Michal Weston, a teacher in Hillsborough County, Florida (at least for now), is running for the local school board. Regular readers know that he was recently fired by his principal for speaking out too much. Since Hillsborough County was one of the few that received a big Gates grant, it is heretical to question the idea that teacher evaluation is the very biggest problem in the world and that the right model will make all students proficient and college bound. Weston displays his heretical views here:
He writes:
Don’t get me wrong – teaching can and should be practiced and improved. My point is that teachers are not the BIG problem. We are not a mid-sized problem. Some of us are a small problem. The BIG problem is what we are doing about the “achievement gap”. I quote “achievement gap” because it is really an income gap. Neither gap is the problem.
The BIG problem is:
*Dumbing down the curriculum so everyone can succeed.
*Increasing rigor so everyone will be challenged.
*Testing kids until they cry. This is the name of holding accountable those who do not make them excel.
*Punishing schools and teachers who cannot magically make the “achievement gap” go away – in spite of all the excellent support being provided.
*Teaching the test to avoid punishment (teachers) or to amass treasure (administrators).
*Re-writing the textbooks so there are more balloons, insets, practice tests, pictures and web links than information.
*Encouraging EDUIndustry to create the next magic curriculum to sell us.
*Encouraging the notion of failing schools so as to sell them off (read give away) to for-profit institutions.
*Eliminating the arts in favor of STEM.
The list goes on.
What should we be doing. Easy. First, do no harm. Stop all of the above.
Next – get to work on the income gap. How? Graduate employable kids. We have to abandon the notion of one-size-fits-all education. We must abandon the requirement that all kids be prepared for college. We have to place kids in educational settings where they can succeed. For some that means AP Physics. For some that means Creative Writing. For others that may mean auto shop. For some it is carpentry.
99 times out of 100, you will not succeed in taking a high school freshman (a 16 year old freshman), with fourth grade math skills, and get that kid into AP Physics. It seems like 100 times out of 100, that is our goal however. Most of these kids drop out; never to pay a dime of income-tax in their often short lives.
We must redefine high school, and what we intend to do with kids for four years of their lives. College is grand; we must provide a high quality path; one where 50% of kids do not require remediation. Trades are grand; a graduate with a career in masonry will earn a good living; provide for his children; and provide a a greater respect for education. His son may go into trades, or may choose the college route. They are both available because mom and dad will not allow him to be left behind in fourth grade. This family WILL have a college graduate someday.
Just not tomorrow.
That is the piece we refuse to accept, That it will not be tomorrow. Instead, we seek the Holy Grail, the silver bullet, the magic elixir, SOMEONE TO BLAME!
The achievement gap will be closed with the income gap. It will take generations, because there is no silver bullet. The BIG problem with education is that as long as we are hunting the Holy Grail, we have yet to begin the real work.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If making the curriculum less challenging and making the curriculum more challenging are both big problems, should we conclude that Florida had it about right in the recent past?
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There needs to be more discussion on the importance of curriculum and its responsibility in educational outcomes. We all know that Bill Gates and others lay the blame for unsatisfactory school outcomes on teachers, but (at least in my district) we are required to teach the state’s ‘voluntary’ curriculum. We are forced to teach reading broken down by skill set such as inferring, drawing conclusions,finding the main idea, generalizations, and cause and effect. We are also required to teach using a ‘gradual release model’ which basically means we take all the fun out of learning by spoon feeding students all the answers. It is as if we don’t trust our children to figure things out on their own, so we are required pre-teach everything. I am not sure how teachers can be held accountable for student failure if they are forced to teach poorly designed curriculum. Maybe we should turn the tables and evaluate the curriculum companies on how students perform. I wonder how they would respond to being ‘VAMed?’
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What a great idea to evaluate curriculum companies on how well the students perform. The only problem with that is that they would still blame the teacher for their poor results. Corporate America wants accountability for everyone but themselves.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/university-programs-that-train-us-teachers-get-mediocre-marks-in-first-ever-ratings/2013/06/17/ab99d64a-d75b-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html How much responsibility do we assign to universities for their failure to prepare teachers?
