The Tempered Radical

An Open Letter to North Carolina Legislators. . .

Like many states, North Carolina’s legislature is wrapped in one of the toughest budget sessions of the past 50 years. 

Along with raising taxes and cutting services in almost every department, the men and women who represent us have been pushed into the position where even education----something that North Carolina has a long history of protecting---is going to suffer.

While I firmly believe that our government---like the families that it represents---should live within its means and understand that difficult decisions are par for the course in this legislative session, I’m heartbroken because our decision-makers are seriously considering capping the number of teachers who can pursue certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in North Carolina in an attempt to cut future costs in a state where teachers earn a 12% salary stipend for every year that they are certified.

Here’s my attempt to lend perspective to their decision:

July 21, 2009

Dear Legislators,

I'm writing to you today to encourage you to advocate against the current conversations in the legislature around capping the number of teachers that can pursue certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in our state. 

As both a teacher and a taxpayer, I'm passionate about this topic primarily because almost 12 full years ago, I can remember sitting in the office of my  principal breaking bad news to him.  I'd decided to leave teaching to pursue a career that paid a competitive wage compared to the professions chosen by my peers. 

During our conversation, my principal told me about a new program that was being funded and supported by the state of North Carolina called National Board Certification.  "With a bit of hard work," he said, "You can raise your salary by 12%." 

Given that teaching is all that I ever really wanted to do, I decided to give certification a whirl---and while the process was challenging, it was also incredibly rewarding because it offered a real opportunity to reflect on my practice and to be measured against the most rigorous standards of excellence in our profession.

After certifying as one of the first 20 teachers in Wake County, one of the first 100 teachers in North Carolina and one of the first 1,000 teachers in the nation, I found that my salary was incredibly competitive for ten months of work----and I've stayed in the classroom ever since, renewing my certificate in 2007. 

That makes me a North Carolina education policy success story, doesn’t it? 

As a teacher, I hope that you'll continue to support National Board Certification---without capping the number of candidates that can apply for the process in our state---as a teacher retention tool.  There is no doubt that I would not continue to serve in North Carolina's classrooms had the fee support and salary stipend for Board Certification not been available to me. 

As a taxpayer, I hope that you'll continue to support National Board Certification because it is a responsible way to increase salaries in a state where the average teacher makes almost $5,000 less than the national average.  Unlike across the board increases for every teacher, National Board Certification ensures that our state's investments in increasing teacher salaries are targeted and earned.   

This is, in my opinion, the best of both worlds---and it mirrors your commitment to fiscal responsibility.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions,

Bill Ferriter
Sixth Grade Science and Social Studies
Salem Middle School
6150 Old Jenks Road
Apex, North Carolina 27513
Middle Childhood Generalist since 1997

Denny and the Overpriced Retreads. . .

Cranky Blogger Warning!  This post is a heavy dose of emotion mixed with a splash of rational thinking.  Take it for what it's worth, which may be next to nothing when I look at it again in a week.  I'm too worked up to tell right now. 

Not long ago, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel (aka: Ol' Denny) took some time to wax poetic about his first days as a classroom teacher in Iowa.  He wrote:

As I entered my first classroom in Iowa, I recall the anticipation, anxiety, and fun in store! The learning curve was steep—I remember feeling overwhelmed by all the paperwork and forms. And there were 160 students counting on me—quite a culture shock from my student teaching days.

So I jumped in with both feet.

I took seating charts home every night and by the end of the first week of school, I had memorized every student's name. I was more tired after my first week of teaching than after working 2 full-time jobs all summer. It's a tough job, but it's also where I loved to be.

Today, I work in new surroundings as NEA President. But I still get the same rush from being part of such a unique and awesome profession. My new experiences will be special in their own way.

But those "first days" are always memorable!

Beautiful, ain't it?  Ol' Denny almost brought a tear to my eye. 

Heck, I could almost smell the chalk as little Hawkeyes pounded classroom erasers trying to please their heroic teacher, who sat smiling behind a desk littered with apple knick-knacks and graded papers sporting enough "You're Just Plain Super!" stickers to make an entire grade level beam with twelve-year-old pride.

  by  House Of Sims 

You'd have to be a cold-hearted soul NOT to love warm reminiscences from a school teacher---especially when that one-time teacher now leads the most powerful organization representing educators in the nation, right?

Wrong.  You'd just have to be a first year teacher in districts like mine in 2009.  Faced with almost impossible budget numbers, schools across the country are cutting the contracts of non-tenured colleagues----including those who are the newest to our profession---faster than the Little Ceaser's guy preparing $5 pizzas in Munchietown. 

