Text
January 25, 2013
7 notes

0198: Permission to teach or a trap: When evaluators start speaking of #freedom in the #classroom

educatedtodeath:

#ccss #education

It’s time to start writing again. First, the third party lords of our schools are back at work. And, I’m getting more and more spam from sites that want me to call upon my inner seventh grader.

Yesterday we had a meeting about questioning and shifting to a more constructivist style of teaching. Of course, the explanation was very vague and condensed. The presenter did a fabulous job of saying: “you [the faculty] teach in an antiquated manner. You must replace your broken teaching style with this new one, and then figure out how to also prepare your students for the test that measures the old way…and while we’re at it, we will be evaluating you with this new form.”

I am not opposed to a style of education that is more liberating. Students actively constructing their own knowledge and understanding optimizing their personal skill sets and developing new ones is marvelous. I strive for that in my classroom…when it’s possible. There is no doubt that I have some hang ups with this cavalier attempt to reform this school and district.

For starters, I’m concerned that teachers here will be evaluated with a corporate instrument that is designed to measure a teacher’s implementation of practices that very few understand. I gather the instrument will seek to quantify something that isn’t terribly quantifiable unless heavily deconstructed.

Further, teachers around me already smell the next best thing. Utterances of “this too shall pass” were audible in the meeting. There will be little to no training beyond the simple “here are some strategies we will be looking to see you use.” An entire philosophical construct will be reduced to mere strategies.

Finally, they recommended teaching less content in order to allow the students develop their own understanding. Help them learn deeper. A fantastic idea, but will the test change? Are we going to have time to help learners adjust? Will teachers have a chance to adjust?

Is this a trap or permission to really teach?

Tags: Education Teaching Education Reform

Text
January 15, 2013
1 note

“I have spent thirty years as a scholar examining the nature of democracy, and even more as a citizen optimistically celebrating its possibilities, but today I am increasingly persuaded that the reason for the country’s inaction is that Americans do not really care about education - the country has grown comfortable with the game of ‘let’s pretend we care.’”

- B. Barber, in “America Skips School: Why we talk so much about education and do so little”

In lamenting the lack of progress in many problems in American education (or, at the very least, in the public opinion of education), many have pointed to political gridlock and the lack of political will as the main problem, among other things.

This, however, is the strongest wording I’ve seen as of yet for another direction in which the finger is pointed: at you and me. The argument is that everyone, from politicians to lay citizens, feels compelled to pretend like they care about education when really, they don’t. 

What do you think? To what extent do you think this is true?

Tags: Education Education Reform Education Politics

Photo
December 06, 2012
48 notes
evolutia: blackmanonthemoon: evolutia: ourtimeorg: Efforts are under way in 5 states to lengthen the school year by 300 hours in an effort to improve student performance. This pilot will indicate whether more states adopt the measure moving forward. Do you support a longer school day/ year? LIKE if yes. COMMENT if no.  And visit our “daily translation” link to learn more about the arguments on behalf of extending class time.  How dumb. There is a very easy way to improve school performance in the USA and this isn’t it. I’m not sure why the focus is on “global perception” rather than reality. On the other hand, I guess it’s a longer daycare? Because that’s pretty much what school is, really. I’m glad they are increasing hours , there is a reason the US is barely top 30 when it comes to education That doesn’t do anything. It’s pointless. Eliminate standardize testing for school funding and actually pay teachers what they deserve. Even 6 and a half hours is wasteful because students spend so much time practicing on these “tests” and not learning anything. The word education should not even be used to have what we have in place in the USA, in my honest opinion. “Eliminate standardized testing for school funding” and “actually pay teachers what they deserve” are by no means easy things. I agree that a singular focus on seat time is somewhat dumb - focusing what they’re doing in class seems to make more sense. But I think claiming that these other things would do any better, or that they’re “easy,” is super simplistic. I would also hope that this extended seat time would be accompanied by real strategy as to how to use this time best. Not only that, but there are many other reasons for increasing time in school. Especially in lower-income neighborhoods, this has been used as a way to remove children from their environments, a move which is often supported by families as well. Extended school day programs are not new, and we can’t ignore extended day programs that have done fairly well. I get that people are upset about American education. But what gets boring for me is seeing people make broad claims about the one thing that would or would not work to “fix” schools. Two reasons: There’s rarely a real conception of what exactly they’re fixing. You know that “barely” top 30 ranking? Do you know where it comes from and how it’s calculated? You know that there are dozens of international rankings of education, and not just the one that the media picked up on? Education involves so much more than just a score on an exam. Educators know this. Researchers know this. Even the people who came up with the test know this. But it’s when everyone else gets hopped up on the “schools sucks” pill that people stop seeing how complex of a system it really is. All around the globe, countries’ education systems are incredibly diverse. Not only that, but there are few specific practices that consistently produce high student achievement. Take South Korea and Finland. Two countries, completely different systems with wholly different philosophies about education. Yet both have consistently ranked at the top of PISA for the last ten years or so.

evolutia:

blackmanonthemoon:

evolutia:

ourtimeorg:

Efforts are under way in 5 states to lengthen the school year by 300 hours in an effort to improve student performance. This pilot will indicate whether more states adopt the measure moving forward. Do you support a longer school day/ year? LIKE if yes. COMMENT if no. 

