What does it take to be a hero educator? It takes brains, courage, integrity, and a deep understanding of education and children.
Steve Nelson, headmaster of the Calhoun School in Manhattan, is a hero educator because he has all these qualities. He wrote a brilliant article about why the Common Core won’t work.
He knows that David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core, now heads the College Board. He knows that Coleman wants to align the SAT to the Common Core, so no one can escape his handiwork, not even students in prestigious private schools.
Here is a sample of Nelson’s article.
“Actual children, as opposed to the abstraction of children as seen in policy debate, are not “standard.” Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of child development knows that children learn in different ways and different times. Some children “read” (meaning a very limited ability to recognize symbols) at age 3 or 4. I have known many students who did not read well until 8, 9 or, rarely, later. The potential (or ultimate achievement levels) of these children does not correlate with the date of reading onset.
“It is rather like walking. Children who walk at 9 months do not become better runners than children who walk at 15 months. “Standardizing” the expectation of reading, and setting curricula and tests around this expectation, is like expecting a child to walk on her first birthday. If she doesn’t, shall we get our national knickers in a knot, develop a set of walking tests, prescribe walking remediation, and, perhaps inadvertently, make her feel desperately inadequate? In the current climate, Pearson is ready to design walking curriculum and its companion tests. The Gates and Broad Foundations will create complementary instructional videos.”
And he also writes:
“If policy makers and test writers had even rudimentary knowledge of rich individual differences, they would know that any standard test is unfair and, ultimately, useless. Just as children learn in very different ways, they express mastery in many different ways. The Common Core tests (and I’ve suffered the experience of wading through the many samples provided in the media) assume that all its takers process information in the same way, have the identical mix of cognitive and sensory abilities, and can, therefore, “compete” on level ground. This is nonsensical and damaging. Some of the most brilliant people I know would grind to a suffocating halt after trying to parse the arcane nonsense in a small handful of these questions. Even the math questions assume a homogeneous ability to understand the questions and a precisely common capacity for reasoning and concluding.
“I could go on: Stress inhibits learning, so we design stressful expectations; dopamine (from pleasurable activities) enhances learning, so we remove joy from schools; homework has very limited usefulness with negative returns after an hour or so (for elementary age kids), so we demand more hours of work; the importance of exercise in brain development is inarguable, so we eliminate recess and gym; the arts are central to human understanding, but we don’t have time.
“I have been accused of complaining but not offering solutions, so here’s a solution: Properly fund schools and allow good teachers to select the materials and pedagogy that serve the actual students in their care. The rest will take care of itself.
“And we can take the billions we’re wasting on NCLB, RTTT, Common Core and other nonsense and spend it to improve the lives of the shameful number of children who live in poverty in the “richest nation on Earth.”
Steve Nelson, welcome to the honor roll as a hero of American education.
Please someone, anyone: send this article to Bill Keller and Paul Krugman at the New York Times.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Done. I sent it to NYTimes/Paul Krugman. Hope he reads it.
“so we remove joy from schools”
That’s the saddest part, if one has children that range in age over 15 years, as I do. One can watch it happen. My 25 year old had a much happier school experience than his 11 year old brother is having, and this is within the same public school system.
The 11 year old doesn’t know it. “Reform” has been a part of his life over his entire time in public school. He doesn’t know that it was ever different.
Incidentally, the 25 year old turned out fine, despite wasting valuable testing time on “joy” in 5th grade. He’s even in the ridiculously over-valued (by reformers) and currently fashionable STEM field! We don’t know yet what the 11 year old will do as an adult, because he’s, well, ELEVEN.
Well, Diane, I am flattered. I’ll accept your assignment to a minor place on an honor role, as long as we both stipulate that the bold print names on the honor role are the teachers who continue to work under very difficult conditions. I think the most surprising thing is that more folks with the privilege I enjoy don’t speak up.
I very much respect your work, so this was nice to receive from a friend.
Steve
Steve,
The faculty at the University Chicago Laboratory Schools stand firmly behind you! What is happening is insane! The Duncan people have several Madison Ave. firms working overtime. We must fight to keep education alive! Please spread the word at NAIS at the Head’s meeting and talk to the other Independent School Heads in the NYC area. There is no escape from Independent School moms who are pissed, as you know. The tradition of Progressive Education and John Dewey must be kept going as the owl of minerva passes a shadow over the Department of Education where no one has touched Hegel, James, or Dewey. The technocrats are not properly educated even though they have Ivy degrees! I would work for you any day bro, but I can’t afford NYC.
