No Animal Left Behind

From SOS Million Teacher March on Facebook. Click the cartoon for the link.

America's Disdain for its Children

America's Disdain for its Children by Valerie Strauss

If we did actually give a hoot about kids: 

• We would never tolerate a poverty rate among children of 21 percent.

• We would never pretend that any single institution, especially public schools, can overcome the problems caused by a life in poverty. 

• We would stop our hypocrisy over standardized tests.

• We would not demonize teachers, but rather treat them as professionals.

• We would stop thinking that we can tell anything about really young kids by subjecting them to silly tests...Quality pre-kindergarten would be a national priority.

• We would stop underfunding public school systems. 

• We would stop pretending that charter schools are the be-all and end-all of public education.

• We would stop pretending that teachers unions are the cause of all of the ills of public education,

• We would really try to consider what kids need and think.

• We would remember that the public school system is our most glorious civic institution.

Valerie Strauss shows once more why she's one of the most important voices in education today.

~~~

No Cow Left Behind

I got this in my spam email today. The NCLB legislation is still sitting in the congress waiting to be reauthorized or not. Perhaps they would consider adding this to the bill...

Thought you'd enjoy this bit of Vermont humor coming from a school principal (Kenneth Remsen, principal of Underhill School in Jericho, VT). It appeared in the Burlington Free Press on 7/25/03.

NO COW LEFT BEHIND

As a principal facing the task of figuring out all the complexities of the No Child Left Behind legislation and its impact on education, I have decided that there is a strong belief that testing students is the answer to bringing about improvements in student performance.

Since testing seems to be a cornerstone to improving performance, I don't understand why this principle isn't applied to other businesses that are not performing up to expectations. I was thinking about the problem of falling milk prices and wondering why testing cows wouldn't be effective in bringing up prices since testing students is going to bring up test scores.

The federal government should mandate testing all cows every year starting at age 2. Now, I know that it will take time out of the farmers' necessary work to do this testing every year and that it may be necessary to spend inordinate amounts of money on the testing equipment, but that should not detract us from what must be done.

I'm sure there are plenty of statistics to show what good milk producing performance looks like and the characteristics of cows who achieve this level of performance. It should, therefore, be easy to figure out the characteristics necessary to meet this standard.

We will begin our testing by finding out which cows now meet the standard, which almost meet the standard, which meet the standard with honors and which show little evidence of achievement.

Points will be assigned in each category and it will be necessary to achieve a certain average score. If this score is not achieved, the Department of Agriculture will send in experts to give advice for improvement. If improvements do not occur over a couple of years, the state will take over your farm or even force you to sell. Now, I'm sure farms have a mix of cows in the barn but it is important to remember that every cow can meet the standard. There should be no exceptions and no excuses. I don't want to hear about the cows that just came to the barn from the farm down the road that didn't provide the proper nutrition or a proper living environment. All cows need to meet the standard.

Another key factor will be the placement of a highly qualified farmer in each barn. I know many of you have been farming for many years but it will be necessary for all farmers to become certified. This will mean some more paperwork and testing on your knowledge of cows, but in the end this will lead to the benefit of all.

It will also be necessary to allow barn choice for the cows. If cows are not meeting the standard in certain farms, they will be allowed to go to the barn of their choice. Transportation might become an issue but it is critical that cows be allowed to leave their low performing barns. This will force low-performing farms to meet the standard or else they will simply go out of business. Some small farms will probably go out of business as a result of this new legislation.

Simply put, the cost per cow is too high. As taxpayers, we cannot be expected to foot the bill to subsidize farms with dairy compacts. Even though no one really knows what the ideal cost is to keep cows content, the Legislature will set a cost per cow. Expenditures too far above this cost will be penalized. Since everyone knows that there are economies of scale, small farms will probably be forced to close and those cows will merge into larger farms.

Some farmers may be upset that I proclaim to know what is best for these cows but I certainly consider myself capable of making these recommendations. I grew up next to a farm and I drink milk.

I hope you will consider this advice in the spirit it is given and I hope you will agree that the "no cow left behind" legislation may not be best for a small state like Vermont.

THIS MESSAGE TRANSMITTED ON 100% RECYCLED ELECTRONS

~~~

No child left unfed...No child left without health care...

Thomas Friedman in his editorial, Teaching for America, speaks highly of Arne Duncan and his Department of Education Plan.

Duncan, with bipartisan support, has begun several initiatives to energize reform — particularly his Race to the Top competition with federal dollars going to states with the most innovative reforms to achieve the highest standards. Maybe his biggest push, though, is to raise the status of the teaching profession.

The "most innovative reforms?" If that means opening more charter schools, paying teachers based on test scores (merit pay) and firing the staffs of "failing" schools, then I guess he's right. However, none of those "innovative reforms" result in higher achievement.

He then says that too many of our teachers come from the bottom half of their graduating classes...

If you look at the countries leading the pack in the tests that measure these skills (like Finland and Denmark), one thing stands out: they insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating classes.

And again, bringing Finland into the conversation...

That is why Duncan is starting a “national teacher campaign” to recruit new talent. “We have to systemically create the environment and the incentives where people want to come into the profession. Three countries that outperform us — Singapore, South Korea, Finland — don’t let anyone teach who doesn’t come from the top third of their graduating class. And in South Korea, they refer to their teachers as ‘nation builders.’”

I agree...we need the best teachers we can get...with the best training. But there are some things about Finnish (and other examples) education that Friedman conveniently left out.

Here's Stephen Krashen commenting on the same article:

Tony Wagner, Arne Duncan, and Thomas Friedman ("Teaching for America," Nov. 20) agree that Denmark, Finland, and Sweden outperform the US because their teachers graduate in top one-third of their classes

There is another explanation: Poverty. The percentage of children living in poverty in Denmark is 2.4%, in Finland, 2.8%, and in Sweden 4.2%. In the US the percentage is 21.9. Poverty means poor nutrition, substandard health care, environmental toxins, and little access to books; all have a strong negative impact on school success.

