By Kristin

When I saw this poster it made me laugh out loud, partly because it's true and partly because when I face where we are as public educators I can laugh or cry. 

Here's where we are: there is a clear, definable line between students who are successful on tests and students who are not, and that line divides children not only on the basis of academic achievement but of economic status and race.  Poor children don't do as well.  Do I want to cry because the injustice of a broken system feels bigger than me, or do I want to cry because the dirty secret is out?  

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By Kristin

This summer I saw something very similar to the chart you see here. A principal was explaining how she gathered and analyzed student data, and how that data drove her administrative decisions.

You can see, if you click on the chart, that Teacher B didn't do so hot.  Because a teacher's reputation precedes him, what's going to happen if parents find out about Teacher B's scores?  Will they request a class change?  Will they complain?  Test scores are scary for teachers because they don't tell the whole story, but they tell an important part of the story.

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By Kristin

My school, a middle school, has been implementing standards-based grading.  It's a big deal for us, but elementary schools have been doing this for years. That means that when parents see an A on the report card, they can assume their child has met and is exceeding grade-level standards in that content area, even if he was the most disruptive child in the class and one who rarely did homework.  The standards we're using are the Common Core standards, and we've moved to consistency within grade level content areas.  

This transition means we've had to move away from things like marking down for late work, averaging a quiz's grade with a retake, or offering extra credit. 

There has been much respectful compromising.

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By Kristin

Something's been bugging me lately.  While I support testing to gauge whether a child's where she's supposed to be or not, and I support using that information as one of the many possible measures of a teacher's impact on a child's growth, I am not happy with testing in Washington State. I wish my district and OSPI would get themselves organized.

I'm starting to feel like a 41-year old student driver, a driver who's had her license and been driving professionally for sixteen years now, but who still has an instructor next to her telling her what to do.  To make it worse, while my instructor is telling me to how to steer, park and reverse a car, the test I'll ultimately have to take involves flying a plane.

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By Kristin

Here's a Lincoln Continental.  I had the opportunity to have the entire back seat to myself one long summer drive, going from Atlanta to Miami, and I'm here to tell you that the back seat was bigger than some apartments I've lived in.  It certainly had better storage. 

I'm old enough to remember the first appearance of "compact" cars.  They were, in Southern California at least, called "Jap cars," "sardine cans," and "nut twisters." That last one is from my best friend's father, and I just couldn't leave it out.  He drove a big Audi sedan and, we can only assume, drove untwisted.

The transition to small, fuel efficient cars was not an easy one, nor one without its unsavory terminology.  Education is experiencing its own unsavory moment, and we see terms like "ed deform" being tossed about. Is that where we're really going?  As someone with a "deform"ity, I have to assume that this term was invented to wound.  

Luckily for us, with the way humans keep reproducing, some people managed to stomach the unsexiness that was a Honda Civic and chose to drive a car with better gas mileage. 29 MPG for the Honda, compared to the Continental's 7.9.  Where we would be in our quest for fossil fuel if everyone insisted on driving a nut-untwisting Continental is anyone's guess.

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By Kristin

I admit, when my friend read this to me there was a moment – about when he read "Being an educator means that you are a part of the noblest profession … Quite frankly it takes a special person to be an educator," – that I started thinking of the bills I've paid this month and the bills I have yet to pay. Teachers are either noble or destroying children, it seems, and I think reality is that we're all in a middle ground. Am I noble if I'm tired of looking at essays instead of my daughters?  I don't think so.  Am I destroying children if I often put the grading down and read Go Dog, Go?  I don't think so.

But by the end, I admit it, I was inspired.  I love when I'm proven wrong.  This high school principal's essay got me where it counts when he wrote, "The educator that I just described … will … never fall victim to the bitterness."  "Ouch!" I thought.  I don't want to be that teacher!

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By Kristin

This is what I'm talking about.  These excellent people, quaintly called "millionaires" in the Seattle Times article, as if a million will even buy you a house with a garage in some Seattle neighborhoods, these people who went to Olympia and heroically encouraged legislators to ask the rich to pay more in taxes.

The response from one conservative lobbyist?  "If you want to pay more, just write a check to the federal government."  I wonder what the millionaires thought about that.  Maybe something along the lines of, "Really?  How can you even find the brain cells to spare when tying your shoes in the morning?"  

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By Kristin

In the spirit of keeping our energy on the issues and not parties or people, I want to say right up front that I'm not intending this to be a forum for endorsing either candidate for governor.  I hope we can keep the conversation focused on schools and what schools need from Olympia right now.  I'm opening this topic up because  Rob McKenna has a clear plan for education in Washington State and Jay Inslee does not.  Frankly, that concerns me.  I think they need to hear from us.

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By Kristin

I used to be prejudiced against Teach For America. I was sick of hearing about them. I thought of them all as smarmy, privileged, smarty-pants do-gooders who dropped into a classroom for two years, patted themselves on the back and added a line to their resume, then moved on to a career that paid more and was easier than teaching.

Then, I met a bunch of Teach For America teachers and alum and changed my mind about them.

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