The Wisdom of Patience

Summer.  A break from teaching.  Routines and schedules cast aside.  The greatest blessing and sometimes curse for families.

There is a reason that neither myself or my wife are stay at home parents.  We wouldn’t be very good at it.  But for six or seven weeks each summer we handle it pretty well.  Usually. 

During our week of vacation my patience was tested early.  Before we even left to give an exact time.  Details aside, I’d lost my patience with my wife and my children.  I wasn’t satisfied with our plans, and the uncertainty rattled me.  That’s anxiety.  Anxiety is rooted in the future.  It’s worry about how things will turn out.  A little anxiety is a good thing.  Otherwise we’d never be motivated to do anything.

Most anxiety is misplaced.  We look to the future with a dread.  Something bad is going to happen.  Usually it’s not as bad as we imagine.  But this persistent anxiety about future events can wreak some pretty serious havoc in the present.  We act out of fear and worry instead of reasoned judgment.

At least that’s how I’m justifying how much I’ve yelled at my children the last few days.  Anxiety erodes the sound practice of patience.  In raising children, patience allows us to properly guide them, and discipline them if necessary toward the behaviors and habits that benefit their growth.  Anxiety leads us to discourage and minimize the behaviors and actions that cause personal stress for the parent.

Even in dealing with our own children as parents, a posture of anxiety  is usually self-serving while the discipline of patience serves the best interest of all.

It makes sense that it would take summer break to teach a teacher the value of patience.

If there is a scarcity of any value in our society, patience is certainly one.  Our tight economy has generated a national anxiety over the future.  We need to stress over this situation if we ever want to get out of it, but we also need to keep a reasoned head and not allow anxiety to guide our decisions at the expense of reason.

Our leaders are anxious and exercise too much top-down control.  From division leaders to the secretary of Education, anxiety about funding, test scores, and the future of education in a digital age pushes the agenda for leading from the front, often at the expense of valuable input from teachers, students, and the general public.  They usually act in what they believe is the best interest of “the system” but often ignore the expressed needs of the very system they serve.

The recent dismissal of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan by the Board of Visitors fits this description well.  A Rector anxiety about funding and getting behind in the digital age executed a manipulative and dictatorial decision, made behind closed doors and in the presence of only a few.

Members of our business and commercial world are anxious.  They’ve managed to build successful ventures through the booms of the past two decades and economic growth has stalled.  They fear for the long-term future of their legacies, but also for the short term future of their own welfare in a stagnate economy.  Instead of focusing on the failures that lead us down this road, they look to education to solve their problems by pushing for implementation of the same business models that failed to save our economy already.

Parents and students are anxious.  They’re strapped for time more than any generation before.  They’re concerned about the rising cost of education and its comparative value in an increasingly dim job market. 

Teachers are anxious.  In unionized states, rights are being stripped away, and in states like Virginia, several years of diminishing salaries are now being hit with cuts to benefits.  They’re expected to do more with less.

Vain activity rarely calms anxiety.  It makes it worse.  Perhaps we could use a little patience.  Stop looking to an imagined future of despair and deal rationally with the current reality in which we live.  The opposite of the current wave of reactionary decision-making in education isn’t status quo, it’s reasoned and informed action. 

It is time we stop making decisions out of anxiety, with no other purpose than to alleviate our imagined fears and start patiently making reasonable decisions that will carry us successfully into the future.

A TU Effort at Transparency

TU regulars may have noticed a slight decrease in our productivity.  We pride ourselves on our ability to churn out quality thought provoking material or more often posts that are slightly below mediocre. But this has been a tough stretch with a noticeable decrease in the volume of posts we are writing.    It is not writers block, it is something else. First off the Hunger Games came out, the premier of Mad Men, there's the whole Supreme Court review of "Obamacare" thing and of course we mustn't forget the NCAA tournament.  In the words of the Bandit(from Smokey and the Bandit) "I can't lie to you Sheriff, you're too good man."  Truth is we are just really busy teaching. 

We're not quite a s popular as these folks, but we do eat.

Sitting around the lunch table as we do, the simple fact is that we are a suspicious bunch.  The modern world of education has conditioned us to the readily understood reality that there is more to most things than meets the eye.  Most “reforms”  have some underlying motivation or are far more complex than they appear on the surface.   The devil is in the details.  What on paper and in public is represented as a great idea is seldom as advertised.  Hard to argue against the intended effects of No Child Left Behind.  Hard that is until you stop and ask a seasoned teacher.  One who is willing to share an honest and open opinion based on years of feet on the ground experience. This often occurs when they are at ease, like during lunch.  Many things in education lack the necessary transparency to avoid missteps and problems.  SOL tests and their development, state and local education budgets, Value added, common core standards, tenure reform,  are among those that could use a little fresh air.  Such is also the case for the basement where we work.    If we are one thing in the basement at lunch I think we could be described as open and honest.  Brutally so.  So today’s post is an effort to shed some light on what happens when we discuss happenings between bites at lunch.

