On the Shoulders of Giants

New State ELA Exam Tests Students' Speed in Reading, Writing and Thinking

Any classroom teacher could have looked at Day 2 of the NY State ELA Exam that was administered last week on Wednesday and known that it was too much for students to complete in the alotted 90 minutes. Unfortunately, it looks like neither Pearson nor the NY State Department of Education saw fit to consult (or listen to) teachers on this.  The result was a test that many students did not finish, which will yield data that does not reveal much about what students can really do when it comes to the new Common Core standards.  (See this NY Times article for reporting on reactions to this test.)

As I looked through the test booklet to process each question, being a careful and not especially fast reader myself, I knew I would have struggled to finish in time. The test presented students with the following tasks to complete in 90 minutes:

• 3 lengthy passages, of 2-3 pages, with plenty of unfamiliar vocabulary for students to probem-solve and complex sentences for students to read and reread for understanding
• 7 complex multiple choice questions on each passage, which required students to look back at the passage and really think about what the question was asking and consider the implications of each answer choice to select the best one. These were not straightforward, "Did you understand what you read?" type questions and answers. There were several questions, for which neither I nor any English teacher on my team, was sure of the correct answer.
• 5 complex "short response" questions which require textual evidence in paragraph form. 
• an extended response to one passage (an essay)

A sixth grade teacher I know--who finds the new CC standards a natural fit to her teaching--said, "If critical thinking is what we're really emphasizing with the Common Core standards, why was there no time given for that on the test?"  Exactly.

The Common Core Language Standards say nothing about students needing to be able to read or write at a certain speed.  My fast readers (students who read significantly faster than I do) had no problem with the time, but even very high performing students who read at a more regular speed or who think a lot about each sentence they write had trouble finishing. A good number did not complete the test.  My students were not the only ones. An elementary school teacher I know reported that just over half of her students completed the test. One of my students with friends at NEST, a high performing, gifted and talented NYC school, told me her friends said only one person in their class finished the test. 

The most unfortunate part of this is that we'll have no real way of knowing how our students would have done, had they finished the exam.  The data won't tell us much about our students' performance on the new types of tasks included on the test.  I don't personally need such data to tell me what my students can and cannot do--but I know the results will be used to evaluate my students' skills, as well as the impact of my teaching.  

Though I have many criticisms about the use of standardized testing to measure teaching and learning, today I simply draw the line at a test that was impossible for many skilled readers and writers to finish. All the test-makers had to do was show some teachers that test... gross negligence, willful ignorance, or just mean? Any which way, students and teachers should not be guinea pigs for high stakes experiments.  

[image credit: www.prevention.com]

 

Is your class important? Conversation overheard on train...

Riding the train home from work today, I was sitting in the vicinity of two 14 year old-looking boys I'd never seen before. They were having a somewhat raucous conversation about taking pictures and posting them and then deleting them and getting girls' numbers and that sort of thing. My tired mind tuned it out, and when I happened to tune back in, the conversation had taken a turn:

"Nah, I didn't do that either," said the first boy.

"I might fail that class," said the second boy.

"Yeah, but she's a very, like, disorganized teacher, so I just focus on my really important classes, like U.S. History."  

"Yeah, me too."

I was quietly amused. I've been on both sides of this coin. I saw myself in both the "disorganized" teacher and the "really important" teacher they referenced. It was funny to hear the students' frank words.

What exactly makes students (especially adolescents) feel like a class is important? I think organization is an interesting idea to pick apart here. There is organization in the typical sense. Do you I know where things are? Do I lose students' papers? Do I check homework and collect assignments? Is there a sense of order in the physical space?  Organization in the traditional sense is important.  

Another huge factor is the organization of the learning experiences students have.  Are they sequenced logically?  Are they appropriately paced?  Do they lead students to conceptual understanding?  If students feel like the individual experiences they have in a class seem to be part of a unified curriculum--where small ideas have a clear place in connection to larger concepts, which have relevance in their lives and the world--students are more likely to find meaning in the work...and that makes it "important."  

