This teacher asks, how can we show that we really care about children?
Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
From a reader:
For me the problem is not the common core standards, it is the amount of detail in them.
All of the Finnish National Standards for Math grades 1-9 fit on just 9 pages. In contrast, our K-8 Math Common Core Standards fit on 70 pages along with another 145 page appendix of requirements for grades 8-12. You could say that the US is easily 10 times more controlling in their standards.
This amount of detail reduces flexibility, ownership, and increases dependency on publishers and corporation produced curriculum and assessment. It leaves little room for education; to draw out and support the development of student’s unique talents. It leaves little time for teachers to realistically prepare thoughtful curriculum or accomodate for developmental differences. Instead it promotes a highly prescribed training of children.
In practice, preparing to be tested on the common core standards will now become the sole agenda for school. Micro-managing teaching and learning in this way invites a shallow, cursory covering of topics.
In contrast, Finland trusts its teachers and communities to continually develop and improve their own curriculum and assessments guided by broad, simple standards. National testing is only done for diagnostic purposes and has absolutely no implications for individual students or teachers.
This trust and broader leeway invites ownership and flexibility. It gives time for teachers to deeply know the developmental needs of their learners and for students to fully and robustly master concepts, rather than covering a huge unrealistic laundry list that can only happen in a perfect world with perfect students.
The effort to bring clarity and purpose to our educational system as a whole is important. But as every parent and teacher knows, over-controlling, micro-management results in lack of engagement and growth. Trust and simple, ongoing, predictable structure foster responsibility, engagement and optimal growth.
Do we want a nation of highly trained children, or highly educated children?
Kris Neilsen, a middle school teacher, was an early enthusiast for the Common Core Standards. He read them, explained them to parents at his schools, and was commended for his leadership.
But he had a change of heart as he reflected on them. He is now an outspoken critic. He thinks the corporate reform movement is imposing them to standardize children and to stamp out originality.
I have urged people to read the standards and come to their own judgment.
This is Kris’s judgment. By the way, this is the same Kris Neilsen whose statement “I Quit” went viral and was viewed by more than 150,000 people. This is a man who speaks his mind without fear or favor.
A reader (Linda from Connecticut) called my attention to this beautiful commentary by David Bosso, who is Connecticut’s teacher of the year for 2012. He explains his reaction to the tragic events at Newtown and how the brave actions of his colleagues helps the public understand the work of teachers. Every teacher in America is grieving their loss but is proud to be a teacher, inspired by their sacrifice and their love of their students.
He writes:
“To so many, the educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School demonstrate that the core values of education mirror the greatest ideals of humanity, and they are exemplars in this regard. They offer us hope, and reinforce our belief in the goodness of others and the power of education. In an era of accountability, standards, testing and data, they affirm that what ultimately matters most are the immeasurable lessons and the enduring relationships teachers cultivate with their students.
“To the educators of Sandy Hook Elementary School, thank you for the powerful, inspiring example of dedication and compassion you have given us. You have made, and continue to make, a difference to so many. In the midst of this unfathomable loss and profound sorrow, you have buoyed our spirits and given us hope. Because of your passion, courage, sacrifice, and devotion, I am once again reassured to proudly declare to educators everywhere: Never again say, “I am just a teacher.”
David Bosso of Berlin is the 2012 Connecticut Teacher of the Year and teaches at Berlin High School.
Wendy Lecker, a parent activist in Stamford, Connecticut, has sent a powerful letter to President Obama.
The link is here.
The letter is here:
Parents Across America grieves with the community of Newtown, Connecticut over the loss of their precious children and educators. The following letter, sent yesterday to President Obama from the founder of Parents Across America-CT, expresses some aspects of what many of our members are feeling at this difficult time.
Hon. President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
As a public school parent of three in Stamford, Connecticut, I wanted to thank you for lending your support to the devastated community of Newtown. I listened intently to your remarks at the memorial service last night, especially to the questions you raised: “Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?”
