Author Archives: Kim

I, for one, will miss the WASL.

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Assessment, Education Policy, Literacy

The other day I was interviewed for a profile in our school newspaper. I tried to answer most of the questions from a perspective more professional than personal, and the stumper was this: “If you could have one wish, what would it be?” After an evening of pondering, I realized my answer was so simple that I was surprised it didn’t jump to my mind immediately. I would wish that every student have a desire to learn that matches my desire to teach them.

As an English teacher at a low-income high school, I know that in some cases, I am the only provider of inspiration to achieve beyond the minimum requirements; many of my kids have grown up with little or no intrinsic motivation to be high achievers in school. How does this relate to WASL? When my tenth graders heard that the WASL was going to vanish, I heard questions that astounded, confounded, and frustrated me. One young man asked, “Does that mean we don’t have to write any more essays?” The question itself drew a cheer from his peers. The fact is, the WASL provides a measurable and achievable extrinsic motivation that many of my students need.

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Thanksgiving

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Education Policy, National Board Certification

This is a wonderful time of year to focus on the positive rather than the negative.  Family, friends, good health, a warm home, and plentiful food are at the top of my list. For all of that, I’m thankful.

 

I’m also thankful to the legislators of Washington State who have seen fit to reward me for being an accomplished teacher.  Two of my sisters are teachers for our neighbor to the south. They have at various times asked me about National Board Certification and the support and rewards that come with the process. Sadly, in Oregon the only compensation for the arduous and expensive process is the personal, intrinsic satisfaction one receives from completing a difficult task. No wonder there were only 222 NBCTs in that state at the end of 2007, as opposed to 1801 in Washington. (See http://www.nbpts.org/resources/nbct_directory/nbcts_by_state) This certainly doesn’t mean that there aren’t thousands of accomplished teachers in Oregon.

 

My bonus this year contained an additional five thousand dollars, thanks to the insight and understanding of Washington legislators regarding how difficult it can be to work in a high needs school. For that, I am also thankful.

 

For so many years, teachers have felt underappreciated and undervalued. Washington State is striving to change that. I’m thankful to be living in a state where I feel valued for the time, energy, love, and passion I put in to my job.

ProCert or ProCertifiable?

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Education Policy, Professional Development

According to OSPI, “The Professional Certificate (ProCert) is designed to help teachers demonstrate they have a positive impact on student learning. It is an individualized, classroom-based process that focuses on increased skills to impact student learning rather than credits. ProCert expectations apply state-wide, focus on student learning, and emphasize closing the achievement gap and reaching student learning goals. It is fully aligned with Washington’s expectations for K-12 student learning. Through ProCert, teachers demonstrate their competency in the 3 standards of Professional Certification: Effective Teaching, Professional Development, and Professional Contributions.” http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/Teacher/procert-program.aspx

Beginning in 2001, new Washington teachers have had to complete the ProCert program (or National Boards) to be able to apply for continuing certificate. Isn’t a university-educated and trained teacher “professional” enough? Isn’t holding a Washington state certificate “certificated” enough?

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Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor

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Assessment, Education Policy, Social Issues

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me…”

Emma Lazarus’ famous words are carved at the base of the Statue of Liberty, one of the greatest – if not THE greatest – symbols of American freedom and the American dream. This is the basis of everything we stand for as a nation – that we will take those who have been disadvantaged and give them opportunity equal to that given to the majority of citizens in this country.

Sadly, NCLB works contrary to this ideal when it allows parents to move their students out of “failing” schools – at the expense of the district – to other schools that are making standard.  This might seem like a non sequitor, but it isn’t.

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Education is NOT a Business

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Education Policy, Professional Development, Social Issues

In Travis’ response to the policy meme, one of his top five began like this: “Education is not a business model. This will lead to the downfall of education, being caught up in a maelstrom of bureaucracy. In addition, business is not even an appropriate comparison for education.” What follows is an article on the subject that I first wrote for the TLN column in Teacher Magazine.

Like most households where teachers reside, there are many conversations about education policy talk in our home. My husband and I also discuss the Dilbert-esque policies implemented at the major manufacturing firm where he works. Not surprisingly, it’s fairly easy to find some common threads.

Not long ago we began to flesh out an analogy between public education and lean manufacturing, a concept now being pursued by many industries. In general terms, lean manufacturing concentrates on reducing costs by utilizing standardized processes and consistent raw materials that together minimize wasted resources, including time. Any variation in raw materials or processing requires adjustments in order to have the same output at a consistent cost.

