Mercedes Schneider is an experienced high school teacher in Louisiana. She wants to help her students overcome what they may has lost during the pandemic.
She knows what it will take. How likely is it that the district or the state will give her what she needs?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I find it interesting that the first line in the post is having a maximum of 12 students per class. This again goes back to Dr. Ravitch’s post about small class size. Sure everyone wants it. But how would we really get that, particularly with teacher shortages. Heck, I want a million dollars – doesn’t mean I will get it (and yes, a million dollars too would help in lots of ways). But to answer the question posted – how likely will a district or state give her what she needs – not very likely at all.
See my post way down yonder in general comments.
Good luck getting 12 students to a class. Or even keeping in the low 20’s.
I would settle for 30. Better than the 37-38 I have in each 9th grade class.
The biggest problems that teachers face are
a) having too many students to be able to give them the individual attention they need.
b) not having anything close to enough free time to plan and to do Japanese-style Lesson Study with colleagues (now done almost nowhere in the US) and to do paperwork and grade and all the other stuff that the job requires or would require to do the job well, and
c) having ENORMOUS amounts of instructional time and energy, both physical and emotional, for students and everyone else, WASTED by utterly pedagogically useless state-test-related nonsense, including the test time itself, time spent taking practice tests, time spent doing test practice exercises, time spent doing exercises in text that have been redesigned to be test preppy, data chats, data walls, proctoring, and tons of test-related paperwork. Until these two issues are addressed, no major improvements in K-12 education will occur.
The stable of geniuses at the Fordham Institute for Securing Big Paychecks from Oligarchs for Officers of the Fordham Institute for. . . . [this is an endless loop] issued a white paper to show that the actual amount of time spent on standardized testing is quite small. Morons. NO FREAKING CLUE all the crap this testing entails. And no clue about how useless it is.
cx: these three issues. I get so mad about this sometimes that I end up writing as well as the typical ed deformer (I’m looking at you Mr. Gates) thinks, which is barely.
If Master-of-the-Universe Gates thinks that his Common [sic] Core [sic] and his tests (yes, HIS; he bought those puerile standards and pushed the testing down our throats) have done anything but leave wreckage in their wake, then he is about as bright as Donald Trump is and as out-of-touch with reality as the craziest person in the country’s psyche wards.
cx: as is the craziest person in the country’s psyche wards.
another cx, to get the name right: The Fordham Institute for Securing from Oligarchs Big Paychecks for Officers of the Fordham Institute for Securing . . . [this is an endless loop]
The Deformer’s Reply to Dr. Schneider: Well, THAT’S EASY TO FIX. Just do away with teachers and replace them with new
Coring Commoner Students (TM) dePersonalized Remote Learning Software from AmaFacebooMicroGoog!
Now with personalized study avatars! a fresh, lemony scent! and new scrubbing bubbles!
It’s SO REMOTE that there’s a REMOTE chance that students will learn anything (TM)! A dumb citizenry is a docile one.
Just put the students in a vast chamber like that in the Matrix and wire them up to Coring Commoner Students and see how it saps their energy to live or to fight oligarchical diseases of the body politic!
Offer void in countries that still cling to the silly notion that they can be democracies not ruled by the money of rich old white men.
Here’s how the Common [sic] Core [sic] in ELA ACTUALLY works: Like the preceding idiotic groupthink state standards from which it as hacked together with no vetting, it’s a unscientific bullet list of extremely vague and broad, ill-conceived, abstract SKILLS almost completely devoid of actual content and so vague and broad that they cannot be operationalized sufficiently to be validly tested. I mean CANNOT BE, as in one cannot square the circle or build a perpetual motion machine. Write me one or two short multiple-choice questions that will validly test whether a person can make inferences from text, for example. The puerile, content-free bullet list is tied to tests of the items on the bullet list, and those are tied to the grading of schools, matriculation from third grade and from high school, and evaluations of students, teachers, and administrators, and so our entire curriculum and pedagogy in ELA have been devolved to be supposed practice of those “skills.” Sure, there is LIP SERVICE to content in the standards (they say that students in grades 11 and 12 will be familiar with foundational works in American literature and history, for example; Coleman knew so little about U.S. K-12 education that he didn’t know that the standard was that Grade 11 English was an American lit survey running concurrently with an American history class and Grade 12 was a Brit lit survey). However, WHAT’S TESTED (or not tested because the supposed tests are invalid) are the items on the blubbering, stupid skills list, so that is what is “taught” (that’s a whole other can of worms that I’m not going to get into) via test prep practice and printed and online curricula that have been rewritten to be such incoherent, content-random test prep nonsense.
You get what you measure, the defomers love to say. Very business-y. And yes, they do. Garbage in, garbage out.