You indicated that you were reflecting on these questions, alluding to the issue of gun control. I hope also, that these questions caused you also to reconsider your approach to education reform.
As you said last night, “our most important job is to give [children] what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear.” You described in vivid detail how skilled the teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School were at dealing with the immediate unthinkable trauma of the tragedy; how they managed to keep children calm and feeling safe in the face of life-threatening danger. We can predict that the teachers of the surviving children will have to be as equipped to handle the trauma these children will carry with them as they will be to teach them the subjects the children learn. We know that these teachers will have to help these children develop the non-cognitive skills that make all the difference to success in life- those skills we cannot measure on any standardized test.
We also know, as you mentioned, that those poor children in Sandy Hook are not the only ones who deal with trauma on a daily basis. Children today, especially those living in our poorest areas, face the stress that crime and poverty exact on their young lives on a daily basis. And we know from research, like that done at the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, that when children experience prolonged stress, it becomes toxic and hinders the development of the learning and reasoning areas of the brain. These researchers maintain that a nurturing environment is key to enabling these areas to grow properly. For many children, school is their safe haven; and science, and the awful events in Newtown show us that it is our paramount duty to maintain school as a secure and loving place.
In order to ensure that schools are a safe haven, where children can develop both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, they need to have preschool, reasonable class size, so children can get needed attention from teachers; enough supplies and books, and rich curriculum, including art, music sports and extra-curriculars, so children can explore and understand the world and have many outlets to express themselves; and enough support services, especially for children at-risk.
Many of our schools across this nation do not have the resources to make our schools a safe haven. As you noted in your recent report, for example, in New York City, the number of classes of 30 and over has tripled in the past four years. School districts across this country have been forced to cut support services, teachers, extra-curricular activities, music, art, even AP classes and core classes. They have to delay repairs until a roof collapses, endangering children.
Unfortunately, your policies toward our public schools are making it nearly impossible to keep public schools a nurturing and safe environment. Your chief strategies are evaluating teachers based on standardized test scores and implementation of the Common Core standardized tests in every grade, with a multitude of interim computerized tests as well as summative computerized tests. None of these preferred strategies of yours have ever been proven to raise achievement. Surely you are aware of the studies proving that rating teachers on standardized tests results in a 50% misclassification rate. The ratings vary by year, class, test and even statistical model used. The CCSS is not supported by any research showing that standards or tests improve learning. In fact, the National Research Council concluded that ten years of NCLB testing has done nothing to improve achievement.
Even more damaging, these strategies force teachers, administrators and children to abandon attention to all-important non-cognitive skill development, and focus primarily, if not only, on test scores. This shift of focus includes a diversion of limited resources away from necessary educational basics. You have moved the focus from the well-being of children to the job status of adults.
A recent report from the Consortium of Policy Research in Education reveals just how harmful this strategy is. The report found that NCLB’s test-driven mandates provided little guidance on how to improve. Consequently, schools tried a hodgepodge of strategies akin to “throwing many darts at a target and hoping one of them hits the bulls-eye.” The only consistent tactic used to raise test scores was test prep. As CPRE acknowledged, test prep is shallow and narrow. The report recommends changing accountability systems so schools concentrate less on standardized tests and more on developing the “host of non-cognitive skills found to be related to later success.”
Other researchers found a disturbing trend caused by testing, standardization and scripting: America’s children are becoming less creative. While other countries strive to build creativity into the curriculum, American schools are increasingly forced to homogenize. Consequently, creativity, which increased steadily until 1990, has declined ever since, with the most serious decline appearing in children from kindergarten to sixth grade.
This body of research demands that we rethink our national obsession to use tests as the goal in education. A low test score should be an alarm, not that a school or teacher is failing, but more likely that there are stressors in a child’s life that warrant intervention.