Teacher #1 only eats only "juice"

As background, you must know that whenever teachers hear about new plans or mandates there is an immediate rush to explain things.  As experienced teachers we are now programmed to execute a well-established analysis of the unforeseen consequences for most new ideas. It is hard to explain since we by our very nature are not completely cynical.  Our lunch crew is no different.  Most teachers' work or lunch rooms have negativity in excess.  Not us.  In an effort to offer the outside world transparency here is how it might play out.    For the purposes of illustration I will abridge and refine the dialogue.   This not an effort to avoid transparency,  just protect the innocent…or at least those that eat lunch with us.    It also will help you to follow the sometimes odd and rapidly shifting conversation.

Teacher #1-"Hey you guys read about the vote about such and such?”

Teacher #2 -"Yeah, dude. That’s an effort to improve scores.”

Teacher #3 -“No.  No its not.  It’s cause you are a horrible teacher..”

Teacher #4 -“No it is actually because the politicians have an agenda and this will provide evidence that they are doing something to reduce costs and further weaken the organized teacher .  That legislation stems from

Teacher #1 “So what does this mean locally?”

Teacher #2 “I can tell you what it means to my students.  More testing.”

He's in everything.

Teacher #3 “Michael Ironside”

I mean they look alike...no?

Teacher #4 “I read this book and the basic premise was that privatization is the natural progression of those seeking to remove inefficiencies caused by overburdening legislation and growing complexity caused by the demands to step away from standardization and uniformity.”

Teacher #1 But aren’t they passing more legislation?”

Teacher #4 “Yes”

Teacher #3 “Nope. It was Michael Dudikoff.  He is skinnier than Ironside”

Teacher #4 “Wasn’t he in…?  Anyway that’s the beauty and idiocy of the situation.  Governments strapped for cash that is needed, but taxpayers are unwilling to pay and are forced to seek alternative and potentially more efficient and flexible methods and approaches as part of global and social change.” 

Teacher #1 “But won’t the end result likely be a reduction in quality caused by a greater demand placed on students and teachers?”

Teacher #4 “Yes”

Teacher #2 “So you are sure about this?”

Teacher #4 “I read this other book and it said …”

Teacher #2 “No, not that, you’re sure it was Michael Dudikoff?”

Teacher #3 “Oh yeah no doubt.  He was in total recall.”

Teacher #1 “Nope it was Ironsides”

Teacher #3 “Yep you’re right”

Teacher #1 “Man, This stuff just makes no sense.  It boils my blood.”

Teacher #3 "Michael Ironsides boils your blood?  Why?  He’s a great actor.”

Teacher #1 “You know what I mean.  It is just demoralizing.”

Teacher #2 “Sure it is.  What are you gonna do quit.”

Teacher #4 “Yeah you should quit.  Seriously, you're are not that good.”

Teacher #3 “Don’t quit.  Just stop coming. That’d be epic.”

Teacher #5 "I made this podium"

(awkward period of silence)

Teacher #2 “I’d like to think someone would notice if I didn’t show up.  Wouldn’t they?”

Teacher #3 “Michael Ironsides would notice.”

Teacher #4 “Point is we just need to try and convey to the public and decision makers that some of the reform ideas we encounter have little to do with us, but greatly affect us.  It makes teachers less able to perform well as educators”

Teacher #1 “I gotta go set up for my discussion seminar next period”

(student delivers a pass)

Teacher #3 “I taught him last year.”

Teacher #2 “Great kid”

Teacher #4 “I have him now and had all four of his siblings”

Teacher #1 “He is smart.  Works hard too.  Makes teaching worthwhile”

Teacher #2 “So you’re not quitting?”

( 27 Minute lunch ends as Teacher #1 exits)

Teacher #3 “I had dibs on his desk chair”

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.

Can a school board member and some principals stop the insanity?

The answer to that Question:  They can try.  The TU has been vocal about our stance on testing, value added, and the like.  As influential as we are, we realize it will take a powerful shift to change course to a more sensible path.  It will also take large numbers of people.  Where do you stand?  Do you buy into all the testing talk?  We certainly don't.  Some recent news has lent a lot of support to our position and if nothing else makes us feel better.

Ask yourself this:  Have you ever seen any of the tests that measure student performance?   I have taught for years with such a test and have yet to see more than a handful of questions and the outdated released version.  Now, such tests will most likely directly affect how I am evaluated.  More questions arise like how specifically does this make me a better teacher and how does it help kids learn?  Is this approach working after decades of effort? 

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently spoke at the NCSS conference in DC and called for continued accountability.  From his speech(and for the record we rarely shout):


"Testing advocates are often outshouted, however, by those who view testing as the problem. They say that testing—especially fill-in-the-bubble, high-stakes standardized testing—is a flawed tool for evaluating students—let alone teachers.
Now it is absolutely true that many of today's tests are flawed. They don't measure critical thinking across a range of content areas. They are not always aligned to college and career-ready standards. They don't always accurately measure individual student growth.
And they certainly don't measure qualities of great teaching that we know make a difference—things like classroom management, teamwork, collaboration, individualized instruction and the essential and remarkable ability to inspire a love of learning."

I preferred Ravitch myself.  

Francis Gary Powers probably failed a test

Ever ask why these tests are so secret?   I do all the time.  I wish they'd guard our unmanned spy aircraft this closely.  Then we wouldn't be looking at photos of one sitting in Iran right now. Who is holding these tests and all this testing accountable.  Answer: Not enough people. 

