TeachMoore

Update to States: Do Your Homework on Teacher Evaluation

Update: Since I first posted this on Aug. 1; NBPTS has made the report public. Join the publication webcast on Monday, Oct. 3rd., 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (EDT) Register here.

via teacherleaders.typepad.com

Teacher Leaders Assess Obama’s Plan

My colleagues, members of the Teacher Leaders Network, and I have given the President's jobs plan mixed reviews. Generally, we felt the proposed bill is better than nothing, but not nearly enough. As one teacher put it, "Take the money and run. It will put people to work in the state I love best, and across the country. It will make cleaner and safer schools for kids and keep some programming alive. It's too little and too late--but waiting for a better bill is pointless." Another colleague added, "I find it hard not to support the idea of using federal money to stabilize our teaching corps.  It's good for schools and students, and the money will filter right through into the broader economy."

For one Florida teacher, it was even more personal:

President Obama's last stimulus bill saved real people's jobs including mine.  I think it is important to get that message out.  Although I was a seasoned an award-winning teacher, I transferred from a charter to a public school in 2008.  When it all "hit the fan," I was first on the "chopping block."  The stimulus bill enabled the school district to avoid laying off any of its 5,000 plus teachers.  

More than likely I would have been forced to leave education...Furthermore, my mortgage was completely upside down, which probably would have led to me walking away from my home. The stimulus saved my job and my home. I continue to positively impact my students and contribute to my community because of this.

Teacher leaders, who tend to be highly attune to education policy at the national and state level, were predictably suspicious of what type of strings might end up being attached to the Federal funds either by the Administration or Congress, or both. Certainly there would and need to be some, but a Vermont educator urged the Feds to "tread lightly."

There was broader agreement on the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades in public schools across the nation which state and local budgets simply could not provide in the foreseeable future. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's schools a grade of D. That same report declares that "despite increases in spending for school facilities earlier in this decade, the money has disproportionately gone to the nation's wealthiest school districts while the neediest students continue to endure the most decrepit facilities."

When we consider the alternatives, my teacher-friend EV best sums it up:

Is a lost youth the answer to a better American tomorrow? If the answer is no, which I trust it is, then the strongest investment we can make is in those who teach the mind as well as the heart and spirit of our nation's future leaders. Do we create an underclass - as has happened elsewhere in the world - by choosing not to educate all of our children to their utmost ability to participate in a democracy, culture, business world, or pursuits towards happiness?

Cross-posted at National Journal Online--Education Experts

    

Show and Tell: New Documentary Exposes Reality of Teaching in America

The American Teacher is a new, long-awaited film directed by Vanessa Roth. Told through the eyes and lives of real school teachers, Roth's documentary examines the working conditions that face public school teachers across the country—conditions that drive many of them out of the profession within the first five years, and often limits their success beyond the fifth year.

Based on the book, Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers (The New Press: 2005). The book's authors, Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, are also producers of the documentary. As with the book, the film seeks to debunk some widely held myths about what it's really like to be a teacher in America today. The core of the film follows the careers of four very different, very dedicated teachers. To me, the working lives of these teachers looks and feels painfully familiar.

Roth interweaves informative graphics and commentary from teachers, politicians, researchers, parents, and students to create a fuller picture of the teacher life than what most people outside the profession ever see. A recurring thread in the piece are how underpaid teachers really are in proportion not only to other similarly prepared professionals, but in relation to the immensely important work we do. The film underscores the latter point by balancing testimonials from parents and students about teachers in the film who are hurt in various ways by our working conditions, and how that in turn, hurts our children's futures.

The film contains many touching moments, one of the most poignant being the expression by a student of how traumatic it is for the students when good teachers and leaders leave a school. This is underscored by research graphics connecting teacher retention and improved compensation of teachers at a school with increased graduation rates for students. At a time when turnaround plans and teacher layoffs have become too common and easily justified, we have lost sight of how much stability matters in a school; or maybe, we just don't care.