Middle class American children attending well-funded schools outscore nearly all other countries on international tests. Our overall scores are unspectacular because we have such a high percentage of children living in poverty.

Increasing pressure on teacher education, teachers, and parents will not improve achievement, but if we can protect children from the effects of poverty, American tests scores will be at the top of the world.

(Paul Thomas of Furman University also responded. You can read his response HERE.)

The "reformers" (Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, now with the help of Oprah Winfrey and Thomas Friedman) ignore the social costs of poverty when they push their "reforms." They say that poverty is just an excuse, yet when we look at the real data, schools which have a larger number of students living in poverty have higher drop-out rates and lower test scores.

Lack of nutrition, health care, higher levels of lead poisoning...all contribute to the "Achievement Gap." The Achievement Gap won't disappear until we solve the nutrition gap and the health care gap.

~~~

Unintended Consequences

Unintended consequences are always difficult for people to predict because...well...because they're unintended.

When No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001 the members of congress believed that focusing on helping the poorest performing children would be beneficial. Who would argue that we should "leave children behind?" The fact that the law, and it's successor, Race to the Top, has had a detrimental effect on those students the laws were specifically written to help, was unintended...or was it?

I've started reading the blog, Accountable Talk written by Mr. Talk, a veteran New York City teacher.

In his latest post, Unintended Consequences, Mr. Talk refers to his TDR, or Teacher Data Report. The report he got was based on, among other things, the test scores of his students. His report was poor because, as he says,

Besides the fact that the formula is wildly unpredictable, I had the added disadvantage of teaching extremely needy kids in an otherwise excellent school. I have no one to blame for that but myself; when my AP asked whether I'd take on the most challenging students they had, I agreed. I had some crazy idea in my head that helping the students who needed it most was what a teacher should do. So I did it.

When the TDR was released, he realized that he was in a difficult situation. He scored poorly because he chose to teach the most difficult students. Should he continue to do that...and continue to get poor TDRs or quit volunteering and teach students who were "easier" and less "needy?"

Sadly, he chose the latter.

I just quit volunteering to teach the very children who needed me most. When my AP asked me to take them on again (which he would not do unless he knew I'd been successful), I said no. This year, those kids are with another teacher who has difficulty just getting them to sit in their seats. (This is not a knock on her. She is new and these are tough kids).

This year, his students are not the most difficult and they will, he is sure,

...vault me back into the rarefied air of the "excellent" teacher.

He is, frankly, concerned about his future.

I have a family to support and they are my primary duty. I can not take a chance that I will lose my job over some erroneous data.

And he's not the only one.

There are other consequences of the TDRs that became apparent to me immediately. I've had discussions with at least three excellent teachers who have told me that they are now planning on leaving the DOE for sure, because they can not see how they will ever be able to put in enough years to retire from this system. They feel everything is stacked against them. Because it is.

High quality, dedicated teachers are leaving the profession because they are being made the scapegoats in the corporate push to demonize public schools. They are being forced out because people who know nothing about education, children and schools are changing the way teachers must teach. For teachers, it's no longer about helping kids learn, it's about survival in a crazy world. When you have to pass up teaching the most needy children in the school because your livelihood depends on the students' achievement level few people are going to choose to take on the challenge of teaching the nation's most difficult students.

Another consequence is that no one wants to teach the grades or subjects that are targets of the reports. I have a feeling that a LOT of teachers are going to request K-2 assignments or look to leave middle school so they don't have to be subjected to public humiliation should their numbers not stack up with whatever new system the DOE devises.

This "unintended consequence" is preventing the best teachers from volunteering to help the students who need them the most. No Child Left Behind is leaving children behind. The Race to the Top is causing schools to push test scores to the detriment of learning. This situation, like the one in Los Angeles (where the LA Times published test scores from teachers' classes labeling the teachers successful or failing) is not about education. It's about blaming teachers for the problems our society refuses to deal with.

Mrs. Mimi said it best in a post she had...She went to comfort a child crying in frustration over "the test." I've printed this before, but the content is equally chilling today...if not more so. We are hurting children because billionaires and politicians who don't know a thing about education are setting education policy.

Read this from Mrs. Mimi's blog...

Don't tell anyone, but I used to just call it quits after a while.  I mean, enough is enough, right?

Me: (noticing that one friend, a friend who struggles in reading... I mean STRUGGLES) (kneeling down and whispering) Are you okay?
Friend: (tears streaming down face) (STREAMING!) I just can't do it anymore. (Is your heart breaking yet?)
Me: I know it's hard, sweetie, but you just have to do your best.
Friend: The words are just too hard.  I'm not smart enough.
Me: (trying not to let tears stream down my face because I have to get this kid to try and finish) Just try a few more and then we'll stop.
Friend: And we'll go back to learning?
Me: (choking back sob) Yes, honey, we'll go back to learning.

This child...this "low achieving" child...is wise enough to know that testing is not teaching or learning. Test scores don't always measure what's important.

~~~

Is Anyone Listening?

We keep shouting but no one seems to be listening. The corporate/federal school "reformers" seem to have access to all the media...the Washington Post and the New York Times, NBC News, Oprah, even movie theaters. Does the average American know that there are people who object to the Gates/Broad/Duncan/Superman view of American schools? I hope so...but I don't see it.

As Marion Brady writes in the article referenced below,

...the failure of those now setting policy to respond to my arguments says they’re not listening, or not understanding, or are so sure they know what they’re doing they don’t need to pay attention to someone who was wrestling with issues about which they consider themselves expert before many of them were born.

Are the reformers listening? Does Bill Gates know that people disagree with him and his corporate money? Does Arne Duncan know that his policies go directly against what research has shown to be best for the schools in the country? Does President Obama know that poverty is, indeed, the major factor in student achievement and that our middle class and upper class students lead the world in their achievement?

Perhaps not. Perhaps they really believe that charter schools, which, on the whole are no better than public schools, are the answer to our "failing schools." Perhaps they really believe that teachers don't try hard enough and we're somehow hiding our real teaching skills until they pay us for test scores.

So...they need to listen. They need to listen to Stephen Krashen when he reminds them that Gerald Bracey showed that poverty was the major problem with student achievement.

