TLN Teacher Voices

Meeting Urban Students Where They Live

Meeting Students Where They Live: Motivation in Urban Schools
by Richard L. Curwin
(ASCD, 2010)

Reviewed by Dave Orphal
World History Teacher (CA)
TLN New Millennium Initiative

Richard Curwin kicks off his advice book for urban teachers with a story about a king looking for a teacher for the young Prince. After testing all of the teachers in the land, the king selects the three finalists. One has the best content knowledge; another has the strongest classroom management and discipline. You have probably already guessed that it is the third teacher who wins the job — not the strongest in either category but an individual who combines great skills with the philosophy that it is a teacher’s role to serve and guide, on behalf of both the pupil and society at large.

Curwin’s summary conclusion: Teachers, including those in urban schools, are charged with helping our students learn and find a love of learning. To accomplish this, the co-author of the widely discussed Discipline with Dignity (1988, 2008), makes five recommendations for teachers and those who support them:

First, curriculum should be tailored to meet each child’s individual needs. Teachers should use diagnostic evaluations to assess a child’s knowledge and skills on any given topic, then guide that child toward increased knowledge and stronger skills. Here, Curwin challenges current-trend thinking that says that curriculum should be more closely articulated, so that teachers in a similar discipline are teaching nearly the same material on a given day, enabling those teachers to later collaborate on student results. Curwin’s counter argument is not to challenge the data that is driving this current trend, but rather to trouble that way of thinking with the query: “Maybe it does work, but at what costs?” Curwin wants teachers, administrators, parents and law makers to wonder, “Is getting high test scores worth it, if learning is forgotten or if children learn to hate learning?”

Second, expectations should be high, but attainable for every student. Expectations that are too high lead to frustration and failure for struggling students. They learn to dislike the subject and many decide to misbehave as a result. Curwin imagines a child thinking, “If I am so bad at being good or smart, then at least I can be really good at being bad.” Conversely, expectations that are too low lead to boredom.

Third, evaluations should diagnostic in nature. Little is accomplished, Curwin posits, when we use summative evaluations to rank children, rewarding the best and punishing the worst. In fact, he argues, this approach runs contrary to motivation. Those students who need little motivation get lots of encouragement from the rewards, and those who need motivation rebel against the punishments.

Fourth, everything a school does should be geared toward getting kids to want to learn. Contained within this concept are Curwin’s theories about discipline and classroom/school management. If the point of school is for children to learn, then it makes little sense to remove a child from a learning environment if the child is misbehaving. Instead, Curwin advises teachers to refer children to the principal only as a last resort. Curwin offers numerous tips and ideas about how to redirect misbehavior and offers perhaps his most interesting idea: the Altruism Consequence. Consequences are not punishments, Curwin states. Rather, they are the natural outcome of actions. When we hurt someone, the consequence is doing something nice for that person or for the class/school. Curwin believes that giving difficult youth opportunities to be good and help others will, in turn, heal the hurt and lead to higher levels of motivation for school.

Fifth, students need freedom and flexibility to explore their strengths and needs. In traditional schooling, adults decide on how children will spend their time, and how they will compete against one another for rewards and grades. Here, Curwin argues that some learning is better than no learning. There is little to be lost when a teacher lowers the bar for a child who has been stubbornly refusing to jump at all. Curwin believes that schools are currently over-emphasizing achievement, which ranks and kills motivation for low-achieving students. Instead, he thinks that teachers, principals and schools should emphasize effort, because achievement is the outcome of effort and, Curwin surmises, effort is the only factor that we can really control.

While many of Curwin’s ideas and strategies would work in any school, his focus is on low-achieving, unmotivated urban youth. He is not arguing that urban youth are necessarily low-achieving or unmotivated, nor does he argue that there are no low-achieving or unmotivated youth in the suburbs and the country. Instead, he recognizes that there are some conditions exasperated by urban poverty and violent neighborhoods. He recognizes that many students living in urban poverty have lost hope that their lives can be better than they are — that their lives can be better than the lives their parents live — or that education may be a way to pave a road to a brighter future.

David Orphal teaches World History at urban Skyline High School in Oakland (CA) Unified School District. He also serves as a mentor for the Center for Teaching Quality’s New Millennium Initiative in the San Francisco Bay area.

TFA's Secret Teacher Training Toolkit

Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap
By Steven Farr
(Jossey-Bass, 2010)

Reviewed by Alex Diamond
English Teacher (South Korea)
Teacher Leaders Network

This fall 4,500 teachers will take the same path to their first-ever classrooms. The vast majority of these will come in with no completed traditional coursework in the field of education. All will teach in some of the toughest schools in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the country, where students lag as many as a few years behind their more-privileged peers in reading level and other academic skills. Yet Teach for America (TFA), the organization that selects and places these teachers, believes an intensive five-week summer training institute is enough to prepare them.

Whatever you think of this claim— and there's an ongoing and very much unresolved debate over whether TFA teachers are better than the alternative—Teach for America has spent considerable time and energy studying the most effective teachers to design an impressive condensed teacher-training program. And now they have brought their approach public for the first time in a new book by Steven Farr, Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teachers' Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap.

Reading Teaching as Leadership was for me likely a different experience than it would be for many classroom teachers. As of this writing it's been less than three months since I finished my two-year commitment to TFA. I've been through TFA's summer training and received ongoing support based around the same teaching principles. Though criticisms of the length of TFA's training are warranted, the principles behind their training have a lot of value and the book is therefore full of helpful, specific and practical suggestions.