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Can this line in the story be a clue as to why the the conclusions that were drawn were drawn?
“Released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based advocacy group, the rankings are part of a $5 million project funded by major U.S. foundations.”
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Probably. But the universities are culpable, high tuition drives student loan debt, and degree inflation follows. Our UofA has a foundation-funded Department of Education Reform hidden behind the College of Education.
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Which UofA?
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We really should pay close attention to curriculum. Teaching skills as separate lessons may have flattering standardized test results, however, once a student is expected to transfer her mastery in the real world, there is a cognitive disconnect. it just doesn’t work out. You know, there is no multiple choices on how to cross a busy freeway.
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There is so much blame to go around here I don’t know where to start. There is also so much good. Students are graduating and moving onto college and important careers. Others are becoming trades people that build and maintain this country. Teachers and parents aren’t given credit enough for these people. Only for those who don’t succeed seem to be the fault of teachers, parents, society. What about those students? We are expecting every student to entering school saying “teach me”. The reformers think that students come into class well fed, equiped with necessary supplies, hands folded, wide-eyed waiting for the lesson and the bad teacher turning them off. Reformers don’t seem to take into account the street influence, bad parents, no parents, gangs, media influence, social problems, technology, hunger, and many other influences. How do we solve those? Schools have to become community centers where well-meaning parents can learn themselves how to help. Medical issues can be taken care of. City officals can be talked to. Students need to buy into the program and school. Parents need to buy into the program. Principals need to be able to evaluate and help struggling teachers and if needed remove them. Principals need to be examples of good teaching, not rubber stamped friends or put in as a favor. We have all the parts, someone just needs to put them all together in one city and community.
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I completely agree. Well said
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“We have all the parts, someone just needs to put them all together in one city and community.”
That someone starts with you!
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Wrong, the goal of education is not to “graduate employable kids”. The goal of education is develop a citizen in the full sense of the word.
Schools are not employment agencies. If you start at that premise, you’ve already lost. You can not fight the argument on the terrain of the school destruction movement.
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Yep!
Most educators have no clue as to what the authorizing documents for public education are and what those documents say the fundamental purpose of public education is.
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Purple,
You are absolutely correct. Schools should not be employment agencies. Please forgive what may have read like an extreme overemphasis on the jobs picture. One of my major issues with Rotten-Core is that it will teach our children how to read a technical manual, rather than Shakespeare. I have encouraged my children to choose college majors based on passion, rather than job prospects.
That being said, understand the perspective from which I write. I teach math to the 16 year old high school freshman who sits at the fourth grade math and reading level. A classical education is going to work no better for this kid than a Rotten-Core curriculum. If he could be engaged in a classical education, the employment issues would take care of themselves.
Since engaging these kids is the only way to keep them in school; since education (or lack thereof) is a major component of the poverty cycle; and since a job is the only way out of poverty; I don’t see the problem with teaching marketable skills as part of the engagement process. Even with a classical education, there is an underlying assumption (albeit a weak one) of employment. A chemistry major will be a chemist, a philosophy major will be a philosopher – OK – that is a stretch but you see the idea.
Do I think we should engage the honors student with employment skills? No. Is this a double standard? Yes. Do we currently have a two tiered education system? Yes – those who succeed and those who don’t. Do I want this perpetuated to create a permanent skilled labor class? No. I see it as a path out.
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Michael, I applaud your effort to fight the horrible reforms. I love the term “rotten core”. You are right about the student reading and performing at the fourth grade level. What good does it do to pretend that he will “catch up” to other peers across the state. He doesn’t have a chance once he has reached the high school level. I see this at my school all of the time. The students are in courses that are no help to them and the teachers are intimidated to give them passing grades. They would be much better off learning a trade that would help them escape poverty. It is all a sham. Just because a teacher raises the bar on performance, it doesn’t mean the student can reach it. It has nothing to do with expectations. The students need to have a chance at success. I wonder all of the time “What on earth are these students going to do when they graduate?”
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