Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
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Congratulations, Brian Page! This Is What Teachers Do.

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2014 //
14

After years of endless negative press about teachers, it was refreshing to pick up the New York Times and read a story about Brian Page, who teaches high school students about economics and personal finance. He teaches them through life experience and field trips what economics means in their own lives.

Page took his students to a pawn shops where they learned about what it means to borrow, about interest, and about their credit scores.

“Stop 1 was at LoanMax, which allows people who own their cars free and clear to use them as collateral for loans. “Take charge of your life,” said business cards sitting on a counter. A half-dozen students entered the store with Mr. Page, who asked about interest rates. The person at the counter said that the annual interest rate would be 24.99 percent and that one missed payment could lead to repossession of the vehicle, a fact that shocked the rest of the students on the bus when Mr. Page debriefed them on the visit.”

At another shop, they learned how interest rates increased the cost of appliances.

“By the time the group was breaking up, the day’s lessons seem to have sunk in for Ciara Meinking, 18. “It’s just crazy how expensive all of this is and how they con you into stuff, and you don’t ever get a lot of the money,” she said.”

What a great day of life lessons!

Categories Teachers and Teaching

New York City’s Teachers Adrift, Victims of Reform

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2014 //
21

During the decade or so in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg totally controlled the public schools of New York City, he relied on test scores as the measure of students, teachers, principals, and schools. His was a managerial mindset devoid of any philosophy of education or of any concern for the lives of individuals or communities. Collateral damage was unimportant, and many people fell under his wheels. His primary strategy was to close schools with low scores and open new schools. He believed in small schools, even though few of these schools had the facilities or staff for English language learners, students with disabilities, or advanced classes in math or science or anything else. After he had been in office for a number of years, he was closing some of the new schools. The central office could literally murder a school by directing large numbers of low-scoring students to it, which was a death sentence. As schools began to die (and he had a particular hatred for large schools), good students moved out and the death cycle was accelerated as the stats looked worse and worse.

What happened to the teachers in the schools marked for closure? Some got out as fast as they could, others stayed in their post, either because they were devoted to the school and hoped it would be saved if they tried harder or because they felt committed to the students. When the school at last was closed, many tenured teachers were set adrift. They could apply to other schools but because they were experienced, they were expensive and many principals preferred to have two new teachers than one veteran. So the teachers without a school were placed in what was called the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR), where they stayed on salary but floated through the system as substitutes or short-timers. The press regularly ridiculed them as incompetents, although most had lost their job through no fault of their own, and some or many were expert teachers.

In this post, Lynne Winderbaum tells the story of the ATRs. She is a retired ESL teacher.

Categories New York City, Teachers and Teaching

Russ Walsh: “Reformers” Don’t Know What Motivates Teachers

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2014 //
72

Russ Walsh writes that corporate reformers have no idea what motivates teachers so they impose their own flawed ideas. Few have ever taught. They listen to economists, most of whom see education as an economic activity, not a humanistic activity.

First, they decided that the teacher is the most important determinant of student test scores (not true, the best predictor of student scores is family income and education). Then they decide that the best way to motivate teachers to work harder is to devise a system of rewards and punishments. Scores will rise, they reason, if teachers are threatened with loss of their careers.

But this is all wrong. Teachers are not motivated by carrots and sticks.

What motivates teachers?

Teachers are motivated by students.

“Nothing can motivate a teacher to be well-prepared and perform at peak ability more than the simple fact their will be 25 or so faces looking at you in the morning, waiting for you to teach them. When students have a moment of insight, teachers feel empowered. When a student is struggling to understand, the teacher is motivated to find a way to get through.”

Teachers are motivated by teaching.

“Teaching is intrinsically rewarding. For those of us who chose to go into the profession, teaching is fun. It is energizing. I have had many times in my life when I didn’t feel particularly well or when I was tired and then I began to teach and I felt better, more energized. I can teach myself awake and I have seen many other teachers who do the same thing.”

Teachers are motivated by good working conditions.

“While a reasonable living wage is certainly important to every teacher, in my experience in hiring teachers, I have found them to be more interested in the working conditions they will find in the school where they will work. What working conditions matter? Reasonable class sizes. Adequate resources to do the job. Adequate planning time. A clean building in good repair. Supportive administrators. Suportive and engaged parents. Friendly and supportive colleagues.”