All best,
Paul
Thanks, Paul! There is indeed a very long shadow over the DOE. Perhaps NYC is unaffordable but . . . you could always come for a visit.
Steve,
Thank you for articulating so precisely what many of us are feeling.
I was profoundly affected as a student teacher to learn that education comes from the latin word “educare,” meaning to draw forth, or bring forth. I’m now in year four at a 90% free/reduced lunch middle school and I find myself questioning whether I am truly bringing forth the unique potential in each one of my students. Or, perversely, am I attempting to fit each of them into a standardized mold? I like to think that I do more of the former, but in this current climate, I wonder how much time I have before true education becomes impossible.
Thanks again for the wonderful article. I have shared it with colleagues and friends.
Kellen
Well done! Speaking truth to power! Let’s hope those “in power” listen up.
Thank you ! Your courage to speak up is greatly appreciated!!!Please keep spreading the truth!!
Bill Knaak: Teach the Best and Stomp the Rest. I LIKE the analogy of differences in walking age to explain differences in testing outcomes at “grade level..” For emphasis, I also use the differences in ability to dunk a basketball–a very rewarding ability at the NBA level. Here there are clearly interest, maturity and genetic factors involved–but we don’t spend billions of dollars trying to close the “learning gap” at grade level.
Thank you for recognizing the rich individual differences of children. For the life of me, I cannot understand how easily others diminish children, demoralize teachers, and force their misguided power on our society. Thank you for standing for truth and humanity.
Reblogged this on greatbooksdude and commented:
Brilliant article!
Joy! That was my goal when teaching every day…to give the students joy, even on testing day. Much of their joy came from the observation that it is OK to make mistakes, demonstrated regularly by ME, esp with the new technology added each month. Or allowing the students to point out mistakes I made in haste (or intentionally). They gained confidence and joy in realizing learning continues all your life and that teachers don’t know everything. The best compliment I ever received from my principal was: “I don’t know what it is about your classes but they are so comfortable, even when I am observing at the end of the day. They are still engaged and they aren’t afraid to as questions or to admit that they have a question.”. My class each year was my “family”. Joy was evident. I miss that.
“And we can take the billions we’re wasting on NCLB, RTTT, Common Core and other nonsense and spend it to improve the lives of the shameful number of children who live in poverty in the “richest nation on Earth.”
Thank you Steve Nelson for giving us the solution. Perhaps economists like Paul Krugman can do the math and figure out how exactly much money is given to corporations while children suffer in under-funded public schools.
I’ve sent a couple of emails to the public editor at the NY Times about the bias in their coverage, referencing both opinion and news pieces, and plan on continuing to do so. I think it goes much deeper than Bill Keller (whose overall record renders his vapidness on Education unsurprising). This is a systemic flaw in the way the Times as a whole sees education issues. Every article in the Times that touches upon CC standards and testing embodies logic along the lines of “CC is good; tests are good; therefore, bad test results are because students were badly taught good curriculum by their bad schools and badly prepared for these good tests. All critiques of CC stem from people with low expectations calling them too hard. Maybe CC tests should be introduced more slowly, but otherwise, it’s all good.” The Times also routinely parrots the false history that CC is grass-roots-educator driven and ignores the role the testing industry has played in CC’s development. I have yet to see a single article that examines substantive critiques of CC and the process that drove it, the vagaries of “alignment”, the quality of the tests, or the rigging of cut scores to achieve pre-determined levels of failure.
I sent it directly to Krugman.
Great article.
In citing the importance of individual differences, Nelson emphasizes the most paradoxical element of standardized testing: the idea that meaningful learning can be standardized at all. However, everything we know about children and how people learn contradicts this idea (everything I know about it does, anyway).
In my view, one of the most frustrating problems encountered when considering the merits of any education reform lies in the ubiquitous nature of standardized tests. A vast majority of the research (at least, the research that gets press) into what works in education derives its conclusions, at least in part, from outcomes on standardized tests. Thus, all of that research and all of the policy and debate that springs from it is built upon dubious foundations at best.
