Nobody Can Stop Them!

(Nothing in this article was written to belittle what happened at Tienamen Square so many years ago. But sometimes we need to be reminded of the lessons learned there.)

The Reformers must be stopped! But nobody can stop them!

Thank God for Nobody!

I recently read Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error. It took me a loooooong time to finish it because I had a gut reaction with each chapter that described something I see in the school district today. So many myths about what is wrong with schools that just are not true! In her book, Ms. Ravitch spends the first part of the book enumerating the myths about reform and refuting them. This is the section that affected me the most in the manner of my blood pressure rising and emotions bubbling over. The next chapters tell more about the real causes of the problems in school, a large part being the insidious effects of poverty on children and by extension, their schools. The last part of the book explained what Ravitch sees as the solutions to all of the problems the reformers have envisioned. She is a Nobody that will not be ignored.

Being a child of the 60’s, I was thrilled when the Occupy Movement began, as I extrapolated that unions could use this form of protest to force the public to see the harm in the reform movement, especially the inequality of funding, charter schools and the plethora of testing involved in assessments. I watched as the teachers in Seattle refused to administer the MAP test to their students and held my breath until the district capitulated. \It was exciting to see the nobody superintendents in New York State write a letter in solidarity protesting the excessive testing, the rapid roll-out of the Common Core Standards without sufficient training and implementation, and the linkage of test scores to teacher evaluations. Even more exciting were the nobody parents who are opting their children out of the big test in ever-increasing numbers. The Chicago nobdie in the teachers’ strike and their show of solidarity warmed the heart of every one of the nobodies in the teachers’ unions across the nation.

But it’s not enough that we sit back and watch other people do our dirty work for us. Every teacher who believes that public schools are worthwhile institutions for all children needs to get out there and do something. That something may be to talk to one parent at a time about opt-out, to start taking charge in the classroom as much as possible to do what is right, not just what is mandated.

I am following my own mandate by writing in this blog, as often as I can, about the things that need to change in order for our children to get a proper education. I have begun the New Year well.

Nobody can stop them?

I am Nobody.

 http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20140407/pa-charter-school-reforms-are-long-overdue
 

Still learning!

Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted

As my project for Fun-A-Day commences, you will notice an increase in my blog entries. Most of them will begin with a quotation about education, and my expounding on it. Some will end with one, too!

 

“Teachers don't just teach; they can be vital personalities who help young people to mature, to understand the world, and to understand themselves. A good education consists of much more than useful facts and marketable skills.”

― Charles Platt

 

Teachers are not averse to having to prove whether or not a student has mastered a concept. It’s the way you evaluate the student that is important.

 

From first to twelfth grade in parochial school, we had certain tests each week – spelling, math, grammar – and others periodically. I remember taking exams twice a year in January and June. And the only time we took a standardized test was in grade 4 when we all took the Stanford-Binet. If we didn’t study well or had a learning disability we failed and repeated the grade. Those who couldn’t pass the second year got to try it again or were sent to the local public school. We lost a lot of kids to the public schools, having started first grade with 96 in my class to having 60 in my 8^th grade class. Our teachers, right or wrong, were not blamed for our failures, but put the onus of learning what we needed to learn to pass, squarely on our shoulders.

 

I don’t know what they did in public school but I bet it was different than what we do now. From the beginning of my teaching career in 1975, we carried on giving the same three tests weekly with an occasional extra summative test thrown in for good measure. We were required to assess Reading levels at least twice a year and give the city-wide math tests as the kids progressed through the curriculum.

 

For the past dozen years, our public school district has required a battery of reading, math and science tests every 6 weeks in addition to diagnostic Reading and Math tests three times a year, as well as the PSSA, Pennsylvania’s standardized test, which was required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Race to the Top (RttT). The PSSA alone is taken over the span of 7 days for grades 3-11. Grades 4 and 8 have additional Science tests and Grades 5, 8 and 11 have 3-4 additional days of PSSA Writing tests. If the child is not performing well of the “formative” 6 week tests, they are given tutoring and a additional series of reading and math tests three times a year. For some children, this totals 4 weeks of some form of standardized testing in their reading and math classes. Not including the regular teacher-made tests throughout the year.

 

Even though many of the tests given are supposed to be formative, informing instruction, they are increasingly used to assess teachers on their abilities. Teachers in the same grade are expected to teach from the same lesson plan and not deviate, even if the class is having trouble with a concept, we are penalized if we fall behind the pacing schedule for the lessons. We are directed to differentiate our instruction because of the varying levels of ability in our class, teaching in various ways to effectively instruct pupils who are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners, as well as those who have Individual Educational Prescriptions (IEPs).

 

Most teachers worth their certificate have been differentiating for years, before it had a name. There is one catch here, if you teach to the strengths of the child, you need to assess in that style to really be able to judge mastery. This may look like a poster, a role play, a report, a rap or song, or a demonstration with manipulatives, which explain how to divide, or the causes of the civil War, or what alliteration means. Every one of your class may indeed be able to do one of those things and convince you that they know what they’re doing. However, none of that matters when taking a standardized test.