Please, reformers, read the whole post and learn what motivates teachers.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Marie Corfield: In Honor of Retiring Educators Everywhere

By dianeravitch
May 27, 2014 //
22

Marie Corfield, tireless advocate for children and teachers, prepared a speech to honor her retiring colleagues in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

She noted that on that night, the schools of New Jersey were losing 500 years of experience.

Too many good teachers leaving, retiring.

She writes:

“Within the first 6 months of Christie’s first term the number of public school employees who filed for retirement almost doubled that of the previous year. While I don’t have statistics on the past 4 years, I have personally spoken to many retiring educators who are simply fed up. A special education teacher with whom I had the honor to work for 10 years, who worked miracles with our most challenging children for over 20 years, told me that while she didn’t want to retire, she could no longer subject her students to education ‘reform’. Another is taking an early retirement, sacrificing part of her pension, because she just can’t take it anymore. This is how we ‘attract and retain the best teachers’? This is how we make a great public education system better? We make educators’ jobs so unbearable that they leave rather than inflict damaging policies on their students?”

We have had a barrage of damaging policies and attacks on hard-working teachers. Marie is one of those teachers who has been a model for others. She won’t give up. Neither will we. Don’t retire if you have the fortitude to persist. Stay in your position. Fight for your kids and your profession. Outlast the Know-Nothings..

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Heidi Nance: I Am Teacher, Hear Me Roar!

By dianeravitch
May 27, 2014 //
54

Heidi Nance, a teacher in El Paso, Texas, tells the story here of a decision that changed her life. She decided to stop pretending that policy and politics had nothing to do with her. She would stop passively supporting policies that she knew were wrong. She made a decision to become an active advocate for her children and her profession. She made a decision to take an active role in shaping events and being a leader. Learn how she reached this turning point in her professional and personal life.

I AM A TEACHER!

Today, there is a war against education. Men in offices are actively making decisions that will affect the way we teach. Today, there is a war against children. Men in offices are actively making decisions that will affect the way children learn. Today, we are their foot soldiers. Every day we march into our classrooms and do the work of these men in offices. These men know nothing of children, or teaching, or education. These men believe they have found the answer: accountability.

I am so blessed. I have an amazing administration that allows me to do what is best for my students. The great Sir Ken Robinson gave an interview and in that interview he explained that for the children we teach, we are their educational system. The children know nothing of policy or politics; all they know is what we do in our classrooms. I took great solace in that, and I decided to make sure that I always did right by the children in my class. But recently I started thinking of all the children in other schools, other cities, and other states. What about those children? And I realized it is not enough. I cannot say I hate what is happening in education and continue to passively support bad policies every day in my classroom.

In March I went to the Network for Public Education National Conference. I met educators, parents, activists, and journalist from all over the country. We all shared a common goal – to take back public education. Public education is paid for by the people and belongs to the people. It belongs to us. And I had forgotten that. I lost my voice, but there, in Austin I found it. It is loud, and it is great. It is my teaching voice. You know the voice I am talking about. The other day my daughter came into my classroom while I was teaching. Later she told me “Mama, you sound weird when you teach.” I joked and told her that when you are a teacher you can have no fear. Children can smell fear. So today, I am using my teaching voice.

I am not afraid.

When I was at the conference, I felt so empowered. My mind raced with ideas. My body vibrated with excitement. I returned from the conference, and all the joy and energy drained from my body, and I thought “now what?” How do I take all my ideas and turn them into action? So that is what I am doing today. I do believe in accountability for teachers, and today I am holding myself accountable. I am accountable to the children I teach.

On Monday, I will walk into my classroom and remember that every child is different. Just like every child walks when he is ready, every child learns he is ready. I will not shame children for not following the time table set forth by politicians. Instead, I will cheer and encourage because I know that every child starts at a different point and that as long as they are moving forward, all the great teachers at my school will help each child to reach his or her full potential.