The entire basis for the national standards/testing movement is our low scores on international tests when compared to other countries. Our scores, however, are only low because we have such a high percentage of children in poverty, compared to other countries that participate in international tests. When we consider only middle-class children who attend well-funded schools, our math scores are near the top of the world (Payne and Biddle, 1999).

They need to listen to Marion Brady when he decries

...Congress as America’s school board, and members of the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce cutting the checks that help elect and keep the members of that board in office...

Is anyone reading the Gesell Institute's report on their 18 month study which shows that even though we're pushing academics in Kindergarten children still develop at their own rate...proving once again that One Size Does Not Fit All!

In many districts, worries about benchmarks and test scores have made kindergarten less play-centered and developmental gaps more pronounced. When some children couldn’t handle expectations and were disrupting class, the William H. Frazier Elementary School in Fallbrook, Calif. began “Preppie Kindergarten” to separate those children who are ready for today’s kindergarten from those who are not. These children spend two years in kindergarten rather than one.

“All these kids were struggling and we wanted to give them a better start,” says Preppie Kindergarten teacher Kim Kinsman, who requires children to sit 15 minutes—not 30—at a stretch. “You cannot make a baby walk before they are ready to walk,” she says. “You cannot push a child. If they are not ready, they’re not ready.”

There's clear evidence that poverty is the real problem and that children learn at their own rate no matter how much we test them. The best teacher in the world can't change a child's rate of development. The best teacher in the world can't overcome the enormous negative influence of malnutrition and hunger, lack of health care, environmental toxins, and lack of access to books. American students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families outscore nearly all other countries on international tests. Our overall national scores are lower because the US has a very high percentage of children in poverty (over 20%, compared to Denmark's 3%).

Who's listening?

~~~

We Didn't Devote Our Lives to Testing

As a candidate, Barack Obama spoke against No Child Left Behind. In the clip below from his presentation to the National Education Association's Representative Assembly he described a few of the problems with NCLB.

At 1:01 into the clip he said, "Don't label a school as failing one day and then throw your hands up and walk away from it the next."

Immediately following that (1:10) he added, "Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of a year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles in a standardized test."

Finally, he acknowledged teachers' dedication to our profession by saying (at 1:27), "You didn't devote your lives to testing. You devoted it to teaching, and teaching is what you should be allowed to do."

Watch it below...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9EkX_gX6R8&feature=channel

Where does President Obama stand? Well, it seems that President Obama is doing exactly what Candidate Obama spoke against. The same "test and punish" strategy which No Child Left Behind used to leave so many children and schools behind is now being used in Race to the Top.

Instead of supporting "low performing schools" (aka "failing schools") Race to the Top throws up its hands and walks away...it closes schools and replaces them with charter schools which, as shown in recent research, do no better than public schools. (See also here and here.)

Instead of supporting the teaching of problem solving, higher level thinking skills, creativity, and the ability to apply knowledge, Race to the Top will likely increase "test-prep" by placing even more emphasis on standardized tests. Race to the Top is encouraging testing in more subjects more often...and misusing those tests to evaluate teachers.

President Obama has lost his direction. He's apparently lost the understanding that he had as a candidate. More testing, charter schools, closing schools, and firing staffs won't solve the problems of Public Education. They will only make things worse. Magic Bullets like these won't help children learn. It's time to focus on the real problems of the "Achievement Gap" -- lack of jobs, poor nutrition and health care, limited access to reading material, and the rest of the damaging effects of poverty.

Random quotes...

...on poverty.

When people have said "poverty is no excuse," my response has been, "Yes, you're right. Poverty is not an excuse. It's a condition. It's like gravity. Gravity affects everything you do on the planet. So does poverty." - Gerald Bracey

~~~

As former voucher champion Paul E. Peterson of Harvard notes, all our favorite silver bullets have failed to change scoring patterns over the past half-century: the end of legal segregation, extra federal dollars for students in poverty, high-stakes tests, schools of choice—via charters or vouchers, teachers with more degrees, teachers' unions, improved wages for teachers, and even smaller schools. Of course, we've never done any of these wholeheartedly, but would we want to? We've in reality increased the separations across race and class. And no legal victory has produced equal school resources for the rich and poor. At one short moment in the 1980s we contemplated rethinking the nature of the "evidence" for improved schooling—shifting from "credit hours" and standardized tests to an older form of assessment:"Show me." It didn't last even a decade. Peterson's latest hope is technology and distance learning. Actually, I lived through that once before. Remember? But, I wouldn't dismiss it entirely—as I wouldn't any of the fads. We will not be a nation in the forefront of invention, however, if we stop inventing different answers to the $64-million-dollar questions: What do we want? And, how much do we all have to agree?  -- Deborah Meier, Bridging Differences Blog

~~~

"...Education Department data show that disadvantaged children enter kindergarten already three months behind the national average in reading and math skills, and never catch up. That's because their advantaged contemporaries are not standing still. They continue to benefit from travel, summer camp and other enriching experiences. Even the best schools have no control over these factors. It's little wonder then that there will always be a gap in academic achievement.

"California is a reminder of why it's so important not to draw conclusions based on incomplete information. Its public schools were once the envy of the nation. But since the 1960s, their performance has declined dramatically. Is this the result of a new generation of ineffective teachers in the classrooms, or the growth of teachers unions that protect them?

"Some say yes. But there's another more likely explanation. During the period in question, California's immigrant population soared because of the 1965 federal legislation that opened the gates to citizenship. (This does not begin to take into consideration the countless number of the undocumented.) One in four students in California is an English language learner, compared with fewer than one in ten on average in other states.

"Almost 60 percent of the state's total public school population consists of Hispanics, many of them low-income. This demographic is reflected in the fact that half of California's students qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches.

"Why are these numbers relevant to the achievement gap? The Public Policy Institute of California reported that only 50 percent of elementary schools with the highest share of poor students made adequate yearly progress in 2007, while 98 percent of elementary schools with the lowest share of poor students did so.

"If any doubt remains, California released its Academic Performance Index rankings on May 13, showing continued vast disparities in achievement between schools serving poor Hispanic and African-American students and schools serving middle-class white students.

"Let's not give up on trying to change this discouraging picture, but at the same time let's not delude ourselves into thinking that schools alone are the answer, whether in California or in any state. Extraordinary teachers can be powerful agents in helping students make progress in learning, but they are not miracle workers who can make the achievement gap disappear.

"Believing otherwise creates anger in taxpayers who have been led to believe that if only schools were like they used to be in the past there would be no gaps. It's a myth." -- Walt Gardner's Reality Check