The underlying, largely unquestioned assumption seems to be that standardized tests measure learning in a meaningful way; however, this assumption is obviously problematic when one considers the basic insight about individuality so eloquently articulated by Mr. Nelson. Consider the following argument:
Meaningful learning is as complex and multifarious as the human organisms that engage in it. Thus, any truthful assessment of that learning must also be highly complex and flexible. If standardized tests are truthful assessments of meaningful learning, then they will be highly complex and flexible. But standardized tests are, by definition, aligned to predefined, strict standards and so have highly limited complexity and flexibility. Therefore, standardized tests cannot be truthful assessments of meaningful learning.
I emphasize the word ‘meaningful’ in the phrase meaningful learning because my experience in the classroom tells me that standardized tests, at least the ones I have dealt with, do generally gauge some basic skills and knowledge that, while not unimportant, make up only a small piece of the larger picture that is a child’s education. What is more, that small piece seems to be closely tied to one’s immersion and participation in dominant culture–that is to say, middle-class white culture.
By drawing our attention toward these small pieces of the puzzle and away from the big picture of meaningful learning, the standardized testing movement essentially impoverishes public education as a whole.
All of this is to say that in building our understanding of what works in education on a foundation inundated with standardized testing, we are, indeed, building a house of cards. But I agree with Nelson’s solution: well-trained teachers given the freedom to teach and assess their students according to the individual needs of those students are key. Of course, as Nelson and many others point out, resources matter, too–if only we invested a fraction of what we spend on high-stakes tests into reducing poverty, attracting talented well-educated people into the teaching profession for the long term, and providing students and teachers with high-quality resources!
So, thank you Steve Nelson for championing the importance of individual differences to learning, and thank you Diane Ravitch for posting his writing here and for all of your work drawing attention to this issue. Now we just need policy makers to follow that essential premise to its logical conclusion….
“Coleman wants to align the SAT to the Common Core, so no one can escape his handiwork, not even students in prestigious private schools.”
Coleman could be waking a sleeping giant with that move, because it might be difficult to justify continuing to not have a testing regimen at private schools, including those of the power broker’s own children…
My favorite line is Properly fund schools and allow good teachers to select the materials and pedagogy that serve the actual students in their care. The rest will take care of itself.”
I also love and support Mr. Nelson’s suggestion to spend the money we’re using on Common Core and testing to improve the lives of children living in poverty.
It was my pleasure to teach at Calhoun for 12 years and learned about child development and recognizing diverse learning styles from great educators like Steve Nelson and Kathleen Klinesmith.. But Calhoun goes further and celebrates individuality and creates a community of educators, children and parents that should be a model for our entire society. It is an amazing environment to work in and , unfortunately, a rare one.
Hi Brian! Nice to see you, even in this odd way. We miss you still.
Too bad that this was not in the NY Times or LA Times where parents and the general public could read it. Teachers are awesome when it comes to preaching to the choir. Sad to see they have no real voice. All we can do is pray that someone will get the attention of the masses so they will understand the long term consequences of what is happening and why. I am praying every day for my Grandchildren’s future.
Steve, in your article you write, “I have been accused of complaining but not offering solutions, so here’s a solution: Properly fund schools and allow good teachers to select the materials and pedagogy that serve the actual students in their care. The rest will take care of itself.”
How realistic is your solution? It would seem to fly in the face of a national culture that demands measurable results, that beget standards, that beget statistics, etc. If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that standards spawned by science, marketing, etc., upon which organizations across the spectrum depend to evaluate and make judgments don’t apply to something as variable and individualistic as human learning.
I happen to agree with your analysis based upon my own experience as a student and that of my son, Alex, who had learning issues (didn’t get into the college of his choice, UVM, settled for a college he’d never even visited, put on the steam 1st semester freshman year, got into UVM, from which he graduated with 3 or 4 A’s). My daughter, Emily, has been well served by her Calhoun education. It’s one thing to set one’s own standards within the microcosm of a private school that can call its own shots, but, I dispair that the powers that be in the microcosm of America at large will hear and heed your voice when your suggestion is as open ended as it strikes me, anyway. Would that I am wrong.
Most of the data now collected based on standardized tests tells us what we already know: kids from affluent families are more likely to get high test scores than kids from poor families. Meanwhile the schools enrolling poor kids in urban districts are stripped bare of necessary resources. Teachers are given scripted lessons to rob them of professionalism and judgment. Other nations test their kids 2 or 3 times in their entire school career. We waste billions on annual tests that should be spent on real needs, not the testing industry.