The book is organized around six principles that characterize the most effective teachers. They are:

1. Set big goals
2. Invest students and families
3. Plan purposefully
4. Execute effectively
5. Continually increase effectiveness; and
6. Work relentlessly

Some of these may seem obvious (of course you should plan with a purpose) but the book gets into the practical nitty-gritty of how good teachers do these things. For planning, it suggests beginning with a vision of success (what will students be able to do?), turning that vision into an assessment of some form, and only then writing a daily lesson plan. For daily planning they recommend a basic "I do, we do, you do" model as a starting point. Certainly, TFA didn't invent all of these teaching approaches, but the organization has twenty years of experience working with effective teachers to draw on to explain them.

Indeed, the strength of the book is the dozens of teachers' anecdotes sprinkled throughout every chapter that illuminate the practice behind the theory. Not sure how to involve parents? The book includes a diversity of examples, from weekly newsletters and phone calls celebrating high quiz grades to having students keep binders with work to show their family. Not sure what an appropriate big goal would be? You can read a number of examples from different subject matters and age groups, with an analysis of how these goals led to achievement. Not sure what effective execution actually looks like? Teaching as Leadership pairs an explanation with a number of ideas of how to, for example, check for student understanding in the middle of the lesson. As I read the book, there were multiple times when specific ideas jumped out at me and I thought, "I could do that." Perhaps just as important, many of the anecdotes are inspiring (they are usually paired with impressive achievement data) and keep the book focused around students.

In addition to being a source of good ideas, Teaching as Leadership caused me to reflect on my own teaching. There were times throughout my reading (a good example is its insistence on a classroom management plan that is both predictable and consistent) that I had the discomfort of realizing ways my own teaching practice could be improved. As part of continually increasing effectiveness, the book argues that good teachers see teaching as a series of learnable skills, and embrace errors as opportunities to grow. Teaching as Leadership is appropriate for anyone either undertaking a project of teaching self-reflection or seeking a toolkit of specific suggestions for improvement.

Throughout the book, Farr is very clear that these teaching principles, while broadly applicable, are intended specifically for teachers working at the wrong end of the achievement gap. Though the book is full of examples of teachers whose classes make exceptional gains, it makes no bones about the efforts that this may require. Part of working relentlessly, according to the book, is expanding the time teachers spend influencing students. Though this may include inspiring students to study flashcards as they wait in lunch line, Farr also writes about teachers wading through floodwater to teach 12 students in their backyards or spending evenings at the local McDonald's to tutor students/fry cooks during breaks. Though I have observed this level of commitment from fellow TFAers, it's worth asking whether it's realistic to expect it from people for whom teaching represents a lifelong profession rather than two years of intensive service.

While Teaching as Leadership doesn't respond to this criticism, it anticipates at least one other. A large part of the book (including most teachers' success stories, most of the discussions of goal-setting, and the assumed starting points for teachers' self-reflection as they strive to increase their effectiveness) is based on a quantitative, standards-driven measure of learning. Farr admits there is an open debate about the standards movement in education but writes (correctly) that "whatever your view of learning standards, all states and districts now use them to guide instruction, and it is important to think about your role as a teacher within that reality." True as this assessment may be, it is possible that the book will put off teachers who object to the growing emphasis on standardized testing in education.

Whether you are a fan or detractor of Teach for America, the organization has in 20 years become a significant force in public education. Facing the need to quickly train teachers for some of the toughest placements in the country, they have compiled an impressive body of research on what principles hold true for effective teachers. Teaching as Leadership is undeniably oriented toward a specific view of achievement, one based on tests, numbers and state standards. Nonetheless, it includes both teaching theory and specific suggestions that can improve any teacher's practice.

Alex Diamond teaches English at Gyeonggi English Village in South Korea.  From 2008-10, he taught World History and World Geography at Melrose High School in Orange Mound, Memphis, TN as a member of Teach for America. His article “Do I Really Teach for America: Reflections of a Teach for America Teacher” appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Rethinking Schools. He welcomes email at akdiamond08@gmail.com

Review: Powerful Teaching with Metaphors & Analogies

Metaphors and Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching in any Subject
by Rick Wormeli
(Stenhouse, 2009)

Reviewed by Marsha Ratzel, NBCT
Middle Grades Math and Science (KS)
Teacher Leaders Network

Metaphors and Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching in any Subject taught me more than any education book I’ve read in the last 10 years.

This book opens doorways into using metaphors and analogies as instructional tools that I never dreamed of. Rick Wormeli brings both his intellectual insight and his pragmatic understanding of daily classroom instruction to what is an often-overlooked but critical part of effective teaching.

In Chapter 1, Wormeli opens by saying “Little in education has as much influence….as metaphors and analogies to make unfamiliar concepts clear.” He urges teachers not to limit themselves to those “teachable moments” that arise unexpectedly in class – but to make deliberate and purposeful use of stories and examples that help students experience “aha” moments and build understanding.

Chapters 2 & 3 sketch out a plan for teaching students the format of metaphors and metaphorical thinking. Wormeli offers a way to critically evaluate metaphors for their usefulness and to engage students in that process. By internalizing the structure of this kind of analogical thinking, students gain a framework for looking at these comparisons and ultimately finding comparisons of their own.

Wormeli stresses that background knowledge is critical to understanding metaphors. This section of the book is loaded with ways to improve vocabulary and background for all students, including those in ELL programs.

I hadn’t considered how incorporating physical movement amplifies metaphors. It only makes sense now that I’ve read Chapter 6. Wormeli provides excellent examples to illustrate how to power-up critical thinking by adding dance moves, song or art. The following chapter adds visual metaphors. Wormeli explains how to attach an image to the concept you are introducing to make it long-lasting. I hadn’t seen a rebus since my childhood days of reading Highlights magazine, but Wormeli quickly helped me remember how powerfully those images were in making my own learning “sticky.”

