2019 Medley #18: A Blogoversary

Blogoversary, Online Pre-K, The Waltons, Privatization, Teachers work hours,
Teacher morale, Vouchers, Readaloud,
Let Children Play

2019, BLOGOVERSARY #13

Today, the 14th of September marks the thirteenth year that I've kept this blog. I'm too stubborn to give it up...and I still feel the need to vent about what's happening in the realm of public education...

...my mission, when I began here, was to have a place to vent. It still works for that despite the depressing political and educational landscape. And who knows, maybe last year's "Teachers' Spring" will catch on and the teachers in Indiana will rise up. So I'll keep going...just in case someone is listening.

Off-Topic

Most of the time I focus on education. Now and then, I'll venture into national politics, music or baseball.

Yesterday, September 13, for example, was the birthday of Roald Dahl, a horrible man who wrote delightful books which I read to dozens, if not hundreds of second and third graders during my years in the classroom. Check out this thoughtful article about reading Dahl's work, Problematic Favorites: Re-reading Roald Dahl. Also, see my own discussion about Dahl...in the section titled "Facing Racism" in this post from 2017.

I also regularly blog about the birthdays of famous composers Mozart or Beethoven, as well as baseball heroes like Jackie Robinson.

For the most part, however, I've posted about public education in America.

Changes

Much has changed in the state of public education since I began this blog in 2006...not much of it for the better (I haven't given up hope, however). Some examples...

• In 2006 Indiana taxpayers supported one publicly funded school system. In 2019 we pay for three -- charter schools, the constitutionally mandated public schools, and Indiana's largest-in-the-nation school voucher program.

• In 2006 there were one million students in publicly funded charter schools around the country. Since then that number has grown to more than three million. Charter schools are private schools...in many cases, unaccountable private schools. They need to be phased out.

• The voucher program in Indiana began in 2011. Since then the state has spent more than a half-billion dollars on mostly unaccountable voucher schools...around $160 million for the 2018-2019 school year. Vouchers don't help students improve their learning. The program has never been evaluated. Let's just call it a failure.

• We've spent millions on student achievement testing in Indiana. This year's failed ILEARN test cost Indiana taxpayers $45 million. We still misuse tests by using them to grade schools and school systems. The A-F grading system continues to punish schools with high-need students. We misuse tests by using them to evaluate teachers. Tests should be used for what they were designed for. Achievement tests are designed to measure student achievement, not teacher effectiveness. It's invalid to use the tests to evaluate teachers.

• We misuse the IREAD-3 (included in the $45 million) test to punish third-graders through in-grade retention. Apparently, our lawmakers still haven't learned that retention damages children. They still haven't learned that we have a poverty problem, not an academic achievement problem.

• Since 2006 Indiana's teachers have lost most of their collective bargaining rights, have had student test scores added as a basis for their evaluations, and have had the lowest rate of salary increase in the nation (since 2002).

• Since 2006 our nation's presidents have mostly continued the tradition of appointing non-educators to the position of Secretary of Education. Since 2006 the only person serving as Secretary of Education who had any experience in K-12 education was John King Jr. He served for 12 months.

• About seven percent of Indiana students are retained in grade between kindergarten and age seventeen. The best I can say about that is that we're not the worst in the country.

I could go on...and I have, here, and here.

Until things improve for public schools in America, I'll still need this blog as a place to vent.

THE PLAGUE

Online Pre-K Continues To Spread Like A Big Stupid Plague

Among the most stupid new ideas to come out of the digital revolution is that of online preschool...digital nursery school.

But what about children who have no preschool to go to...kids who live in preschool deserts...kids in rural areas where there are no preschools? Peter Greene answers with this...

Yes, the argument is going to be that this will reach children who don't have access or finances to go to pre-school, that this can be a resource for isolated families, to which I say this is like saying there are families that don't have access to enough nutritionally rich food, so let's mail them all cases of diet soda and arsenic. Yes, this targets families and children who need something-- but what they need is not this. Nobody needs this.

SEND MONEY TO WALTONS AND DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION

Inside the web of Arkansas’s School Privatization Empire

The Walton Family Foundation and members of the Walton family are at the forefront of the movement to privatize public education. Every time you shop at Walmart (or at these other companies) you're sending money to folks who use their billions to destroy public education.

A free quality public education for every child is a foundational principle of American society and a right guaranteed by Arkansas’s Constitution. Everyone in this state, regardless of religion, race, income, disability or any other characteristic deserves an equal opportunity to learn and succeed.

Unfortunately, a vast network of corporate interests and wealthy individuals are chipping away at this bedrock of our democracy in an effort to turn public education into a marketplace where private interests can profit off of our students.

Across the nation, states have implemented and expanded charter schools that are unaccountable to the public and voucher programs that have siphoned off public taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition.

This powerful and well-funded effort is nationwide, but one of the biggest contributors is based right here in our state, and each year the network of privatizers working in Arkansas is growing.

TEACHERS DONATE THEIR TIME

Teachers Work a Shocking Amount of Overtime Hours and It’s All Unpaid

I've been retired since 2010. Most teachers still donate large amounts of their time.

...teachers are putting in close well over 2,000 hours a year, depending on their situation. How does that measure up with other professions? Well, according to the Pew Research Center, the average American only works about 1,811 hours a year. Factor in the thousands of teachers that need to take on a 2nd or 3rd job just to pay the bills and the number of hours teachers work throughout the year is off the charts. It’s a staggering mathematical exercise and one that doesn’t seem to be getting better any time soon.

Source: Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

LACK OF RESPECT

"Tired Of Being Treated Like Dirt" Teacher Morale In The 2019 PDK Poll

Teacher are leaving the classroom...and young people aren't becoming teachers. We have a shortage of teachers in Indiana and the U.S. because teachers are underpaid, overworked, and disrespected. It's not hard to understand why young people would choose a different profession.