I will make sure that I only have the highest of expectations for my students. But I will remind myself that the burden of high expectations falls on me. It is my job to make sure that everything I ask of my students is developmentally appropriate, and I will speak up when it is not. It is up to me to support and scaffold the learning of my students. I will make sure everything I say and do in my classroom is supported by research. I will realize that high expectations, without the research to back it up, is the mantra of politicians who support high stakes testing.

I will set individual goals for each of my students. I will realize that by setting inappropriate goals, I will only discourage my children who need encouragement the most. I will demand that every day my students smile, laugh, play, and learn.

I am accountable to myself. I will continue to educate myself. I will read books by great educators and historians like John Kuhn, Alfie Kohn, and Diane Ravitch. I will scrutinize the policy decisions of our state legislators and our Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. I will be outraged when he bullies our state into tying teacher evaluations to test scores. I will support organizations like Network for Public Education, Fair Test, Defending the Early Years, and Texas Children Can’t Wait. I will spend my weekends writing letters to the editor, letters to my congressman, and letters to the president.

I am accountable to the public. I will speak up when people make false statements about public schools and education. I will explain to them that the dialogue about public schools has been hijacked by people who intend to dismantle and profit off of it. I will tell them that our schools are not failing. Instead, movies like Waiting for Superman are propaganda used to promote an agenda that will only hurt our minority and special needs students.

I will speak out when people reference our schools’ international ranking. I will inform them that when we account for children living in poverty, our students are ranked among the highest in the world. I will point out that 23% percent of children in the United States live in poverty. The second highest of any industrialized nation. Our schools are not failing; our society is failing.

I will educate people about the failures of high stakes tests, merit pay, VAM, and retention. I will explain to them why charters and vouchers are not the answer. Every child deserves a high quality, neighborhood school. No child should have to put his hopes and dreams into a lottery. I will inform them that researchers already have the answers to help low performing schools. They include preschool for all children living in poverty. The earlier, the better. Prenatal care for mothers. Safe homes and safe neighborhoods. Wrap around services like school libraries, school nurses and school councilors, smaller classes, and a well rounded curriculum rich in the humanities and the arts. I will remind people that our country has only been successful because we are a country of innovators and that standardized tests stand to crush every ounce of creativity our children have. I quote Robert Schaffer who said, “Believing we can improve schooling with more tests is like believing you can make yourself grow taller by measuring your height.”

I am accountable to my fellow teachers. We must allow our teachers to collaborate, not compete. It does not benefit children to have teachers competing for bonuses or the highest test scores. We cannot set up a system where teachers are afraid to work with the neediest students for fear of losing their jobs. High risk students should not equal high risk employment.

I am accountable to my students’ parents. I will support and educate the parents who are unable to help their children. I will provide them with materials and compassion because they are not the enemy. Inequality and inequity in schools is the enemy. Segregation is the enemy. Years of bad bilingual education policy is the enemy.

I will even have compassion for the so called helicopter parent. I will realize that my silence has allowed for them to lose all faith in public education. The media has fed them a steady diet of failing schools, failing children, and failing teachers. With our unstable economy and a shrinking middle class, it is not surprising that parents are fighting tooth and nail to help their children succeed. Every time we are silent we allow for the continued distrust of educators and for the deprofessionalization of teachers.

I am accountable. I am accountable to myself, the public, my colleagues, my parents, and my students. But even more I am accountable to all the students in classrooms across this vast and diverse country. But I am not afraid. I am a teacher.

I stand before children every day and I teach them. I teach them things they need to know and things they never dreamed of knowing. I teach them to believe in themselves and each other. I teach them to question, and push, and explore. I teach children with no parents and no home, and children with 4 parents and 2 homes. I teach children that they are the difference this world needs. They are amazing and creative and on the verge of excellence, all while being only a small piece of the puzzle that is humanity. I am a teacher.

And so on Monday I will go into my classroom, and I will teach. I will use my teaching voice with my students, and when I leave I will use my teaching voice with anyone willing to listen, and even those who refuse to listen, because I am not afraid.

I am a teacher.

Heidi Nance

Categories Network for Public Education, Teachers and Teaching

Jonathan Lovell: The Magic of Learning to Listen

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2014 //
35

Jonathan Lovell has been leading writing workshops for many years.

In this delightful post, he describes his struggle to finish his own dissertation, and the flights of fancy that kept blocking his path.