Chapter 8 exposes the reader to scaffolds that students can use to create their own metaphors. At the same time, Wormeli reminds us that the kind of conversation that pushes deep thinking happens as students promote and defend their ideas. The chapter called Incubation Stage shows how to deepen and extend metaphors. One of the things I learned was that, at some point, a metaphor breaks down. As it breaks down students come to realize the comparison isn’t literal. It becomes a model they can use for thinking. Once they assimilate the model they will start connecting the “likeness” in unlike things between and within disciplines.

Finally, in understanding all this, students and teachers sharpen their analytical skills. They embrace abstract kinds of thinking and students are able to take their concrete knowledge to the next level –which is where every teacher wants to journey with our kids.

I heartily recommend this book for you and for a book club study group. So much practical advice. It’s worth every penny and more.

Marsha Ratzel teaches middle grades math and science in the Blue Valley (KS) School District, where she has also served as an instructional and technology coach. She blogs at Reflections of a Techie. Marsha participated recently in some discussion of Metaphors and Analogies at the Stenhouse Publishers’ Ning site.

Reviews: Caring Teachers and Confident Students

Teaching as an Act of Love
by Richard Lakin
(iUniverse, 2009)

The Complete Guide to the Gap Year
by Kristin M. White
(Jossey-Bass, 2009)

Reviewed by David B. Cohen, NBCT
High School English & Counseling (CA)
Teacher Leaders Network

Newspapers (for those of us who still read them) and online reports provide a steady flow of stories that might induce stress in teachers and students. I find I can immerse myself in this constant stream and become dizzy — or step aside and feel marginalized when the education policy conversation is dominated by talk of data systems, national standards, and racing to the top without leaving a single child behind.

Meanwhile, the juniors and seniors I advise at my high school, and their families, are looking at the spiraling costs for public and private higher education and reacting with anxiety as they hear about increasing competition in college admissions.

With that backdrop, I’m glad I took the time to read a pair of books that were recently sent to me. Richard Lakin is a former teacher and principal whose self-published collection of anecdotes and reflections seems almost provocatively titled in this educational climate. Teaching as an Act of Love (iUniverse) provides a variety of vignettes and affirmations that span 40 years of educational experience. For the high school student and family, Kristin M. White’s The Complete Guide to the Gap Year (Jossey-Bass) provides plenty of information and resources to encourage students to look into other options besides heading straight to college after high school — options that can lead to greater confidence and maturity.

It’s sad to think how it almost seems trivial, if not frivolous, to talk about caring or love in education today. Richard Lakin challenges this trend toward emotional detachment in education by illustrating what teachers know and what so few non-teaching education reformers seem to realize: When relationships of caring and trust are in place, pedagogy and curriculum are much more likely to achieve the results that reformers demand. Without those relationships, there is no perfect system, no foolproof textbook or software, no scripted curriculum that will yield the broad and lasting effects we all want for our youngest citizens.

The bulk of Lakin’s book focuses on his experiences as an elementary school principal. His approach to problem solving and school improvement featured an admirable balance of practicality and humility. Small stories about seemingly inconsequential matters like a class pet may seem uninspiring at a glance, but as the parent of a third-grader and a first-grader, I am often reminded that Carmel the Guinea Pig and Jake the Snake figure much more prominently in my sons’ minds than do any state standards or publishers’ pacing guides. Thus, when Lakin describes how he negotiated with students and their teacher to reach a mutually acceptable solution to a problem with pet mice, we can see the benefits that follow from his willingness to change his mind and to consider the children’s feelings as a relevant factor in running a school. Lakin continuously asserts that his success in this situation — and in the larger context of promoting goals like conflict resolution and school literacy — came not from having guidelines or standards that were handed down “from the office,” but from remaining faithful to a belief that we must educate from the heart.

Lakin’s commitment to parent-school partnerships also resonates. He recounts the efforts that went into transforming a school culture of distrust into one of caring and communication. After describing what it took to be successful — detailing both the improvements and a few mistakes along the way — he concludes by noting that the effort took three to four years before really taking hold.

I paused for a few minutes after this chapter and reflected on the current climate I see and hear about in education. First of all, in those three to four years, many of our struggling urban and rural schools might see more than a 50 percent turnover in staff and families. Yet we know that building trust depends largely on stability. Secondly, I’m concerned that our systemic obsession with data actually becomes an obstacle to trust. While it is true that we must rely on more than feelings to measure educational outcomes, my trust in a school or teacher is rooted in my belief that they know more about my child than his test scores. When we churn through teaching staff and make a fetish of test scores, we do not arrive at a system that knows and cares about children as people.

The rush to college

Fast forward eight to ten years, and you’re looking at high school graduation. If you know any college-bound high school seniors, or remember being one, you know that there are three questions that dominate the senior year — questions that you may not want to ask but can’t help yourself. Where are you applying? Where did you get in? Where are you going?

I wish more of our high school seniors were able to subvert this ritual of interrogation by answering those questions in unpredictable ways. To help out, I’ll be recommending Kristin M. White’s book on gap-year programs. Maybe we’ll start hearing: “I’m spending a year in AmeriCorps to support local non-profit groups and gain some job skills.” Or, “I’m going to do a field research expedition in Brazil.” Or perhaps, “I’ll be earning credits at Portland State, but living, working, and studying in East Africa.”

For most students and parents, the idea of a gap year between high school and a traditional college experience is relatively new and full of uncertainty. White is an experienced academic advisor and counselor, and her book provides a concise examination of the reasons to take a gap year, and many different ways to go about it, depending upon the student’s goals, personality, and financial situation.

White has anticipated all of the main concerns that I would have and would expect to hear from students and parents. She cautions that a gap year is ideally not a “year off” to hang out or to travel without some aim, purpose, or structure. But what if students lose academic momentum and be less successful in college, or not even return? Will colleges let a recently admitted student defer matriculation? Will admissions offices look favorably on applicants who have taken a year off?