~~~

The Disparity Gap

America talks about closing the Achievement Gap, which makes it easy for us to ignore the other gaps between black and white children; The homeowner gap...the health care gap...the income gap...the poverty gap...the unemployment gap...the incarceration gap...the murder gap. Close these gaps and there won't be an achievement gap.

~~~

Because America’s schools are so highly segregated by income, race, and ethnicity, problems related to poverty occur simultaneously, with greater frequency, and act cumulatively in schools serving disadvantaged communities. These schools therefore face significantly greater challenges than schools serving wealthier children, and their limited resources are often overwhelmed. Efforts to improve educational outcomes in these schools, attempting to drive change through test-based accountability, are thus unlikely to succeed unless accompanied by policies to address the OSFs [out-of-school factors] that negatively affect large numbers of our nations’ students. Poverty limits student potential; inputs to schools affect outputs from them. -- David C. Berliner, Poverty and Potention: Out-Of-School Factors and School Success

~~~

More proof...

Race to the Top relies heavily on teachers' pay and evaluation being tied to student "performance" i.e. scores on high stakes achievement tests.

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet reported recently on the results of a study of Chicago's teacher performance-based pay. It turns out that it doesn't work well.

A study released today by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. shows no evidence that the Chicago Teacher Advancement Program improved student math and reading tests when compared with a group of similar schools that did not use the system, Education Week reported...

The concept ignores the fact that standardized tests in schools today were not designed as teacher assessment tools and aren’t valid measures, but that isn’t stopping a headlong rush into implementation in school districts across the country.

There's a double standard at work here. Teachers and schools are being taken to task for not using research-based or scientific-based programs, yet the USDOE is ignoring research which goes against its political agenda.

The process at work today is guaranteed to fail. The Race to the Top requires that states use what doesn't work. When schools fail the teachers will be blamed, fired, and vilified.

Public Education in the United States is being pushed over a cliff.

Counting down the days...5

It's the weekend...five days left.

Last week I attended a retirement dinner for the four people from my school who are retiring. One thing that came out during the "entertainment" was that I don't particularly care for standardized tests.

While that's true, what was left out of the discussion was why I don't care for them. In my opinion, standardized tests have their place, however, that "place" has long since been removed from the educational landscape.

Standardized tests are just that - standardized. They tell us how students compare to others who have taken the test. This can give us information about what academic weaknesses a student may have compared to others. In other words, it can be diagnostic. Limitations of standardized tests have to be considered when using them to diagnose. There is information, however, that standardized tests supply which can be helpful.

Walt Gardner wrote about the standardized tests which teachers take to "prove" that they are good teachers...and about how the paper and pencil test does not really prove performance ability. The same is true for students. Standardized tests do not measure everything. They need to be used ONLY for what they do measure.

The issue of standardized tests being misused is further complicated by the push by the current administration to use student scores on standardized tests to evaluate teachers. Standardized tests do not cover everything learned in school. They weren't developed for that purpose. Further, there is no evidence that they are accurate measures of teacher effectiveness.

One of the most important things about science and statistics is that in order to make a conclusion about a hypothesis, one has to make sure that external variables are not influencing the outcome of an experiment. In other words, if you are hypothesizing that sunlight is necessary for plant growth, and you have designed an experiment in which some plants receive more sun than others, it's important to make sure that other variables like the amount of water, soil quality, and air temperature are kept constant. If they're not, then you cannot assume that a change in growth was due to light differences, and not something else.

The same is true for standardized tests. Teacher A works in a school in a wealthy district. Her students are well cared for. They receive regular dental checkups, adequate meals, plenty of rest and exposure to literacy rich environments at home and at school. Teacher B works in a school where 80% of the students live in poverty. Many of them only have two decent meals a day...the breakfast and lunch they get at school. They may have dental problems which have never been identified. They may have difficulty sleeping in crowded homes with little exposure to print. There may be absent parents. Their medical, nutritional, and emotional needs may not be adequately met.

It's clear that the variables outside of the school make things more difficult for the students of Teacher B to learn. Should both teachers be subject to evaluation based on student test scores?

Even if we use a "growth model" in which the amount of growth the students make during their time with a teacher is used to grade the teacher, the variables get in the way. Middle class and wealthy students will have fewer outside influences which interfere with their growth than children living in poverty.

Finally, much time is spent norming standardized tests to make sure that they accurately measure that which they claim to measure. There are, as yet, no methods for establishing whether standardized tests of students accurately measure teacher competence. There have been no studies done to establish the effectiveness of standardized tests for that purpose, and the tests themselves were not developed for that purpose.

During the presidential campaign Candidate Obama said that we shouldn't judge students based on one standardized test. Yet, the department of education is now encouraging school districts and states to rely on those tests to judge teachers and teacher quality.

Using inadequate and inappropriate tools to measure teacher quality will not help improve teaching and learning. We need to develop better and more complete ways to evaluate teachers. We need to develop better and more complete ways to evaluate students.

Counting down the days...12

Twelve teaching days left...counting today.

Some thoughts...

Every child is different.

The last 15 plus years of my career have been spent working with students who are "at-risk." Simply put, that means that they have trouble succeeding in their general education classrooms for a variety of reasons.

The most common area of failure in a general education classroom (at least where I have been working) is in the area of Reading and Language Arts (writing, spelling, etc). Why is that? What is it about Reading that makes it so difficult for some students?

Obviously that's a question that has stumped educators and researchers for decades. The "Reading Wars" which pitted "Whole Language" against phonics is proof enough of that. In my opinion, there is no "right" way...there is only the way that is best for each child and that's not the same for everyone.

