfth grade high school students.  They should leave my class able to take responsibility for their own learning, but while they are here, I must take my share of responsibility for their learning. 

This means that I must help them discover the expectations and outcomes that earlier in their education would have been clearly outlined for them.  I cannot be ambiguous and unclear, but my students must also learn self-direction and begin to set academic goals that balance their desired outcome with the expectations of the course.  By nature, this becomes an individual process with some students entering the course completely capable of taking full responsibility for their academic success and others requiring a greater level of teacher and parent involvement.

Earlier in my career I taught ninth and tenth grade students and this requires a different approach.  Indeed, this year I teach a predominantly ninth grade elective for the first time in several years and I am learning to readjust to their needs.

Personal experience informs this philosophy.  As a junior in high school, my AP U.S. History course was taught as a college class.  The teacher assigned reading and students were assessed periodically with tests.  I never read, but managed to remember enough from test to test to manage a B which weighted to an A.  By the time I took the AP test in May, I scored a 2.   Most of my other classes required homework, but I only completed it when I knew it would be graded. 

Neither approach served me well.  I did not learn the value of study and practice.  In college, I continued to only do the work required for a grade-- my learning and GPA suffered.

Having reasonably high expectations means that we set the bar high enough to reach, but this might be higher than the student believes he or she can reach.  It also means that if one must fully extend and balance on the tips of their toes to reach the goal, sometimes they will fall.  To set reasonably high expectations  for our students we also have to teach the value of failure and the resiliency to learn from failure instead of letting it define our futures.

The biggest challenge today is finding the time to set these challenges AND to stand behind each student as they strive to achieve.  As "factory schools" pile more and more bodies into the classroom the problem of effectively challenging students becomes greater and we fall back on setting the benchmark that we know everyone can achieve instead of pushing each individual to achieve every bit that they can.

The Death of Public School Factories

Critics and reformers alike invoke the factory system metaphor to point out the greatest flaws in our public education system. In the 21st century, the factory is an anachronism and a factory system of education is destined to follow the same road as its manufacturing counterparts. I have never met a teacher, student, or parent who would favor an "education mill" type of education, yet many would argue that much of our public school system is stuck in this 20th century pattern of production. This begs the question "how do we move into the 21st century?"

We move ahead by expecting teachers to be more than assembly line workers. The ideology of a factory works this way-- divide the labor into smaller specialized pieces, take the skill out of the task, and add complexity to the system. It becomes easier to find labor to fill these roles because the system becomes more important than the worker. As long as the worker can "follow the plan”, everything runs smoothly. This has been done everywhere from McDonald's to GM. This is the way teachers are expected to act more and more, and we wonder why our schools look like factories.

We teach from common curriculum, give our students common assessments to measure benchmark performance and at the end the quality of our work (teaching) and the quality of our product (students) is judged by standardized testing. "Data" gathered from isolated educational specialists inform the "best practices" to which teachers are expected to conform. Increasingly, teachers are evaluated in five-minute bursts as administrators use a standardized checklist to measure performance.

Factories are run on a strict hierarchy—
Board-->Plant Manager-->Divison Managers-->Department Foremen-->Assembly Line Worker.

How does this compare to a school system structure?
School Board-->Superintendent-->Asst. Superintendents with specific duties-->Principals-->Assistant/Associate Principals-->Classroom teachers.

Factories are governed from the top down. Decisions are made at the top; workers at the bottom follow rules. When the workers start making decisions, the system fails. The further down the chain you go, the more employees are governed by policy, protocols, and manuals. In many cases, the workers are too busy to make decisions because the highest priority becomes producing more.

How do we kill the factory system of education? We stop treating teachers like assembly line employees. When they do a job well, we do not reward them by giving them more work. We protect their time to guarantee they have time to reflect and make wise decisions regarding individuals and instruction. Finally, we stop treating them as a monolithic labor force and value their individual contributions to a collaborative system of human development.

How do teachers ignite this process?  By remembering what we were taught in ed school, that students want to know that we care before they care what we know.  No matter how many students we're given or how many classes we teach, we must never lose sight of the fact that our relationship with an individual student is the most important factor in any system of education.  We need to engage the leaders of our building and systems in productive forward moving discussion.  We need to recognize the autonomy that we still possess and use it to the advantage of our students and communities. 

When teachers are given the opportunity, and take advantage of the opportunity to creatively and actively engage the learners of their community, the factory will become a relic.

Are We Failing?

From time to time, public education reaches the forefront of public debate; it appears that we are in the middle of one of those times. Usually someone or group makes the case that our public education system is failing, or at least falling behind the best efforts of the rest of the world.

Whether we believe this or not will profoundly influence the way we view change and reform. The honest question to answer is “do you believe that public schools are failing, or not?” If so, we need to radically abandon the past and move on. If not, we need to figure out exactly where change is needed and leave the rest alone.

One of my grad school professors, a man named Frederick Hess made an impression on me with his 1998 book titled “Spinning Wheels.” He argued that outcomes for public education are fuzzy at best. It is easy to measure the effectiveness of my trash pick-up service. If the trash is still on the curb Thursday night, they’ve failed. If it is gone before I get home from work and I can return the can to my garage, it is working. Not so easy with education.

I think (I can’t represent his point of view, and could be wrong) that Hess and others use this fact to call for more accountability by measuring student performance. It is a move in the right direction. We can’t allow publicly funded schools to operate without any sort of checks on quality of instruction. Reformers and pundits in this regard have attempted solve the problem of “fuzzy” outcomes in education. By clearly defining the desired outcome, it becomes possible to measure it. For many years, and perhaps still today to some extent, public education has not had clearly defined desired outcomes.

Try for yourself. Can you clearly state the most important desired outcome of our public education system? Don’t be fuzzy now, what does a life-long learner look like, what do we measure? If you have any ideas, leave a comment below; can you name THE desired outcome of a public school?