Arne's Half-Baked Plan for Fixing Schools. . .

David Warlick---one of my favorite thinkers on the changing nature of education---was all over Arne Duncan's announcement this week that American students need to spend more time in schools.  In fact, Warlick goes as far as to argue that more time in school is equivalent to the pointless extension of a prison sentence.

  by  Obama-Biden Transition Project 

 

Warlick writes:

You’re not going to win the blue ribbon at the county fair by leaving your apple pie in the oven longer.  And secondly, why not grow oranges instead.  Doesn’t a global market place need diversity of talents and skills — not everyone trying to best each other on the same narrow array of standards.

But we’re not talking about fruit are we?  We’re talking about our children. ..and let’s face it, we’re talking about nothing less than institutionalizing “child labor” to satisfy a failed belief that higher standardized test scores will reliably lead to a stronger economy, more prosperous citizens, and a vibrant democracy. 

What it leads to is boredom, collapsing morale among our best teachers, children without passion, children dropping out, and a growing and prospering testing industry."

Nancy Flanagan---my official Ed Policy Sensei---wasn't as skeptical of Duncan's plan as Warlick.  In fact, a mountain of statistical evidence seemed to convince Nancy that Duncan may just be on to something.

The Impact of Market Norms on Education. . .

I've been plugging through Barack Obama's recent remarks on education and finding tons of tidbits that are interesting times ten.  

To start with, it's great to hear our president talking about rewarding teachers differently and about the importance of 21st Century skills.  Both are reforms that I believe in and write about all the time (see here and here).

But I'm bothered by one section of his speech.  He wrote:

From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom...

America’s future depends on its teachers. And so today, I am calling on a new generation of Americans to step forward and serve our country in our classrooms. If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make the most of your talents and dedication; if you want to make your mark with a legacy that will endure – join the teaching profession.

America needs you. We need you in our suburbs. We need you in our small towns. We need you in our inner cities. We need you in classrooms all across our country.

  by  transplanted mountaineer 

That's just plain beautiful, isn't it?  It's not unlike the high-minded rhetoric that dozens of presidents have pulled out of the ol' uh-oh toolkit during times of domestic trouble.  

But who can blame 'em!  Tapping into American pride never hurts when your trying to tackle social challlenges.  We're a nation of believers and when we feel like we're losing ground to anyone, we're generally willing to bear more weight in order to get 'er done. 

(Mental note:  We really should thank the Puritans for that.) 

There's one problem, though:  Education has gone through a painful transition in the past two decades, from a profession driven by social norms to one driven by market norms.  

Ensuring Mediocrity While Preventing Disaster. . .

I gotta tell ya, Mike's recent comments about teachers and students connecting in digital forums for learning beyond school hours have still got me riled up.  

Not only did he suggest that any teacher who uses digital tools to communicate with students is likely to wind up "on the news" for inappropriate behavior----which makes offensive generalizations about the intentions of the majority of teachers based on the actions of a reprehensible few---but he also adamantly insisted that communication between teachers and students outside the confines of schools should "never, ever" happen.  

  by  psd 

He wrote:

"To that end, teachers should never, ever contact students outside the boundaries of their legitimate and narrow duties. Teachers do not contact students outside the classroom. To do otherwise is to open them to charges of inappropriate interest or influence. That such contact is through texting, the internet or any other trendy method changes the reality of such contact not at all."

So I did a bit of digging around this morning to see whether or not I'm crazy to suggest that digital forums might just have potential for improving the teaching-learning transaction in schools.  Interestingly enough, the first post in my feed reader was this Dean Shareski bit about underinformed efforts of districts attempting to control teacher and student access to social networking tools.  

A Sneak Peek at Readicide. . .

So here it is, Radical Nation:  The beginning of our conversation with Kelly Gallagher about reading instruction in America starts today (a day early, mind you!  Figured no one would complain) with a link to download his new book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. 

Here's the direct link:  Download Readicide. 

You can also find more information about Readicide on the Stenhouse website by visiting this link.  (BTW: We should be thankful to both Kelly and Stenhouse for making this conversation happen!)

To focus your reading, consider the following questions:

Kelly is passionate about what he calls the 50/50 approach to teaching reading:  50% of the reading that his students do in class is academic and 50% of the reading that his students do in class is recreational.  Is this an approach that would work in your school?  Why or why not?

At one point in Readicide, Kelly argues that reading teachers shouldn't teach the reading.  Instead, they should teach the reader.  What do you think he means by this?  Would it be a fair summary of the entire book?  How well do the teachers in your building follow this advice?