That's the biggest, saddest take away from the film---how little we really care about teachers or students, despite all our public proclamations to the contrary (many of them featured in the film). Also in the movie are clips from those who argue that teachers are too self-serving, overpaid, and inept. The examples in the film present the opposite argument: Our best teachers are almost dangerously self-sacrificing, grossly underpaid, and frustratingly overly trained for what they are allowed to do. The $250 tax credit teachers get for what they personally spend on classroom supplies, for example, is almost laughable when one considers that most teachers will spend five times that amount in a school year. For many teachers, it's their own children and families who suffer most when the teacher commits to doing what she or he must do to meet the needs of students, particularly in our chronically and deliberately underfinanced high needs schools. The litany of marvelous teachers in this film who have left the classroom, many for reasons that could have been avoided, can be multiplied thousands of times around the country. Nevertheless, the documentary ends on two strongly positive notes:

1. We could change teacher's working conditions today, if we really wanted to do so.
2. Many teachers continue to give their best for their students, despite the unnecessary obstacles placed in their way.

I'm hoping that this film gets wide viewing; that the issues it raises finally get addressed with meaningful action.

Read This: Reshaping the Teacher Preparation Debate http://teachingquality.typepad.com/building_the_profession/2011/09/reshaping-the-teacher-preparation-debate.html

From the Mouths of Babes: Young[er] Teachers on School Reform

Bouncing off a recent review by my TLN colleague, Dan Brown, I wanted to share my admiration for the refeshingly inspiring vision of education reform put forward by a group of young (career-wise) teachers from Washington state.

The Washington New Millenium Initiative, (WMNI)like other projects of the Center for Teaching Quality, brings togther outstanding teachers to study and address key issues in education. And Dan's right; these folks should be writing education policy.

In their report, the WMNI highlight three recommendations that,though clearly grounded in a knowledge of our educational history, go beyond the horizons of what I've seen or heard from other, more 20th-century bound education reformers.

1) "We suggest that local, state, and national leaders envision an assessment system balanced between the uses of high-quality, national standardized tests that can act as benchmarks and local assessment systems that truly support the work of teaching and learning." I applaud the teachers call for greater and systematic support of formative assessments at local levels. Genuine formative assessment IS NOT giving students a weekly mini-version of their state tests. Done properly, valid, regular classroom level assessments are critically important tools in the hands of skilled educators for measuring and advancing student learning.

2) The WMNI recommendation for a two-tiered teacher evaluation system is inspired. First, in its recognition of the need for a teacher to have multiple (they suggest 3 - 4) observations over the course of a school year, and evaluations consisting of "at least several" measures of teacher effectiveness that include parent and student feedback. That's what I'm talking about; fearless teachers. The second-tier would be "trained teams of teachers" evaluating and providing feedback to each other. This is the essence of professionalism--opening up our work to each other for review and critique.

WMNI member Renee Agatsuma spoke for many of us when she noted: "If teachers raise questions about the proposed teacher evaluation reforms, it's not because we're reluctant to be held accountable. Our concern grows from our knowledge of how past systems that were poorly designed and implemented have often undermined our efforts to teach effectively "[emphasis mine].

3)I not only agree there needs to be greater support for Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) both as professional development and as vehicles for meaningful and systematic peer evaluation, but I'm among those who would like to see them flourish among educators at every level. Although PLCs started and have been most widespread in elementary and middle school settings, there is good, research-based guidance and increasing examples of how powerfully effective they can be at the high school and even collegiate levels (where they are better known as Faculty Learning Communities).

Like Dan, I'd encourage folks to look to our TLN colleague and Solution Tree author, Bill Ferriter for more on the workings and promise of PLCs.

The report is even more inspiring given the authors are teachers with less than 10 years of experience (many with much less) who have chosen to stay in the profession. Consider the horrific attrition rates among new teachers in this country: "Almost 25% of novice teachers leave within the first three years., and most of them in their first year...in high needs schools..up to 50% are gone after three years...57% of all outward mobility occurs within the first 10 years of a teacher's career" (Teaching 2030, p.102).