White supplies ample information to reassure readers on every count. The book is full of positive comments from students, parents, gap-year program staff, college admissions staff and instructors. As one of her final thoughts, White offers that “I never came across anyone who expressed regret over doing a gap year. Even students who had a traveling disaster or a challenge abroad or went on a program with a difficult community service all reflected on their year positively.”

Parents seem to be the main group in need of some convincing. After all, she writes, “Parents have spent the last eighteen years saving and sacrificing for their child’s college education. They have evaluated every cultural and extracurricular opportunity with a view toward college. They may even feel that their success as parents is measured by their child’s acceptance (or lack of acceptance) to a good college.” This particular comment seems aimed at a particular demographic – middle and upper-class families – but it rings true in my experience and shows that White understands why parents might resist the idea.

While she does caution that a gap year is not for everyone, White clearly suggests that more students would benefit from trying it. Why? “The generation that is in high school today is going to need more than a college degree to be successful. Developing a worldview is crucial to being able to thrive and prosper in a global economy. A gap year experience can set you on a path to seeing your world in a different way.”

I might not couch the argument simply in terms of economic prosperity when talking to my own students or family members, but it’s hard to disagree with the final part of the statement. Achieving a broader world view can help a student mature, which may also aid the transition to college in social ways. White invites readers to “imagine how the independence and self-esteem building of a gap year would positively affect the maturity and confidence of those who were likely to be influenced by the college party culture.”

The second half of the book is made up of listings and resources for every type of gap year experience or program you might think of, and many that you would not have considered. A few options are free to participants, covering all expenses and providing a modest stipend or education award, while some others are essentially private school or international study programs with costs in the neighborhood of $40,000. However, the majority of gap-year options entail costs nearer to the middle of these extremes, and they tend to offer experiences that last weeks or months rather than a full year.

Kristin M. White’s book is an outstanding resource for high school students and their families, and would be an excellent addition to high school libraries and counseling centers. Whether the student’s goal is academic maturation, cross-cultural immersion and language development, volunteer work, community development, or career skill-building, there are opportunities worth considering for those willing to venture off the traditional educational track in search of something more.

David B. Cohen is a National Board Certified Teacher at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto CA. He is a co-founder of the Accomplished California Teachers leadership network.

[NOTE: David Cohen received a complimentary review copy of Teaching as an Act of Love from the author. Kristin White's book was sent to TLN Teacher Voices. See our book review disclosure here.]

A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community

Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)
By Lois Brown Easton
(2009, ASCD)

Reviewed by Michael Fisher
Instructional Coach and Consultant (New York)
Teacher Leaders Network

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.
   
Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and digitally, this book is specifically geared to my work with fellow educators. Many times, when I go into schools, teachers have not had much of an opportunity to meet in collegial groups, and they are satisfied with the “island mentalities” they have been allowed to cultivate over many years. This leads to not only missed opportunities, but also to feelings of inadequacy and a sense of constantly being under attack for failing to do this or that.

Easton’s career includes 15 years as a teacher, and long service as a curriculum leader and professional developer in Arizona and Colorado, including work with the Coalition of Essential Schools. In her introduction, she promises that through the use of protocols, teacher communities can “achieve trust and create a culture that is essential for collaborative work on issues of substance.” Schools can’t wait for a perfect culture to begin using protocols, she says. Instead, “it is through their use that the culture will develop and trust will emerge.”

Protocols, Easton tells us, are:

• Processes that help groups achieve deep understanding through dialogue.
   
• Structures for groups that allow them to explore ideas deeply through student work, artifacts of educator practice, texts relating to education, or problems and issues that surface during the day-to-day lives of educators.
   
• Guidelines for conversation based on norms that everyone agrees upon in order to make the dialogue safe and effective.
   
• A facilitated set of steps which everyone understands and has agreed to that permits a kind of conversation that people don't usually have when they discuss things.
   
• A constructivist approach to discussion that allows for deep development of ideas as certain people talk while others listen and then the talkers listen and the listeners talk, with each round characterized by reflection and exploration.
   
• A way for educators to build collaborative communities, sometimes called critical friends groups (CFGs) or professional learning communities (PLCs).

 Over the course of six chapters, Easton then explores the whats and whys of protocols and how they can be put to use to examine student work and professional practice, to address learning issues and problems, and to promote effective professional discussions. Each chapter describes various protocols in step-by-step detail. (See sample chapters here.)

The protocols in this book help to inspire the atmosphere and culture of trust and collegiality that is necessary to open and maintain conversations among teachers. When there is a framework of understanding, and a foundation of value for everyone’s participation and unique voice, it helps everyone move forward.
   
Besides the great examples she describes, Easton creates a defining framework around protocols and how they should be used. This supplies teachers and meeting leaders with detailed tools from which they can choose to facilitate different types of gatherings, whether the purpose is to share ideas, analyze a specific problem, or deal with something unpleasant in an honest but supportive way.
   
I especially liked that the author included a section on protocols to use with students. I am always being asked what I think about the peer review or peer collaboration process and what resources I have. Using protocols is a perfect way to examine, review, revise and discuss student work. The protocols listed facilitate both student to student interactions and teacher to student interactions.
   
This book also contains protocols for examining professional practice and for addressing issues and problems. Out of these, I found the Success Analysis protocol to be immediately useful, and have used it several times in professional development recently with wildly successful results. In fact, I just proposed to another staff developer that she may want to include a reference in her new book to this particular tool, as the content she is writing about is quite conducive to using protocols.
   
Overall, I see Protocols for Professional Learning as very necessary to the field and unique in its delivery. It’s short (70 pp.) and to the point and written in such a way as to be immediately useful to practitioners, be they teachers or administrators. It could also be useful, in part, to students, as they construct ways to be mutually supportive but also understand that all voices are necessary and needed. I was impressed and excited by what I read, and look forward to more from Lois Brown Easton and ASCD’s Professional Learning Community series.