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Meme: Five Great Things Policymakers Ought to Know – Kim’s Take

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Education Policy

This meme was sent by Teacher in a Strange Land – what is it that I really want policy makers to know before they draft legislation that impacts my classroom?

  1. My students are not trends, statistics, numbers, or stereotypes. They are complex human beings, each with their own story that includes unique and special circumstances that contribute to their performance in school and their ability to achieve.
  2. Likewise, I am not a machine that can spew out canned curriculum at a set pace. I am a Professional , dedicated, heart and soul, to educating our youth and making this world a little bit more understandable to them. In order to do that, I have to know them, their abilities, and their interests.
  3. Punishing “low-performing schools” is not going to help them achieve at a higher level. Financially rewarding high-performing schools is simply helping the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.
  4. One of the prime factors in failing schools is almost never addressed – transience and absenteeism. More focus needs to be put on helping the transient population become more stable and getting kids to school on a regular basis. The schools that end up having to account for these kids at WASL time (when they frequentloy don’t even show up for the test) should be given special consideration.
  5. Educational policy should be written by educators who understand all of the above (and everything else that will come as a response to this meme) – not by legislators whose main experience in public education was the thirteen years they spent from kindergarten through their senior year.

…and More on Merit Pay

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Education Policy, National Board Certification, Social Issues

Two years ago, the state agreed to double the  bonus for NBCTs teaching in high risk schools. Is this fair? I must admit, I did a happy dance when I heard the news. I am National Board Certified, and I work in a high-needs high school.

When I started teaching, I worked in a school that had about 35% free and reduced lunch. Over nine years at the same school, I watched that number climb to more than 60%. Ruby Payne’s theories on poverty might be controversial, but I witnessed the change in school climate when we hit the tipping point where the “culture of poverty” became prevalent. Up until that point, middle class values of achievement, regular attendance, and valuing education reigned. There were enough middle-class kids to carry those expectations for the entire school, and the high-risk kids tried to live up to those expectations. As our middle-class population declined, so did achievement, assignment completion, regular attendance, and parental involvement. It became incumbent upon teachers to be the single most important motivating factor in student achievement, which led to another visible impact: an increase in teacher absenteeism and turnover. The extra time and stress of working with high-risk students took physical and emotional tolls on the staff. It is way too easy to get ours hearts broken when the reason we become teachers is to help kids and make it a little bit easier for them to successfully navigate their way through life.

High risk students come to school unready to learn for a variety of reasons. One student, “Jane,” came into my classroom early on the days she made it to school. She would eat a granola bar from my stash and curl up on the sofa in my room to sleep. I would try to coax her to get her make-up work done, but she was too tired. Jane and her mom had been kicked out of their apartment and were living in a car. The time she spent in my room in the mornings was the only safe sleep she got. In a high needs school, this is not an unusual situation. Maybe I was able to make school a slightly better place for her, but I sure wasn’t able to teach her much when she could barely stay awake during class.

Another year, we had a young first-year teacher quit halfway through the year when he found out that one of his 9th-grade students, Yolanda, was prostituting herself to help support her father’s drug habit instead of doing her homework. It was emotionally devastating to him, and he didn’t know how to face Yolanda after he found out.

An economically impoverished majority, including students like Jane and Yolanda, can lead to lower test scores school-wide. With the government so willing to blame low test scores on teachers, another type of pressure is applied in “failing” schools: funding cuts, interference from the state, and the simple disappointment of having to face "failure". Why would an accomplished teacher choose to work in a school where they have to work twice as hard to help students achieve?

In trying to help my students be successful over the years, I have “helped” them pay for school supplies, food, sports fees, yearbooks, textbook fines, clothes, and field trips. I know that I will not be the only teacher whom the additional bonus simply reimburses for money we have already spend at school. My only concern with this bonus is that it doesn’t go to EVERY highly accomplished teacher, National Board Certified or not, who has accepted the avocation of working with underprivileged kids. A mediocre teacher can be successful in a school where the kids come ready to learn (not that there aren’t amazingly competent teachers in those schools and not that we don’t have any students who are ready to learn). It just makes sense as a matter of public policy that students with the greatest needs should have the most accomplished teachers, and National Boards is one way to measure that competency that the state can reward.