Whenever anyone dares to challenge the corporate reformers’ ideas, whenever anyone points out that all their plans have come to nought, when anyone says that they are demoralizing teachers and promoting privatization, they will inevitably get the reply:
“Do you have a better idea?”
This is a curious response because it could apply in any number of dreadful situations: Suppose someone is pounding someone on the head with a rock, and you say “stop!” Would they answer, “Do you have a better idea?” Suppose a train is headed for a cliff, and you urge the engineer to change course; would he answer, “Do you have a better idea?”
Well, Peter Greene has better ideas. (So do I; read “Reign of Error,” which responds to that question.) Peter is a high school teacher in Pennsylvania who apparently reads everything and writes faster than anyone else on the planet.
He begins:
As much time as I spend writing about what I think people get wrong, it’s important to keep some focus on what I want to see done right. So let’s look at the major issues in education these days and consider what the positive outcome would be in a perfect world, and what would be a hopeful outcome in the real world.
SCHOOL CHOICE
Turning schools into a competitive marketplace is toxic for education. It does not drive improvement and, as currently practiced, it does not empower parents, but instead more commonly disempowers them.
In a Perfect World…
Choice pushers like to say that no child should be trapped in a failing school just because of her zip code. I say that no child should have to leave her neighborhood just to find a decent school. People don’t want choice; they want good schools.
So in my perfect world, every child is able to attend a great school in his own neighborhood, with his neighbors, near where his family lives. Every school receives the funding and support it needs to be excellent.
In this world…
No more building a well-funded, well-supported school as an excuse to abandon the school already existing school. If we must have choice, let it be between excellent schools with, perhaps different focuses, or with the goal of improving a city and community through creating a diverse learning community.
But all schools must be fully funded and fully supported. No more “Well, a thousand students are trapped in this failing school, so we’re going to invest millions of dollars in creating a great school for 100 of them.”
He has a good idea about standardized testing:
BIG STANDARDIZED TESTING
In a perfect world…
It just stops. It’s done. We don’t do it, at all, ever. Period, full stop.
In this world…
The BS Tests are uncoupled from any stakes at all. They don’t affect student standings or promotion. They aren’t used to evaluate teachers or to rank schools or to affect anybody’s professional future. “But how will we hold teachers and schools accountable?” someone cries out. Here’s the truth that some folks just refuse to see– the BS Tests do not hold anybody accountable for anything except test scores, and they do so at a cost to the real goals that most real humans expect from their teachers and their schools.
And once you do all of that, the market pressure is on test manufacturers to come up with tests that are actually useful, and not junk.
He offers other good ideas of what public education should look like. Read it and offer your own ideas.
I believe that the higher the level of poverty, then the lower the class ratio should be.
https://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/a-big-step-towards-improving-education-in-texas/
Good idea.
Thank you for this, Diane: “This is a curious response because it could apply in any number of dreadful situations: Suppose someone is pounding someone on the head with a rock, and you say “stop!” Would they answer, “Do you have a better idea?” Suppose a train is headed for a cliff, and you urge the engineer to change course; would he answer, “Do you have a better idea?”” When there is a problem, the “better idea” is to stop doing what’s problematic.
With education “reform”, the problem is that teachers are getting abused and hogtied in their ability to teach. The obvious solution is to stop abusing and hogtying teachers. Sure, once that happens, we can talk about all kinds of lovely, progressive, whole child ideas and we can debate until we’re blue in the face. But none of those ideas can work if teachers aren’t free, so first let’s free teachers.
“But none of those ideas can work if teachers aren’t free, so first let’s free teachers.”
This is a topic that intrigues me. I agree that teachers are tied down and we need to free them. But are we going to simply wait on that before teachers make a bold effort to improve their practice in ways that are not necessarily being mandated?
What if the revolution will only happen when teachers insist on these “better ideas” in their classrooms, and then DO them without fear of consequence?
Taking the handcuffs off teachers IS part of a philosophy that goes along with systemic change. No more should we use those who bash us as an excuse for not giving ideas. Peter Greene asked for ideas, the ideas can easily fit into a system that allows teachers the freedom to teach and students the freedom to learn
“Taking the handcuffs off teachers IS part of a philosophy that goes along with systemic change.”
Of course. I fully agree.
But your response missed the point of what I was saying.
We should fight to free teachers. But what if, in your state, teacher evaluations are tied to test scores for the next 8 years? What are teachers going to do in the meantime? How exactly are we going to teach students for the next 8 years under these metaphorical handcuffs?
Perhaps there are things we can do in our practice that erodes the handcuffs away, while the “teacher cops” still think the handcuffs are fully in place.
And the “handcuffs” are not there for everything we do, in the first place.
(I am thinly suggesting civil acts of disobedience, along with improving things that are “acceptably” changeable.)