Standards and Standardized Tests: One Size Fits All -- or Does it?

The "Reading Wars" is just a small example of one of the most pressing issues in the education system of the USA - the idea that there is one quick fix which will solve all the problems. I've been guilty of that myself, looking at poverty as the focus for all our public school ills. There's no one size fits all solution to teaching Reading, just as there's no one size fits all solution to general achievement in the public schools.

In her short, but powerful book, One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards, Susan Ohanian maintains that standards are made to make education neat and tidy. The problem with that is that education is not neat and tidy...it's messy. Children don't conform to our rules and requirements. We can't shape minds and personalities, we can only guide them.

She wrote about her conversation with an editor of USA Today,

"...he knows his own child's reading and math scores; he even admitted that he's satisfied with those scores and is well-satisfied with his child's school. 'I know my daughter's teacher is excellent,' he said, adding, 'I know you're probably an excellent teacher, too, but we need high standards to raise up all those teachers out there who aren't excellent.'"

She continued...

"This is the tactic made infamous by Joseph McCarthy. Point to the unnamed dastardly creatures who are bringing the country to the brink of disaster. In the old days we were going to make the country safe for democracy by instituting loyalty oaths. These days, we'll do it by testing kids and testing their teachers, too....

"The USA Today editor seemed to be operating on a mirage therory of education. This fellow sitting in  the Virginia suburbs is telling me that poor kids in crumbling urban schools will have equal opportunitiy for a quality education if we insitute national tests and tell kids they can't graduate if they don't master quadratic equations."

Blame the Teachers

The trend now is to blame "bad teachers" for all the problems. Newsweek had an entire issue dedicated to improving the schools by "getting rid" of bad teachers and generally blames bad teachers and the nasty teachers' unions for all the ills of the educational system.

There's no doubt that there are inadequate teachers in our schools...and there's no doubt that teacher's unions protect their members (which is what unions are supposed to do). However, in Indiana, at least, unions can only guarantee that teachers  receive due process. It's the responsibility of the school leaders, the administrators and school board, to prove just cause that a teacher is incompetent. Believe it or not, teachers unions do not want bad teachers teaching. Tenure in Indiana means that a teacher has to have a hearing in which their inadequacies are proven...they get their day in court to defend themselves against the accusations of those who would fire them. A fair hearing...day in court...confronting the accusers...that's how we do things in the US.

How many bad teachers are there? The annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of the public's attitudes toward public schools has consistently shown that parents of students in the public schools are satisfied with the education their children receive. A full 75% of parents gave their local schools an A or a B as a grade. The lower ratings for schools came from a distance - from people who did not have children in their local schools...and people who were rating the nation's schools as a whole.

How is it that local schools are good, but the "other schools" out there in some unknown place are not? Aren't all schools local?

It's clear that Americans are happy with their local schools and the teachers who staff them.

Here's the point...

• Not everyone learns the same way and at the same speed. There is not one best way of doing something in education. It's not like wiring a house or repairing a car. One size does not fit all.
• A few bad teachers don't have the power to ruin all the schools in the country. Most parents are happy and satisfied with the schools their children attend.

Americans want a quick fix. If there's a problem, then there should be an answer to that problem that will "fix" it once and for all.

That won't happen.

News and Commentary

The Rich and Powerful
Diane Ravitch talks about some issues in public education...and the fact that those opposed to public education include the richest people in the country (billionaires Eli Broad and Bill Gates, for example) and the most powerful people in the country (President Obama and Secretary of Ed Arne Duncan). Together the rich and powerful have decided that "school reform" = privatization.

Diane Ravitch: Schools for $Sale: Inquire at U.S. DOE

Central Falls Teachers Rehired
The Central Falls Teachers have overwhelmingly approved the tentative agreement between the teachers and the school board. President Obama says this is a good thing. He also said that firing them all was a good thing. Read the NYT report.
 
Going Back to School: Fired Staff is Rehired

Lead Poisoning in DPS
Does it surprise anyone that many low achieving children in the Detroit Public Schools have been affected by lead poisoning from living in poverty along with lead based paint.

Lead and Learning: Detroit Public Schools

Gifted Children are Stepchildren in School Reform
Walt Gardner makes the case for improving the education of our gifted children. With all the talk about diminishing the achievement gap between low income and middle class students, gifted children have been ignored. Their academic and social needs must be addressed as well.
 
Walt Gardner: Gifted Children are Stepchildren in School Reform

Charter School Scandals
The Rich-and-Powerful, in their quest for more money made on the backs of our children, have used charter schools as the main tool to combat "failing public schools" (read: public schools serving children in poverty). But do the charter schools work any better? The research to date indicates that they don't. Most investigations show that charters are no better or worse than public schools, though there is some research showing that, in general, charter schools are "failing" more than public schools. Here's a blog (which I have also added to my blog list at right) which deals with scandals in charter schools. We're wasting incredible amounts of money and jeopardizing the future of our children on the unproven "improvement" of charter schools...money which should be spent improving the public schools.

Charter School Scandals

Tentative Agreement in Central Falls RI

In March I wrote about Central Falls Rhode Island...how the entire staff was going to be fired because the school was "failing."

There has been a tentative agreement between the teachers and the administration. In her blog, The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss wrote:

The teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island who were all recently fired may get to keep their jobs after all. A tentative agreement has been reached between the teachers union and school district officials and will be voted on tomorrow

 Tomorrow is Monday. She promised to let us know what happens in this case. Stay tuned.

Research-Based Hypocrisy

This afternoon teachers in Indiana received an email from Dr. Tony Bennett, Indiana's State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The purpose of the email was to make nice to teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. You can read the kind letter HERE.

All done? By the way, did you notice the paragraph which began the letter?

IDOE needs your feedback! The General Assembly passed a new law that requires IDOE to create a plan to ensure students are able to read proficiently by the end of third grade. If they cannot, they must be retained. IDOE released the first draft of this plan to the State Board of Education earlier this week and would appreciate hearing your feedback and ideas for improving specific parts of the plan. Please click here to review the draft plan and email us at 3rdGradeReading@doe.in.gov through May 24 with your ideas. Thank you!