Normally, if there's an employment shortage in a particular area, management will raise salaries and improve working conditions to incentivize new hires to enter the field. Not so with education. The shortage seems to be preferred by legislators and policymakers. I've suggested before that this is likely gender based...that teachers, being mostly female, are disrespected by our paternalistic society.

Add Peter Greene's Curmudgucation to your daily blog list.

Inadequate pay is the marquee reason, and notably regional. Public school teachers are far less likely to feel fairly paid in the South and Midwest. That reason is followed closely by stress and pressure, which is followed by a lack of respect. Lack of support. Teaching no longer enjoyable. Testing requirements. Workload.

These are tied together with the single thread of distrust and disrespect for teachers. This has been evident on the national stage with issues like installing a Secretary of Education who had previously dismissed public education as a "dead end" or a Secretary of Education who asserts that student failure is because of low teacher expectations. Education has also carried the modern burden of the thesis that poor education is the cause of poverty, or even our "greatest national security threat," and so the entire fate of the nation rests on teachers' backs. And yet, teachers are not trusted to handle any of this; instead, we've had decades of federal and state programs meant to force teachers to do a better job. In the classroom, much of these "reforms" have sounded like "You can't do a good job unless you are threatened, micromanaged, and stripped of your autonomy." There is a special kind of stress that comes from working for someone who says, in effect, "You have a big important job to do, and we do not trust you to do it."

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

The new terrain of the school voucher wars

Vouchers haven't improved student learning. When vouchers were first introduced in Indiana we heard from their supporters that private schools were better than public schools. We heard that students learned more and that poor students should be given vouchers so they could "escape failing schools." But, despite protestations from "reformers" that was never really the point.

Now we know voucher schools don't outperform public schools so the supporters of vouchers have changed their tune. Now it's all about "choice." The truth is, it's always been about the money. Private schools want public money (with as little accountability for it as possible). With vouchers in Indiana, they get it.

Researchers — including several voucher advocates — have conducted nine rigorous, large-scale studies since 2015 on achievement in voucher programs. In no case did these studies find any statistically positive achievement gains for students using vouchers. But seven of the nine studies found that voucher students saw relative learning losses. Too often, these losses were substantial.

THINGS TO DO

Want to Raise Smart, Kind Kids? Science Says Do This Every Day

Parents, read to your children every day, starting from the day they're born. Even when they have "leaerned how to read" themselves, continue to read to them.

Teachers, read to your students every day, starting from the first day of school. This will be the easiest, most enjoyable, and most effective part of your reading program.

The best thing about this particular “keystone habit” for raising smart, kind kids is that it’s completely free, it takes just 10-15 minutes a day, and anyone can do it.

To get smart, kind kids, you don’t have to sign your kid up for expensive tutoring or have twice-daily screenings of the movie Wonder.

All you have to do is this: Read to your child. Even if they already know how to read to themselves.

Because research shows reading aloud is the powerful keystone habit that will raise smart, kind kids. 

PLAY IS CHILDREN'S WORK

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read

A new book by Pasi Sahlberg. It's next on my list to read.

Pasi was flummoxed by the bizarre education concept of “preschool readiness.” Compounding the culture shock was the stunning price tag: $25,000 a year for preschool, compared with the basically free, government-funded daycare-through-university programs that the boy would have enjoyed back in Finland.

Pasi had entered an American school culture that is increasingly rooted in childhood stress and the elimination of the arts, physical activity and play—all to make room for a tidal wave of test prep and standardized testing. This new culture was supposed to reduce achievement gaps, improve learning and raise America’s position in the international education rankings. Nearly two decades and tens of billions of dollars later, it isn’t working. Yet the boondoggle continues, even as the incidence of childhood mental-health disorders such as anxiety and depression is increasing.

🚌🚌🚌

Testing: Who is Advocating for the Students?

The following was sent to me from a third grade teacher in Indiana. She asked to remain anonymous for several reasons...the main one being fear of retribution. Indiana teachers are no longer protected by seniority and, while this teacher has many years of high quality service with good evaluations, the fear is real, and understandable.

We have been communicating through email for some time. One interesting piece of information -- this teacher works in a high income area. In an email to her last week, I mentioned that her students would probably do better than students who came from low income families because of the strong correlation between poverty and achievement.

Here are some of her thoughts about ISTEP and the way her school and school system dealt with it.

NOTE: I've heavily edited this to prevent the identification of the teacher, school or school system. It's a long post, but well worth the time to understand just what is actually happening in our schools. Of course...I've made some comments!

We start with the fact that the people who make the tests obviously don't understand child development. Third graders are 8 and 9 year old children...many of whom are just learning to manipulate abstract concepts.

Stu,

I have been barraging our local building administrators with my serious concerns about not only the technical issues with the testing environment, but also the logistics of presenting multi step math problems, some of which include graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, etc, on a computer screen. We/I teach a lot using technology tools, but I also provide a paper version of most things and encourage the problem solving skills, many of which involve dissecting the problem on paper, and utilizing the problem solving steps we’ve adopted as a school. In other words, I encourage students, who are still learning problem solving strategies, to interact with what’s on the paper. I tell kids to draw on the aforementioned presentation types to help them solve. Students can’t do this when the entire problem is presented on a computer monitor. And there was definitely not enough time for them to reproduce these details accurately enough to be useable on paper in most instances.

• I saw kids using their finger on the screen to help make sense of what was being presented.

• I saw kids trying to reproduce and entire graph on paper so they could dissect the meaning…not something doable or really practical anyway, especially with the time limits given.

• I saw kids using their hands in the air to try to make sense of the measurement concepts being presented.

It’s completely obvious that money is behind this trend and it is not what’s best for kids, and doesn’t allow them to show the ‘skills’ they have actually accumulated or mastered during the year. It’s also a clear trend that understanding the pitfalls of the so called ‘technology enhanced problems’ goes beyond assessing skills, but more closely seems like an IQ test, or a test in which the test taker needs to be able to be ‘in the mind’ of the test maker in order to correctly attack the problem.