 

[image credit: robertmanni.com]

 

PBS Frontline on Rhee Worth the Watch

In case you missed PBS Frontline's hour-long segment on Michelle Rhee's tenure as chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, I'm making a plug for everyone to watch it.  I finally did and found it startlingly moving. 

John Merrow did an exceptional piece of journalism here that was quite fair. I could see why Rhee was called to action, why she felt so strongly about making sweeping change, and why people like Mayor Fenti were inclined to give her a lot of power. I also saw clearly where she went wrong, the damage her decisions caused, and her less than caring response to the damage.

A few thoughts I had were

• This is what happens when we try to apply a simplistic business model to education 
• This is what happens when one person's leadership goes unchecked
• This is what happens when appointed leaders attempt to make change through hierarchical structures without listening to other voices and building community support
• This is what happens when test scores are viewed as measures of teaching and learning 
• This is what happens when people think they can solve problems by scaring people, instead of addressing the causes of the problems 

The details are stunning and the hour it takes to watch the whole thing is well worth it.

Watch it by clicking here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2323979463  

[below is a screenshot of Michelle Rhee and John Merrow]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a follow up post written by John Merrow and Frontline's Phil Bennett, in response to accusations from current D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson and another commentor that the segment was unfair.

 

Get Observed Teaching By Someone With No Teaching Experience?

I was about to write a searing post about an organization I knew next to nothing about, but upon looking further, I've changed my opinion.  Here's the chain of events leading to a new conclusion. 

Basically, I saw a job post on Idealist.org by a non-profit organization called Turnaround for Children, looking for--

"former teachers, education researchers, and current graduate students in social sciences and education to visit schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, and Queens to conduct systematic observations of teachers' classrooms. Observers will receive training in a widely-used observation protocol (Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)), and will use this protocol to observe classrooms in various school settings." 

At first this sounded alright to me. My mind ran with the idea of former teachers conducting observations of teachers in various contexts--being that external person to balance out any bias that principals and other school-based observers may have. That could be a good thing.

Then I read on to the job requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in education, social sciences or related fields of study required. Teacher certification or former classroom experience preferred.
• Experience in performing classroom observations preferred (experience with CLASS protocol preferred); experience in quantitative or qualitative data collection preferred.

This is where I started getting red in the face.  So, the organization would ideally have experienced teachers conduct the observations (though one year could constitute experience, I suppose), but they would actually settle for people with no teaching experience observing--and evaluating?--practicing teachers?

I decided to read up on the organization. Here is their website, and here is an article, Addressing Poverty In Schools, by Joe Nocera about the history of the organization and its founder, Dr. Pamela Cantor. They seem to have a good mission, in which they come into struggling schools and work with the most at risk students--those students who have been traumatized and are just not getting what they need in the school's regular structures. From experience, I know that there is a good handful of students in every high needs school that need more than the regular classroom structures and relationships can give them to address the issues they face and prepare them to be students.  When these needs go unmet, such students can act out severely and really upset a whole school environment.  If this organization, founded by a psychiatrist, has found a way to fill this need, I'm in favor.

Here, also, is a blog post by teacher Larry Ferlazzo, called "Mixed Feelings About 'Turnaround For Children'." I wonder, like Larry Ferlazzo does, why the DOE doesn't build the capacity of its own teachers and counseling staff, through additional hires and hybrid roles, to do this work internally.

Back to the question of non-teacher observers. On the one hand... my guess is that these outside observers, trained to use CLASS, are measuring the effects of the intervention program itself.  I've often said that data collection cannot reasonably be added as a duty for teachers on top of everything else we do.  So hiring outside people could be a decent alternative.  