Your waiver and Race to the Top programs, which push the use of standardized tests to judge all teachers and the implementation of even more standardized tests through the Common Core State Standards, only increase this hollow focus on testing. You hold hostage funding to provide the necessary resources described above to the implementation of these narrow and destructive goals. You encourage states to withhold basic funding as well, as evidenced by Governor Cuomo’s threat to withhold basic state school aid unless districts implement a teacher evaluation based on test scores. You hold up as examples of model schools privately run charters that often exclude our neediest children and often are militaristic-style test-prep factories. Moreover you encourage the proliferation of these schools, which are not answerable to democratically elected school boards, and therefore disenfranchise our neediest citizens.
My oldest child is in 12th grade and my youngest is in 7th. I have seen the increased scripting and narrowing of learning that has occurred in just the five-year gap between them. I have seen the increase in stress in my youngest, who has to suffer through meaningless computerized test after test, while units on poetry and other subjects that would expand his world, are jettisoned (to the point where I have opted him out of many of these tests). I have spoken to so many wonderful teachers frustrated and dejected by their new roles as simple proctors, rather than inspiring educators. I have spoken to school nurses who tell me that at test time, they see a spike in headaches, stomachaches and the need for anti-anxiety medication.
Is this the safe haven to which we aspire for our children? Can this stressful and intellectually-empty school experience really teach our children that they are loved, how to love and how to be resilient?
You said last night that we have to change. While I believe you were hinting at gun control, I respectfully request that you expand this resolve to change and include a rethinking of your education policy. We want all our children to feel safe and loved. We want them to be able to find their own, unique voices. We want to protect them and teach them ways to adapt and protect themselves. Please help us do that by helping schools expand our children’s world. Let us build our schools’ capacity to serve all our children, rather than tearing down the foundations of our public education system.
Sincerely,
Wendy Lecker
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, understands that teachers must be better prepared in the future. At present, the standards for entry into teaching are a hodgepodge, are set by every state and district at varying levels, and many new teachers arrive with an online degree or with only a few weeks of “training.” This is not good enough.
In Finland, which has an excellent school system, all teachers are prepared over the course of a five-year program that includes subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skill. No one is allowed to teach without that deep and well-planned preparation for the classroom. Finland has eight universities. All of them follow the same protocol. Entry into teaching is highly selective because there are so few entry points. Only one of every ten people who apply are accepted into the teacher education program.
By contrast, we let everyone in and then allow huge numbers to fail after they enter the classroom. Some survive, many don’t.
We don’t have eight universities like Finland, we have thousands. How then to raise the standard for entry into teaching?
Randi Weingarten has proposed a rigorous examination for entry into the teaching profession. She would have it developed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Schools and colleges of education may keep their own entry standards, but their graduates must be prepared for the examination, which would include subject matter knowledge and pedagogical ability.
In her explanation of the proposal in the Wall Street Journal, Weingarten wrote:
“Setting a bar for entry into the teaching profession requires strengthening and aligning many components. Standards for admission to and completion of teacher-preparation programs should be appropriately high. Curricula should address the specific knowledge and skills that competent beginning teachers need. Preparation must include extensive experience in actual classrooms working with accomplished teachers. Mastery should be demonstrated not just through a written exam but also through demonstrations of a candidate’s ability to teach. High standards for entry into the profession should apply to all prospective teachers, whether they pursue traditional or alternative certification.”
“The teaching profession is full of dedicated, talented teachers, but much of their expertise is developed only once they’re on the job. Better preparing teachers for entry into the profession will dramatically reduce the loss of new teachers—nearly half of whom leave after fewer than five years—and the loss of knowledge that goes with it. As widespread teacher retirements sweep across the nation’s schools (1.6 million in the next decade alone), our proposal will help create a constant supply of well-prepared educators ready from day one to help children achieve at high levels.”
Randi is right. We can’t just say, “Let’s improve recruitment into the profession” and leave the free market to work its magic. Nothing will change.
Real change does not come about because of hope and expectation.
It comes about when there are real plans, based on facts and attainable goals, with a strategy in hand.