Administrators are in a no-win situation...teachers are in a no-win situation...students are in a no-win situation...and all because tests come to the "market" before they're ready, before schools and school systems have the technological capacity to deal with them, and before they have been adequately tested. The "market" has come to rule in education...profit is the goal, not student learning. Assessment is now a big business that drives everything about public education. It's wrong...and it's not good for children.

I’m so furious and am sharing it with whomever will listen or is in a better place than I to pass on the concerns. I was given the go ahead to communicate with our district testing coordinator, and I did. After carefully documenting all the technical issues I experienced during testing, so far, I shared them with him, along with my thoughts…which were broadly advocating for paper pencil…at least for math. In just one of the four practice tests we were required to give, I personally documented 19 test stoppages due to technical issues alone. And let me tell you, even with additional proctors, it’s not easy to read the test script, solve technical issues, document technical issues, and then manage time limits on the test. I needed to be in proximity to my ADHD kids who will just click without processing, and I wasn’t able to do that along with all my other distractions from simply being a proctor. Frankly, I asked our principal if someone could be a proctor, so I could hover over and around certain kids who simply will not be as focused on a test presented on a computer screen and can just click to get it done when it’s challenging, but I think there was some concern that this may be some sort of testing procedure violation. The district's test coordinator told me in an email that this was a ‘Broken Test’ in his view. Yet today, we received an email with the canned district message that the district and CTB were totally prepared for the online test and were justified giving it. It was clear to me that they’d heard a lot of negative feedback and wanted to tell everyone to just accept it because 'we say you need to.' The email also stated that the district did not have a choice to give paper pencil, even though we were told they were available in the district for use. I believe this again is simply a canned statement to diffuse the outcry from teachers.

I do not hold our local building administration accountable in any way for this testing nightmare, but I do put it on them to share their disgust, which I don’t think they do…at least not to my satisfaction. I understand the futility that comes along with state mandates and district decisions, but who is advocating for the students? The only people in my immediate realm that can share my frustration and disservice to children, are the building administrators. Obviously, the political process has avenues, but unless administrators and districts are raising the seriousness of the concerns, we will be simply condoning more of the same. [emphasis added]

Through her questions below my teacher friend is basically describing what's happening in the real world. Teachers are leaving the profession. Fewer college students are going into education. States are lowering standards for entrance to the teaching profession, and legislatures are making teaching a lower paid, less secure job. Is this how we attract the best and brightest to one of our nation's most important jobs?

Much of my concern is for lower achieving schools and not my personal classroom. Generally, my kids did well, but would have done better with a reasonable paper pencil test. The thought of docking a teacher’s pay based on the outcomes of tests which are clearly technically and, in my opinion, functionally flawed in their current presentation, should be a scary concept to all the stakeholders. The negative impact on students attending lower achieving schools would obviously be magnified because these students are even less adept at the technological presentation…putting them at even a more unfair position to succeed. Will it be up to administrators to decide what data they use to dock a teacher’s pay? Will the disadvantages I just described figure into the equation? I think if we don’t address these issues, we will be faced with a ‘teacher exodus’…which from what I hear from colleges and universities is already happening based on enrollment. This ‘teacher exodus’ will further devalue the position of teachers because the replacements may not be in it for the ‘love of the job’, but because they simply need a job.

There are many factors that lead to a student's level of achievement. Most of them come from outside of the classroom, but about 15% of a student's achievement gains can be attributed to the classroom teacher. If the teacher is saddled with a large number of students, students with special learning problems, or many students with behavior issues, the teacher's effectiveness will be diminished. Judging a teacher based on student test scores is an invalid use of student achievement tests. Student achievement tests, once they are deemed reliable and valid, should be used for measuring student achievement, period.

This leads to another serious concern I have about how well the classes are balanced at the start of a school year. Being a good classroom manager has consistently gotten me more difficult behaviors through the years. Some administrators I’ve worked under put little effort into making well-balanced classrooms. This is a critical component to consider, if teachers are going to have their pay docked based on test outcomes. I typically get more difficult students because I’m a good classroom manager, but it makes the job more difficult, and unbalanced when compared to other teachers at times. So would it be fair to compare my test results with other teachers, or how about a teacher who consistently gets a better behaved classroom because they are a poor classroom manager? Is this fair in a ‘performance based’ salary scale? Teachers who do a good job should not be rewarded with a more difficult class. Classroom behavior issues have a huge impact on classroom success, and I think I could write a book on the significance of a well-balanced class, but I’m guessing lawmakers are not making this an emphasis in their quest to link scores and teacher performance.

We're losing good teachers...who will replace them?

I was so frustrated when I left school, after only having finished the first four days of nine of round two of ISTEP, that I knew I need to just get away from the building. It’s a sad scenario because I still love the part of my job that is teaching and working with young children, but the testing and culture are killing the profession and will ultimately devalue the job.

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2013 Medley #25: Teacher Stress, Depression and Demoralization

Teacher Stress, Depression
and Demoralization

STRESS

Teaching is not the only stressful job in the world. In fact, most jobs at which I've worked (retail sales, wholesale management, music performance, home remodeling and construction) have had levels of stress to which I've had to adjust. The stresses, which are different for each career, can be great or small depending on the job and location.

When teachers complain about the stress of their jobs, non-educators often respond that "everyone has stress at their jobs" and teachers aren't any different than anyone else. To a certain extent that's true. No one would argue that first responders -- police, fire fighters, EMTs -- and soldiers in combat have jobs which come with very high levels of stress.

In fact, the American Institute of Stress claims that it's not the job so much as a combination of job, worker personality and an individual's sense of control over his or her situation, which predicts stress.