I also wonder, are these observations also used as part of teacher evaluations? Is this one of the "multiple measures" being implemented in addition to testing data?  My understanding is that in turnaround schools, principals have the right to dismiss teachers quickly. I'm a little hazy on whether principals must use due process once the initial "restructuring" takes place. If so, I'm worried that observations done by individuals with no teaching experience would be used to determine who is effective and who is not, and that would be neither fair nor accurate.

Would we ever see outsiders with no experience in the field evaluating other types of professionals' work? Can you imagine doctors or lawyers being observed by, say, me with a little training and a rubric?  I highly doubt it. I'm hoping that the data used from these observations is purely for the organization to assess its own work.  Then, it's still not ideal (as the organization has stated), but probably won't be doing any damage to practicing teachers either. 

In Nocera's article, I learned that Turnaround for Children has been meeting with officials in Congress and the White House about its work and, we can assume, the possibility of extending it to schools across the country.  This could be a very good thing if the organization is really building the capacity of schools to meet the psychological needs of traumatized students. An independent evaluation of the organization in 2008 suggested that the positive impact was strong, but that Turnaround needed to "put more emphasis on improving the academic environment in the classroom" (also from Nocera's article).  I imagine this is where data from the CLASS becomes important, and where the observations would need to be conducted by impartial outsiders. 

I think I've turned around my own assessment of Turnaround For Children and the work of Dr. Cantor.  I would just caution the organization, and others that are being called on to work with teachers to improve schools, to remember that teaching is highly skilled, professional work. If we don't treat teachers as professionals, we'll never have the schools we want and that students need. Every step toward real transformation must be taken with this in mind. Otherwise, it's easy to have the best intentions, but undermine the very people you need to carry out the change. We will never move forward that way.

 

[depositphotos.com]

Teachers Observing Teachers (My first radio gig at BAM!)

I participated in a radio podcast segment with BAM Radio Network, ("The Voice of the Education Community") on the interesting and important topic of teachers observing other teachers. I was invited, because of a blog post I wrote in 2010, Understanding Why So Few American Teachers Observe Each Other.  It was a discussion that included me, and two other educators, Elena Silva and Lisa Dabbs, moderated by Rae Pica.  

I liked the format and how the 10 minute presentation came out.  Each of us commentators came from slightly different angles, and I think together we were able to shed some light on the topic.  And this is a topic worth paying attention to, not only because teachers can learn a great deal from observing one another, but because many people are interested in seeing peer observations become a component of teacher evaluation.  I'm not against it, but I'm also not quite ready to jump into it either... check out the segment!

Teachers Watching Teachers: Keys to Peer Observation

 

Poem in a Hurricane: The Teachers

Perhaps it was the hurricane, school being closed, the articles I read this morning, and the full moon.  I was inspired to write this poem. 

 

The Teachers

We’re in this together.

We don’t raise bars. We raise children.

 

Bars are metalic and mark rigid end points;

   Here is where I stopped learning about multiplication.

 Here is where I mastered “response to literature” and ceased reading.

 

We’re in this together.

We don’t raise bars. We raise children.

 

Our value can be measured years later in every love affair started over a good book,

every conversation about why the coffee spoon bends

or what the rocks have seen in their time on Earth.

 

Try to fill your pail with us--

and see us jump overboard in multitudes;

some with splashes, some

evaporating silently,

finding new harbors, and the light of new fires.

 

We are the teachers.

We’ve always known more of you

than you’ve known of us.

 

We can always do better.  In this world

Or the next.

 

 ~Ariel Sacks

 

 

Time to Check Out Finland

I just had to pass on this quote from TLN colleague and fellow Bank Street alum, Todd Sutler, who recently visited schools in Finland as the kickoff to the Odyssey Initiative Project.  

