Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
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They Closed My School, But It Will Always Be in My Heart: CORRECTION!

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
15

In my original post, I miscredited the author of this piece. It is Carina Hilbert. I attributed the piece to someone who retweeted it. My apologies to Carina Hilbert.

Here is the link to her blog.

Teacher Carina Hilbert is heart-broken. She was proud to work at Albion High School. She loved the kids. The kids were the best. So was the staff.

But they closed the school.

It hurts her to think about it, to talk about it, to write it.

“I may be gone from AHS, but a piece of my heart will always be there, hidden away in room 121, where magic happened, students learned and grew, and lives were changed. We are all Wildcats.”

Who are “they”? Who are these cold, callous people who blithely shut down a beloved school and disrupt communities? How dare they? And they piously claim they are doing it “for the children.” Did they ask the children? Did they ask their parents?

Of course not.

Categories Closing schools, Education Industry, Michigan, Teachers and Teaching

Arthur Camins: Why the Debate Over Standards Flounders

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
12

Arthur Camins has written an insightful critique of the current debate over standards. As he puts it, “the past gets in our eyes.”

Camins begins:

“The Common Core State Standards for Reading and Mathematics appear to be simultaneouslyunstoppable trains and under siege, making strange bedfellows of both supporters and opponents.

Two issues cloud the debate about their validity, value and efficacy: (1) The idea of standards
has been conflated with standardization; (2) Standards have become inextricably linked to highstakes assessments. This has superseded a deeper meaning of assessment- the daily cycle of
diagnosis and feedback to students that marks the practice of every effective teacher.
However, there is something deeper contributing the cloudiness. I am reminded of a classic
Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy laments upon missing a fly ball, “Sorry I missed that easy fly ball,
manager. I thought I had it, but suddenly I remembered all the others I’ve missed. The past got in
my eyes!”

Camins notes a strange paradox: The supporters of “reform” says that the best schools (i.e., charters and vouchers) have autonomy, while the opponents of the Common Core say that teachers need autonomy.

He writes:

“Ironically, the critique of standards as unwarranted, creativity-stifling impositionsis grounded in many of the same autonomy assumptions about the power of unencumbered individuals to drive innovation and improvement. For example, many supporters and critics appear to share the idea that regulation stifles creativity. What separates the two perspectives is a different notion of size and characteristics of the group that can be trusted with autonomy. For supporters of standards, high-stakes assessments, charter schools, and privatization, the group to be counted upon is small: the really smart entrepreneurs. For some opponents, the number is large: virtually everyone.

Curious, this idea that schools should have autonomy, but teachers should not.

Read this provocative article.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Fairfax County Teacher: Why I Quit

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
14

Ron Maggiano taught history and social studies in the Fairfax County (Virginia) public schools for 33 years. Along the way, he picked up many awards for his excellent teaching.

Here he reflects on why he quit a career he loved.

“Now more than three decades later, I have just spent my last day as a teacher. I resigned my teaching position because I can no longer cooperate with the standardized testing regime that is destroying creativity and stifling imagination in the classroom. I am sad, angry, hurt, and dismayed by what has happened to education and to the teaching profession that I so dearly love.

“It was a difficult decision, but I am confident that it was the correct one. For me this was a moral choice. I believe that our current national obsession with high-stakes testing is wrong, because it hurts kids and deprives students of an education that is meaningful, imaginative, and relevant to the demands of the 21st century.”

And more,

“More significantly, critical thinking skills and analytical problem solving have now been replaced with rote memorization and simple recall of facts, figures, names, and dates. Educators have been forced to adopt a “drill and kill” model of teaching to ensure that their students pass the all-important end-of-course test. Teaching to the test, a practice once universally condemned administrators and educators alike, has now become the new normal in classrooms across the country.

“If teaching to the test was wrong 30 some years ago when I first entered the classroom, it is just as wrong today as I leave my classroom for the final time. The fact is that we are not really educating our students. We are merely teaching them how to pass a test.”

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing

A BAT Teacher’s Dream

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
19

Want to know why the Badass Association of Teachers were created.

It is because of stories like this one.

Amanda wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember. She loved teaching. She was laid off. Thousands of other teachers could tell the same story.

Does anyone care?

Teachers care. They know that they could be next. That’s why the BAT gathered more than 20,000 members in only two weeks.

There is poison in the air. It is toxic to teachers and to children. It is time to say no. It is time to join the resistance.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

TeacherKen: BAT Has a Website: Join Us

By dianeravitch
July 1, 2013 //
18

TeacherKen reports that the Badass Teachers Association has enrolled more than 20,000 members in only two weeks.

It has a new website, so you can join without going to Facebook. TeacherKen has the link. That’s great news for those of us who are not on FB.

Keep it going.