What instructional practices does Kelly argue against in Readicide?  What instructional practices does he argue in favor of?  What percentage of time do students and teachers in your school spend engaged in the ineffective practices that Kelly describes?  What percentage of time do students and teachers spend engaged in the effective practices that he describes?

In our evidence-driven world, advocates for change in education can't merely argue on passion or intuition.  Instead, they need tangible evidence to prove that their practices are effective.  What is the most convincing evidence you can find in Readicide that schools are killing reading?  How will you use this evidence to drive change in your own schools or communities?

At times, Kelly is hard on schools and teachers in Readicide---arguing that we need to be more proactive in standing up for responsible instruction.  How do you feel about that?  Do teachers need to take ownership over the current reading crisis in our country?  What barriers prevent you from standing up for change?  Does Readicide provide any tools that you can use to take action?

Clearly, the reward that teachers care about the most are the moments when we know that we've touched a child in a positive way, helping them to succeed in an area where they've struggled.  Think about a moment like this during your teaching career.  What was it that 'worked' in that situation?  Can the lessons learned be stretched to other students?  Why or why not?

So dive in, huh?  Building your understanding of effective---and ineffective---reading instruction will make you a better practitioner, and building your knowledge of the evidence supporting the argument that schools are killing reading will make you a better advocate for change.  This is simply a conversation that we can't ignore.

And make plans to join us at some point between January 18th and January 22nd for a focused conversation with Kelly about reading in America.  You can learn more about our conversation by rereading this post from the Radical.  A link to the live conversation---being hosted with a digital tool called Voicethread----will be posted here in my blog on the morning of the 18th. 

1 in 7 U.S. Adults Can't Read?

Considering our upcoming conversation with Kelly Gallagher on his new book Readicide (see here, here and here), I thought the findings of a 2003 survey of adult literacy skills released by the National Center for Education Statistics were completely fascinating.  Poking around a bit led me to these disturbing conclusions:

• There was little change in the adult literacy levels between the time of the first National Assessment of Adult Literacy---conducted in 1992---and the second survey conducted in 2003. 
• Double digit drops in both the prose literacy (searching, comprehending, using information from continuous texts) and document literacy (searching, comprehending, using information from noncontinuous texts) of Hispanic Americans were noted between 1992 and 2003.  
• The average prose literacy scores for adults between the ages of 25 and 49---prime working and earning years---dropped from 1993 to 2003.  
• Only 5 percent of the 16-18 year olds and 12 percent of the 19-24 year olds surveyed in 2003 were rated proficient in document literacy.

Considering that "proficiency" includes the ability to perform such commonplace tasks as comparing two competing viewpoints in editorials, interpreting a table showing the connections between age, blood pressure and physical activity, and computing and comparing the cost per ounce of food items, I'd say that we've got something to be concerned about, don't you?!

I think the statistics that I found the most interesting were connected to the literacy performance of students graduating from high school and college.  From 1993-2003, the literacy scores of high school graduates dropped by 6 points and the literacy scores of college graduates dropped by 14 points. 

Those numbers just sit wrong in my craw.  I mean, with all of the emphasis that we've placed on reading instruction in the last decade---including something like a billion dollars to implement "proven reading practices" in schools---how can it be possible that the students graduating from our schools are leaving with such a poor handle on the very skills that are most important to their future success? 

Is this evidence of an underinvestment in schools?  What about communities?  Are they doing less to support families, causing children unnecessary personal struggles that interfere with reading?  Should we redirect our efforts from supporting early readers to supporting adults who haven't mastered basic literacy skills?  Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Could this somehow be a reflection on the poor quality of teachers in our country? 

What about a reflection on the poor quality of instruction in our country?

Are the two connected?

These are the kinds of questions that Kelly tackles in his new book, Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do to stop it----which will be available for download here on the Radical this Thursday (January 14th).  They are also the kinds of questions that we'll tackle in our focused 4 day conversation with Kelly, running from January 18th through January 22nd. 

I hope you'll join us.  This is a conversation that practitioners need to grab a hold of and own. 

(Image Credit:  Wikipedia T-Shirt by Quartermane, licensed Creative Commons: Attribution)

Where Gates Gets it Right on Education. . .

First, many apologies for slogging this week.  I usually only slack off over here on the Radical when school is a complete zoo---and the weeks leading up to the holiday break definitely qualify as high-pressure times for any teacher.  I just couldn't find any free minutes to write!