I read the "plan" and noticed that it mentioned "scientifically-based research" or "research-based" instruction nearly two dozen times when describing the type of reading program each school in the state needed to develop. They even included the scientifically based findings of the National Reading Panel* as emphasis.

Unfortunately it seems that no one at the Indiana DOE has read scientific, research-based information about retention. The "plan" blithely talks about retention as an "appropriate remediation technique." There's no mention of 100 years of research which shows that retention not only is expensive and not effective in the long run, but is often harmful to students.

To be fair, there are some reasons for which students would not be considered for retention in the third grade. One of those reasons is if they had been retained at least twice already. It's true that there's really not much use retaining a student who has already been retained twice. Research shows that nearly all students who have been retained more than once drop out without graduating. The school system won't have to worry about those students in the long run.

As I've written elsewhere, the idea of retaining a student in a grade until he/she can pass the one-size-fits-all test has been tried before. It failed in New York and it failed in Chicago. All the scientifically based research indicates that it is going to hurt more students than it helps.

Why do these people think it will be any different here? Are they being hypocritical or just ignorant? Either way, it's the students who will pay the price.

Check out the list of retention links on the sidebar.

Oh...and one more thing...re: the email link for us to click on to send comments... As of 3:00 PM ET this afternoon (May 7) it was a dead link. I tried it and got a "recipient unknown" response. I wonder if they really want our input.

*Click HERE for an interesting view of the work of the National Reading Panel.

Teacher Absenteeism

R and R days -- Mental Health days -- whatever you call them...teachers need them.

For the last few months we've been "fighting" with our superintendent about teacher absences. She claims that teacher absences cost the district nearly $1 million in substitute costs. This includes substitutes for teachers who are out of the building at the district's request for in-services and conferences, but the bulk is, as she has expressed, because of teachers using personal days, sick days, illness in the family days, and other benefit days.

These days are bargained as part of the collective bargaining agreement (contract) between the teachers association and the school board. Changing the number of days would require negotiations, something this superintendent has not shown an interest in doing.

One of the items in the contract allows teachers to miss up to 5 unpaid days a year. This does not cost the corporation any money since the teacher, who is paid a higher rate, is not paid, while a substitute, paid at a lower rate, is. The negative result of unpaid days, is that the teacher is out of the classroom and instruction suffers.

Last week, the superintendent instituted a policy of requiring unpaid days to be planned ahead of time. Some principals did not understand that, however and have denied teachers unpaid days. The teachers association responded with an email to teachers clearly explaining what benefit days are available and when a teacher can use them. Unfortunately, the email (written by me) implied that teachers can take an unpaid day at any time without informing the administration ahead of time. This was in error and will be corrected as soon as I can get onto the corporation's email (which seems to be down right now).

Just by coincidence, Walt Gardner, in his education week blog, Reality Check, wrote about teacher absences and its effect on the achievement gap.

He discussed how difficult it is to recruit the best teachers for the worst schools where "worst" equals schools with the highest poverty rates. Teacher absences in these schools is higher than other places and he explains why.

...Not surprisingly, absenteeism was highest in some of the poorest schools, where the problems teachers face boggle the mind.

Although the data collected came from only New York City, it's likely that similar findings would turn up if other large urban districts were examined. That's because they share certain characteristics. The most important is that the schools serve overwhelming numbers of poor students from chaotic backgrounds. As a result, the deficits in socialization, motivation and intellectual development that teachers are forced to deal with before they can even begin to teach subject matter are daunting. Although the best teachers may be better able to cope than their colleagues, they are not immune from the cumulative effects.

The larger question, however, is why teachers take as many days off as they do in the first place. Reformers are clueless. They like to point out that there are typically 184 days in a school year. In the business world, there are about 250 days in a calendar year. So why do teachers, who work fewer days, need to take more than the allotted ten days a year that most districts provide?

It's a fair question that warrants a thoughtful answer. The fact is that teaching in many ways is like acting. Teachers are always in the spotlight. Their audience, however, too often is not there by choice. As a result, teachers are under enormous stress simply to get their attention, maintain order, and attend to non-curricular issues. In short, they have to practice triage. This demand eventually exacts a price, which is reflected in the number of days they are absent.

Teachers need to recuperate from the daily grind of teaching, and teachers in high-poverty schools need to recuperate more frequently.

Until the economic and social conditions for our most at-risk students improve there will continue to be an achievement gap, as well as a teacher absence gap.

Florida's Attempt to Destroy the Teaching Profession

In the past few days the state of Florida has taken the forefront in the nation-wide assault on public education and the teaching profession.

Diane Ravitch put it this way:

The assault on public education and the teaching profession is now in full swing, as states scramble to qualify for the billions of federal funds in President Obama's Race to the Top program. The latest outrage just occurred in Florida, where state legislators passed an extraordinarily stupid piece of legislation. This law abolishes teacher tenure and ties teacher pay to student test scores. In addition, the state will no longer consider either education or experience as factors in teachers' compensation. What teachers earn will depend on their students' test scores.

In other professions experience is a positive thing. To the legislators in Florida, however, teaching experience is not a plus. The national trend towards assuming that all or most teachers are incompetent established by No Child Left Behind and reinforced by the Race to the Top has been codified into law in Florida.

Valerie Strauss, in her Answer Sheet blog on the Washington Post web site wrote:

...the folks behind this either don’t care about public education or don’t understand a single thing about it...The bill was sponsored by state Sen. John Thrasher, the new head of Florida’s Republican Party...He got that post with the influential support of Florida’s former governor, Jeb Bush...Bush’s brother, Neil Bush, co-founded a company called Ignite! Learning that created software used in Florida for FCAT test prep.

What a small world.