This week has seen some people above the TUs pay grade and level of influence become much more vocal in opposition to such measures.  Maybe the TU should do as Iran did this week and call the Swiss ambassador to protest.  It would likely have the same result.   But Iran is a problem.  We're not.


The links below will take you one the TU's favorites, The Answer Sheet and two posts that share the story of a school board member who arranged to take the FCAT in Florida.  His story is very telling.  

Part I
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html
Follow-Up
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/revealed-school-board-member-who-took-standardized-test/2011/12/06/gIQAbIcxZO_blog.html#pagebreak


This story out of New York where public school principals are publicly opposing their state's newly developed teacher evaluation system. The whole issue of accountability, value added and the merits of testing is starting to be called into question at an increasing rate.  Thank goodness.   Hope it is not too late.  The only rule from psychometricians I know about is do not use tests for purposes other than that for which they were intended.

All this is a step in the right direction but it will take more teachers(like the TU), more principals and most importantly parents to stop the insanity.

Diane Ravitch at NCSS 2011

“If enough people care, the public may learn the course is not wise, not reform and backed by no evidence.  Public Education is a precious resource that must be preserved and improved for future generations.” 

-Diane Ravitch, NCSS 2011

Diane Ravitch is a voice of reason and sanity in the politically charged and reckless world of education policy and so-called reform.  The Teaching Underground had the privilege of hearing a lecture from Dr. Ravitch at the NCSS national convention this weekend in Washington, D.C.

Conventional wisdom might brand her “anti-reform,” but in reality the term educational reform has been high-jacked and turned into “testing, accountability, and choice” at the exclusion of meaningful reform seeking appropriate ways to “develop qualities of heart and mind and character to sustain our democracy for future generations.”  The Teaching Underground is ready to steal the term back and label Diane Ravitch as the voice of true reform in American education.

After hearing Ravitch’s talk we jokingly said to each other, “she stole all of her material from the Underground.”  Since our arrival in the blogging world in October 2010, we’ve learned that every challenge we’ve faced at the local level is rooted in the national education landscape.  Like Ravitch, our primary hope is that people would care, and by caring, the public will learn that our present course of educational policy in the United States often guised as reform is really no reform at all.

Ravitch’s lecture at the NCSS Convention centered around a dozen or so questions.  (I was typing fast, if you were there and see that we missed a question let us know.)  Below are the questions Ravitch addressed.  We've included a few links to related posts on the Teaching Underground.  Feel free to offer your reactions to the questions, and if you were at the talk, let us know what you thought.  We'll post about some of these topics in the months to come.

Are we in crisis?
-one of the very first posts on TU: Are We Failing?

Should public schools be turned over to private management?

Why not have a free market of choices for parents and students?
-these two questions were addressed in our post Breaking the Public Schools

Should public funded schools be allowed to make a profit?
-in April we discussed The Education Marketplace

Should teachers get a bonus for higher test scores?

Will test scores go up if teacher evaluations are tied to them?

Should student test scores ever be a part of teacher evaluation?
-each of these three questions remind me of the post Why You Should Care

Should NCLB be reauthorized?
-among other posts addressing NCLB, here is 2012 or 2014

Will Race to the Top transform?
-it will certainly transform something, here's a post on NCLB Waivers and Race to the Top

Should teachers and principals have professional training?

Will competition improve schools?

NCLB Waivers-Thanks for the flexibility to do only what you want us to do

The link below takes you to a recent NY Times article someone sent me that shows the ground level impact of NCLB.  It comes from New Hampshire, a state not usually on the radar of education reform.  Too bad above average schools like Oyster River are now labeled as failing and must completely redesign their approach to instruction and learning.  Think it is not your problem?  Your division is different?  Your local leadership will make things right?  Think again. Arne Duncan and the neo-reform NCLB folks know better than the thousands of educators and are acting like it. Want waivers from NCLB?  Let's make a deal. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/education/no-child-left-behind-catches-up-with-new-hampshire-school.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hpw


"Ms. Rief fears that public schools where teachers are trusted to make learning fun are on the way out. Ms. Rief understands that packaged curriculums and standardized assessments offer schools an economy of scale that she and her kind cannot compete with."

 Is this the system we want?  
This is a quick clip that summarizes what they are telling you to do...I mean choose to do.


"The kind of progress we want to see"
"States are going to have to embrace the kind of reform that we believe is necessary to move our education system forward"
"Accountability will remain one of the  bellwethers of our administration"  


Thanks for letting us do what you want us to do. 

Who to Trust? Teachers or Rupert Murdoch

In reading a recent TU post one might presume that we support or encourage protests and similar anti-authoritarian behaviors. While free thinkers, the TU is rather conformist most of the time and color in between the lines more often than not, especially professionally. We do enjoy a good Youtube riot video as much as anyone and there's plenty of videos of the protest in NYC and elsewhere.   But that's about as close as we like to get. It took a while to arrive at my point but I am heading towards proving that the TU in some ways sees things from ground level(below ground actually) and perhaps more accurately.  We are closer to education than most folks who talk about it.  That is simply something you cannot dismiss in the conversation about education and its future.  We are deeply concerned for the future of our schools.  We are not alone.