Workplace Stress

Stress is a highly personalized phenomenon and can vary widely even in identical situations for different reasons. One survey showed that having to complete paper work was more stressful for many police officers than the dangers associated with pursuing criminals. The severity of job stress depends on the magnitude of the demands that are being made and the individual’s sense of control or decision-making latitude he or she has in dealing with them. Scientific studies based on this model confirm that workers who perceive they are subjected to high demands but have little control are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Given this information it's easy to see that the stress affecting educators has changed over the last several decades. Teachers have never had complete control of the achievement levels of their students. Out of school factors have always played a major role in student achievement and still do today. Now, however, with the test and punish design of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, demands on teachers are increasing while their levels of control have in fact decreased. Teachers see increased childhood poverty in their classes along with its associated out of school factors which affect academic progress. Meanwhile they are being held more and more accountable for things they can't control.

DEPRESSION

The relationship between chronic stress and depression is well documented. Lack of control increases stress and the continued stress can and does lead to depression. Health.com has listed teaching as one of the top 10 careers with high rates of depression.

10 Careers with High Rate of Depression

The demands on teachers seem to be constantly growing. Many work after school and then take work home.

In many areas, they learn to do a lot with a little.

“There are pressures from many different audiences—the kids, their parents, and the schools trying to meet standards, all (of which) have different demands,” Willard says. “This can make it difficult for teachers to do their thing and remember the reason they got started in the field.”

Mr. Fitz Gets Depressed: a graphic novella with commentary - July 2013

Mr. Fitz is a comic strip written by Florida Middle School teacher David Lee Finkle. While experiencing his own bout with depression caused by the changes to his (our) profession, he decided to do a series of comic strips on teachers' depression.

There is an epidemic of teacher depression, demoralization, and stress in this country, and for a while I was part of it...

Before I ran this series, I asked a question on my Mr. Fitz Facebook page. This sounds like a downer, and you don't have to give away who, but how many of you know a teacher who has suffered or is suffering from, a bout of depression because of what is happening to our profession? I'm curious. I have, and I'm addressing it in the strip soon. That question resulted in 98 responses, unprecedented for my little Facebook page. Every single one of them was affirmative-- yes they knew depressed, stressed teachers. Many of them admitted it was them. And most of them knew people who had thought about leaving the profession.

He came out of the experience with a new Teacher Mantra -- "Teach Happy, Teach Right, Speak Up" -- an excellent answer to the "reformers" who are trying to destroy the education profession. To give you a taste...

Teach right. Great teachers are not data-driven, Quantifiable Learning Gains Facilitators. Low test scores are a symptom, and focusing on raising scores treats the symptom but ignores the real problem. [emphasis added]

You can read the entire series HERE.



Secret Teacher: stress and fear of criticism pushed me into depression - September 2012

How is being a teacher and being depressed different from depression in other other careers? Here's an article by a teacher from the UK who describes it clearly...

...working as a teacher makes it harder then most. Imagine performing on stage to a packed house, only the audience isn't the paying public but is fully made up of the most fearsome critics. Throughout the show, these critics give you their review; if it's going well they might let you know but if it's going poorly they definitely will. The rewards can be great but so can the consequences. Suffering the way I do, the need for things to go well is almost overwhelming, when they do the highs are mountainous, when they don't the lows are deep canyons; the highs are fleeting but the lows are long lasting.

Depressed, stressed: teachers in crisis - August 2008

Why do most teachers quit within their first 5 years? Lack of respect, poor working conditions, overcrowding and underfunded classrooms, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, fewer job protections and low salaries all contribute. Many teachers can't deal with the political nature of teaching...they didn't understand that public schools can be affected by politicians from state houses and executives offices hundreds of miles away.

For many, however, it's the lack of support for their students. Schools in high poverty areas -- and even those in areas with lower levels of poverty -- need wraparound services. Having counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists available for all students is important. In addition, the services have to be available at the time they are needed. Students who have to wait while living without food, in abusive homes, or while suffering from PTSD are not going to be successful. Not having timely wraparound services available means that teachers take on the burden of watching their students suffer. Again...from the UK...

'I had two eight-year-olds in my class, one of whom was probably being sexually abused by her parents and the other was seriously self-harming,' she said. 'Both were being looked at by social services but neither investigations were sufficiently progressed to remove the children concerned.

'During the school day, I was monitoring these children on behalf of social services. I had to engage them in all sorts of conversations, spending hours keeping a detailed log of everything we'd said, and making myself available for them at any time of the school day if they wanted to talk - despite not being given any professional training or guidance.

'Then at the end of the school day, I'd have to hand these children over to their parents, despite knowing what they were almost certainly going home to. I'd torture myself every night. It was torment. I couldn't get them out of my mind.'

Both children were eventually removed from their families by social services. But this was just one example of the stress the 37-year-old Duckworth has experienced during her 10 years as a teacher. Four years ago, she had a nervous breakdown caused, she said, by a range of issues but essentially due to the uniquely stressful nature of the teaching profession.

DEMORALIZATION

How Bad Education Policies Demoralize Teachers

Depressed teachers aren't necessarily "burned out" teachers. The federal and state policies which are damaging public education are demoralizing teachers. That's what leads to depression...

Demoralization, according to Santoro, occurs when much of the value of teaching has been stripped away by rigid, ill-conceived education reforms, creating a high level of frustration and helplessness among teachers. “Burnout” is not the issue. As she explains to NEA Today, the work of teaching has changed and it is therefore up to school communities and policymakers to help restore the “moral rewards” of teaching.

How does teacher demoralization differ from teacher burnout in terms of cause and effect?

I make a distinction between demoralization and burnout primarily in terms of cause. The effects – apathy, bitterness, depression, exhaustion, isolation – may, in fact, look remarkably similar. Burnout is studied most frequently by psychologists who examine how an individual’s personality, physical and mental health, and coping strategies help to manage stress. Burnout tends to be characterized as a natural by-product of teaching in demanding schools and leaves the problem of burnout as an issue of teacher personality and/or naiveté. Burnout is characterized as a failure of individual teachers to conserve their personal store of resources.