 

Standardized tests measure your ability to choose from 4 answers that are given. If you are a poor reader, you might not understand either the questions or the answers, or the selection itself since everyone is given the grade level test no matter your true level. No accommodations other than extra time or small group testig are allowed. Even kids that are English Language Learners (ELL) must take the test if they have been in the US over a year. There is a certain kind of skill to taking multiple choice tests, which may or may not be the way your students need to express their learning.

 

The tests measure what a good test-taker knows or remembers on one day during the 180 days they are in school. Kids who are not good test-takers or who need to express themselves differently to be able to succeed, are out of luck. How do you measure mastery using only one of the 7 Intelligences and expect it to be a true measure? If you judge animals on tree climbing, the monkey and the squirrel will get an A, while the fish, dog, and rabbit will fail through no fault of their own. Does that mean the climbers are the most intelligent?

 

I once taught a student who could not take a written test and pass. If I asked him to explain it, he could usually tell me what I wanted to know. He went the entire year failing every written test and passing every oral exam. I finally didn’t bother to test him via writing, but always individually, by asking questions. When I had to assign him a grade at the end of the year, I gave him all Bs since he was able to explain the needed concepts in a way that indicated mastery, However, there was some consternation by the principal as to his “real” grades and she changed the marks to Cs since he was not able to write down his answers. I didn’t think that was fair at all.

 

How do I judge success for  a child who never gave up trying and moved ahead two grade levels in reading but was still a year behind?  How about the young man who actually sat in the class and didn’t bolt when frustrated? He could do 3 or 4 math problems but not any more in one sitting without getting upset. What if he got all 4 correct, but it was a 10-question test? Does he know what he’s doing? Is he successful? And the young lady who came to school on time every day that year and never missed a day? This was a child who in previous years was absent more than 40 days a year and showed up late almost every day. Was the year a success for her? And the Special Ed student who worked on a 2^nd grade level in 5^th grade but was highly successful playing guitar, was he successful?

In the words of William Bruce Cameron, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

 

TER Conference!

Still learning! I'm going to be blogging a lot more. Good practice for the Educator's Room Conference in June.

I’ve been an educator since 1975, spending 37 years in the city of Philadelphia’s public school system. I’d wanted to be a teacher since 7^th grade, when my Math/Science/Homeroom teacher showed me you could be funny, cool, and at the same time, earn the respect of the 60 teenagers sitting before you. Believe me, our class was not easy, but we worked hard all year to show Sister Frances that we could be good students.

 

When I went to high school, I joined the Community Service Corps and learned a bit about teaching and the challenges the kids presented. Playing Big Sister to a little sister from another neighborhood, tutoring after school in inner city, doing arts and crafts and music in the summer with kids of all ages certainly helped to prepare me to be a good teacher.

 

In college, I went to a great school that offered practical applications every semester to come in con act with kids. We observed kindergarten and nursery school classes, tutored individual kids in math, helped out in the reading lab by diagnosing problems and prescribing activities to help them read. We taught language arts to an intermediate grade once a week. Learned about the new science programs being developed for elementary students by getting “down and dirty” with the kits.

 

Despite all these experiences and a desire to help young minds develop and learn, when I spent the first year out of school subbing, I discovered there was so much more I needed to know than what I learned in school. Subbing was a solitary job, never staying anywhere too long. At least not long enough that you could get to know other teachers and pick their brains.

 

When I was finally hired, I was lucky enough to teach in a school where the other teachers were eager to share and help out the newbie. The Kindergarten teacher took me under her wing, even taking me home with her to show me what she used to plan with. When I taught Science and had to teach kids from Pre-K to 6^th grade, the teachers in the adjoining rooms helped me keep order and gave me great advice. I’ve been helped in all my assignments by colleagues willing to share their expertise with me so I could become a better teacher.

 

I found the Educator’s Room (http://www.theeducatorsroom.com )one day by accident when someone I knew shared the link to an article on Special Ed. What a wonderful group I stumbled into! Here were teachers all over the country willing to share what they knew to make someone’s job easier, or to express an opinion that needed to be expressed. Although I have not agreed with all of the articles posted on The Educators Room website, I can say that I welcomed hearing from others in order to get better at my art. I’ve even had a couple of my essays featured there.

 

That’s why I jumped at the chance to attend The Educator’s Room conference in Atlanta, June 25^th to 27^th.  The theme is “Empowering Teachers as the Experts.” I am hoping that this will give me an opportunity to learn more and share my expertise with other teachers united to learn. The best professional development is that which is chosen by the teacher and readily used, It’s exciting to see the workshop offerings and try to pick a limited number of sessions to attend. I can’t wait to spend three days with like-minded teachers who know that learning never stops, even when you’re the teacher!  Check out The Educator’s Room on Twitter #theedconf and on Facebook, and consider joining us at the conference! Details here - http://conference.theeducatorsroom.com/