Rupert Murdoch has had a lot to say recently on this subject of education and seems to want to move his company closer to it.    He is a smart fella but I think on the subject of education...I might be smarter(I'll pause while you soak in that statement).  His view is blurred by his business mindset and motives and the highlight reel experience he no doubt receives when he visits a school.  Think for a second about why he is starting to talk a lot about education all of a sudden.    My view is blurred by where I work.  You know, in a school with kids.  Its a pretty good school and despite its shortfalls it ends up turning out some pretty amazing young people.  So who has a better feel for what's going on?   One of the most powerful men in the world, or me?  He got shouted down at a recent speech by some folks perhaps as frustrated as we are with the current direction of many reforms.  I can only speculate on their motives.   I think because they resent a lot of current change and he makes a convenient target.  I've been shouted down too(most often by an irate teenager).  I guess that's where the comparisons end.

Did he deserve it?  Well I think he shouldn't expect people to ignore who he is.   Based on his record,  we should be at least suspicious of his motives.  Those people(if they were teachers) probably got all "protesty" because we in teaching are now hypersensitive to people telling us how it should be.  Especially people from the business or political world.   I like to think if Murdoch spent a day with the average American teacher he'd realize a few things.  Not the least among them is that teachers know how it really is better than anyone else.  This that idea classrooms and the teaching in them have not changed 50 years is more than a slight misrepresentation of fact.   Of course someone must guide kids through their education...they are kids after all.  The classroom dynamic has not been as fluid as in other sectors of society like our economy and that is not all bad.  I know TU''s resident thesis man(Steve) could more successfully counter his points but I will attempt to do so none the less. This is not because we feel threatened and want to attack or justify our point of view over others(though deep down that may be why).  It is in the hope that it will foster a greater understanding of what we see as part of the problem. 

To begin, WTF?  My favorite acronym as an expression of disbelief.  (To maintain our PG rating I'll explain it as What's That For?)  Hey Rupert Murdock...WTF?  Are you living in a bubble?  How dare you try to simplify everything and reduce the mission of our schools solely to an academic pipeline of global employees.  Schools aren't companies.  The goal is not profit.  The goal is people.  That alone pokes some big hole in Murdoch's bucket.  Harlem Success is great.  Many charter schools are great.  No doubt so are the schools you mention in your speeches.  But before we go dismantling one of the most significant social and cultural institutions anywhere in the world let's give some forethought to the potential consequences.   Let's also not do so because people like Murdoch have convinced us they are all "failing." Instead consider how current top down changes are hampering efforts to do quality work in our schools. Many reform attempts have led to regulation  and "improvements" that have buckled some pretty great things schools did. Many of my colleagues will admit we do not feel the quality education we are providing today is not exactly what it was even 5 years ago. 

I will admit some of my objections to his and similarly framed ideas were originally based on their potential impact on my profession.  But with careful consideration I object on a far deeper level.  The idea that learning can be so easily manipulated and controlled is a dangerous one.  If I learned anything as a teacher its that things are usually more complex than they appear.    Demanding more from everyone does not equal an increase in quality output.   Programs and results may at first appear valuable and look good on paper, only to yield under closer examination or when implemented.   I have seen this firsthand with numerous online learning programs. 

The intent to profit should never be a consideration in our decisions on education.  But it has crept in slowly and as such we should place more scrutiny on reform ideas that involve public funds to private enterprise.  One approach being pushed from the Murdoch camp is to use technology to remedy our ills and make things better.   Education is far too complex a process to digitize and then plug a child in to some software.  That is information, not education.  Standardized test may show acquisition of knowledge but what has been lost?  Hard to tell as most modern measures of learning are subjective.  What's being measured?  How? Under what conditions?  Using a test?  Are the measures fair and equitable?  What's the wisdom in that?   Bottom line is this:  What motivates Murdoch and Newscorp is clearly making money.  What motivates teachers is what is good for kids. 

At 6:20 he starts to lay out main ideas.


Specifically Murdoch contentions are that "The Key is Software" and we can do better by creating a "More Personalized Education."     I wasn't as sure about his 3rd point since he is boring but it seemed to be simply using analytics to give kids access to limitless resources catered to best suit them. Thus they wouldn't be stuck learning at the same pace. I suspect it was something about how asynchronous education is the key.   Sounds great.  Who could argue with those ideas?  Me.

Distance Learning, Virtual Classrooms or whatever they go by have obvious advantages.  I sat so far back in one survey class in college it could have been considered distance learning.  I've also taken a few real ones and they served their purpose.  Can't say I learned a great deal that stuck with me though.  Their growth in recent years has been exponential.  Driven in part by the spiraling costs of higher education. While quite different in business approach and market, for profit higher education like the University of Phoenix illustrates how such an concept has supporters and detractors.  I remember a piece PBS did on Michael Clifford a while back that I found very informative.