That these young teacher-researchers have chosen not only to stay, but to step-up as leaders, exploring the issues and offering thoughtful, pragmatic, what we like to call TeacherSolutions, encourages me about the future of education.

 

Treating All Students The Way We Treat Gifted/Talented

I encourage you to read (or listen) to this brief discussion from Michel Martin's Tell Me More program on NPR with Yvette Jackson, who heads the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education. Jackson argues for treating underachieving Black and Hispanic students the way we do gifted and talented ones.

Jackson had this advice for the Administraton: "Let's start by looking at where students are strong for a change, and build on their strength to take them to levels of success."

Jackson also wrote a thoughtful and challenging post in a guest blog on the Answer Sheet at Washington Post about how we could get more effective with professional development for teachers.

Curious to hear what others think of her ideas, or what those of you who have seen such programs in action think of their benefits for students of color? I'm particularly interested in Jackson's assertion that we could do these without increased cost by doing away with the emphasis on remedial approach to reading and math. 

Could we do this in any school (urban or rural)? Should we?

My Ten Favorite Blog Posts

Browsing back through five years of blogging, I found myself lingering and smiling most over these ten posts. I refuse to rank them, but they are recurring and important themes for me. I invite you to visit them and comment.

I don't close the comments on my past blogs because I don't believe these virtual conversations end, nor that they should be rushed. I'm a big fan of Twitter as a professional tool; however, the ideas that we need to hear and develop around education are too important and too complex for sound bytes or tweets. Although I blog more often now than when I started, I don't necessarily think high-frequency blogging is a good thing--unless you just like to hear [see] yourself talk. I value conversation and thoughtful response, and I look forward to hearing from you.

 1/20/2009 - What About The Children 

A look at the negative impact of educational reform policy decisions on the lives of real students and their parents.

10/13/2007 - Stairway to Heaven (aka Learning is NOT Linear)

Just because we divide the curriculum into neat little blocks progressing from lower to higher levels of difficulty, does not mean that's how children learn it or demonstrate it.

8/12/2008 - A Call to Revival, or How Did We Leave Our Children Behind

A call and a challenge to the Black community to reclaim our children and their future by reviving our historical commitment to the value of their education.

10/5/2009 - Reaping What We've Sown: Poor Parents and School

Perhaps more parents in poor communities appear to value education less because less value has clearly been placed on them and their children by the public education system.

6/17/2007 - Where Honor is Due

Veteran teachers often have a great store of knowledge, not only about teaching in general, but also about the communities in which they work or the workings of school systems. Some of that knowledge is encrusted in hard-earned cynicism, but when it is carefully mined, it can produce tangible yields for student learning and school effectiveness.

3/14/2008 - Redefining Basic Skills

As the amount of information available to us multiplies exponentially by the hour, it's time to redefine what are the real "basic skills" and how best to teach them to the citizens of our present and future.

12/15/09 - Back to Basics: Parents and Educators Working Together for Children

I got to spend an entire day in an all too rare setting...parents, teachers, and grassroot community leaders working together... In too many cases, parents and educators have become almost enemies; suspicious of each other, accusing one another, and losing focus on our common goals.

9/16/2007  - Compared to What? Rural Poverty and NCLB

Most of the school districts here in the Delta region of Mississippi get less than 20% (most less than 15%) of their operating funds from local revenues, and over 25% from Federal funds (2006 State Superintendent Report)...Yet these poorer schools and districts are also most likely to be penalized by the intended and unintended consequences of the law that was supposed to help provide their students with more equitable education.

7/30/2010 - Dear Angela

My start of the school year message to a former student, now a principal at a local elementary school.

10/3/2008 - Trusting Teachers: The Most Radical Education Reform of All

Critics of American public education like to point out the unfavorable comparisons between our school children and those of other nations. These same critics, however, are much less likely to compare how those other systems train, treat, or pay their teachers.