It’s pretty clear that this bill is intended to force teachers to accept lesser pay and benefits and a worsening of conditions in the classroom...Florida’s teachers are going to have to make a very loud stand against it. It would be very helpful if they had the support of Education Secretary Arne Duncan...Duncan and President Obama have unfortunately supported the notion of using standardized test scores as a measure to evaluate teacher performance. This is what happens when idealogues take the notion to extremes.

There's very little chance that the current administration in Washington will have any objections to this. They have been against teachers and public schools from the day they took office (during the campaign, then Senator Obama decried the over use of standardized tests, especially when he was talking to teacher). They cheered when an entire school full of teachers were fired because of the poverty that they and other politicians refuse to address (See also here, here, here and here).

Thankfully, teachers in Florida are speaking out - as we all should do.

Again, from Valerie Strauss:

They are taking to the streets, literally and digitally, to transmit their horror over legislation that would end teacher job security, increase student testing and tie teacher pay to student test scores. It also prohibits school districts from taking into account experience, professional credentials or advanced degrees in teacher evaluation and pay...They also plan to bring their protest to Washington D.C. soon, to let their representatives in Congress and federal officials know that they don’t want what they consider an assault on their livelihood and on public education...

Join the facebook group supporting the Florida teachers.

Who benefits from National Standards?

This article by Paul Sonne appeared in the Wall Street Journal of March 2, 2010. Who really benefits from the push for National Standards? Does it help the students? Does it close any "Achievement Gap?" It's plain that the benefit of National Standards is for the business community. That's why they're pushing so hard for it.

It's businesses like Pearson, through the Obama administration, who are defining Education "reform." Competition is the rule...close the "businesses" which are failing...judge the workers by their "product"...fire the failing employees...

When you scratch the surface of the current attacks on public education you'll find big corporations (e.g. Pearson, McGraw-Hill) and wealthy businessmen (e.g. Bill Gates, Eli Broad). There's money to be made in the new education industry - charters and private schools, vouchers programs, and the re-segregating of the American public school system.

Poverty is still the main issue that WE as teachers have to deal with nationwide.

Education and publishing company Pearson PLC reported a 46% jump in 2009 net profit to £425 million ($648 million) Monday, boosted by an education business that CEO Marjorie Scardino says could be helped further by U.S. President Barack Obama's push for common state standards in math and reading...

The education division's growth could be boosted in the U.S. in the coming year as 48 states develop common core education standards for math and language arts as part of a voluntary state-led effort encouraged by the White House, Ms. Scardino said...

The implementation of core standards would reduce the burden Pearson faces in adapting materials to individual state requirements. It could also open up an opportunity for Pearson to win a new contract measuring the progress of that common-standards initiative. The degree to which Pearson will reap benefits depends on how many states ultimately opt into the common standards and how specific they are...

Ms. Scardino said Pearson could also benefit from $4.35 billion in "Race to the Top" grants the Obama administration will begin distributing to states this year for education innovation and reform. Data systems that measure student success, one of Pearson's key product areas, are an emphasis of the grant plan. 

For another view of the National Standards Movement see, Debunking the Case for National Standards by Alfie Kohn.

Punishing the Children in Florida

Mandatory Student Standardized Testing With Punishments is Cruel Privatization Power Play Against Public Schools

By BuzzFlash
Created 03/20/2010 - 3:22pm
PAUL A. MOORE, PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER IN FLORIDA, FOR BUZZFLASH.COM

The children will in some cases become sick and throw up. Others will panic and wet themselves. Still others will complain of nightmares and plead for reassurance from parents and teachers. But no excuses are countenanced in the Sunshine State. The state once again went ahead with its annual ritualistic destruction of 8 and 9-year-old children this past week through the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

All the children psychologically injured came from families without the means to take refuge in private schools where the FCAT is banished as junk pedagogy. Thankfully, affluent parents can protect their children from the test. Poor and working class mothers and fathers are trapped though. They watch anxiously from the sidelines on test day and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, the best does not always happen. When a child "fails" the FCAT reading in the 3rd grade, and thousands do, it is the official policy in the State of Florida to punish the child. The State has rejected the idea of extra care and remediation and embraced the incentives provided by fear and public humiliation. The "failed child" sits in the same 3rd grade class again throughout the following school year. Former friends and classmates go happily on to their 4th grade adventures in learning. They will watch each other come and go every day in nearby classrooms with the full understanding of why they are now and forever separated.

Again, the State of Florida punishes the child. No adult--not a parent, not a teacher, not a principal, not a District Superintendent, not a school board member, not a Florida Commissioner of Education, not a member of the Florida Department of Education, not a legislator, not a governor--no grown person need fear any sanction for poor FCAT performance. The State of Florida has decided to punish the 9-year-old alone.

There is a sleeping giant in Florida's public schools. The teachers are the most powerful and potent force in the system. Those teachers made a huge mistake when they let the FCAT into the schools and into their students lives. But teachers were ambushed. They grew up in world without FCAT. They all went to school before punishment and psychological battering became official government education policy. As children today's teachers were taught that presidents and governors and legislators cared for all kids. It was before they learned a governor could be devious.

When teachers let the wolf, the FCAT, into their classrooms it emboldened the leaders of the pack. So they're back now to destroy those very teachers. State Senator John Thrasher and other allies of former Governor Jeb Bush have proposed Senate Bill 6. It will tie the paychecks of teachers to test scores. At first the legislation will put the jobs and livelihoods of every inner city teacher and special education teacher in jeopardy but they intend in time to get to all public school teachers.

They are out to achieve the vision of a man by the name of Milton Friedman. Sixty years ago Friedman wrote, "I believe that the only way to make a major improvement in our educational system is through privatization to the point at which a substantial fraction of all educational service is rendered to individuals by private enterprises. Nothing else will destroy or even greatly weaken the power of the educational establishment--a necessary pre-condition for radical improvement in our educational system.. . .The privatization of schooling would produce a new, highly active and profitable industry. . . ."

Senate Bill 6 is intended to work the same way FCAT did with children--batter teachers into lower pay and lesser benefits and more overcrowded classrooms through fear and intimidation. Then they will snuff out what is left of public education and install their "new, highly active and profitable industry...." And they are counting on Florida's teachers to commit suicide.