But do not mistake access to information for a learning community.  There are problems with the any technology. On the front end there are always going to be kinks and bugs or issues with the transition.  Is the infrastructure in place in many of these locations to support the volume of traffic?   There are issues with the access, maintenance and reliability.  These will be less significant as schools integrate more and more digital resources over time.  The trend is for high ranking administrators and those at the top to view technology as the perfect solution.  It becomes a symbol for a "quality" education.  Teachers and learners more often think that while useful, these experiences are no substitute for face to face interaction.    In business terms a shift in this direction would be akin to expecting online shopping to replace brick and mortar schools.    Over reliance of technology can be problematic.  Forgive me for not trusting a billionaire but is it truly cost effective in the long term for our society?  This Education Marketplace mentioned by my colleague what's being sold here?  I fear it is our future. 

Once we are reliant on these technologies and systems, who controls the curriculum and any needed shift?  Who is held accountable for the quality?  A test might tell you whether a kid "learned" but what if they didn't?   Experience tells me that the under-performing kid in a traditional classroom might encounter even more issues in a virtual one.  Not all kids are motivated or mature enough to go this route.  One of the biggest hang-ups with our neighboring district's BLAST initiative has been parental approval and sign-off.   These issues were unforeseen by planners.  Not so for those with daily interactions with the learners and their parents.  We see things.  One advantage to synchronous learning is that it allows students to collaborate and support each other. This builds a sense of community with their peers, teachers and school.  Skilled individuals can yoke this and use these communities as a source of motivation and pride(just read the last post if you don't understand).  One can create online communities.  Its just that they not the same.  Part of the equation maybe but not the answer.  They should not be elevated to anything more than just a tool to help improve education.
 

Should computers replace people in learning?  In a normal environment computers are usually powerful tools.  The one thing schools are not is normal.  In this landscape teachers and people are more reliable than technology.  When problems occur I trust people.  When kids act up you need people.  When a kid needs encouragement and support you need people.  Murdoch is wrong to think that companies or software can do better with all of our children.  Most young people are significantly more dependent on adults than what those who don't deal with them everyday think.  They need people they know to help guide them.  Children need adults to learn from and they need relationships with these people to apprehend their world.  I don't really want to send my kids to an Apple store for their education and that seems to be the promise being extended here. We should approach with caution the Walmart of Education mentality as the cost vs quality balance should be important but shouldn't tip too far towards reducing costs.   A "one stop select what you want digital world of learning" isn't that far off.  But it would be a sad shell of what we could do. 

Is our nation doing as well as it can?  Certainly not.  But I don't so much worry about that.  Parents don't worry about that.  We worry about our own kids in our own communities.  I worry about how ideas hatched by those who don't teach real people could affect what we are all trying to accomplish.  Comparisons to Asia or elsewhere are thus less relevant to most of us normal folks with our feet on the ground.  Murdoch and others explain away the difference in achievement as simply a product of the school and education.  All responsibility lies with the schools.  Well when no one else takes on the responsibility for kids schools I guess should.  But be careful about how then you judge the result.  

Murdoch's Motives
I am more than a bit curious about why Mr. Murdoch has turned his attention to the plight of poor schoolkids.  We are after all talking about the same guy, head of Newscorp responsible for the British phone hacking scandal. A ruthless corporate pirate with billions to show for his efforts.  But also a charismatic convincing guy and if I wasn't a teacher I think I'd listen to what he had to say.  That thought frightens me.    He lists examples of innovation and suggests and path to the future.      Enter "his company" as a medium to access this.  See the problem? 

I think Murdoch thinks of education as a cash cow.  I just have an ideological problem with the idea that knowledge is proprietary.  And make no mistake that is the backbone of this idea Murdoch is talking about.  Competition instead of collaboration.  For profit and education...those two concepts are irreconcilable.  When push comes to shove Return on Investment will be factored in above learning when decisions are made by businessmen and not educators. 

Even more disturbing is how people can misrepresent what is taking place.  It has become a cyclical blame game where the most influential carries the least blame for under-performance. I suspect no one is entirely correct in what they think is happening since most views are either too global or too local to know the reality.  I know that some kids just aren't learning.  I'd argue about why.   Here's more reasons to be wary of Murdoch.  What works in some places won't work or even be able to be replicated everywhere.  Education is only as important as any individual thinks it is. 

Where do we agree?
Schools have to adapt, change and improve.  Technology will and should be part of this.  Too many kids aren't getting what they need.  So we can and must do better.  But it doesn't start at 5 years old or end when they graduate or even end when the bell rings to dismiss for the day.  It doesn't simply entail giving them access to knowledge.  Technology will never replace a teacher.  It is a tool and in the right hands empowers individuals to do and become more.  Both student and teacher.  It can also alter things in unforeseen ways.  At my 4 year old's soccer game this weekend I watched at least 3 parents engage with their I-phones  more than their kids.  Sad.  Does Murdoch throw this little tidbit in his speech about "human capital" and teachers to disarm us or does he really mean it?   Who knows.  All I know is that if the choice is that every kid is indeed a valuable and unique individual.  To truly educate a kid you have to get to to know that kid.   All I can do is try to remember that on a daily basis and whenever and wherever I can try to inject some sanity into the conversation about how we ought to be teaching our kids.