He uses graphics creatively to reflect his state of mind. You watch his thinking evolve.

Watch a writer at work and lament with him that the Obama administration eliminated the minimal funding needed to keep more than 200 sites of the National Writing Project alive, summer institutes where teachers experience the love of learning without the threat of test scores and VAM. No utilitarian purpose, just freedom to think and create.

Categories Real Education, Teachers and Teaching

Lloyd Lofthouse on Teacher Pay

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2014 //
122

Regular reader Lloyd Lofthouse has gathered some useful information on teacher salaries.

He writes:

Here’s a link to a map that was published by The Washington Post that shows the average annual public school teachers pay for each state for 2013. Now, to be clear, an average means many teachers are paid less and some paid more.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/15/how-much-teachers-get-paid-state-by-state/

Then here’s an opinion piece by Dave Eggers that appeared in the New York Times in 2011

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries. What does Eggers say? Here’s a pull quote:

At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible.

So how do teachers cope? Sixty-two percent work outside the classroom to make ends meet.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Jack Hassard: Protect Your Children, Opt Out of Testing

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2014 //
11

Jack Hassard, emeritus professor of science education ay Georgia State University, describes what happened when a family in Marietta decided to opt their child out of state testing. Their school used scare tactics, threatening to have them arrested. They stood their ground, and the school backed down.

Hassard contacted parents in Texas who told him of the bullying tactics in Austin schools, all intended to raise scores. The Austin superintendent has been hired by Atlanta. Hassard says the Opt Out movement is strong and growing stronger in Texas.

Georgia has just contracted with McGraw-Hill for $110 million to design new tests for Georgia. Hassard says all this testing is unnecessary. Georgia could learn all it needs to know sbout its students either from NAEP or by administering no-stakes, sampled tests like NAEP.

Hassard concludes:

“If high-stakes testing is revoked, we will make one of the most important decisions in the lives of students and their families, and the educators who practice in our public schools. Banning tests, throwing them out, eliminating them, what ever you wish to call it, will open the door to more innovative and creative teaching, and an infusion of collaborative and problem solving projects that will really prepare students for career and college.

“Making kids endure adult anger is not what public education is about. Why in the world are we so angry and willing to take it out on K-12 students? Why do we put the blame on children and youth, and if they don’t live up to a set of unsubstantiated and unscientific standards and statistics, we take it out on teachers?

“The best thing for students is throw the bums (tests) out. The next best thing will be for teachers because without standardized test scores, there will be no way to calculate VAM scores as a method to evaluate teachers.”

Categories Georgia, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Texas

Maryland: A Teacher Tells a Candidate for Governor Why She Won’t Vote for Him

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2014 //
21

Brenda Payne, who teaches in Baltimore County, wrote the following open letter to Douglas Gansler, a candidate for governor of Maryland. It was published in the Baltimore Sun. We need more teachers like Brenda Payne, fearless, articulate, activist, to set this country on the right track.

Below are a few paragraphs from Brenda Payne’s letter to the Baltimore Sun. To read the entire letter, open the link.

By Brenda Payne

“An open letter to Douglas Gansler, attorney general of Maryland and candidate for governor

“Dear Mr. Gansler:

“As another school year winds down and I complete my 21st year in the Maryland Public School System, I am pondering where I should cast my vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election. It is a difficult choice. I do not need my union to tell me for whom I should vote. I can choose on my own. After your recent ad campaign, I can tell you who will not have my vote: you.

“I watched the ad on television and laughed at it, even as I shook my head and rolled my eyes. You want to “lift up our kids.” What on earth does that really mean? You want “Skill over seniority in every classroom!” Good luck with that one, too.

“All of us who have been in the classroom, either for a year or 30, should take offense at your ad. To suggest those of us in the classroom are not skilled is a slap in the face of those of us who head into those classrooms every day to try to convince bored, disinterested students that we really do want them to learn…..

“Believe me, Mr. Gansler, not one of us is in this profession for the money. Those of us who are “career teachers” are not in the classroom because it pays the bills. We are there because we want to be. We love children. You already have “skilled” teachers. What we need is more support and understanding. I accept my responsibility as a teacher, I understand my job. I love my kids. But to hold me completely accountable for the success or failure of my students is preposterous. I have my students for about 6.5 hours a day. I do not go home with them. I can not control what they do before and after school….”