Of course you free teachers and that is a battle, but free them by selling great ideas that public school teachers can do best. They both work together. Especially with opt out forcing the issue. Why free teachers? Because they can accomplish these great ideas when freed.
It’s just a suggestion and maybe I’m wrong, but I do think public schools could use more positive stories. I agree with Greene that the ed reform market-based approach is a terrible idea and I would even go further- I think we will deeply regret turning public schools into yet another contract service.
But. With the dominance of the ed reform “movement” at all levels of government public schools don’t get any positive press. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their celebrating their successes, no matter what they are (it doesn’t have to be a focus on test scores). It doesn’t have to be “that other school sucks” either. They could approach it in a completely different way- make their own path. They don’t have to accept the current narrative, where they’re only mentioned in comparison to charter schools and private schools. People in local areas get to know the strengths- we have a public school here that scores lower than some other schools but is known as a great place for disabled kids. When they’re slammed for test scores they could turn that around and say “this is our strength and it has value that is difficult to measure”.
Chiara, that positive story is the one John Kuhn, the Texas superintendent, tells again and again. In his great speech at the Save Our Schools march in 2011, he said “send me your children with disabilities, send me your children who don’t speak English, I will take them all and teach them.”
Good thoughts! Like how many individuals made gains from where they started. I am happy that Mr. Greene is taking a positive approach, the chance to define public schools and our teachers as the innovators they are.
I think public schools could open it up a little, too. There are lots of solid public schools in my state that are not in “wealthy suburban areas”, because lots of people live in areas that aren’t divided into such rigid categories, where there’s hugely wealthy areas and then very poor areas and no one ever traverses boundaries. We just don’t have this giant gap where I live, and I’m not alone in that. If you buy a house for 200k here you go to the same public school as someone who pays 50k, or who doesn’t own a house at all because we also have an affordable rental market.
A ferocious animal is ravagaing the community and killing its citizens. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast before it destroys you and your community, and you ask me what I am going to put in its place?
—Voltaire
Arthur costigan:
TARGO!
😎
“Got a better idea?”
“Stop hitting teachers
With a VAMmer”
“Got a better idea?”
“Stop letting off the charter scammer”
“Got a better idea?”
“Stop flooding schools with techy glamour”
“Got a better idea?”
“Stop pushing all the flim and flam here”
“Got a better idea?”
SomeDAM Poet:
Nicely done!
Do I have a better idea? Howzaboout following the lead of the literal heavyweights and leaders of the self-styled “education reform” movement?
I will make this short, sweet, and simple for the shills and trolls that evade, deflect and obfuscate:
Lakeside School for everyone. Pony up whatever it takes to make it happen. No excuses. No exceptions. No delays.
Put up or shut up.
😎
It’s time to focus on what works for children. Reformers don’t have a clue and great teachers do. Those are the ideas that change things. The thoughts that free teachers to teach and students to learn. Yes that includes the “get rid of” also. However, what will replace those things?
I am excited to see so many ready and willing to present a vision for the future of public education. Through out the years I have presented ideas based on the innovative fully public school I started in 1995. Here’s one http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
Mr. Greene’s ideas are a great start. When we put our heads together fantastic things will happen. My school addressed:
Community school, Community learning centers, eliminate letter grades, Change the failure system, re vamp the system of promotion, eliminate the big test, use whole child assessment which drives a whole child curriculum, thematic learning, wrap around services and on and on. NCLB devoured us but the ideas are still strong.
When developing ideas it might be helpful to visit the Collins Sanders amendment to ESEA. You can read the fundamental concept here http://www.wholechildreform.com
It could drive a whole different and better way of schooling. The one professional teachers are familiar with and reformers don’t have a clue. This is the future that will assure public schools will thrive once again
I am excite, how can I help?
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
Peter Greene has some excellent, and spot-on ideas.
But while we fully fund and support all schools, which absolutely should happen, we also need to find the will to address and alleviate poverty, and it’s corrosive effects, not just on schools, but on families, children, and society.
(I’m beginning to sound like Pope Francis, here, and I’m not even Catholic.)
You and all the politicians in Washington lately.
I think we should provide the Pope with a studio appartment in the Lincoln bedroom* of the White House and invite him to every session of Congress and have him visit John Roberts and Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court on a regular basis, especially next time campaign finance is on the docket (to make sure Corporations go to confession)
*then again, we might have to put him in a mobile home on the White House lawn to ensure separation of church and state.
** called “The Lawnican”
with his own TV-coverage
“The Holy C-Span”
We must focus on the things we can control. If poverty slows down kids, until that’s fixed, we develop a plan that waits for kids. A plan that does not punish and fail kids into oblivion when they don’t perform like robots.
In my perfect world, pedagogical considerations share the stage with policy considerations in our visions of the educational future… 🙂