In a future post maybe I'll attempt to knock Bill Gates off his educational pulpit.  Whatever the subject the one thing I think the TU prides itself on is the ability to conduct civil discourse.  Disagreements today seem so polemical that the ability to talk freely with someone who disagrees seems a lost art.  Especially when they stand to realize we are right.  :)

Me, Us and Them

Populations are made up of individuals.  The wise teacher figures out quickly each class is full of individual kids.  Likewise schools are composed of individual teachers. When you start treating individual teachers as unimportant, then ultimately schools will become unimportant. I can't escape the reality that such an Orwellian reality has arrived when a parent goes online and looks me up deciding if I am a good teacher before meeting me or talking to anyone who has kids I've taught. Or a reformer looks at data and makes a determination without even speaking to anyone in a school.

For the unlearned out there here's a little wikipedia help: ORWELLIAN-describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society. It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past. I can think of a few things I deal with daily that fit that mold. The most immediate is how schools and teachers are being treated across the nation.

Essentially at their root many of the ideas I think are ill conceived seem to erode my ability to operate with autonomy. Should I have a completely free hand to do what I want? Of course not. But one concept that seems to echo with me is that those shaping teaching view it as a science that can be adjusted in such a way to produce a definite outcome. Where decisions are made by those who operate in a data first environment.  Many teaching see the world differently.  We  know teaching is an art.  Imagine a concert where all the solos were scripted.  A museum that only featured paint by number artwork.  A football team where players ran plays from a script based solely on down and distance unconcerned with score or field position.    Those things might be functional and generate predictable outcomes but they would also be very limiting.   As a teacher I need to be able to have freedom and play to my strengths on a daily basis.  One big thing impeding this is the smothering amount of demands being placed on me.

Already this year I have struggled to become quickly familiar with all my students.  I know that a positive relationship is often key to their success.  I am struggling to give and grade rigorous assignments in a timely fashion. While chalking it up to age at first I realized I have 142 kids. That alone is enough to bury me in grading if I let it. (1 essay, 5 mins each x 140 = 11 hours)   Couple it with the push to standardize curriculum and all the other adjustments I've made over the past  3 years and those I make daily and kids could start to slowly slip to just a name and number on a page and simply part of a larger whole. Sure some of that is the compulsory teacher griping.  It is also a red flag.  Nowhere am I hearing this on the news or even in discussions about our division.   These issues are veiled by clips of new computers, talks of budgets and a Newsweek ranking.

Now hard work never killed anyone.  Countless people work hard every day.  I suspect many teachers think they work too hard when they actually don't.  But too much work will in fact kill my ability to teach well.  Some of the most successful and competitive companies in the world recognize this fact and build in "free" time for their employees to innovate.  In that sense the private sector has realized the value of their workers.  I am getting to the point where I literally can't do a good job with my kids. Yet I am being held more accountable.  I am losing the ability to practice my craft...and it is not my fault.  I can cover content, collect data, assign a grade...but in no way can I maintain much of what I do that matters so much. All this stuff we've been talking about on this blog over the past months is starting to prevent me from being as good of a teacher as I am capable.

My concerns about student load and class size would be dismissed by folks who would point to data and studies about successful schools. They say it matters little in terms of affecting student success. They are wrong. Efforts to replicate the famous STAR study on class size from Tennessee are a classic example of wayward policy when people forget the importance of individuals. Probably a result of paying people to sit and analyze data far removed from the people the information represents.  This is in my opinion a useless enterprise.   That is after all what computers are for. 

Claims that changes are needed to standardize curriculum intending to give all students access to quality teaching and instruction who currently do not have it drive a disproportionate number of decisions. The basic premise is to fix the SYSTEM without regard to the impact it has on the people within it.  Thus revealing the absence of any appreciation for the individual teacher and what they accomplish every day.  Big mistake. You can't on one hand claim quality teachers are among the biggest factor in student growth and then ignore what they say and what makes each of them unique.  And yes I feel ignored. 

There are certainly bad teachers. Heck maybe I'm among them by some measures that are used.  But who in their right mind would make efforts to identify bad teachers using methods that adversely affect all those that are not. You cannot simply look at what one teacher does well and finds as effective and then ask other teachers to replicate that same thing. Certain patterns and skills may easily transfer but there are way too many variables to begin to think that it makes any sense whatsoever to just make that idea bigger.

Average Class Size affects the quality of what kids can get from me while they are in the classroom. Total Student Load affects what I the teacher can do. The greatest flaw with any research on teaching is that researchers don't seem to talk to real teachers during their research. The mountains of data keep them from seeing that all those kids I have prevent me from realizing my potential as a teacher, no matter how many methods or techniques I have access to.  The same is true for students who are increasingly being asked to take on a greater academic  load.  Sure the numbers look good from far away but get closer and you'll see what the unintended impact is on individual kids and families.  While all this unfolds the term accountability is thrown about as a buzz word like it has any meaning to anyone making decisions.    Now this is not a developing nation's classroom lacking basic necessities, but I can affect more positive change with fewer kids.  I am drowning in work.

So classes are made up of individual kids and the fact I might now be unaware that one of them was having a bad day matters a lot. The fact I didn't ask how they were doing and engage them in potentially the only real conversation they'll have all day matters.  The fact I now teach 142 separate people matters.  No Child Left Behind actually has meant more kids in my classes making it harder to identify and focus on ones that need more help.  Shame that teachers were and continue to be left out of the loop and simply treated as the group causing the problems and not potential solutions.  No doubt we might offer quite a few good ideas that would affect immediate change for the better.  Because we are plugged into what is happening.  I know these issues are present elsewhere but they never emerge from behind the newest and latest drive for innovation and reform.  Truth is I can hardly tell where we are headed by looking back at the track we are following.  That's scary and might mean all these efforts aren't really getting us anywhere.