And visit our “daily translation” link to learn more about the arguments on behalf of extending class time. 

How dumb. There is a very easy way to improve school performance in the USA and this isn’t it. I’m not sure why the focus is on “global perception” rather than reality.

On the other hand, I guess it’s a longer daycare? Because that’s pretty much what school is, really.

I’m glad they are increasing hours , there is a reason the US is barely top 30 when it comes to education

That doesn’t do anything. It’s pointless.

Eliminate standardize testing for school funding and actually pay teachers what they deserve. Even 6 and a half hours is wasteful because students spend so much time practicing on these “tests” and not learning anything.

The word education should not even be used to have what we have in place in the USA, in my honest opinion.

“Eliminate standardized testing for school funding” and “actually pay teachers what they deserve” are by no means easy things. I agree that a singular focus on seat time is somewhat dumb - focusing what they’re doing in class seems to make more sense. But I think claiming that these other things would do any better, or that they’re “easy,” is super simplistic. I would also hope that this extended seat time would be accompanied by real strategy as to how to use this time best.

Not only that, but there are many other reasons for increasing time in school. Especially in lower-income neighborhoods, this has been used as a way to remove children from their environments, a move which is often supported by families as well. Extended school day programs are not new, and we can’t ignore extended day programs that have done fairly well.

I get that people are upset about American education. But what gets boring for me is seeing people make broad claims about the one thing that would or would not work to “fix” schools. Two reasons:

  • There’s rarely a real conception of what exactly they’re fixing. You know that “barely” top 30 ranking? Do you know where it comes from and how it’s calculated? You know that there are dozens of international rankings of education, and not just the one that the media picked up on? Education involves so much more than just a score on an exam. Educators know this. Researchers know this. Even the people who came up with the test know this. But it’s when everyone else gets hopped up on the “schools sucks” pill that people stop seeing how complex of a system it really is.
  • All around the globe, countries’ education systems are incredibly diverse. Not only that, but there are few specific practices that consistently produce high student achievement. Take South Korea and Finland. Two countries, completely different systems with wholly different philosophies about education. Yet both have consistently ranked at the top of PISA for the last ten years or so.

Tags: Education Education Reform Seat Time

Photo
October 11, 2012
21 notes
gjmueller: The Imaginary Teacher Shortage Parents like the idea of smaller class sizes in the same way that people like the idea of having a personal chef. Parents imagine that their kids will have one of the Iron Chefs. But when you have to hire almost 3.3 million chefs, you’re liable to end up with something closer to the fry-guy from the local burger joint. There is also a trade-off between the number of teachers we have and the salary we can offer to attract better-quality people. As the teacher force has grown by almost 50% over the past four decades, average salaries for teachers (adjusted for inflation) have grown only 11%, the Department of Education reports. Imagine what kinds of teachers we might be able to recruit if those figures had been flipped and we were offering 50% more pay without having significantly changed student-teacher ratios. Having better-paid but fewer teachers could also save us an enormous amount on pension and health benefits, which have risen far more than salaries in cost per teacher over the past four decades. photo via flickr:CC | mpancha You know what would save us even more money while raising student achievement? Retaining teachers. It’s true that there’s a shortage of teachers in a lot of places, but I really believe that a huge, unstressed part of the problem is teacher turnover. Turnover has been shown to negatively impact student achievement, plus, it costs money. If we could change the culture and leadership structures within education to support teachers and help keep good teachers, we’d be making one hell of a difference. People talk a lot about how to kick bad teachers out. And sure, we can admit that there are some bad teachers that probably shouldn’t be teaching. Why, though, don’t we talk about the fact that our good teachers aren’t staying? A bad teacher can be replaced by an average one, and that would be ostensibly positive. Good teachers are harder to replace.  And no, it’s not just a salary thing. Sure, a small portion of teachers cite pay issues as reasons for moving or leaving, but the majority of issues people talk about are organizational, work environment issues. Very fixable ones, too. Gah.

gjmueller:

The Imaginary Teacher Shortage

Parents like the idea of smaller class sizes in the same way that people like the idea of having a personal chef. Parents imagine that their kids will have one of the Iron Chefs. But when you have to hire almost 3.3 million chefs, you’re liable to end up with something closer to the fry-guy from the local burger joint.