I did find time, though, to read this interesting Newsweek interview between Jonathan Alter and Bill Gates on the best ways to reform education.  What surprised (impressed?) me the most was that ol' rich Billy is using some of his considerable clout to push for changes that I think I can believe in.  Most interesting is Gates' insistence on reforming how teachers are rewarded for their work.

As Alter describes it:   

Betraying his own professional background, Gates shakes his head in dismay at the idea of secondary schools and colleges trying to function at all without simple software that offers them basic statistical information about how students and teachers are performing over time (for-profit colleges are an exception). Everyone in education knows why: unions have simply prevented teachers from being judged, even in part, on whether their students improve during the course of the year. It's no surprise that Gates is a believer in merit pay and incentive pay and has little use for teachers colleges as presently constituted because there's no evidence that having a master's degree improves teacher performance. You never hear Gates or his people talk about highly qualified teachers, only highly effective ones.

I couldn't agree with Gates more.  Our commitment as a profession to master's degrees as a form of identifying--and then differentiating pay for---accomplished teachers has simply outlived its usefulness.  While there may have been a time when elevating the academic accomplishments of classroom teachers served to elevate the profession in the eyes of critics and to elevate the qualifications of those who'd chosen to spend their careers in the classrooms, differentiating pay for master's degrees at this point is an inefficient and under-informed practice.

Let me give you an example (which I've mentioned on the Radical before):  My master's degree is in "advanced teaching techniques."  I earned it in 1997.  Do you think that the strategies I learned from college professors who hadn't been in classrooms since the early '80s in 1997 would still qualify as "advanced teaching today?"

I sure don't. 

Yet I'll continue to collect a 10% salary supplement from my state---one of the only ways teachers can differentiate their pay here in North Carolina---for the remaining 14 years in my career.  As a classroom teacher scraping nickels together to adopt a child, I'm thankful.  As a fiscally conservative taxpayer, though, I'm miffed!

Reflecting on Teacher Working Conditions

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting opportunity to speak to a group of aspiring principals about the role that quality teacher working conditions can play in school improvement---something North Carolina has been studying for years. 

Considering my "just a teacher" status, I figured that I'd be fighting an uphill battle to convince these future leaders that teacher working conditions were worth embracing, but the evening was such a success that the professor asked me to answer a few general follow-up questions so that he could use my responses in future work with students.   

Here are his questions and my replies.  I hope that you'll find them useful in your work to draw attention to the important role that teacher working conditions can play in improving our schools:

What does it mean to say that "teacher working conditions are student learning conditions?"  Is this true?

I've always loved this slogan--coined by North Carolina Governor Mike Easley---because it's one of the best bits of public relations that you can find in the Ed Policy world, don't you think?  After all, who really cares about teacher working conditions if  they're not connected to student learning!  Building support for improved teacher working conditions requires direct public connections to student learning.

And the good news is that years of study have proven clear links between quality teacher working conditions and successful students as measured by Annual Yearly Progress and ABC---a North Carolina measure of effectiveness---scores.  To simplify the findings of working conditions surveys conducted in 8 different states over the past eight years into one statement, students in schools with quality working conditions regularly outperform students in schools with poor working conditions.

I'd argue that these findings shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. 

After all, schools with quailty working conditions are ALWAYS going to recruit and retain the best teachers.  Focusing on providing teachers with the time, tools and resources---including quality leadership, professional development, and flexibility---that they need in order to be successful ensures that schools will have the human capital necessary to reach every child. 

Education Letter to the Next President. . .

Scott McLeod---one of my favorite writers and the mind behind Dangerously Irrelevant---tagged me the other day to join in an edublogger effort to write a letter to the next president before Tuesday's election.

 

A part of a larger, joint effort between the National Writing Project and Google, Scott sees this as an opportunity to share our "thoughts, wishes and concerns" with a broader audience.

 

Being a strong believer that blogs are the great equalizer---allowing teachers to have a real voice in conversations about education---this is a project that is right up my alley.  In fact, a few years back, I crafted a piece with similar themes.  With the magic of revision, I updated that entry this morning. 

 

Here's to hoping that Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain actually care enough to listen:

 

 

November 2, 2008

 

Dear Mr. Soon-to-be-President,

I’m a teacher and I'm tired.

Does that surprise you?  Do you find it hard to believe that a guy who works “only 180 days a year” can be wiped out by November?  Is it hard to believe that teaching can be exhausting?

It shouldn’t.

On top of the daily challenge of planning, instructing, assessing, remediating, and enriching to meet the individual needs of the 85-plus children that roll through my classroom each day, I wrestle with the constant mental pressure applied by a country caught in the grips of a “crisis mentality.”