In demoralization, the resources – what I term the “moral rewards” of teaching – are embedded in the work itself. Demoralization occurs when the job changes to such a degree that what teachers previously found “good” about their work is no longer available. [emphasis added]

MetLife Survey of the American Teacher

I'll repeat the question -- Why do most teachers quit within their first 5 years? Part of the answer is low morale. Haim Ginott wrote, "Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task."

He said "...at times..." In other words...most of the time miracles don't happen. The impossible is usually not achieved and teachers get blamed for not overcoming out of school factors beyond their control. That's one reason teacher morale is now at its lowest point in decades.

In the context of additional challenges for leading schools toward greater improvement, the continuing decline in teacher morale identifies itself as an urgent priority. During a time when expectations and standards are increasing for effective teaching and learning, teacher morale is yet another declining resource, one that is associated with schools with diminished budgets and other resources, fewer students meeting standards and fewer colleagues highly rated for how well they are doing their job.

Job satisfaction mirrors teacher morale. When stress is high, morale is low. When morale is low, job satisfaction is also low. A lot of it has to do with money. State legislatures around the country have allowed money desperately needed for public schools to be channeled into vouchers for private schools or to charter schools.

Politicians, pundits and policy makers blame schools and teachers for not solving the problems children bring in to school with them. Money is transferred from public schools to private and charter schools further limiting how public schools can deal with children's problems. The situation is only getting worse.

Stress among teachers has increased since 1985. In 1985—the last time this question was asked and when job satisfaction was also low—more than one-third (36%) of teachers said they felt under great stress at least several days a week. Today, that number has increased; half (51%) of teachers feel under great stress at least several days a week. Elementary school teachers experience stress more frequently. They are more likely than middle school or high school teachers to say they feel under great stress at least several days a week (59% vs. 44% vs. 42%). The increase since 1985 in the number of elementary school teachers who experience great stress at least several days a week is also noteworthy—59% today compared to 35% in 1985...

Budget decreases are associated with lower morale and greater stress among teachers. Teachers at schools where the budget has decreased within the past year are less likely than teachers at other schools to be very satisfied with their profession (33% vs. 48%). Furthermore, they are more likely to experience great stress on the job at least several days a week (55% vs. 46%). [emphasis added]

FINDING SOLUTIONS

How Can Teachers Overcome Depression and Strife? - February 2013

Teachers need to support each other. The support isn't going to come from politicians, the local or national media, or even from local administrators. Teachers have to take on the task of helping each other...

Most teachers have noticed that the best learning happens when students are provided with nurturing relationships where they are supported and encouraged to confront challenges. Many teachers have probably also noticed that the same holds true for them as well. School environments where relationships are strong and supportive enable teachers to be happier, healthier, and more sustainable. And ultimately, better able to stay in a profession where they can do what they love. That is because human beings are social creatures. So, not only do healthy, positive relationships allow us thrive, we actually need them to survive. Therefore, it seems that while the burden of challenging relationships may be the problem- the relief of healthy, supportive relationships are also the solution.

101 Ways to Cope with Teaching Stress

Acceptance of the realities of teaching doesn't mean you have to like the way things are. It doesn't even mean you can't work to change things. But sometimes, chocolate, Sharpies, stress balls or Happy Hour can go a long way to relieving the stress. Lowering your stress levels as a teacher will extend your career and be better for your students.

Teachers have one of the most stressful jobs, despite their long vacations. Besides being responsible for large groups of hormonal or destructive students all day, teachers also have to abide by strict government and school district guidelines, attend after-hours workshops and meetings, call parents, submit lesson plans early on, worry about school security and put up with loads of homework thanks to grading, grant writing and certification renewal classes. To help teachers cope with all of this stress, we’ve compiled a list of over 100 different ways you can relax and get centered, whether you’re in the middle of a lecture or already home and trying to forget about your hectic day.

By the way, to say teachers have "long vacations" is incorrect. The 8 weeks during the summer, two weeks around Christmas and one week in the spring are not vacations. They're forced layoffs. Most teachers are happy to get the time off to rejuvenate or improve their skills, but calling it a vacation implies that it's paid time. Most teachers get time off, not paid time off -- not even national holidays.

Helping Teachers Cope with Stress - May 1982

Apparently this isn't a new phenomenon.

There can be no doubt that teacher stress, burnout, and job dissatisfaction are critical issues in education today. If we are to reduce stress, we must provide teachers with greater support and rewards. Improvement is needed in working conditions, professional status, public support, and compensation. In the meantime, school systems should provide teachers with environments and programs of support to help them cope with the high levels of stress they continue to experience...

We need to develop environments where teachers can admit failures, share successes, and support one another.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Who Will Staff Tomorrow's Schools, Part 3

WHO WILL WANT TO TEACH?

Over the past few years I've written repeatedly asking where tomorrow's teachers will come from. The current trend of public school teacher and teachers union bashing has reduced the number of teaching candidates in America's colleges of education (see HERE and HERE. Need more? There's also HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE).

Diane Ravitch posted yet another comment from a teacher who has decided to leave the profession...

Teacher: Why I am Leaving Teaching

Seventy hour work weeks, failing technology, rotating cast of half my class load with various medical conditions that impede cognitive function. Adaptable, hard working, using differentiated learning and hands on learning/multimodal approaches does not mean jack now. Teachers are not able to control the tests, cannot develop multiple means for students to demonstrate mastery. So half my well meaning students will christmas tree their end of course test and my own family will suffer the consequences when I lose my job. Bleaker future than the past five with consistent pay cuts and benefits cut. Furloughs are a yearly experience now.

(to "christmas tree" a standardized test = marking bubbles on an answer sheet to create a visual pattern, rather than attempting to answer the questions)

Other times I've posted on this topic...

• 2007: Who Will Teach the Children?
• 2011: Help Wanted
• 2011: Who Will Staff Tomorrow's Schools
• 2011: Who Will Staff Tomorrow's Schools, Part 2
• 2012: Shocking News -- Teacher Morale Lowest it's been in Decades
• 2012: Teachers Who Quit

(There may be more I didn't find…if you see any others, let me know and I'll add them to this list. I'm not very good at tagging posts)


RANDOM QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING

The vast majority of so-called "failing schools" are schools which have high numbers of students living in poverty. If "failing schools" = "poor teachers" how did it come about that all the bad teachers ended up in those schools and all the good teachers are employed in areas without high poverty?