He shared the following information from the trip:

"Teachers train for FIVE years before they become teachers... Teachers are almost never observed in an evaluation style format. I pushed on the topic of evaluation and asked a number of questions. I wanted to get at the heart of the well known sentiment that Finnish teachers are respected professionals. It was clear that the teachers and principals were used to these questions from visitors. Instead of trying to find out what teachers are doing wrong, principals count on teachers to reflect and turn to them and their peers when they need support. I saw that on display at my first visit, as a new first grade teacher was quite open about how hard her first year was going and how much she asked for advice and guidance from her more experienced colleagues. 

Finally, when I continued to push on the idea of how does leadership support teachers when they need it, the answer consistently referred to the "social welfare group" (I think it doesn't translate so technically in Finnish). This team includes the teacher, nurse, learning specialist, psychologist, principal and any other specialist who works with the kids. If there are struggles in the classroom, the teacher calls for a team meeting to talk about the specific needs of a child. The support is not discussed or framed from the point of view of what the teacher needs, but what the child needs. At the end of the year, there is a discussion about individual and group goals for the following year. "

First of all, FIVE years of training?!  How's that for commitment?  Talk about raising the bar...

Second, the respected place experienced teachers have in the profession is really important and something we need to create here.  

Third, principals and policy makers trust teachers' intentions, skill levels, and will to grow professionally. And evidently there is capacity among the staff to support teachers when they ask for it.  Both pieces of this are essential. 

Fourth, it sounds like teachers support each other in a more structured way than is usual in American schools. Most teachers I know make efforts to support one another, but often school and district structures don't encourage this. In fact, our country seems to be moving in a direction that creates competition among individual teachers as well as between schools and districts through VAM's and other competitions like Race To the Top. These all discourage collaborative practices among educators. Thus, we are passing up about a million opportunities a day to better serve students. 

I need to read more about Finland... I'm starting with this great new post about the Finnish School System in comparison to our own from TLN'er Mary Tedrow, at her blog, Walking to School, called High Anxiety Schooling vs. Its Polar Opposite. 

Sounds like an amazing education system that is getting great results with students and teachers.  

Must Teachers Keep Quiet About the Tests?

Just read this great post by Anthony Cody: The Pineapple Story Tests Us: Have Test Publishers Become Unquestionable Authorities?  I just want to take a moment to say how uncomfortable I am with the fact that in NY, teachers are not allowed to discuss anything on the state tests, so that passages and test questions can be recycled for use in future years. When I scored the writing portion of the test last year, I had to sign a document swearing that I would not discuss anything related to the grading of the tests.  I'm not sure why that was necessary, whom or what it protected. 

On the face of it, the security procedure might seem reasonable enough. But requiring our silence on a single test that purports to measure our students' learning and our effectiveness as teachers is quite unsettling. "The devil is in the details" as they say, and suddenly, we are not allowed to comment or question the details. Had the NY Daily News not somehow gotten the story about the Pineapple and the Hare and the ridiculous questions that followed, they would likely not have been discounted.  Someone did speak up--who took that risk?  

Having read through the 8th grade test myself, I know that there are several other poorly constructed questions. They just followed somewhat less ridiculous passages. But, I cannot discuss them, and that certainly seems unfair. 

Larry Ferlazzo has a great post today about what scientific research says happens when people feel like they are treated unfairly or controlled: their motivation plunges.  Teacher morale nationwide is the lowest it has been in over 20 years, according to Metlife's 2011 Survey of the American Teacher as the stakes for standardized tests and the role they play in our professional lives increases dramatically. 

 These conditions feel like something the theorist Michel Foucault would have written about:

“The real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions that appear to be both neutral and independent, to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence that has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them.” 
― Michel Foucault, The Chomsky - Foucault Debate: On Human Nature

Call me crazy for going there, but it is not neutral to give an outside for-profit company sole control over the assessment of our children's learning, hold that up as evidence of our teaching quality, and then require teachers to keep silent about the particulars of these measures. This feels like an instrument of control out of a very different era than the one in which I thought I lived.  

