Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
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“All I Want for Christmas Is….”

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2013 //
9

A post from the wonderful Jan Resseger:

A Special Christmas Wish for What Children Need This Year: Quality Teachers

The Rev. John Thomas, the former General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, is now a professor and administrator Chicago Theological Seminary. His wonderful blog post for this Christmas is about the importance of quality public school teachers: All I Want for Christmas.

“While the old holiday song suggests that children might want two front teeth for Christmas, this year I’d like to suggest an alternative: “All I want for Christmas is a teacher.” Sunday’s New York Times reported the stark impact of the recent recession on schools, namely, the massive loss of public school teachers since 2008. According to Labor Department statistics, public schools across the country employ 250,000 fewer people today than they did prior to the recession. Meanwhile, pupil enrollment has grown by 800,000 students. To maintain pre-recession staffing ratios, public schools nation-wide would have had to add 132,000 jobs.

“What does this look like in the classroom? In Coatesville, Pennsylvania, a declining steel town forty miles outside of Philadelphia, the professional workforce of 600 prior to the recession has been cut by twenty percent. This means that some of the thirty students in one fourth grade class sit halfway into a coat closet. In a middle school social studies class one teacher handles twenty-five students, ten with special education needs, four who know little or no English, and several others who need advanced work to stay engaged. He used to have two aides to help; not any more.”

Thomas concludes by sharing the story of the public school music teacher who composed the song, “All I Want for Christmas.”

He wrote:

“This year many of our children, whether they know it or not, want – and need – a teacher for Christmas. But unless our priorities change, unless we radically rethink how we allocate resources for all of our public schools, and unless we begin to recognize the real value of highly trained, well paid, experienced teachers, many of our children will find little more than the proverbial coal in their stockings.

“By the way, the song “All I Want for Christmas” was written in 1944 by a public school music teacher who had asked his second grade pupils what they wanted for Christmas. He noticed that almost all of the students answered with a lisp because they had at least one front tooth missing. Chances are Donald Gardner wouldn’t be teaching these days. More and more school districts are laying off their music and art teachers, their guidance counselors, librarians and nurses. Local property taxes simply won’t provide this crucial component of a full education. And programs like Obama’s “Race for the Top,” on which much federal funding is based, don’t test whether children are learning how to sing or play a musical instrument. That’s more than sad in this merry season.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Class size, Teachers and Teaching

What This Fifth Grade Teacher Learned While Teaching in Finland

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2013 //
44

Tim Walker moved to Finland with his family. They have moved permanently, as Tim’s wife is Finnish. Tim now teaches fifth grade in Helsinki. He experienced culture shock. Here is what he learned: children need time to refresh, teachers need time to refresh. Both groups take frequent breaks during the day. But that’s not all: read on.

Categories International, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Here is a Good Xmas Gift: Advice from an Experienced Teacher

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2013 //
8

David Greene has published a new book about teaching called Do the Right Thing.

David Greene taught social studies and coached in NYC, Woodlands HS, Scarsdale HS, and Ardsley HS for 38 years. He was a field supervisor for Fordham University, mentored Teach For America Corps members in the Bronx, was a staff member of WISE Services and treasurer of Save Our Schools March Committee. He has appeared twice on Bronx Talk with Gary Axelbank. He has been published in Ed Week online and has also been referenced by Valerie Strauss in her Washington Post web-based column, The Answer Sheet. Most recently he wrote the most responded-to Sunday Dialogue letter in the New York Times entitled, “A Talent For Teaching,” May 4, 2013.

His questions are answered in the book in plain talk, right from the heart and from decades of experience:

Who controls today’s conversation about what education should be in the classroom? Bill Gates? Arne Duncan? Michelle Rhee? Media? Politicians? Who has gained more and more control of what actually goes on in the classroom? Bill Gates? Arne Duncan? Michelle Rhee? Media? Politicians? Why? Where are the voices of the thousands of talented and loved teachers whose classrooms should be models of what works regardless of the socioeconomic environment they are located. I am but one of many. Each of us has gotten to be who we are as teachers through our own set of circumstances. We, like all other professionals learn our craft through our experiences as well as our academic preparation. Some of us get to pass on what we have learned about our craft by becoming supervisors, mentors, or university lecturers. I have mentored new teachers. I have taught a graduate education class. But those endeavours have reached relatively few. I have even spawned new teachers, inspired by me, but those are even fewer. Initially it is why started writing this book. Much of it started as advice to give to my mentees. Then some suggested to me to write a book. So I did!

Categories Teachers and Teaching

The New York Times Editorializes on Teachers and PISA, with Multiple Errors

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2013 //
38

Once again, we are treated to a New York Times editorial on education that is a mix of good and bad.

Bottom line: The Times blames teachers for the U.S. scores on PISA. And once again, the Times assumes that the scores of 15-year-olds on a standardized test predict the future of our economy, for which there is no evidence at all.