"Reformers" will frequently harp on getting rid of all the bad teachers as the way to improve the nation's schools. If all the teachers at "failing schools" are fired, where are the "good" teachers going to come from?

There's a direct correlation between family income and achievement test scores. The lower the family income the lower the scores. This is true world-wide. The only solution that other nations have found has been to relieve the conditions of poverty. How will firing all or most the teachers in "failing schools" change the conditions of poverty for students? How will firing all or most the teachers in "failing schools" improve student test scores? If there's a statistical correlation between test scores and family income, how is it statistically valid to blame teachers for low test scores?

"Bad teachers" are frequently being defined as teachers who have decided to dedicate their careers to teaching children with special learning problems or children from less advantaged homes (or no homes at all).

In the latest Federal funding bill compromise (10/16/2013) included a provision which allowed the phrase "highly qualified teachers" to include students still in teacher training programs, including Teach for America novices. How does that improve teacher quality? How is the definition of "highly qualified teachers" related to the debt ceiling, the Affordable Care Act, or anything else related to the latest government shut down? Why was the phrase "highly qualified teachers" included in the No Child Left Behind Act?

In what other profession is there an effort by administrators or boards of directors (school boards) to remove the most experienced workers and replace them with poorly trained novices?

LESSONS FROM A HIGH ACHIEVING NATION

Much has been made of the fact that Finland is a "high achieving" nation. Their students are recognized as among the best in the world on international tests. One of the things which Finland worked on and improved was the way their teachers approached teaching.

The Finns understand that good teaching doesn't just take place within the classroom. Preparation, collaboration and professional development are all important if teachers are going to be expected to provide high quality lessons.

One of the most difficult problems facing American teachers is having enough time to do their jobs. Developing age-appropriate lessons, project based activities, lectures, in-class assessments, presentation materials, hands-on activities and other in-class activities for students takes time. Assessing student progress is also time consuming...grading tests, homework or in-class assignments, and projects.

Teachers in the US are traditionally allowed one class period a day as a preparation time. It's easy to see how a normal secondary teacher's student load of 150-200 students would generate a large volume of out of class work. It's also similarly easy to see how an elementary teacher with 25 students, who has to teach Math, Reading and English, Science, Social Studies, and Health would also have a lot of work in researching, collaboration with colleagues, planning and assessment.

According to Pasi Sahlberg, author of Finnish Lessons, teachers in Finland spend a little less that 700 hours with their students annually. The balance of their work time is spent on curriculum development, professional development, collaboration, research and all the other administrative chores required. American teachers, on the other hand, spend nearly 1100 hours a year with their students. American teachers don't have the time during the school day to take care of all the things they need to do. That's why teachers stay late, work on weekends and/or take tote-bags laden with paperwork home with them in the evenings.

It's easy to see why a major complaint of American teachers is lack of time to do their jobs. The simple fact is that American teachers are not given time to do their jobs.

THE FUTURE OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Teachers in America's public schools are being crushed under a mountain of paperwork and regulations resulting from the passage of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top -- the administration's current program -- and now, the adoption by many states of the Common Core State Standards.

Teachers are being blamed for the nation's economic crisis because many states have pension plans for public school teachers (in many states, Indiana included, these funds are paid for by the teachers themselves).

Teachers are being punished for the failure of students who have multiple learning problems caused by the physical, emotional and academic damage done by the massive levels of child poverty in the United States over which they have no control.

State legislatures around the nation are removing job benefits for teachers and teachers unions which, in Indiana, include, collective bargaining rights and local control over teacher evaluations.

The privatization of public education is leaving public schools with the more difficult and more expensive to teach students while state legislatures are redirecting public money to charter schools and vouchers for private schools. There is no proof that charter schools on the whole do better than public schools teaching similar students and no proof that either charters or vouchers improve student achievement through "competition."

Experienced teachers are being forced out of their teaching jobs by evaluations based on test scores and school turnover -- the closing of public schools which are being replaced by private or charter schools.

Merit pay plans -- evaluations based on test scores and rewards for higher test scores -- punish teachers who teach in poor communities or teachers who teach students with special needs and lead to school turnovers and "churn."

America is systematically destroying it's teaching profession.

You might also be interested in...
Pasi Sahlberg: What Can the US Learn from Educational Change in Finland?
Teacher Education in Finland

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Fighting Myths with Facts

BACK TO SCHOOL

In the next few weeks the vast majority of America's school-aged children will return to their public schools ready to start a new school year under the guidance of their public school teachers, who, for the most part, begin the year with the same mixture of excitement and anticipation that the students do.

Unfortunately, during the past 3 decades the declining morale of public school teachers has made the beginning of the school year much more difficult. Valerie Strauss, reporting on the 9th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher wrote

Half of America’s public school teachers say they feel great stress several days a week and are so demoralized that their level of satisfaction has dropped 23 percentage points since 2008 and is at its lowest in 25 years, according to an annual survey of educators.

Morale is likely lower in some public school locations -- Chicago and Philadelphia, for example -- than others, but throughout the country teachers feel the pressure from years of attacks, blame and test-and-punish policies. This is the real status quo of public education.

The so-called "reformers" whose reform consists of a barely veiled attempt to privatize public education through the perpetuation of myths, favoritism towards private and privately owned schools, public sector union busting, anti-worker legislation, the demonization of professional educators and using billionaires, billionaires, billionaires, billionaires and taxpayers to foot the bill, have perpetuated myths about public education.