I Want to Belong to This Club!

A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New Teachers
By Jennifer Allen
(2009, Stenhouse Publishers)

Reviewed by Marti Schwartz
Teacher, Novice-Teacher Educator (Rhode Island)
Teacher Leaders Network

I loved this book! When I began reading it in early September, I approached it through the lens of a coach/mentor for a group of novice teachers who spent a week with me in a seminar this past summer. From that perspective, I found the subtitle intriguing and hoped for good advice.

Shortly thereafter, in a moment of optimism, I agreed to come out of semi-retirement and signed on for a totally new professional experience: after 32 years of elementary teaching, I was suddenly facing urban high school students on a daily basis — as a quasi-novice!

These two roles — new-teacher mentor and rookie high school teacher — kept me reading Allen’s book, when I could find time to breathe. As each chapter unfolded yet another piece of the support plan under which Allen operates, I found myself wishing that I could magically whisk away and live in her town and work in her school, under her guidance.

The program that Allen and her Maine district (Waterville Public Schools) has established is one that sounds so reasonable and supportive that one can only wonder why this isn’t being practiced everywhere. If, as Allen says, “almost 50 percent of all new teachers leave our profession after only five years,”(research cited on p. 3), then our educational system is wasting a tremendous amount of time and energy by not supporting novices everywhere more fully. To keep retraining new recruits while five years of experience walks out the door is just plain foolish.

Allen makes it look simple: set up a routine that supports teachers with monthly meetings, assistance in planning, time to observe others, and guidance in teaching their own classes. She makes no mention of how this is all funded, and one wonders how, in these difficult times, the district is able to support each of these pieces. And, though she offers many inspiring stories of those novices, she does not offer any data about the retention rate of the new teachers in her district. But these are peripheral issues; the blueprint she offers is one that seems sound, replicable and intriguing.

Writing in a collegial, inviting style, Allen offers many stories of her own past experiences as a new teacher as well as examining the athletic adventures of her children and herself through the lens of the teaching and learning that takes place in the hands of a gifted coach. Her stories are spot on — we can easily grasp the guidance and wisdom being offered, even before she points it out.

The plan of teacher support is frequent, intensive, individualized, and brilliant. As a literacy coach Allen works, first, to build relationships with new teachers even before the school year begins (just as many of us try to connect with our students mid-summer, to ease their anxiety and generate their enthusiasm for the tasks ahead). Once a month new teachers are released for the day — spending the morning observing in classrooms, and the afternoons debriefing and planning, with guidance and support.

Allen works “in a first-year teacher’s classroom three times a week for at least 45 minutes, and supports them in their second or third year at least once a week or as needed.” (p. 6) This gives her the opportunity to get to know the students (and their demands or quirks) on an immediate basis, and allows the novice the chance to see a seasoned teacher work with her own students — sometimes experiencing the same challenges that she herself has faced. In partnership with a well-prepared coach, the novice can learn multiple ways to handle those challenges from a practitioner who has dealt with many, many challenging students and classrooms in the past.

Giving and interpreting assessments and using student work to guide instruction are key learning goals for novice teachers under Allen’s wing. Again, teachers are given two days out of their classroom (for fall and spring assessments) to administer, score, and analyze the assessments. For those of us who have tried to balance such work while teaching at the same time — this seems like heaven!

“The second and third years of teaching are an opportunity for new teachers to define themselves as educators. I see these years as an opportunity for new teachers to refine instructional practice and put together the pieces of the curriculum,” states Allen (p.59), noting that she continues “to support them in a way that nurtures them to become the teacher they want to be.” While Allen certainly has some ideas as a literacy coach of what “best practice” looks like, she seems wise enough to enable teachers to discover what it looks like for them.

Allen supports her teachers in other ways: providing them with student-sized dry erase boards, microcassette recorders, mentor texts, books to add to classroom libraries, writer’s notebooks, and other classroom supplies. Having spent 30 years in a suburban public school system, I must report that almost all of those supplies came out of teachers’ own wallets. But we also didn’t have a literacy coach, or someone who so passionately, wisely, devotes her time to ensuring that good things are happening in ALL classrooms, not just a chosen few. Should your own school experience be less supportive, reading through A Sense of Belonging will give you many concrete ideas about ways to improve your own literacy instruction, begin a study group, or venture into the realm of classroom visitations.

What Allen has given her novices is the gift of time: time to talk, reflect, observe, share, grow and learn, all with gentle, appropriate support. Additionally, the time is built into the novices’ teaching lives — professional growth does not require that precious moments be stolen from their non-existent “free time.”

What Allen has given to all of us is a powerful model of strengthening the practice of novice teachers, in a book that is enjoyable to read and inspiring to emulate. “New teachers are establishing lifelong habits of collaboration and reflection…” (p.91), she writes. And I have to agree: her novice colleagues, their students, and the educational system of Waterville, Maine, will surely reap the benefits for decades to come.

Secrets of Successful Learning Teams: An Interview with Anne Jolly

In this interview with author and professional learning teams expert Anne Jolly, you’ll learn at least three things:

• Details of a new edition of her book Team to Teach, a practical guide to organizing and sustaining PLCs and PLTs that promote continuous professional growth.

• Jolly’s eight secrets of PLC success.

• Her answer to the question: If you were asked to create a school reform design, what would its chief components be?

“Effective PLTs are teacher leadership hothouses,” Jolly tells us. “They’re places where teachers increase their professional knowledge and leadership skills – and they can also serve as perfect vehicles for teachers to begin to put leadership into action at several levels.”

NSDC describes Team to Teach as a “step-by-step book…written in plain, easy-to-read language.” Jolly provides backgrounders that set the stage for each of 10 chapters designed to familiarize teacher teams with a proven process that can help them become high-functioning working groups. The book also offers a comprehensive set of tools that facilitators will find useful along the way.