Imagine: a national exam developed by educators for educators, to identify those who are well prepared to teach.
And then, once in the classroom, teachers should be evaluated as professionals by professionals, not by cockeyed metrics dreamed up by statisticians.
Teaching must be recognized as a profession that requires well prepared professionals. Teachers must have the autonomy in the classroom to do what they know is best for their students.
This is a great beginning. It should change the conversation from blaming teachers for conditions beyond their control to taking concrete steps to ensure that those who enter the classroom are well qualified. It puts us on a path towards the day when teaching is as prestigious as other professions.
A teacher writes:
“I went to the Thinking in the Deep End blog, as you suggested, and returned to your site resisting the urge to cry. As a recent arrival to the teaching field — as a creative writer/poet and journalist who did so at the ripe age of 48, that is — I am utterly distressed at the test-centric atmosphere of the urban high school where I teach Language Arts. The again, I feel like a giddy young rebel, as I recently decided to guide my students on a creative writing assignment with fewer parameters (read: no detailed rubric abiding strictly by the common core standards) than any of them are used to. It was initially confusing for some — as they are so used to being told which hoops to jump through and when — but ultimately liberating, for student and teacher alike.
“I’ll take the damn disciplinary letter in my file if it need be. I suddenly feel teary eyed once again, thinking of one particular student (a high-functioning student who nonetheless has an IEP) who thanked me for setting his creativity free for the first time, he said, in his schooling. He is a senior in high school, by the way. Though I don’t deserve his praise, he now walks around telling people that I am the best teacher he has ever had. I don’t know if he will become a poet or the next Einstein, but I hope I ripped opened a door to that possibility.”
I used to wait with great anticipation every Sunday night to read Michael Winerip’s education column. They were always informative and on the cutting edge of important issues.
But a few months ago, for no discernible reason, the newspaper of record canceled his invaluable column and gave him the assignment of writing about “Boomers.”
I was tempted to scream and curse (in private) at the loss of this great voice, this beacon of sanity in a world gone mad.
Today, he managed to write an education column that was about a boomer.
It is about a great teacher inspiring his students and changing his community.
It reminded me how much I miss Michael Winerip on education.
Researchers usually find that students flourish where there is stability in the school, with an experienced staff, clear expectations, small classes, and a rich curriculum.
In Kentucky, first state to implement and test the Common Core, student scores fell and achievement gaps widened.
This teacher in Connecticut foresees rough weather ahead as the state and federal government launch a massive experiment:
I wonder about the impact specifically in Connecticut where we are rolling out a new comprehensive teacher evaluation system at the same time [as Common Core]….so we have teachers learning new standards, possibly new curriculum, new evaluation processes, new observational rubrics for lessons, teaching and then setting learning goals based on results of one type of test in 2014, and then another online, common core test in 2015…how many schools will fail? How many teachers will not make gains with their students? How many will be fired? How many schools will be taken over? How will the students handle all the stress and change in the schools? It sounds to me like a lot of people will benefit – private companies waiting to take over schools, publishers, trainers, RESCS, but the hands-down, biggest loser will be the students. It is going to be a rough ride in Connecticut for a few years as this experiment unfolds.
A teacher explains how she went from effective to “in need of improvement”:
“I too have been highly effective for the 13 years I have been in the classroom, until last year, that is. I am now a teacher in need of improvement, not due to my teaching or my rapport with my students, but because I didn’t have my learning goal posted next to my rubric and I didn’t put descriptive feedback on 100% of the papers in portfolios )I missed 3 papers out of the 100+ that were in there). I didn’t refer to my rubric at the beginning, middle and end of my 15 minute small group lesson and when dealing with a child on the autism spectrum, I didn’t ask him to recall what the rule was for sitting on the carpet, I used the cue that I had discussed with him instead. This VAM is ruining the psyches of teachers and making us feel like we just fell off of the turnip truck. Way to make us want to stay in the career we love…tell us we suck every day!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 