As we prepare to tighten our belts once again as our division faces budget shortfalls I cannot help but expect that means my job will again get harder.   That affects me.  I have concerns on what changes and cuts mean to all of us in this building every day.  I can only hope that decision makers will recognize how the easy course is not always the better course and think first of us and not of them as they chart a course and navigate our course.  Be forewarned though that an unappreciative view of the significance and talents of individuals will simply contribute to more ideas not worthy of the term reform.

Who Doesn't Want to Visit the White House?

Apparently the people organizing one of the most important events in education. Educators, students and parents are gathering in DC this weekend as part of the Save Our Schools March. This national call to action apparently did not involve meeting with White House officials. Props to event organizers for making a statement by not meeting before the march. Too bad it takes a national march to make reform leaders listen and then they only do so to maybe cash in a PR. Maybe they should read the TU more often.

Click Here to read the story about the White House invitation from The Answer Sheet

Reforms Jump the Shark?

David Sirota penned something I read the other day that signaled the arrival of something I knew was coming. I doubt I am alone but I don't see many folks in the summer and reactions often take time to come in. High Stakes Test Mongers may finally have donned the water skis, that stupid life ring thing around their waists and jumped the shark. That phrase is an underused cultural reference but one we here at TU are very fond of.


Henry Winkler would roll over in his grave if he saw this headline. What...? He's still alive? Well that's good news. But it just bolsters my point. At what point do the reforms involving more testing lose momentum and do more harm then good in an effort to revive support? Winkler's career moves on without Fonzie and let's hope our reforms will be the same. It took Happy Days 10 years to run out of steam and I can only hope a similar fate for all this test driven reform.

My daughter is four. I know what four year olds are like. High stakes for her is whether or not we get a treat before she goes to bed or gets to watch a kids show after breakfast while Mom and dad get ready. I can only imagine her performance on any test might be connected to whether or not she got to listen to "I like to Move it, Move it" on the way to said test. Four year olds get tested for scoliosis and lice...not in academics. Argh! Sirota convincingly points out the flaws with a testing heavy approach to reform and skillfully uses Finland as a model of success. A worthwhile read. Finland has problems too, ....uh...well it is really cold much of the year in Finland. And they likely have several people that can't read even though everywhere I see has their literacy rate at 100%.

Seriously though comparisons such as this lose some of their teeth when one considers the multitude of factors that affect education. It might still be worthwhile to try and learn from each other in order to improve but rankings and comparisons used for motivation? I can't say that makes much sense. There is a new film on the subject. The Finland Phenomenon which no doubt presents a more in depth look at what makes Finland's educational system tick. It's not testing.

What we need here is a trusted social or cultural figure to stand up, say no, and inject some insanity to all this craziness. Someone as iconic as Richie Cunningham. Wait... who was driving that boat? Who? Seriously? So what you are saying is while it was Fonizie's who jumped that shark, Richie, actually helped by driving the boat? Man what is the world coming to? I'll tell you...a place where someone actually thinks giving four year olds important tests is a good idea.

Testing and the Flux Capicitor

Imagine having the power to influence the future.  You could go back in time and undo all the wrongs and make things "right." Essentially that's what every teacher has when they administer the SOL test to their classes.  Of course that would only be if we received the proper feedback after testing.  The social studies EOC reports are less than helpful and seem designed to keep everyone involved as much in the dark as possible about what actually went on.  For my kids that pass I receive a nebulous number which means very little to anyone who lives in the real world and not the criterion referenced normed testing world.   I spent the better part of 6 hours trying to determine what pass proficient(400-499) and pass advanced(500-600) mean only to discover they mean very little.
 Most movies I recall dealing with time travel involve the moral dilemma of changing the future and touch upon the unforeseen consequences of trying to do right and fix the past.  Looking at my results I am not sure I would actually know what to go back and do better.  For me movies on time travel tend to be predictable and boring...my hope is to avoid the same fate for this post.  My recent SOL results have been anything but predictable.   The most notable film was Back to the Future.  That is exactly where we are headed with all this testing.  Backwards.  No one except Dr. Emmett Brown(Christopher Lloyd) knew exactly how the Flux Capacitor worked and it caused a bunch of trouble for Marty(Miachael J. Fox), these tests are much the same.  Difference here is we don't see them so we wouldn't know what to fix.

I observed recently while my students took the World History up to 1500 SOL test.  It was a painful experience and makes you feel about as powerless as one could possibly be. This feeling is one which today's teachers are growing more familiar with.  As I monitored them with the other proctors I could not help but imagine they were missing all kinds of questions as they took the 60 question online assessment.  Surely they were making stupid mistakes on content we have drilled on in the previous weeks and more importantly learned earlier in the year.  These were smart kids and most wanted to do well on this SOL and yet somehow I could just sense they weren't....ARGH!  Much of this anxiety stemmed from the results of last semester's test, which were unexpectedly lower than they had been in the past. 