Anne is a second-career teacher who began life as a lab researcher and evolved into an accomplished middle grades science educator — and Alabama’s 1994 Teacher of the Year. A charter member of the Teacher Leaders Network, Anne continues to consult with schools and districts interested in translating the learning-community concept into a viable vehicle for everyday school improvement. We invited her to talk about Team to Teach and the current state of PLC development in American schools.

Continue below to read our conversation and learn more about Team to Teach.

Teacher Voice on Teacher Evaluation

Want to stir some lively conversation among any gathering of teachers? Bring up teacher evaluation and assessment. For decades, teachers, administrators and policymakers have sparred over the issue -- with little in the way of progress. Most teacher evaluation is still principal-driven, drive-by, and checklist oriented. That could change as the new Administration begins to target -- and fund -- teaching quality initiatives, in concert with the Gates Foundation and other philanthropies.

Will teachers have a voice in this debate? Two TLN members from California aren't waiting to be asked. In a recent joint interview with the New York group TeachersCount, Anthony Cody and David B. Cohen described some fundamental changes they'd like to see in teacher evaluation and assessment -- and warned of the consequences of a narrow approach to making judgments about teaching quality.

Here's a sample:

1. What are some of the problems with current teacher evaluation practices?

Anthony Cody: Time is a big factor. Recent surveys of principals have revealed they have inadequate time for observing and evaluating their teachers. My experience as a Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) coach in my district supports this because over the course of two years I saw dozens of evaluations that were incomplete. Many of these teachers should have been enrolled in PAR, and might have wound up being terminated, but their principals did not have the time to follow through.

This also reflects another weakness of our practice -- that evaluation is the sole responsibility of a few site administrators, and is primarily used as a means of eliminating “bad” teachers. Evaluation tends to occur in the form of a few isolated observations, with little connection to the professional growth of most teachers.

David Cohen: We also see that the tools and training for evaluation are rather uneven. Too many evaluators are going into classrooms armed with checklists that aren’t nearly up to the task of capturing the complexity of what they might observe. And it’s not just the materials, but the evaluators themselves who need development.

I’m fortunate to work in a district where secondary school teachers are mostly evaluated by a fellow teacher serving as the instructional supervisor. Unlike traditional department chairs, these teachers have had some additional training in conducting evaluations. It’s a long-standing and popular practice at this point, with the added benefit of providing teachers with evaluators who know the subject matter. If your principal used to teach English, and you're the AP physics instructor helping students with the calculus involved in their lab work, there seems to be an inherent limitation in that evaluative relationship.

2. What improvements would we see in your ideal evaluation system?

Anthony: We may be able to get beyond the time crunch for the principal if we re-imagine evaluation as something more positive, more collaborative and more integrated with professional culture at a school site.

David: This is a shift in mindset: let’s appeal to the best in professional educators. I’ve never met a teacher who didn’t want to be effective in the classroom. But we know that in order to maximize effectiveness, we need the opportunity to analyze and reflect on our work, and use that process to improve.

The current pace of teaching, and the student loads for secondary school teachers in particular, present huge obstacles to that kind of work: when you’re trying to monitor and manage the learning of 150 students or more, you’re in survival mode too often. If more schools would build in time for careful study of our own work, collaboration with colleagues and guidance by teacher leaders and administrators, we’d be far ahead of current practices. I’m certain we’d end up talking more about students’ learning and achievement, which goes a long way towards solving other issues in the classroom (like classroom management) without letting those issues consume you.

Other interview questions include:

3. Why do teachers resist the use of student performance in teacher evaluations?

4. What are the benefits of improved evaluation if tenured teachers are almost impossible to remove?

5. How does teacher evaluation fit in with current reform efforts?

6. What is the role of teacher evaluation in elevating teacher quality? Should we have performance pay to reward teachers with the best evaluations?

7. How has NCLB affected teacher evaluation?

Read the entire interview with Anthony and David here.

The "Bad Teacher" Debate

President Obama’s recent remarks about removing ineffective teachers from the classroom has triggered some furious posting in the Teacher Leaders Network daily discussion group. A teacher in Colorado worried that much of the public debate places the blame almost exclusively on teachers themselves. “I'm wondering why no one is pointing fingers at the system(s) and all the people at the district, state and federal levels, who must at least share responsibility for the situation in our schools.”

A secondary science teacher-coach from California replied:

It seems to be obligatory to attack bad teachers to show that you are not in the pockets of the big bad teacher unions. Exactly how we are supposed to rid ourselves of the horrible scourges is unclear. I worked as a peer reviewer and coach in my school district’s PAR program for two years. Our job was to observe and assist fellow teachers who were referred to the program. If they failed to improve after reasonable opportunities to do so, they would go through the dismissal process. The main reason it was hard to fire teachers was that busy principals did not have the time or energy to follow the procedures and complete an evaluation properly. Half of the teachers initially referred to PAR were not taken onboard because the evaluations were botched.

That said, we need, as a profession, to step up and help build a better functioning evaluation system. We need to at least describe what it will take to create a working system of professional accountability and offer our partnership in making it happen.

Regarding Obama's comments that “there needs to be other ways to evaluate teachers besides standardized tests,” I am only mildly reassured. Has he been listening to Arne Duncan lately? Arne told Education Week this:

Data systems are at the heart of this reform effort. We have to know what the data tells us. Where we can’t track students, where they get lost, how can we begin to know whether they are improving or not. We need comprehensive data systems that do three things. One: track students throughout their educational trajectory. Secondly, track students back to teachers so we can really shine a spotlight on those teachers that are doing a phenomenal job of driving student achievement, and third, track teachers back to their schools of education, so over time we will understand which schools of education are really adding value.