DISPELLING THE MYTHS

The myths that public schools are failing, that teachers are the problem, and that privatization will solve all our problems are coupled with billions of dollars in political pocket-stuffing, private school investments and media blitz campaigns designed to mislead the American public. Parents are, by a large majority, happy with the public schools their children attend. 77% grade their own child's public schools an A or a B. The largest percentage in 20 years...

Yet, most of what we hear from the daily news and commentary is that American schools are failing, teachers are greedy, and private/charter schools are the only hope for the future of our nation.

So, just in time for the start of a new school year, it's time (yet again) to dispel some of the myths that the "reformers" have foisted on the American people...and there are many. I've only chosen a few and instead of providing references for each myth response, I've provided a bibliography (a "baker's dozen" research and opinion articles) at the end. The information is widely available, yet rarely discussed.

Myth #1) American Schools are failing.

False: American students from low poverty schools score at the top of the world. The problem with our average scores is that we have many more students living in poverty than most advanced nations and there is a direct correlation between achievement and poverty.

Myth #2) Bad, lazy teachers abound and are the cause of school failure. Good teachers can overcome the effects of poverty. Teachers unions protect bad teachers and tenure means that a teacher can never be fired. Teachers are only in it for the money.

False: Most American public school teachers are well-trained professionals, but even the best teacher in the world can't overcome the effects of hunger, violence, lack of health care, lack of access to reading materials, and other effects of poverty. Children must be well cared for, safe, and healthy to achieve.

States with strong teachers unions do not perform worse than states without strong teachers unions, and in fact are often better. Tenure, which is more correctly defined as "due-process" for K-12 teachers does not protect bad teachers. It simply means that schools must provide a legitimate reason for firing a teacher.

American educators spend more time in actual teaching than those in other advanced nations.

Instead of blaming educated and licensed teachers with average salaries of between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, ask the following people why they, and others like them, are meddling in public education without any credentials or experience: Bill Gates (Net Worth $72.7 billion), Eli Broad ($6.3 billion), Michael Bloomberg ($19.5 billion), Rupert Murdoch ($11.2 billion), and Alice Walton ($26.3 billion).

Instead of blaming trained educators for what amounts to a national epidemic of poverty, ask the following people where they got their education experience and/or expertise: Arne Duncan (B.A. Sociology), Michelle Rhee (B.A. Government, Masters of Public Policy), Jeb Bush (B.A. Latin American Studies), Rahm Emanuel (B.A. Liberal Arts, M.A. Speech and Communication), Eli Broad (Accounting), Bill Gates (No college degree), Michael Bloomberg (B.S. Electrical Engineering, MBA), and Alice Walton (B.A. Economics and Finance).

Money doesn't make you an expert.

Myth #3) Charter schools are better than public schools.

False: According to the latest studies, charter schools are improving, but the differences are insignificant. Some charters do better than traditional public schools. Others do worse.

Myth #4) Poverty is just an excuse.

False: Poverty matters.

"Thousands of studies have linked poverty to academic achievement. The relationship is every bit as strong as the connection between cigarettes and cancer." —- David Berliner, Our Impoverished View of Ed. Reform, Aug. 2005

Myth #5) We spend more money on education than anyone else in the world and our results are worse. Our kids can't read. Our teachers can't teach.

False: The amount we spend on education, as a percentage of our GDP, varies, but overall, we're about average for advanced nations.

As a percentage of GDP, public and private spending on education in the U.S. is slightly below the OECD average for early childhood education (U.S. 0.4%; OECD 0.5%), significantly above average for primary and lower secondary education (U.S. 3.2%; OECD 2.6%), and below average for upper secondary education (U.S. 1.1%, OECD 1.3%). ...

However, more money in the US comes from private sources. In other words, we are not spending the same amount of public money as other nations.

For all levels of education combined, public sources account for 72% of all expenditures on education in the U.S., while private sources account for 28%. By comparison, across all OECD countries, 84% of education expenditures are from public sources, and 16% of expenditures are from private sources.

Where do the private sources of money go? Does it go to schools with the most pressing academic needs? Our low poverty public schools generally get more money than our high poverty public schools.

How much of our money is spent on testing? In the US our costs for education are slightly higher than Finland's, for example, but we spend billions on testing. The Finns, who have among the highest scores in the world, don't subject their students to constant standardized testing. Money goes to the schools...not to test publishers.

Our results aren't worse. Our students from low poverty schools score higher than any most other students in the world.

HEART OF THE COUNTRY

In 1999 public school champion Frosty Troy wrote

Name one other institution that flings open itself to all comers -- a perfect microcosm of our nation. Every autumn the miracle of America takes place when the doors of those 87,000 schools are thrown open, welcoming the genius and slow learner, rich and poor, average and developmentally disabled. Among them are the loved and unloved, the washed and unwashed.

Those who savage the public schools tear at the heart of this country. Everything America is or ever hopes to be depends upon what happens to those 46.3 million students in public school classrooms.

His article, The Myth Of Our Failed Public School System (yes...the same lies are still alive) included a simple and effective tool for debunking myths.

Fight back with facts. Challenge the mistaken, the misinformed and the outright prevaricator while acknowledging honest criticism.

That's still good advice.

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1. Serviceable Myths about School Reform: Second Time Around
2. New Data Shows School ‘Reformers’ Are Getting it Wrong
3. Myths About Public Education in Indiana
4. Myths and Realities in Public Education
5. 5 Biggest Lies About America's Public Schools -- Debunked
6. Myths vs. Facts about America’s Public Education
7. Myths Taken as Reality
8. From School Grades to Common Core: Debunking the Accountability Scam
9. PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid
10. Charter schools that start bad stay bad, study finds
11. Number of the Week: U.S. Teachers’ Hours Among World’s Longest
12. Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?
13. Anthony Cody: "It's Poverty Not Bad Teachers"

[UPDATE: See a more recent article by Alfie Kohn, titled Five bad education assumptions the media keeps recycling ]

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

Public Educators Left Behind

Why do educators quit?