Brenda Payne

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Laura Chapman: The Problems with EdTPA

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2014 //
29

Laura Chapman writes:

Unfortunately, this next generation of teachers is not just subject to manipulation by Teach for America.

The new EdTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) is one of the new gatekeepers for entry into teaching. EdTPA was designed by scholars at Stanford. It has been rubber-stamped by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). AACTE represents 800 teacher education programs..

EdTPA is aligned with the CCSS. It honors direct instruction made evident in video snippets of teaching and plans that prospective teachers submit for scoring. Scoring has been outsourced to Pearson who charges a minimum of $300 per test, while paying $70 per hour to raters of the tests. In early 2014, edTPA was being used in 511 educator preparation programs in 34 states and the District of Columbia. CCSS plus training for direct instruction over authentic education will not just fade away. http://edtpa.aacte.org/about-edtpa

States can use edTAP scores for teacher licensure. Teacher education programs can use the scores for state and national accreditations.

The edTPA scores of graduates, and gains in students’ scores that they produce on the job will now be used to rate the “effectiveness” of teacher education programs. In other words, Obama+Duncan’s flawed K-12 policies are being foisted on teacher education. The Gates’ desire to track student test scores produced by graduates of teacher education programs in on track for becoming the new normal. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/barack-obama-arne-duncan-teacher-training-education-106013.html#ixzz2zwfJdsRs

it is hard to be optimistic. In addition to EdTPA, other tests for teacher certification require knowledge of the CCSS (e.g. Praxis http://www.ets.org/praxis/ccss). Other certifications of teacher education programs are no less troubling.

For example, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), approved new standards for teacher education in August, 2013. CAEP is a new entity merging NCATE, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and TEAC the Teacher Education Accreditation Council. In 2013, the merged organizations had accredited over 860 programs. CAEP standards must still be approved by USDE and appear to have been written for that purpose.

The standards from CAEP illustrate how hard it is to bury bad policies, and overcome horrific language about education.

Programs that prepare teachers are now called “providers.” Teachers who graduate are now called “completers.” The CAEP standards rely on 110 uses of the term “impact” to describe what teacher education and teachers are supposed to do. (Ask Diane what “impact” meant for her knee, or consider how ‘impacted” sardines may feel in a can).

Here is CAEP’s Standard 1.4 for teacher education: “Providers ensure that completers demonstrate skills and commitment that afford all P-12 students access to rigorous college-and career-ready standards (e.g., Next Generation Science Standards, National Career Readiness Certificate, Common Core State Standards).” http://caepnet.org/accreditation/standards/standard1/

CAEP Standard 4.1: “The provider documents, using multiple measures, that program completers contribute to an expected level of student-learning growth. Multiple measures shall include all available growth measures (including value-added measures, student-growth percentiles, and student learning and development objectives) required by the state for its teachers and available to educator preparation providers, other state-supported P-12 impact measures, and any other measures employed by the provider.” http://caepnet.org/accreditation/standards/standard4/ This standard is absurd. It requires the use of “measures” that are known to be invalid and unreliable.

CAEP Standard 5.4: “Measures of completer impact, including available outcome data on P-12 student growth, are summarized, externally benchmarked, analyzed, shared widely, and acted upon in decision-making related to programs, resource allocation, and future direction.” http://caepnet.org/accreditation/standards/standard5/

Clearly, the demolition derby on K-12 is expanding to damage the independent voice of faculty in higher education, especially those most directly responsible for teacher education.

The “provider” language signals that alternative paths to teachers preparation are being honored. The 42 member “commission” charged with developing CAEP’s standards was dominated by high-level administrators in education and entrepreneurs who appear to be totally unaware of (or indifferent to) the meaning of due-diligence in developing standards. They ignored sound scholarship that should have informed their work, including extensive peer-reviewed criticisms of the CCSS, value-added and related “growth” measures, as well as all the well-document flaws in industrial strength management strategies from mid-century last.

Damn the torpedos, ignore the evidence, full steam ahead.

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Teachers and Teaching, Testing
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