On the good side, the Times recognizes that entry standards into teaching in this country are far too low. In many states, a college graduate may become a teacher with no professional training or with an online degree or with only five weeks of training (TFA). That is not what the much-admired nations cited by the Times do.

On the good side, the Times notes that Finland has extensive social services for children in its schools. Entry into teacher education programs in Finland is rigorous. Teacher education is a five-year program.

On the bad side, the Times fails to mention that state after state is busily dismantling the teaching profession by eliminating collective bargaining (which Finland has); teacher tenure; salary increments for masters’ degrees; and actively discouraging and demoralizing experienced teachers. To call for an improved teaching profession, as the editorial does, while demonstrating total indifference to the widespread attacks on the teaching profession shows an astonishing ignorance of the political realities on the ground.

On the bad side, the Times never acknowledges that Finland has NO standardized testing until the end of high school.

On the bad side, the Times never notes that nearly one-quarter of children in the U.S. live in poverty, as compared to fewer than 5% in Finland. The editorial completely ignores poverty as a cause of low academic performance.

On the bad side, the Times cites the NCTQ as if its review of course syllabi and reading lists made it a credible research organization, which it is not.

On the bad side, the Times assumes that Shanghai has included all the migrant children in its schools and in its PISA testing, when Tom Loveless has demonstrated that this is an aspiration for 2020, not a reality.

Here is Tom Loveless’s comment on the New York Times‘ gushing praise for Shanghai: “dumb and dumber.”

Here are some tweets from this morning:

  1. @chingos Draws causal conclusions from X-sectional data. And praises Shanghai for equitable migrant ed. Dumb and dumber.

  3. @pasi_sahlberg @nytimes NYT draws causal conclusions from X-sectional data. Praises Shanghai for equitable migrant ed. Dumb and dumber.

  4. @NeeravKingsland @nytimes Bold isn’t the right word. Too bad NYT didn’t do some reporting before it editorialized.

    •  More

  5. Amazingly uninformed! NY Times praises Shanghai for equity in migrant education. Why Other Countries Teach Better

Categories International, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Teachers and Teaching, Testing

A Reader: Our Plight and the Fight Ahead

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2013 //
72

Reader Sharon Sanders posted this comment:

 

The intentional destruction of our economy and educational system has been perpetrated by libertarians, right-wing and religious extremists, as well as corporatists, who want every last penny for themselves and their doctrines through private prisons, charter schools, private armies, a biased corporate media– everything, while they ship our factories and jobs overseas. There can be no economy and no way out of poverty until America rises up and realizes what’s being done to them. There can be no economy without jobs. Now there are few jobs except low-paying ones where people must work two or three to make ends meet, forcing children to grow up without adult supervision and time to care for, help them, and love them. It’s all intentional.

These multinational corporations are determined that only the elite few shall be well-educated–after all, no one else can afford good college educations today. They want to profit from phony standards for schools, unaccountable charter schools, while they dismantle collective bargaining rights and pensions, not only from teachers, but from every workerr in this country and overseas. We will have no country ever again worth two cents until and unless these greedy corporatists are forced to keep their hands out of our schools, until we give each and every child the right to the best education possible with excellent thinking skills, challenges, necessary facts, real history, civics, building a base of knowledge and critical thinking for the future. I’m afraid these extremists have so overtaken our country, that there may be no turning back–but we must keep fighting. I taught at a time when creativity and thinking and knowledge were highly regarded and excellent public schools were respected.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Paul Horton Writes a Letter to the Chicago Tribune

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2013 //
10

Paul Horton, a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, wrote this letter to the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune:

Dear Tribune Editorial Board,

You will have us all (teachers) drinking Hemlock very soon with the absurd editorials on Education that you publish.

You should interview Nobel Laureate Gary Becker. He spoke for our students yesterday, and he fully supports all of your editorial positions. He is really smart because everything comes out perfectly in his mathematical models. Nothing can exist outside the market. Forget “externalities”!

Will you publish teacher VAM scores?

Everything on your editorial page is right out of George Saunders fiction: we will have robocops who shoot innocents here instead of in Yemen, we will have roboteachers and robograding, robofiremen, and we will have no public sector. Most importantly, we will have no public sector unions. Everyone except the Ivy educated (plus Chicago and Stanford) will make $12 an hour because we (union members) are all too lazy, good for nothing, and shiftless: definitely inferior genetic material.

Your readers on the North Shore are eating your stuff up: teachers are the new PWT (I can say it because this is who I am–Lincoln was too, read Honor’s Voice).

We need Common Core scripted lessons so that the inferior genetic material we are can not mess up learning. This is all eugenics in a different form: science is truth, statistics are truth, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Broad Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation are truth. Truth is privatization, if it is not digital, it has no worth, and rational choice for the one percent is freedom. Nothing else we get comes close.