Each new week seems to bring headlines highlighting a major flaw that needs to be addressed by teachers immediately.  In the past few months alone, I’ve read articles about alarming rates of high school dropouts, the urgent need for schools to begin comprehensive sex education immediately, the importance of including hormone free cheese on pizzas served as school lunches, the fact that schools tend to fail adolescent girls more than adolescent boys, and (ironically enough), the fact that schools tend to fail adolescent boys more than adolescent girls.

My all-time favorite crisis:  A passionate plea from a group called Project CLEAN explaining how bathroom hygiene is directly connected to flagging rates of student achievement:  "If a school can't do a simple thing like keep soap in a dispenser, how can it hope to teach students self-respect or inspire them to greater academic achievement?  This is a national disaster and I think we ought to do something about it."

These guys have even gone as far as to create a restroom checklist that includes 39 different action steps that school principals should take to ensure that their schools succeed! 

 

Schools are called failing and troubled and distressed.  They're described as dismal places with lazy educators who can't be counted on to move America forward.  They're treated with scorn by members of nearly every political party and every important stakeholder group in our nation.

 

Heck, during the campaign season, even YOU were disparaging schools, Mr. Soon-to-be-President!

 

Mr. McCain, you've argued that schools are places that seek "to avoid genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children."  And Mr. Obama---while I find less negativity towards schools in your education platform, you seem to suggest that schools aren't always preparing students properly for the future in comments like these:  "We'll teach our students not only math and science, but teamwork and critical thinking and communication skills, because that's how we'll make sure they're prepared for today's workplace."

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the constant state of panic over education has just plain worn me out!

And that surprises me because I work in an incredibly accomplished school in one of the top urban districts in America.  Wake County’s SAT scores are well above the state and national average, the number of students in advanced placement classes has risen consistently year after year, and over 90% of our students demonstrate mastery on their end of grade exams.

Clearly, good things are happening in our corner of the world.  Because of our proven success, teachers in our system should be able to move forward in confidence.

Yet warning bells are constantly sounding across our country.  Activists demand a “renewed focus” on the part of educators and administrators.  Elected officials campaign on promises to “reform education” and “restore America’s competitive edge again.”  Parents fret over the fear that their child is being "academically neglected."

And where does the responsibility for addressing each of these issues inevitably seem to end up falling?

In the true spirit of Will Rogers, Ronald Reagan and the trickle-down theory, right on the shoulders of classroom teachers!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I can see the value in each of the areas of focus listed above.  Who would argue against closing the achievement gap, increasing high school graduation rates, ensuring that boys AND girls succeed in school, or teaching healthy living and eating habits?  And---as sarcastic as I may seem---even I would love to see conscientious students with an awareness of the importance of restroom hygiene!

What I am saying is that bearing up under the weight of each new national crisis is becoming more and more difficult for me each year.  As my close friend and mentor Nancy Flanagan once told me, we’re being asked to work towards goals that are “simultaneously important and impossible to reach.”

Subtly, the message is being sent that if teachers would work harder, America’s “educational crisis” could be solved.  If only all teachers were “highly qualified,” we’d lead the world again.  If only all teachers held “advanced degrees in the subjects they were teaching,” we wouldn’t fall behind China, Japan and India in engineers and scientists.  If only we could recruit “our best and our brightest” to our nation’s classrooms, no child would be left behind.

I think successfully educating all children in America requires something more than sounding warning bells and asking teachers to “pull up their boot straps” time and again.  For me, improving education means being willing to significantly rethink how “school” is done in our country.

What if we extended the school day or year to take into account the ever expanding curriculum that we expect students to master?  What if we experimented with electronic learning to extend opportunities or to provide remediation?  What if we emphasized critical thinking rather than standardized testing in our assessment programs?  What if we lowered class sizes and increased access to technology for all students?

What if we provided more time for teachers to collaborate with one another or to master new instructional strategies and skills?  What if we raised teaching salaries to compete with the private sector jobs that lure accomplished educators away from our classrooms?  What if we created a menu of compensation packages that appealed to teachers at different points in their careers or stratified the profession, providing opportunities to advance?

What if we renewed America’s war on poverty and guaranteed economic opportunity for all of our citizens?

I know what you're thinking:  "These are the policies I'm proposing, Bill."

Forgive my skepticism, but I've been around classrooms long enough to doubt.  You see, as a teacher and a citizen, I believe in our public schools and their mission. 

I just can’t handle the next great crisis alone!

Respectfully,

Bill Ferriter

6th Grade Teacher

(Image credit:  DSC04822 by click, licensed Creative Commons:  Attribution)