What data is Arne planning to use? He talks about better assessments, but when he gets to what would make them better, he talks only about tracking students, and tying student data to teachers. This does not sound like the kind of move away from standardized tests that Obama is describing.

A high school teacher added:

Arrgh! Arne, if I have an aneurysm that bursts, it's gonna be your fault!

Please read the recent research showing that standardized test data are not good at predicting which teachers will have the best test data four years from now. Please talk to some teachers!  Please, get over yourself. Loosen up. Let the money flow to schools with good plans in place, rather than send the money to dataheads and test publishers. Be an advocate for education rather than education bureaucracy.

 A middle school teacher advised that teachers be totally upfront about the bad apples:

I am not anti-teacher when I say that there are bad teachers. And it is a huge problem, chronic even. It is not the only problem, but it is vast. And I believe that it is anti-teacher for those within our profession to not admit that our current system of protecting these teachers is a problem.

We as teacher leaders talk about being part of the decision-making process when it comes to issues of education. Classroom issues should not be outsourced, as it were. If so, we need to acknowledge that we have a responsibility to be at the table to fix the weaknesses in our profession. We cannot allow teachers who live the saying, "Those who can't do, Teach" to dictate our publicity anymore. Our unions should not, after proper evidence is laid, be protecting those individuals without considering that a staff and school's reputation should also be their priority to protect. 

These ineffective teachers are in every school site and district. And no, a teacher's failure is not something that can be easily determined by test scores. I know very high-scoring teachers that, frankly, I wouldn't want my kids anywhere near. I also know low-testing teachers who are awe-inspiring.

So I don't know yet how teachers can best be evaluated, but that's why I am writing and talking and listening, so I can hopefully be present and involved during an era of reform based on standards created by those within our profession.

We as educators will not be treated as professionally (as we need to be) unless we admit that our profession needs a housecleaning and we move ourselves to the forefront of helping to solve the problem proactively.  We want respect?  We need to look at ourselves in the mirror as professionals and demand professionalism from each and every one of us.

A math-science teacher in the Midwest replied:

I couldn't agree with you more. I always feel incredibly frustrated when we talk about bad teachers because it just amounts to a bunch of finger pointing.  Lots of talk...no action...no change for the kids. And those bad teachers stay where they've always been.

I don't like the idea that teachers are the sole root of our troubles, though. That's such a simplistic answer to a very complicated system with many inter-related parts.  Bad teachers may be one root problem, but it's not the only one.

The middle school teacher responded back:

Yes, there are many problems in education and not one bullet to solve any one of them.  But we as teachers can't do anything about parental involvement, homelessness, health care. We have very little influence on funding save for what we can do as political advocates. But bad teachers are our problem.  They are the weed in our yard. They are our misbehaving cousin at the dinner table, and we can't be the family member that looks away. 

There's a lot we can't do anything about, but we need to be stronger in what we can do. We can improve our practice. We can improve our content knowledge. We can improve our student assessments by having a hand in their creation. We can improve our turn-over by offering mentorship based on leadership. And we can improve the quality of our profession by making sure that we are all on the same team, that of student equity and achievement. 

A K-8 teacher leader in the discussion wrote:

There’s no denying the fact that there are bad – in fact, horrible – teachers everywhere. I have known more than a couple myself. But I am incensed at (the) ongoing, low-information quest to paint teachers as dumb union rats.

Here's a data-laden response to one of the anti-teacher, all-the-union's-fault rants we’re hearing. Well worth reading and full of handy, user-friendly statistics on who's shielding bad teachers.

How would you construct a useful, cost-effective teacher evaluation system? What factors and indicators would matter in identifying exemplary practice, competent practice and non-competent practice?

Some Touchy Feelings about Michelle Rhee

In the TLN Forum daily discussion, Mary, a teacher in Virginia, wrote:

When I saw D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee on the cover of TIME I sat down immediately and read the story from beginning to end. Two things disturbed me in the text. This passage I found particularly alarming coming from a school leader:

"'The thing that kills me about education is that it's so touchy-feely," she [Rhee] tells me [the reporter] one afternoon in her office. Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn't respect. Sometimes she uses this voice to imitate teachers; other times, politicians or parents. Never students. "People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,'" she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. "I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job.'"

This passage also set off alarm bells:

"Rhee's ferocity has alienated many people--even those who support her ideas and could be helpful to her. This summer the chair of the Washington city council called dealing with Rhee a "nightmare." There has been talk of passing legislation to rein her in. "Michelle Rhee believes in scorched earth," says Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national union that has become unusually involved in local matters in Washington. "I am not saying that D.C.'s school system doesn't need a lot of help. But I have been part of a lot of reforms, and the one thing I have never seen work is a hierarchical, top-down model.'"

I know Rhee has a formidable job ahead of her, as I have watched Washington DC closely over the years -- a place I consider my hometown since I was born (but not schooled) there. But this sounds like an administrator who has little respect for teachers. Am I overreacting? Perhaps I've been around too many administrators who use whiny voices when imitating teachers. But jeeez. Rhee kinda sounds like middle school to me....

An inner city teacher in New York replied:

Thanks for sharing this. I had started it but hadn't gotten to the parts you clipped. However, I was already perturbed by this paragraph, which I guess reflects the writer's perspective. It is the last sentence that really got me. Not only does it put down teachers, but parents?!

"They understand that if she succeeds, Rhee could do something no one has done before: she could prove that low-income urban kids can catch up with kids in the suburbs. The radicalism of this idea cannot be overstated. Now, without proof that cities can revolutionize their worst schools, there is always a fine excuse. Superintendents, parents and teachers in urban school districts lament systemic problems they cannot control: poverty, hunger, violence and negligent parents. They bicker over small improvements such as class size and curriculum, like diplomats touring a refugee camp and talking about the need for nicer curtains."