How did your pages report Mandela and the ANC in 1962? MLK in 56? The big picture pattern that you present has an impact over time. The Rauner-Rahm jingo eats it up almost as much as your future owners who are making you beg for crumbs (Broad or Murdoch?).

You need a good Swiftian kick in the ass every day!

“Serendipity”?

Happy Holidays!

Paul Horton
Chicago History teacher, AFT Local 2063

Categories Education Industry, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Unions, US Education

Pasi Sahlberg Explains Finnish Philosophy of Education to Rhode Island Policymakers

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2013 //
28

Rhode Island won a Race to the Top grant, so of course the state is obsessed with competition, accountability, and high-stakes evaluations of students, teachers, principals, and schools.

Fortunately, the great Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg was invited by the University of Rhode Island to describe an alternate universe where entering teachers meet the highest standards, students do not take standardized tests, competition is minimized, and almost every student graduates from either an academic or career program.

Sahlberg said:

“Finland, unlike the United States, believes that schools can provide every child with a quality education without sacrificing excellence. But that means taking care of the whole child: offering early-childhood programs, comprehensive health and special-education services and a curriculum that values art, music and sports as much as math and English.

“In a fundamental sense, Sahlberg said, the United States is asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking, “What will help students succeed in today’s economy,” the U.S. should be asking, “What will encourage students to be active participants in a democracy?” and “What will make them be lifelong learners?”

“Sahlberg is also highly critical of the American emphasis on what he sees as a competitive, market-driven philosophy of public education, one that asks states to compete for federal dollars by agreeing to federally guided reforms.
Sahlberg also says that the growing popularity of school choice, in the form of charter and for-profit schools, undermines the traditional public schools by pulling valuable resources from students who need them most.”

The contrast between what Rhode Island and Finland could not be more stark.

Categories Accountability, International, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Amy Prime: What Is the Right Answer to This Test Question?

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2013 //
41

Amy Prime teaches second grade in Iowa. She wrote this post about a confusing question. The following question appeared on a test for her students. She posted it on her Facebook page to see how adults would answer it.

Here is the question:

Read and answer the following:

Animal Alley rescued Cloud and Clip. One night, a helper saw two baby animals. They were hungry. They were dirty. The helper fed them. She cleaned the animals. After a few weeks, the babies changed. They changed from skinny to chubby. A loving family adopted them.

What happened to Cloud and Clip?

A. A loving family adopted them.

B. Alley Animals rescued them.

C. They changed from skinny to chubby.

D. They were dirty and a helper cleaned them.

What do you think is the right answer? Read Amy’s post to find out.

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing

North Carolina: Teacher Attrition Reaches 5-Year High

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2013 //
27

Teachers in North Carolina are leaving their schools at a significantly higher rate this year.

The governor and legislature have targeted teachers for punitive measures, and they are succeeding in making teaching a less desirable career path.

Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch reports:

“In 2008-09, only 35.55 percent of teachers who had tenure, also known as “career status,” left their jobs. That percentage has steadily risen and last year nearly half (49.35%) of all of those who left their positions were tenured teachers.

Mooresville Graded School District Superintendent Dr. Mark Edwards said it’s important to consider the fact that the state will see large numbers of baby boomers retiring during the next five years or so.

“We need to recruit people to stay,” said Edwards to his colleagues at this month’s State Board of Education meeting in Raleigh.

North Carolina ranks 46th in the nation in teacher pay. It takes 15 years for a teacher to make about $40,000 a year.

Last summer, state lawmakers decided to stop funding the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, which awards scholarships to North Carolina high school students to pursue teaching degrees in state. Graduates then must teach for four years in North Carolina. More than 75 percent of Teaching Fellows teach in the state beyond five years, and many stay on for their entire careers.

Lawmakers took some of the money designated for the Teaching Fellows program and put it toward expanding the state’s presence of Teach For America (TFA), a national program designed to place graduates without degrees in education in teaching posts that are in low-performing schools.”

You can see where this is going.

As the state pushes out experienced teachers and eliminates its Teaching Fellows program, it clears the way to hire more inexperienced TFA, who pledge to stay for only two years. Call it turmoil by design.

Eric Guckian, the governor’s senior education advisor, is a TFA alumnus.

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/12/05/teacher-turnover-in-north-carolina-significantly-higher-than-previous-year/#sthash.xL5z2KML.dpuf

Categories North Carolina, Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

AFT Video: The Real Lessons of PISA

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2013 //
5

The AFT prepared an excellent video about the real lessons of PISA.

It shows graphically what the high-performing nations are doing.

It shows that poverty matters.

It shows that equitable resources matter.

It shows that teachers need to be supported and to work in a collaborative environment.

It shows the importance of early childhood education.

The PISA report offers no support for current U.S. policies.

Categories International, Pre-K, Teachers and Teaching
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