By Tom

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between problems – which can be solved – and polarities, which can’t. A problem would be like a broken copy machine. You call the repairperson and tell them to fix it. Soon. And when they do, the problem is solved.

A polarity is different. A polarity is a situation for which there are two opposite approaches, or “poles.” Each pole has positive as well as negative aspects. It looks like this: (pay attention to the arrows)

An example of a polarity would be classroom management; One approach, represented by Pole 1, would be fierce accountability and rule enforcement. Pole 2 would be a more relaxed, fun approach. A teacher might start out acting really strict and quickly notice the benefits: a quiet room, a serious atmosphere, etc. This is represented by Box A. Soon, however, our teacher might notice that there are negative aspects to being ultra-strict: nobody’s having fun, nor are they really engaged in the learning. This is Box B. As a result, the teacher relaxes things a bit and the mood lightens. The kids are more engaged and the atmosphere is livelier. Now we’re in Box C. Soon, however, things get out of hand, and the classroom becomes a zoo: Box D. In response, the teacher gets all strict and rigid again and we’re back in Box A.

The best teachers aren’t the ones who find the perfect balance between strict and fun. In a polarity, balance is only an illusion. The best teachers are able to nimbly transfer from one box to another in response to the situation. They dwell mostly in Boxes A and C, reaping the rewards that are found there. As soon as they dip into B or D, they change it up and move on. The best teachers can go from Vince Lombardi to Jimmy Buffett and back again in the course of a single lesson, knowing full well that both approaches are essential to effective classroom management.

This paradigm is also useful to explain Education Reform. Specifically, teacher evaluation, which I see not as a problem – something to be fixed – but as a polarity; a situation for which there are two opposite, yet equally valuable, approaches.

The two poles of teacher evaluation are accountability and flexibility. We need both. But in order to have both, we need to engineer and sustain a system that’s nimble enough to use both. If our system seems too rigid and focused on accountability and data, we need to be able to quickly tweak it, making it more flexible. And vice-versa.

As we speak, Congress is mulling over the reauthorization of ESEA. One thing they’re mulling is teacher evaluation; specifically whether each state should have an evaluation system that uses data from student test scores. The high accountability camp – which includes most Ed-Reform groups, as well as the Obama Administration – sees this as essential to ESEA’s original purpose as a tool in the War on Poverty.

The other camp – which includes the NEA and the AFT, as well as conservative politicians – doesn’t. They would like to leave the specifics of any teacher evaluation system up to individual states. Anyone who sees teacher evaluation as a polarity would have to agree. Personally, I have questions about the validity, reliability and fairness of using student data to evaluate teachers. But even if I didn’t – even if I loved the idea – I would still want a system that had the capacity to make large or small changes as the need arose.

Federal laws do not have that capacity. Take NCLB. (please) That law started out looking sweet. We were identifying low-performing schools left and right and doing something about it. Test scores were rising. We were solidly in Box A. Then we started seeing the negative effects: decent schools being mislabeled, hyper-focus on tested subjects, test-prep at the expense of real teaching; and we knew we needed to recalibrate.

But we can't. We're in Box B with no way of getting to Box C. The Federal Government is many wonderful things, but it is not nimble. It was actually designed to not be nimble. When a system literally needs an Act of Congress to tweak itself, it is not nimble.

Teacher evaluation is something that will never be solved or figured out. There will always be a push and pull between those who favor more accountability and those who want more flexibility. That’s as it should be. A healthy system respects a polarity and has the capacity to change, nimbly harnessing the best of each pole.

A well-run district would have that capacity. A well-led state might. The Federal Government?

Not a chance.  

By Tom

Washington State will not be applying for a waiver next month from the regulations of No Child Left Behind. As I’m sure you’ve heard, The Obama Administration has responded to the inevitable collision between reality and NCLB by offering waivers to those states who agree to certain school reform measures.

Although Washington isn’t among the first seventeen to apply for a waiver, they’re keeping their options open by declaring their intent to do so early next year.

The main problem for Washington is that the Federal Administration’s school reform measures don’t seem to match ours. Specifically, we don’t have a teacher evaluation system that uses student test scores. We don’t have anything like that right now, and the new evaluation system – currently being piloted – doesn’t have it either. According to last summer’s report on the pilot, they’ve appointed a task force to look into using student achievement scores, but that’s it.

It doesn’t seem to me like there’s any point in even applying for a waiver. We have the “wrong” evaluation system, our new system will still be wrong, and there’s nothing else in the works.

Meanwhile, most of our kids aren’t passing the math test, a lot of them aren’t passing the reading test, and 2014, the point in time in which everyone has to pass everything, is fast approaching.

What to do? It looks like our only hope is a new ESEA bill; one without the ridiculous demand that every child everywhere performs at grade level.

Not so fast. Senator Tom Harkin, in his draft of the new bill, calls for teacher evaluation based on student test scores, and since there’s no question about which way the Administration is leaning, we’d essentially have the same problem we have now.

 Personally, I’m not in favor of using student test scores to evaluate teachers. I think there are too many issues involving validity, reliability and fairness. That seems to be the prevailing view among educators in this state; a state that by and large is functioning pretty well.

So here we are, faced with the fact that our brand new teacher evaluation system isn’t good enough for the feds. Should we change it?  Adding a requirement that we use student test scores?  Or should we sit tight and hope the feds somehow change their minds?

It doesn't really look like we have much choice.