Write me one or two short multiple-choice questions that will validly test whether a person can make inferences from text–any inferences, of all the different kinds there are, from any text, for example.
And while you are at it, eradicate cancer and crime and square the circle.
Or write me one or two multiple-choice questions that can VALIDLY test whether a person understands “the multiple meanings of words.” This is a general skill, so your one or two questions need to cover all kinds of understanding of all words that have multiple meanings in all contexts.
Myth is a peculiar thing.
Like symbolic language,
out of which myth is built,
one rests on the other.
Man gave names to all the animals,
in the beginning,
a long time ago.
Of all the names within the symbolic
languages, choose one that is the
fruit of ratiocination
– the process of exact thinking.
A) Crow
B) Corbeau
C) Krähe
Of all the symbolic languages
concocted by man, choose one
that best defines reality.
A) English
B) Latin
C) Greek
As the foregoing example makes clear, these ELA tests have the same validity as does the following inference by a person who is not a doctor but plays one on TV:
I’m sorry, Mr. Shepherd, but you have SARS-Cov2.
What? I had it once already! And I’ve had both shots! And the booster! How do you know, anyway!
Well, we took your temperature. Covid. Definitely. It’s slightly elevated.
And they are invalid for precisely the same reason–utterly insufficient evidence provided by the test questions (there are other reasons for their invalidity as well, but I won’t go into those). You have these very broad skills and these very narrow questions. Another example:
Yes, Mr. Shepherd. I would make a great editor of literature texts.
OK, then summarize the plot of the 12th chapter of the third printed version of The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney.
The what?
Obviously, you have no knowledge of our canonical literature.
Based on that question? Seriously?
Sorry, Mr. Metzger, but that’s what the test says. It’s DATA.
One or two specific questions per extraordinarily broad “standard.” Idiocy. Obviously.
Was this letter written by a human? No, it isn’t signed GregB.
That level of idiocy.
OK, Mr. Shepherd. Your job is to write ONE multiple-choice question for each of these standards for “a definitive test of the standards.”
But, with all due respect, that isn’t possible. Part of the first ELA “standard” at each grade level is that the student is can make inferences from text. There are millions of texts that make literally millions of different kinds of demands on readers. There are three major types of inference, induction, abduction, and deduction, and literally thousands of methods for making inferences appropriate to different situations, such as different texts, and making a particular kind of inference about a particular text is linked to things like your background knowledge and the complexity and familiarity of a particular text and so, even if I wrote that one question as well as one could conceivably write it, the one short multiple-choice question would not validly test whether that kid is able to TO MAKE INFERENCES. GENERALLY, from any text, for the same reason that your not knowing Scriabin’s Etude Op. 8 No. 12 doesn’t mean that you are ignorant of piano music–any music for the piano, of any kind, from any time or place. Is that not OBVIOUS?
That’s the job, Mr. Shepherd. You want it or not?
Look, I can write a question. And from the fact that the student could make THIS inference you will be able to conclude that the student was able to make this inference. That’s all. That’s the only conclusion you will be able, rationally, to draw.
Clearly, Mr. Shepherd, you don’t understand DATA.
Not sure where to post this comment, but for those interested in a hilarious take on Critical Race Theory and the Virginia election, I recommend watching the cold open of the most recent Saturday Night Live.
The always great Cecily Strong as Jeanine Pirro interviews Gov-elect Youngkin: Youngkin: “My win proves that people are deeply concerned with education.” Who are your voters? “People who didn’t go to college”. “What is Critical Race Theory?” “It’s what got me elected!”
And even funnier is the “mom” leader from Youngkin’s new “parent task force” (Heidi Gardner), who explains what books should be banned and why.
And, as a special treat is the new actor portraying Trump, who is way too young and thin but is also presents a far more subtle yet brilliantly satirical offering of what is really so off and disturbing about Trump (and really an indictment of the media which does such a disservice by editing Trump’s comments to make him appear close to rational.) The expression on “Youngkin’s” face while having to share a split screen with Trump is priceless.
Links never post for me, but easy to google. And I’ll try to post it.
😀 😀
Great video! I’d love to them do a version where the parent and Trump criticize the arts and arts education.
My direct experience with Schneider’s five requirements–
Class size limit: Not needed because I teach music through performing ensembles.
Standardized testing time: Big problem; a week of testing followed by a week of make-ups, twice a year = equals 4 weeks lost. Plus I had to learn all the computer crap and was assigned to rotate around giving the “regular” teachers breaks during the 2 main weeks of testing.
Start on time: Was not a problem, but I retired in June 2020–before the driver shortage– after 2 months of unsupported and futile online “teaching” following the onset of Covid.