So there's your plot for the movie.  The protagonist... the teachers... against this antagonist testing culture.  I could have walked around and looked at the test and maybe grunted or found some other way to inform them of their mis-steps.  But I did not, which is unlike what appears to have happened in DC and elsewhere.   Believe it or not most schools are actually staffed by ethical people who follow the rules.  Though these individuals are overlooked by the news in favor of the student punching, criminal, just plain bad people teachers who do sometimes hold jobs in our profession.  But back to the testing ...the whole process is cloaked in so much secrecy it can sometimes be rather dumb.  I'll admit I am not even certain what they are being asked and how it is being asked and I teach the course! 

During the test I sat stone faced with the other proctors while they worked and my mind played out all the scenarios.  I knew many of them were missing questions.   Would that mean little Susie will fail?  What about little Johnny...he's not that good with tests and can't concentrate for more than 5 minutes.  I know I had asked similar questions of them recently in the run up to the test, but I had likely done so in a slightly different way(I'd say better). Will that mess them up?  For those that don't know these tests are in fact rather easy for most kids.   Higher level kids know this and as a result few do any "real" preparation.  I did ask them to take a post SOL survey on how many had "studied" beyond the reviews we had done in class.  Only 7 of 29 students raised their hands.   Awesome.  Speaking generally all they care about is the test and yet, it appears they don't care.  Despite being "easy" to pass it appears hard to receive a Pass Advanced score.  And what of the kids whose skill set means any form of testing is a challenge?  I have found too often their level or preparation quite similar.  But too many of them do not do as well.  Thinking more globally on the impact the weeks leading up to the test we went into test shutdown mode and these weeks after have been like waiting in line at the grocery store(all you want to do is get out).  Tell me again how this is learning?

Thanks to the State Board of Ed what they did now affects how I am evaluated.  Am I mad?  What do you think?  All I know is this test doesn't really hold them accountable.  School yes, teacher yes, them no.  When they miss a bunch of easy questions it hurts me not them(and the scores say they did miss questions).  I would be hurt no matter the result if they did poorly which was the case for some of them.  These kids wanted to do well but not quite as much as I wanted them to do well.  I think that's part of what makes them kids.  The only impact from recent value added legislation so far is that I am more disillusioned with the whole process.  And keep in mind this I am referring mostly to the highest achieving population at our school.  Our district ranks pretty well compared to the rest of the state. So does this really measure me as a teacher?   Click Here to Link to an executive summary that was sent along with individual results.  It is an overall summary sent to each teacher measured by the assessments.  It is highly scientific and I think I understood it properly.    It was signed by John Winger.  Seriously though... I questioned my impact when I saw a big drop in Pass Advanced scores for my kids.  I'll save my analysis for another post but the process of analysis was mind numbing.  One might understand my frustration when you see there is nothing on the VDOE site that references or even defines the terms Pass Advanced/Pass Proficient/Fail  for social studies End of Course Tests.  Click here for Detailed Performance Level Descriptors

Compared to last year the message was clear...overall average-down, number of perfect scores-way down, pass advanced-down, the trend is uniform and absolute.  My results were similar to those from my first semester students though my year long classes did perform slightly better(Click Here to see my reaction earlier in the year)  Most teachers shared  similar experiences.   One senseless revision to the testing process is the fact that when they are done I now read from a script when they submit their test.  Hypothetically speaking if a student has left 3 questions blank and says they are done, I am forbidden from saying something like "Hey there Bobby-Joe, you left two questions blank, come on now... let's finish up and maybe answer those last couple...what do you say?"  I know, I know a kid that leaves questions blank deserves what they get.  But it could be they have to use the restroom and just want to finish.  Maybe they can no longer stand being in a gym filled with 200+ kids.  Maybe their parents got in another drunken brawl last night and for the moment at least this test doesn't matter much.  Get my point?  Yet I cannot do the most human thing and remind them to answer all the questions.  How does that assess what they really know or even what the teacher has given them in terms of value?

This test and all the tests leave much to be desired as does how we value and use them.  I'll play devil's advocate and ask why since 2000 they have only released 1 full test and only 13 additional questions in Social Studies  (This page shows every other testing area has released tests).  For some reason Earth Science and History are kept locked inside Fort Knox Kentucky.   Sad to think this is the best we can do.  I know we could do better.  I have and do all year long in my classroom yet the last weeks schools are consumed by this maelstrom of testing.  The disjoint between those IN the classroom working with kids and those IN control of policy only continues to grow wider.  Who is at fault?  Based on everything I read it is the opinion of policymakers that the problem must be at the bottom. That mentality is our biggest problem.   If you've been down with the Underground then I think you have a pretty good idea how I feel about that.  So if I could travel in time what would I do?  I'd don't think I'd go backwards so much as forwards....That would then give me the proper insights to affect positive change today.  I'd find that bolt of lightning that finally saved Marty and generated enough electricity to propel the DeLorean to 88 MPH and use it to steer our schools in a better direction.  Towards the future.   Deep stuff ... I know...


Hey the Underground is gonna be at half speed for summer so there will be a drop in the frequency of our posts.  We'll do our best to maintain the quality but come on...we are teachers after all.

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.