Surviving demoralization

Demoralization is the reason for the lack of job satisfaction. Teachers are told how to teach in a micromanaged system not experienced in any other profession...a system being promoted by people who have little or no expertise in the field of education...a system increasingly funded and controlled by billionaires and "edupreneurs" looking for a way to profit by sucking the money out of the public schools...It's no surprise that morale is low...and teachers, sometimes the best teachers, are leaving.

When I reflect on the teaching I do as a volunteer at a local elementary school, the focus of my thoughts is on what the student needs rather than on "how this will affect his test score" or the overwhelming amount of "data gathering" from the overwhelming number of "assessments." Working teachers don't have this luxury, though. They have to find a balance between what's best for students and what's required by the current obsession with testing. In some places the balance can't be found.

In my last post I included a video by a teacher from the Chicago area who turned in her resignation via YouTube...

Everything I loved about teaching is extinct...I'm being forced to function as a cog in a wheel and this wheel is not turning in the right direction.

What do you do when you can't fight the harm being done to children every day? Teachers know that the overuse and misuse of testing is hurting children. They know that the data-driven insanity in public education is especially damaging to the students who need the most help. Many teachers go into their classroom every day with the expressed purpose of protecting their students from the educational malpractice being foisted upon our public education students by "reformers" and legislatures around the country. For some, however, watching the damage being done is too hard to overcome...knowing what's best for children, and being forced to abandon it, is too difficult.

So some of America's best teachers are quitting.

A teacher explains why she gave up a career she loved

Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg think that improving education means putting more and more students in a "good teacher's" classroom...as if the number of students in a class didn't matter.

Neither Gates nor Bloomberg have ever had to deal with a class of students...of any size. So they don't know...

My classes were too big. If I work six-hour days with no breaks, it takes 28 days to grade essays for my 159 students. That is for one semester. I am an English teacher. My kids must write. I must grade it. I actually enjoy grading, but 159 is too much, 28 days is too much.

...like it or not — our kids are data points. They are numbers on someone’s spreadsheet.

If doing the job well means working 12-15 hour days and sacrificing one's personal and family life, who is going to pursue a career as a professional educator?

Award-winning Virginia teacher: ‘I can no longer cooperate’ with testing regime

Children learn better when they are interested and engaged. Good teachers engage children in ways that foster...

• academic growth
• increased knowledge and higher achievement
• social and emotional growth
• creativity
• higher level thinking

But too often there isn't time to teach so that children become engaged and interested. Hours and hours of the school year once devoted to reading aloud, exploring children's interests and fostering a desire to learn, are now being used for data collection.

...I have had enough. As a result of the obsessive emphasis on standardized test scores in FCPS and across the educational landscape, I have decided to retire at the end of the current academic year. I have made this decision, because I can no longer cooperate with a testing regime that I believe is suffocating creativity and innovation in the classroom. We are not really educating our students anymore. We are merely teaching them to pass a test. This is wrong.

Teaching facts and passing tests is not education.

A Principal Retires on Principle

Educators at all levels are finding the national obsession with testing and data, oppressive.

cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium": frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.

It's not just testing. It's also closing schools, pushing out low performing students, shuffling them around so that test scores are gerrymandered among schools like voters in House Districts, and cheating scandals. The whole foundation upon which public education has been based for the last 20 years, is wrong for students. Principals see it, too.

New York State is directing us to test and test your children, now starting in Kindergarten and continuing every year after. It is excessive. Along with the more frequent testing, the rigors of the New York State assessments have also increased making me quite concerned for our children with special needs and/or high anxiety. In addition, some of the students who typically perform well academically are quite upset because they were not able to finish many of the sections of the tests in the allotted time. The State Education Department is telling us to expect fewer higher end scores on the tests, even with all of the teacher focus on the test and the extensive test prep.

So some of America's best educators are leaving the profession they love.

Goodbye, Mr. Conti: a Westhill High teacher's retirement letter hits home with students, parents

The students lose out when good teachers end their careers early, and fewer students are going into teaching as a lifelong career.

Who are the driving forces behind the guilt and frustration felt by teachers? It's people like Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Eli Broad, Scott Walker, Tony Bennett, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel, Michael Bloomberg, and state legislators across the country -- non-educators, professional politicians, attorneys, public policy wonks, super-rich entrepreneurs.

“This whole thing is being driven by people who know nothing about education,” Conti said today."It's sad."

Conti is concerned about the emphasis being placed on standardized tests and the data they create versus creativity, teacher autonomy and innovation that excites students.

"...After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates’ hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered."

Some of America's best teachers are quitting. Who will replace them?

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Talk to a veteran public school teacher anywhere in the US and chances are you'll find someone who has thought about quitting. The above examples aren't the only ones...

I Quit

I’m tired of watching my students produce amazing things, which show their true understanding of 21st century skills, only to see their looks of disappointment when they don’t meet the arbitrary expectations of low-level state and district tests that do not assess their skills.

Why Do Teachers Quit?

Every year there is a crew of new teachers at your child's school, with the ink on their teacher certification still drying. But statistics show that after five years, half of those teachers will be gone—either off to another school or out of the profession altogether.

Why teachers quit — and why we can’t fire our way to excellence

Teachers are more likely to consider leaving their classrooms if they believe they aren’t getting adequate support from their principals, and if they believe the school doesn’t function well as an organization.

Why I Quit Teaching

I quit teaching because I was tired of feeling powerless. Tired of watching would-be professionals treated as children, infantilized into silence. Tired of the machine that turns art into artifice for the sake of test scores. Tired of being belittled, disrespected and looked down upon by lawyers, politicians, and decision-makers who see teaching as the province of provincials, the work of housewives that can be done by anyone.

Why one good teacher decided to quit

...the United States ranks 20th out of 29 for starting teacher salaries, and 23rd out of 29 for teacher salaries after 15 years.

But it's not just the pay, DeRegnaucourt said, "It's the way we're treated."

Her colleagues have waited until just before school starts to learn what courses they'll be teaching, she said. Uncertainty makes it impossible to prepare...

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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