Reliable technology was non-existent: Only 3 of our 5 tech positions were filled; techs were not familiar with online teaching; typical wait for assistance was 3-4 hrs or next day; online ensemble performance is particularly cumbersome and limiting; only 20% of our students “participated” due mostly to lack of devices, data plans and signal.
No subbing for subs: With the return to classrooms this September, I considered going back to work, but discovered there was a shortage of teachers and subs, Guess what gets eliminated? Think hard! (or hardly?) Yes–the arts. Apply for an arts job and you’re likely to be an on-call sub. (One of the things I’ve learned in 20 years of teaching is that you don’t read the blurb or ask Human Resources for info about a job, you ask the teachers of that subject in the district.)
Fortunately, I am of retirement age so I can consider other options. I’m investigating the possibility of running a free after-school music program through a community organization. Where I actually make the rules.
a free after-school music program through a community organization
Wow! Wonderful! Much happiness to you on the next stage!
Perhaps education officials at the district, state, and federal levels ingest Spice and this gives them the MAGICAL ABILITY to divine from ONE question about ONE word with more than one meaning whether a kid can GENERALLY, in most any case, make sense of words with multiple meanings–any word, any meanings, in any “grade-level” text–and especially in any texts where any kinds of purposeful ambiguity, or multiple meanings, are intended by the author (See William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity; he was a careful writer, so he didn’t say THE Seven Types). Perhaps those officials can even do this for the ONE question that supposedly tests GENERAL mastery of each of the other 50 ridiculously vague and broad “standards” that a given tests PURPORTS to measure. Data! We have data!!!! Maybe that’s it. They ingest spice. It’s odd that they don’t have blue eyes,. But they do have eyes for Gates Green, don’t they?
Or here’s another possibility: perhaps those in the rarified edadminisphere HAVEN’T THOUGHT EVEN A LITTLE BIT about whether these tests have any validity or are simply SCAMS, like Trump University or Online Psychic Readings of Your Aura by Hexi Lexi.
That education officials haven’t seen the obvious is pretty shocking. This ought to be a national scandal. Billions and billions of dollars and instructional hours lost. Farce become tragedy. It’s time to chuck the whole stinking mess of these tests, set up a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate the folks who perpetrated these scams, recover from the test purveyors some of those billions, and give Dr. Schneider back the time she needs with her students.
Great piece! Small class size, professional respect. She may not get it, but it is already in practice in private schools all over the country.
I assume by “private schools” you mean the “legacy” private schools that charge tuition. What do you see in the future for the current wave of non-tuition choice schools? What possibilities do you see for reforms at traditional public schools? Any prospects that any schools in either category will move toward Schneider’s 5 needs?
Mark: I see no willingness on the part of those who have the wonderful experience of small classes and personal relationships with energetic teachers to provide the money for all students to have this experience.
Roy– your comment got me thinking. See the way-too-long response way down under general comments.
Whatever Schneider “gets” or doesn’t “get”,
she seems to be a master at time/resource
management. The “obstacles” (5-Needs) have
yet to stop her from excelling at research
or authoring books…
Where there is a “will” there is a way…
Perhaps she has made a conscious decision that: her teaching job consists of a certain number of hours at school and at home; beyond that her time is her own; and the over-scheduling at school is her employer’s problem and responsibility.
Luckily, “learning loss” is a hoax.
https://dianeravitch.net/2021/03/17/dont-believe-the-learning-loss-hoax/
Do private schools like Georgetown Prep, where the Republican Virginia governor-elect’s 17 year old son learned that the legal voting age was 17, have to worry about learning loss, or is the definition of “learning” at Georgetown Prep different.
Wonder if a journalist took a tv camera into the lowest performing “failing” public school in Virginia and asked 17 year olds what the legal voting age is, how many of their terrible schools failed to teach them that the legal voting age was 18.
How many 17 year olds in public schools have no idea that the voting age is 18 because of their lousy schools? Because we know for a fact that the Virginia Republican who takes education very seriously will pay tens of thousands of dollars for a private school education where students manage to turn 17 without having any idea that the voting age is 18.
How will Youngkin address this severe learning loss at his kid’s private school? How can it be measured? And what convenient non-white, non-privileged scapegoat at Georgetown Prep can Youngkin blame for his son’s apparent total ignorance of a fact that most 12 year public school kids know? Is his son a victim of a liberal conspiracy of the teachers at Georgetown Prep not to teach him basic knowledge?