That remains to be seen. The only reason an FCAT booklet has ever been distributed in a Florida classroom is because a teacher has agreed to do it. They can pass Senate Bill 6 or Senate Bill 666 and it's null and void unless teachers administer their tests. They're prepared to deal with teachers lobbying and other forms of pleading for mercy. They won't even be bothered by thousands of sign carrying teachers marching through the streets of Tallahassee.

But imagine the teachers refusing to administer the tests. Pray tell, what would they do about it? Can they fired everybody and turn the children of Florida loose in the streets? Yes, the sleeping giant may yet awake in time to save public schools and heal the children.

Central Falls...

Central Falls Rhode Island.

All the teachers are being fired. Fewer than half of them will be rehired for next year. This is the Duncan/Obama way of improving a school.

Where will they find the teachers willing to teach here? Who would be stupid enough to want to work at a place with that kind of job security?

Mrs. Mimi said it best (in the first of several rants on the subject), I think [Warning: When Mrs Mimi gets upset she uses language inappropriate for young children]...

Holy crap, I don't even know where to begin. There are so many parts to this puzzle that are being conveniently ignored. You all, in your infinite wisdom, have made some fantastic comments about this issue on my Facebook fanpage.

I mean, how can these ass hats seriously fire all the teachers with a straight face and a clear conscience while conveniently ignoring the fact that the school is PLAGUED BY POVERTY. I guess you can't fire poverty, but you certainly shouldn't IGNORE IT ALL TOGETHER IN A DESPERATE DISPLAY OF DEMONIZING AND FINGER POINTING. I was watching an interview on CNN (the Anderson Cooper one...just scroll down) where [someone] just dismissed poverty with a, "well, you can't do anything about that."

Really?

Cuz I know it's a tough mountain to climb to, you know, end poverty, but to ME, saying that we "can't really do anything about poverty" is just about as pathetic, sad and depressing as saying, "well, we can't do anything about this school, so let's just fire all the teachers Donald Trump style." (Bad hair and power tie not necessarily included.)

...There is a low rate of academic success among the students at this particular school....First of all, can we just give a shout out to the bullshit that is standardized testing being used as the only measurement of student achievement? I mean, that's a whole post in and of itself. Second of all, what curriculums are being utilized? How much freedom to teachers actually have to teach in ways they believe in? Or are we telling them exactly how to do their jobs, providing them with sub-standard resources and then getting pissed when it doesn't come out all rosy?

...And again - these kids are LIVING IN POVERTY. These friends are probably coming to school hungry, dealing with ridiculous home lives, perhaps even working a job to try and help their families and we're surprised when they don't ace their math quiz????? And I hate to hate on people who are already struggling, but what about their parents? WHAT ABOUT THEIR ROLE IN THEIR CHILD'S EDUCATION?

It just seems to me that a lot of people (administrators, policy makers, parents, etc) want to put in their two freaking cents when it comes to telling us how to do our jobs but then want to take no responsibility whatsoever when shit hits the educational fan. I'm just sayin....if you can't take the heat, THEN LEAVE US ALONE AND LET US DO OUR JOBS!

Am I going to blindly stick up for every single one of those teachers? I hate to say it, but the answer is no. I'm sure there are teachers in that building who suck. Just like there are workers in every job in every industry everywhere who are sub par weak links who everyone talks about but no one does anything about. Now I know it's hard to fire a teacher, and I don't even want to get started on a debate about tenure (need to keep the old heart rate under 140 for my little friend here), but it IS possible. There IS a process to do that when a teacher demonstrates an inability to be effective in the classroom. Where are the fingers pointing at the transient administration who failed to follow this explicit process? I mean, I recently wrote about the teacher evaluation process in which numerous times I witnessed administrators never actually pay attention to my lesson and then write up a report on the wrong subject...

So we're completely comfortable in ignoring the failure of this process and these individuals but have arbitrarily decided to pin 100% of the blame on teachers?

Teachers are being unreasonable when they asked for more money for additional work. I guess the school system wanted teachers to eat with the children (To increase instructional time? Make them nauseous? Increase aspirin consumption and therefore boost sales?), add minutes onto their instructional day, spend time outside of school tutoring students and attend weekly 90 minute meeting. Can you please show me another profession in which people are asked to work more hours, take on greater responsibility and take on some seriously ridiculous odds for no extra money? It is also clear to me that the people suggesting this have never actually eaten in a school cafeteria. And to them I say, "Friend, shit ain't gettin' done at lunch. Those kids need a break!!!"

They keep pointing out the salaries of the teachers, saying that they make $72,000 a year, which judging by the facial expressions of the finger pointers, sounds ridiculous to them. They make arguments such as "teachers are putting their salaries ahead of the needs of the kids."

Um, I'm sorry, but did I miss the word VOLUNTEER somewhere in my job description? Why do people think it okay to play the altruism card here? Because if "good intentions" were the only requirement for this job, we'd all be screwed. Maybe teachers should have demanded payment in sunshine and rainbows...there might be some of that to spare.

Teachers are the scapegoats...

Quotes...

•••••

"I think it high time Congress enact similar mandates for other professions that utilize a single measure to determine success. Dentists should be evaluated on how many teeth they save, doctors should be evaluated on how many patients they save, lawyers should be evaluated on how many cases they win, accountants should be evaluated on much money they save clients, and engineers on how many buildings they've designed get built. Congress should also enact national, comprehensive standards for each profession without any input from members of said professions since we know they can't be trusted to make informed decisions or contribute to the discussion in any meaningful way. Anyone who won't come on board should be fired and labeled a dissident. Conformity and control are a must, so teachers should be thankful they are first in the firing line."

—Priscilla Gutierrez, Huffington Post comment

•••••

" Children can be trained to get the right answer, like parrots or seals, but the higher scores are not a measure of a good education or a good teacher."

—Diane Ravitch, Wash. Post, Answer Sheet, 1/19/10

•••••

"I would like to know who in our country would like their pay to be based on the actions of a group of children. "

—Laurie, in response to R. Weingartner, On Point, 1/26/10

•••••