You don’t have to be a teacher to join. You have to be mad as hell at the mess the corporations, the foundations, and the federal government have made of education and what they are doing to our kids.

We can take back our schools and our profession.

Yes, we can.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Badass Teachers Website Is Activated

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
36

A message from Mark NAISON:

Here’s the link to our new website!

SUNDAY MASSIVE LAUNCH PARTY!!

OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING!

A BADASS THANK YOU TO REBEKAH CORDOVA AND TEAM FOR ALL THEIR AMAZING WORK!!

http://www.badassteacher.org

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Categories Teachers and Teaching

A Teacher’s Plea to Bill and Melinda Gates

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
47

This teacher hopes that Bill and Melinda read this comment:

Dear Bill and Melinda,

I truly believe you started with good intentions. As mature adults who make mistakes, it is time to recant your initial perspective.

I’ve taught 4th and 5th graders in an inner city school for the past 17 years. What fun we used to have. Back then…. before the NCLB and RTT…. my students flourished in literature groups reading on grade level classics such as Hatchet, Tuck Everlasting, Call it Courage, The Cay, Caddie Woodlawn, The Little Princess, and My Side of the Mountain. We read Jerry Spinelli, Karen Hesse, C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien. Not anymore. Why? The testing.

Since the high stakes tests began in 2001 I have noticed a decline in my student’s thinking skills. Each year they come to me with fewer skills than the group before me. The teachers are the same as before, but something is different. Students were being over tested. They no longer get the pleasure of reading in the “zone” and spending time languishing in the text for the sheer joy of reading. They have to pass these tests. If they don’t the school is punished.

This year, our school is being punished, because we are a “focused” school. As a result, time and time again, I have had to postpone my well planned lessons. These lessons, which are designed to engage students in analyzing and thinking about character motive, theme, setting etc. depend on momentum, continuity and consistency. These lessons are designed to give students time to reflect on their learning. Not this year, sadly. As a focused school, the state is more concerned with DATA. So, I have had to put aside my lessons, midstream, to initiate one edict after another given by the district, which was precipitated by the state mandates of a focused school. (I might add here that the majority of focused schools are located in impoverished districts. It’s not because of bad teaching. It’s because of poverty!)

These edicts range from “administering the district exam on material not yet covered in order to input the data, to implementing another NEW strategy, which we were never trained in to use.” Consequently, my well thought out lessons went down the drain, and I collected and input data instead. Those great books we were reading sat on the shelf. The math games and manipulatives, which help my students grasp the concrete before they explore the abstract, sat on the shelf. Instead, I administered exams and in between did my best to cover the material so that the students would hopefully succeed on these exams. If I didn’t do it, I would get a bad evaluation and my job would be on the line. I felt l was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Against every bone in my body, I had eliminate the reflective time of learning to move quickly to the next “state” agenda.

The sad part is this. I was miserable and my students were miserable. “Ms. P can’t we get in our reading groups today?” Yes. My students begged to read. They begged to read because when I am allowed to teach the way I KNOW is best, they read and love it. And that simple act of reading and loving it is the aspect of learning that will move the students forward.

However, thanks to your well-intentioned push to improve our schools, my students have less time to enjoy learning and more time to create data so that I can prove that I am teaching.

A side note here: Why are we a focused school? Our students with disabilities did not make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress). You got it. Students with special needs did not “meet state standards.” Now, Bill and Melinda, please read the many posts from parents and teachers of students with disabilities to understand the absurdity of this.

…..and reconsider your alignment with Michelle Rhee and the likes.

Please, recant.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

The BTA Launches New Media Today

By dianeravitch
June 30, 2013 //
25

Having sprouted nearly 20,000 members in barely two weeks, the distinguished Badass Teachers Association prepares for the long haul. Mark NAISON writes:

“Today, with the Official Launch Party for the group Logo, the youtube channel, and the opening of the BAT Store, members of the Badass Teachers Association will see how hard the administrators of this group have worked to create an organizational structure built for the long, hard, struggle to take back our profession and our schools from the profiteers, hustlers and opportunists who have marginalized our voices and deluged our schools with tests and assessments. No one should pretend this struggle will be easy, or that it will not provoke arguments in the group as to best carry it out. But I am confident that with the organization we have all created together, the national group plus the 50 state organizations, teachers now have the opportunity to speak more frankly and honestly, in collective solidarity, than they did two weeks ago. The collective courage and creativity of people on this site inspires me every day. Now let the whole nation learn what Badass Teachers can do.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/140244172840677/

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University

“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Categories Privatization, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Teaching Is Not What I Expected

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2013 //
82

A teacher responds to the rankings by the NCTQ:

Ok. I have a degree in accounting. I was an accountant for 15 years. I switched to teaching in 2008 and was thoroughly shocked that teaching was so different than I imagined and also that it was so difficult. When I was an accountant, I remembered thinking that getting off at 4pm sounded like a dream since I worked until 6pm as a general rule. However, on the first day of being an instructional assistant I looked up at the clock at 3pm and wondered how it could only be 3pm. I was exhausted. Teachers have no down time. I was lucky to get to use the restroom let alone have a real lunch. Since then, I have acknowledged that I am just “on” from 7:30am until 4:00pm. There isn’t any leisurely talk at the coffee pot, or walk around the building to wake up, or even personal phone calls to set an appointment. There isn’t any “zoning out” at your desk like so many other professionals do. It is exhausting. I love working with the kids and teaching gives me so much more than I ever thought that it would, but it is VERY different than the non-teaching public will understand. My first year was a wake-up call. I wouldn’t go through that again for anything and I went through Indiana University (one of the schools that made decent marks in this sham of a study).

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

NCTQ: Set to Solve the Problems of Syria and Obesity Next

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2013 //
8

Now that the National Council on Teacher Quality has ranked nearly 2,000 teacher education programs without actually visiting them or meeting their faculty, bigger challenges are ahead.

—————————————————————————————
NCTQ to Tackle Syria and Obesity Next

By Isaac Prilleltensky, Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami, Florida

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), an organization much loved by Deans of Education around the country, is poised to tackle Syria and obesity. After fixing education in this country through their report on teacher preparation programs, NCTQ is ready to tackle other global problems.

The report, universally acclaimed for its high scientific and ethical standards, has drawn great praise from the former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, The Plumbers Association, and Bernie Madoff. The report raises the bar on scientific approaches to social problems; so much so that President Obama is going to replace the Chief Scientist at the National Academies of Science with an NCTQ intern. Meanwhile, Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ, is rumored to head the Expedited Ethics Board, a new federal agency designed to protect the rights of lobbyists in Washington.

When asked about her data collection methods, Walsh replied that they used drones to gather data from Colleges of Education that refused to cooperate. She went on to describe how telescopic technology was used to read course syllabi that students would discard in the toilet after final exams. To assess the quality of programs, they obtained NSA data provided by Edward Snowden. Mr. Snowden, who was busy teaching an ethics course in Hong Kong, could not be reached for comment.

Democrats and republicans alike praised the techniques used by NCTQ to solve education in this country. In a rare bipartisan statement, John Boehner and Harry Reid wrote: “We have so much gridlock in Washington. It is time to take an entrepreneurial approach to education. When we ask the National Academy of Science for answers on policy issues, they usually tell us they need to conduct randomized controlled trials and go through lengthy ethics reviews before they can do anything. NCTQ is a model of policy entrepreneurship: fast and decisive. They never equivocate on their decisions. None of this on one hand, but on the other hand nonsense.”

Critics observe that the exclusive focus on teacher preparation may divert attention from social issues such as poverty. When presented with data that instruction accounts for only a quarter of student outcomes, Walsh replied that “the methods used by researchers in the social sciences are highly flawed and antiquated.” She further accused those focusing on poverty of acting on behalf of Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Given the success of NCTQ in collaborative approaches, they are going to assist the UN in mediating between rebels and the Syrian government. NCTQ developed a secret algorithm for bringing parties together that proved very useful in dealing with intransigent schools of education. Their toolbox includes paying for informants, shaming the other side, and bullying. These techniques, developed by NCTQ staff, “will be very appropriate in the Syrian context,” officials with the UN say.

On the domestic front, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is asking NCTQ to tackle bullying in schools. Duncan believes they have the necessary experience to identify with bullies and understand their point of view. “It takes one to know one,” the Secretary said.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has also reached out to NCTQ to help her with the obesity epidemic. Sebelius is interested in learning what families actually eat. According to Sebelius NCTQ has the technological capacity to learn about people without ever talking or interviewing anyone. “They can tell us a great deal about what is going in people’s kitchen. Just as they discovered what is going in people’s Colleges of Education without ever talking to anyone, I’m sure they can tell us what is inside people’s fridges.”

The NCTQ report is going to be very useful to prospective students of education. For example, the report found the best teacher preparation program in Kishinev, Moldova. John Kerry has already ordered the US embassy there to be ready for an influx of American students going to Moldova for their excellent teacher preparation programs. Walsh said that she would not recommend any teacher preparation program in the United States. To supply new teachers to schools she would look to paragons of efficiency and honesty, like the mortgage industry. She would create an incentive program to recruit former mortgage dealers to teach math for the common core curriculum.

As for Deans of Education, she recommended retraining in Siberia.

Isaac Prilleltensky is of the School of Education and Human Development and
Erwin and Barbara Mautner Chair in Community Well-Being at the University of Miami, Florida

Categories Humor, Teachers and Teaching
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