 

[image credit: unknownhedgehog.deviantart.com]

 

 

 

Eyebrow Raised: Standardized Tests Mandatory In Adult ESL Classes

I was just talking to a friend who teaches ESL to retired senior citizens in a free class offered at a community center here in NYC.  She talked to me about her students and what it's like working with her students, some whom are in their 90's! 

For them taking the class is not a matter of career advancement; they are already retired.  Nor is it a matter of gaining survival English skills--they have some already, and have found ways to get by for years with what they've got.  In fact, most of them are not interested in "studying" English in any way that resembles their own schooling decades ago.  Many are not literate in their native languages, and more than a few have had tramatizing experiences in their former schooling.  

Instead, her students mostly come to the class for the chance to practice speaking in English, since they report that they don't speak English with their friends and family members. They relish the enriching opportunity to communicate in English about topics of interest with people with whom they wouldn't normally be able to talk.  The class is a mix of seniors from various countries and language backgrounds. She recounted a heated debate they got into--in English--about the legalization of marijuana, for example. Imagine the insight seniors can bring to any issue, having lived through so much, and bringing perspectives from around the world.  

Attendance is inconsistent, my friend says, because the class is free and these are adult students with free will (unlike my 13 year olds...) The organization has no policy mandating attendence, so the seniors can show up when they want. 

Here's the kicker, though. By law, my friend must make her students take a standardized test of their English skills. Really?!   In fact, there is pressure for her to show progress in these test scores over time in order for the organization to maintain the program. (I'm not sure whether the pressure is originating from within the organization or from outside.)  Apparently this federal law was enacted in 1988, so I guess it's nothing new, but it still seems ridiculously inappropriate in this situation.  

I can imagine places where a standardized test could be an appropriate tool for an ESL school to use to assess student learning and demonstrate growth, and some groups of seniors would be totally up for this kind of challenge.  But does it need to be mandated?  What do you think? Must our grandparents and great-grandparents be subjected to standardized testing?  Should teachers be able to use their discretion and find other ways to demonstrate the progress of their adult students? 

Let me know if I'm missing something, because I know relatively little about this field.  At the moment, though, I'm definitely shaking my head. 

 

[image credit: articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

Guest Post: Teacher Evaluation to the untrained eye

My TLN blogging collaborator this spring, Lana Gundy, creatively responds to the recent teacher-written report from CTQ's Denver New Millennium Initiative on teacher evaluation. Picking up on their recommendations for qualifications of teacher evaluators, Lana offers an Xtranormal video depicting an interaction between teacher and evaluator gone a little wrong.  

Note: I am often wary of evaluators who are unduly narrow-minded or critical of aspects of teaching they do not understand and cannot themselves demonstrate effectively. Lana shows the other extreme... an entertaining as well as thought-provoking watch!

~Ariel

Teacher Evaluation to the Untrained Eye

 I always find it reassuring to read reports about education reforms that are written by educators.  Educators have the experience in the classroom that gives them the insight to find solutions to the problems teachers face daily.  Teachers know what is not working in the school systems, they live it each day.   Educators may also have the solutions for educational changes that would have a positive impact on our nation’s schools.  One of the solutions proposed by the Denver New Millennium that really made sense to me focused on the people who evaluate teachers.

            Denver’s recommendations for qualified evaluators

• Peer Evaluators should  be practicing teachers
• Evaluators should have extensive training and work as an evaluation team
• Evaluators should be assessed and monitored

            Denver’s suggestions for improving the quality of evaluators for teachers are exactly what we need to make evaluators accountable for their observations.  If evaluators are accountable for what they are observing, they may take more notice of what is not happening in a classroom.  Evaluators must be properly trained to look for teaching that engages our students. 

            Below you’ll find an animation that shows what happens when evaluators are not properly trained.  (This of course is a fictional dramatized account.) 

The name of this video is: Teacher Evaluation to the Untrained Eye

 

Download Movie Maker Xtranormal3

 

~Lana