Here’s a post about a hilarious spoof of so-called “learning loss” by John Merrow.
https://dianeravitch.net/2021/04/01/john-merrow-the-learning-loss-pandemic-and-its-cures/
Does John Merrow worry about the learning loss experienced by Gov.-elect Youngkin’s 17 year old son that led him to believe that the legal voting age for a general election in Virginia is 17? Did his fancy private school erroneously teach him that it was perfectly legal to vote in a general election at age 17? Are high school students at private schools confused about the difference between a primary election and a general election because of “learning loss” or just overall lousy teaching? (Fun fact for those who also attended very expensive but apparently not very good private schools: the legal voting age for a general election is 18).
Seems as if the Republican view is that fancy private schools provide embarrassingly bad educations. No doubt that is now more acceptable to Republicans that acknowledging that a privileged white boy lied to election officials in an attempt to break the law and commit voter fraud to illegally help Republicans win.
Here’s a post about the hoax of “learning loss,” which links to a piece that reminds us that even though millions of children may not have been in school for a year (many never to return to school), those kids did learn important things like “how to make the best of a bad situation,” “how we all need to pitch in to help each other,” to “wear masks in public,” and “a lot about communicable diseases.”
https://dianeravitch.net/2021/03/17/dont-believe-the-learning-loss-hoax/
I bet the public high schoolers who got remote education because their schools closed (in order to flatten the pandemic curve and make it less likely that someone in their family would die in an overcrowded health care system) know that the legal voting age in a general election is 18. Wouldn’t surprise me if middle schoolers who had to learn remotely to help flatten the pandemic curve and prevent the deaths of their loved ones also knew that the voting age is 18, despite learning remotely.
How can we measure the learning loss experienced when private high schools aren’t even taught the basics of US history at all?
I realize that there are people who think students should be in-person to learn lessons like “how to feel when your grandmother is dying but there are no beds in any hospital” and “aunts and uncles are expendable when Republicans say that their deaths are a small price to pay for freedom”. Let’s agree to disagree.
By the way, the link flerp posted is a thoughtful discussion about how it is impossible to MEASURE learning loss.
Apparently, flerp knows how to measure it. I think Republicans should run on a platform where they promise to give every Kindergarten, first and second grade student a multiple day long battery of tests to inform parents of how their child’s learning loss is “measured” and children will be placed in permanent groupings for the next 6 months according to the results of those tests and how close their child measures to “normal’.
Parents can be assured that Republicans promise that all children who do not make up the learning loss (as measured by the people who know how to measure it) within a 6 month period will be appropriately dealt with. If they are in a charter school, the children and their parents*** will be publicly humiliated and severely punished since they are to blame. If they are in public school, their teachers will be publicly humiliated and severely punished since they are to blame.
***Affluent college educated parents and their kids who attend charters are exempt from blame , but low-income students who live in poverty must be held responsible for their own learning loss failures (if they attend charters and there are no union teachers to scapegoat for it).
flerp, I know you once sent your kids to NYC public schools and I challenge you to name a school where parents are clamoring for their children’s learning loss to be “measured”.
Kids have finally been back to regular, in-person all day school in NYC, and I have not heard a wild outcry by parents upset because their children’s learning loss hasn’t been properly measured.
Roy: “Small class size, professional respect. She may not get it, but it is already in practice in private schools all over the country.” That was my initial teaching experience, and it was golden. The biggest class was 18 kids.
I had 5 preps (French I-AP), plus all teachers had to help with aftersch sports, so 3:30-5:30pm was out 3days/wk—prep/grading hrs were brutal. But curriculum planning/ selection of texts/ pedagogy was all mine. For-lang dept-hd observed regularly, & was a mentor with vast teaching experience & acad background. Collaboration within dept, camaraderie among staff. No PD’s, no stdzd testing, no other fed or state-imposed ppwk affecting teaching/ learning.
That was 50yrs ago. The local state per-pupil cost was close to $1k. Tuition at that privsch would have been close to $2k. Did some figuring with current area local costs; still pertains: private high school tuition is about double the per-pupil cost of public high school. I made 25% less than local pubsch teachers. The salary differential privsch vs pubsch is about the same today. Back in 1970, a privsch-teaching couple [or 2 similar-inc jobs] was sufficient for a modest midclass lifestyle while putting aside substantial savgs. Comparing to today, the same can be said—in our expensive area– only for young couples neither kids nor owned home. Today’s costs of child care & college put supporting a family on that income out of reach anywhere. But there are many areas of US with lower $housing/ property taxes.
A Modest Proposal: if we could run pubschs on that privsch model [small classes, very minimal admin, modest teacher salaries complemented by mentoring, collaboration & professional autonomy], while subsidizing low-cost childcare & free PreK & community college– perhaps also needing increased state &/or fed funding to 4yr state colleges– and most likely needing to provide connected/ nearby/ wraparound social services in poor areas– it could work.
p.s. to jlsteach: I suspect that a set-up as I have described would bring many teachers back into the fold, & jack up those coming down the pipeline.