There is also a trade-off between the number of teachers we have and the salary we can offer to attract better-quality people. As the teacher force has grown by almost 50% over the past four decades, average salaries for teachers (adjusted for inflation) have grown only 11%, the Department of Education reports. Imagine what kinds of teachers we might be able to recruit if those figures had been flipped and we were offering 50% more pay without having significantly changed student-teacher ratios. Having better-paid but fewer teachers could also save us an enormous amount on pension and health benefits, which have risen far more than salaries in cost per teacher over the past four decades.

photo via flickr:CC | mpancha

You know what would save us even more money while raising student achievement? Retaining teachers.

It’s true that there’s a shortage of teachers in a lot of places, but I really believe that a huge, unstressed part of the problem is teacher turnover. Turnover has been shown to negatively impact student achievement, plus, it costs money. If we could change the culture and leadership structures within education to support teachers and help keep good teachers, we’d be making one hell of a difference.

People talk a lot about how to kick bad teachers out. And sure, we can admit that there are some bad teachers that probably shouldn’t be teaching. Why, though, don’t we talk about the fact that our good teachers aren’t staying?

A bad teacher can be replaced by an average one, and that would be ostensibly positive.

Good teachers are harder to replace. 

And no, it’s not just a salary thing. Sure, a small portion of teachers cite pay issues as reasons for moving or leaving, but the majority of issues people talk about are organizational, work environment issues. Very fixable ones, too.

Gah.

Tags: Education Teacher Labor Markets Teachers Education Reform WSJ Teacher Turnover

Photo
September 30, 2012
41 notes
Education reform, anyone?

Education reform, anyone?

Tags: Education Education Reform XKCD

Link
September 17, 2012
12 notes
A Teacher's Lament: The Next Big Thing
As a New York City public school teacher, I’ve been attending meetings for almost three decades. There’s always an urgent problem that absolutely cannot wait.

Students need more test prep. Students need less test prep.

Teachers must stand. Teachers must not read aloud. Teachers must sit in rocking chairs and read aloud.

Students must do all writing in class. Students must do all writing at home.

Whatever the Thing is, we must do it immediately.

Yeah I think most people outside of policymakers understand that teaching is a dynamic profession and that prescribing exact formulas for teaching doesn’t make any sense. I think in general, a lot of this comes from a desperate attempt from people in charge to show that they’re trying to fix things by adopting things that have worked in other places, rather than looking at the broader structures and cultures that have enabled these “best practices” to come into existence and thrive.

Teacher quality is a really great example of this, I think. Research again and again shows that one of the most important things in a child’s success is teacher quality. So what people tend to then ask next is what quality teachers do. Well, the problem with that is that is leads to shortcuts and mandates to basically copy what other people are doing. Sure, learning from other people is great, but giving the teacher autonomy to choose what they copy is also very important for quality education. What we (and by “we,” I mean the powers that be) don’t ask is what environments and conditions enable quality teaching to flourish? And I don’t mean that all teachers are competent and just need space and resources to do well…I think we can agree that some people are just not good teachers. But I don’t think our system is optimized (1) to recruit the best people into the teaching profession, (2) train teachers to do the best they can, and then (3) support teachers in their positions. If we don’t hit these three points, I don’t really care how many best teaching practices you toss around - I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere.

(Source: gjmueller)

Tags: Education Education Reform Silver Bullet Teachers Teacher Quality

Video
September 09, 2012
8 notes

Teacher Dare Day 120909: Yeahhh buddy.
PS: I’ll admit that I haven’t read the TDD rules in quite a while and might be doing this all wrong. 

Anyway, I decided to answer the questions GWALP put below her video. And here is my own question to the world.

Tumblr education people, if you work in middle/high schools, how are your student governments? Do you feel that they’re effective? Do you feel that they actually represent students?

And if you answered “no” to any of these, what do you think are the main problems with them?

Tags: Education TDD Teacher Dare Day Education Politics Education Reform Education Research Student Government Advocacy GPOY

Text
September 04, 2012

Preparation for Happiness

So in the year 1800, a municipal report prepared under the Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte had the following to say about the “deplorable” conditions of their elementary schools:

But what are they being taught today in elementary schools? They learn to read, to write, to calculate. Can this purely mechanical education suffice to prepare man for happiness? The citizen magistrate cannot think so.

This was near the end of the French Revolution, and the main objective of reports like this one was to press the importance that “liberal ideas and republican morality be presented to youth with the earliest rays of their intelligence, as soon as they have sense of good and evil.” So by “happiness” they were most likely referring to a sort of conformity into and virtuous, productive loyalty to the nation. (x)

So I know this is taken somewhat out of context, but as educators, do you think that you’re preparing your students for a life of happiness? Do you think that’s your job?

And as people, do we think the job of schools is to “prepare man for happiness?” And if so, how does this fit into our discussions of what education should look like, both outside and within the classroom?

Tags: Education Education History Education Reform Schools Teachers Happiness French Revolution France