This seems to be a very simplistic "good guys vs. bad guys" world view. Something I abandoned years ago when I graduated from... 8th grade.

I do work in a high needs school, and I am sick and tired of hearing that ineffective teachers are the problem from people who could not teach in my school. I am in a mood to seriously cuss about this. My graduate school advisor had this great quote on her office door that somehow seems appropriate: "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

A North Carolina teacher added:

I pulled Rhee's article out of my school mailbox this morning. Talk about a miserable way to start the day: "How to Fix America's Schools: Battle Teachers."

Several questions are running through my head:

1. Are America's schools really the failure that everyone -- including Rhee -- claim them to be? I know that international comparisons are horrible, but international comparisons are unfair because the majority of nations around the world don't try to prepare everyone for a university education. What's more, America's schools have consistently adapted to the changing demands placed on them by outsiders---and we've done it pretty successfully.

2. Are Rhee's actions yet more blind rhetoric and short-sighted practice? We keep thinking that "pulling up our bootstraps" and "knocking off the whining" and "making teachers work harder" will reform education. Is it possible that no matter how hard we work, we'll never be able to get every child over the formidable obstacles to success?

3. If we did start hacking away at all the bad teachers in our schools --and I'm not denying that they exist -- would we have enough "highly qualified" people to fill their shoes? I always wonder about people like Rhee who want to fire all the "dead wood" -- because it ain't like they got a line of wonder teachers pounding down their doors looking for jobs. I'd love to see some stats on the qualifications of "the replacements" that Rhee hires. Are they significantly more qualified? More effective?

4. Do these negative messages keep capable teachers away from high needs schools? I won't go work in a high needs school because I don't care to be disrespected on the cover of every magazine and newspaper in the nation for my perceived failures. That kind of unfair and negative criticism is literally ensuring that I won't go to the kinds of schools that Rhee needs me in.

A teacher in southern California followed up:

Who could blame any self-respecting teacher for not wanting to go teach in a high needs school in THIS high stakes climate. I taught in a high needs school, and I miss the demands of working with those kids a lot. However, I'm really clear that unless there was a unique situation that addressed some of the real external roadblocks that at-risk kids and their families face, I wouldn't go back.

Another Virginia teacher, in the D.C. suburbs, wrote:

Michelle Rhee is interesting to say the least! I've been following her through The Washington Post. I don't live in the city and I don't actually know anyone whose children attend DC schools, but from what I can ascertain, there is a high level of dysfunction in the system.

Here are some things I've noted about Rhee's actions:

• Her dual track compensation plan gathered a great deal of attention and with good reason. The pay for performance track offered up to $130,000 annual income within 10 years in exchange for one year of probation. The second track still offered a generous salary scale with no challenge to tenure. The union leadership was very resistant and pushed back against members who wanted a referendum on whether or not to accept the plan. From reading in TIME about her school visit, I can understand their concerns, but from the perspective of an outsider, it looks like union protectionism at its worst. Refusing to negotiate, in my opinion was political suicide for the union.

• The firings have been very controversial with good reason as well. Changes in administration are not fun and teachers, parents and students don't like them. However, sometimes people don't realize that what they have isn't functioning because it's all they know. Competence is the first filter when choosing a doctor, a lawyer, or an accountant. I have to agree with Rhee that while nice matters, it's not enough.

What bothers me is this: Her primary supporter, NYC school chancellor Joel Klein, came to education without an education background and still has only six years of experience in running a school system himself. He, like Rhee, seems to believe that all education needs is someone who is not afraid to challenge the people who have been working in these difficult situations. Rhee leans heavily on her personal experience as a research base. She taught for three years through TFA and while she wasn't so hot the first year, she believes that she and her teaching partner impacted student learning significantly during the next two years. Against what standard she judges her success is unclear since there were no benchmark testing records from those two years. She seems a little too sure of her own abilities and a little too disinterested in that reflective practice stuff.

I also find it troubling that, at least from this article, it appears that Rhee enjoys being combative. This is a no win. She says to the TIME writer:

"Have I rubbed some people the wrong way? Definitely. If I changed my style, I might make people a little more comfortable. But I think there's real danger in acting in a way that makes adults feel better. Because where does that stop?"

So much for collegiality and collaboration. A more experienced person would realize that when someone raises the tension level in schools, it is often the children who suffer the most. She might realize that building consensus with the school board, the union, and school personnel might be a little more efficient and effective and helpful to children in the long term.

Bottom line: My judgment is still out. She offers some fresh ideas and insights. She also offers what appears to be a great deal of unnecessary and unproductive aggression.

Gail, another Virginia teacher and D.C. watcher, added:

The TIME cover photo says it all for me. When I saw it on the newsstand at the grocery store, my first impression of the black-suited, stern-faced, holding-a-broom Ms. Rhee was -- wicked witch. Seriously! I assume that the impression they were going for was "a new broom sweeps clean," but all I saw was a mean-looking bully.

After reading the article, one of the things that really rubbed me the wrong way was the same one that bothered Mary -- Ms. Rhee's view of education as "too touchy-feely." That, and other comments she is quoted as saying, leads me to believe that she knows next to nothing about what quality teaching entails. No wonder DC teachers are reluctant to accept her offer of more money.

What criteria will she use to define quality teaching? Touchy-feely is out. She disdains people who talk about the importance of creativity. And she doesn't understand why a third grade teacher would "waste" time chatting with her students in a morning meeting (hasn't she ever heard of building positive relationships as an important precursor to a focus on academics?). And what kind of due process will a teacher have if s/he is arbitrarily dismissed by this power maven?

I'm sorry, but I don't think three years of teaching qualifies her as an education expert, and her own words back up my lack of faith in her "expertise." I don't dispute that DC schools need transformation from the ground up, but I don't think Michelle Rhee is going to be successful with her condescending, combative attitude.