By Tom

Wednesday night found me attending my son’s curriculum night. He’s in middle school now, so they had us following our child’s schedule, changing rooms every 10 minutes. As I hustled around the campus, I couldn’t help but notice that the rooms seemed mostly empty, a far cry from the last two years in which we attended the same curriculum night at the same middle school for our older son. Those rooms were packed.

I was trying to figure this out when it suddenly dawned on me my wife pointed out that our older son was in the honors program and our younger son wasn’t. Now, it could be that honors kids have more curious parents. Perhaps. But it’s far more likely that they have parents who care enough about education that they’ll take 90 minutes out of a Wednesday night to find out what their children will be learning in school and how they can help them learn it. And it’s far more likely that these parents have been just as involved since their children were in kindergarten – maybe even earlier – and it was this level of involvement that produced these honors-level middle schoolers in the first place.

I was all set to include this information during my own curriculum presentation the following night. I was going to tell them what a difference it would make for them to take an active role in their child’s education. I was optimistic about the turnout; I had sent home written reminders every night for three weeks and talked it up in class every day, so I was sure the room would be full.

Fifteen people showed up, representing just under half of my 29 students.

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By Tom

Recently I was part of a radio show. It was on BAM Radio, which I think is only broadcast over the internet. Our host was Rae Pica and the topic was teacher advocacy. Besides me, there was Anthony Cody, who blogs at Living in Dialog and who was instrumental in planning the Save Our School March in Washington DC; Karen Horwitz, who wrote a book about teacher abuse after she was fired from her teaching position; and Marilyn Anderson Rhames, who blogs at Charting My Own Course and teaches science at a charter school in Chicago. 

I won't say too much about the content, since you can listen to it yourself. One thing you'll notice is that all four of us have strikingly different opinions on the issue of teacher advocacy.

Enjoy!

By Tom

A few years ago I found myself on our school’s Mission Statement Task Force. After our first meeting, we were each told to return with a suggestion. I came up with “We’ll do what we can.” It seemed like the perfect blend of steel-toed optimism and existential dread. And weighing in at only five one-syllable words, it seemed likely that most of us could remember it.

Alas, it failed to gain any traction and was soundly defeated by a long string of edu-blather with enough mumbo-jargon to make Robert Marzano blush. And I’ll bet my next pay raise that you couldn’t find one person on staff that could recite our mission statement at gunpoint.

I was thinking about my tenure on this task force last week while exploring the Center for Education Data and Research’s (CEDR) new web-based tool that compares Washington State school districts using every imaginable statistic. But there’s a twist: acknowledging that poverty has a profound effect on academic achievement, CEDR’s Dan Golhaber and his research team use complicated math to “control for the percent of students receiving free or reduced priced meals in a district to provide a more balanced comparison of district performance.” The result is an interactive tool that lets you see how well a district is doing, independent of their level of poverty.

I had fun with it. And after an hour or so, I was able to conclude that there are vast differences in the performance of districts, even when you control for the level of poverty. That was clear. My own district, for example, doesn’t fare so well. And I’m sure this will lead to a lot of soul-searching within our leadership, followed by a few well-placed phone calls across the state to see what we could be doing better in regards to professional development and curriculum acquisition. Their first call might well go out to the Highline School District.

Highline lies noisily under the SeaTac Airport flight path, and according to the data, they perform well above what would be predicted, given their demographics. Highline serves cheap lunch to over 65% of their students, many of whom are still learning English. When the Michelle Rhee’s of the world talk about how “some people in education are climbing mountains every day,” They’re talking about the people who work for Highline Public Schools.  

But when I hear this, I often wonder what would happen if you applied the same effort put forth by those mountain climbers towards a population that wasn’t so needy. Instead of mountains, what would happen if hard-working teachers only had to climb a few low-lying hills?

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By Tom

It was bound to happen. Sooner or later, the worst law since prohibition was destined to swallow my school. It was like watching a slow, stupid goat thoughtfully and systematically eating the neighbor's zinnias. And now it's finally happened; the fun and games are over: my school failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress.

This is our first year, so it's not so bad. We're only "on notice." But if things don't improve by next year we'll have to send  letters home to the parents telling them how lousy we are, with suggestions as to which nearby schools they should send their children. That'll hurt. And in the meantime, we'll have to do something about our math and reading scores, which are apparently the only things that really matter.

The fact that my school didn't make AYP wasn't much of a surprise, actually. We barely scraped by last year, and since then the state raised the bar considerably. Passing this year would have been an incredible feat.

But we failed, and I'm left to describe how I feel. A little disappointed, a little discouraged, but mostly frustrated. Frustrated by the fact that our low reading and math scores belie the many great things about my school, a school that for two years running has received a cash award from the state in recognition of our progress in reducing the achievement gap. But somehow, our test scores don't mention that. 

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By Tom

Recently I was asked to join a panel discussion in San Francisco hosted by The College Board, as part of their annual AP conference. The topic was Teacher Advocacy. There were four of us on the panel and they were kind enough to give us some general questions ahead of time so that we could be prepared.

Since this event happened during our blog’s annual month-long hiatus, and since the topic is particularly germane to we’re all about on this site, it gave me a great excuse to review my own beliefs about teacher advocacy. Besides that, being on a panel usually means that you don’t get to answer all the questions, even the ones you really want to answer. So here they are, the questions I was prepared to answer, and the answers I was prepared to give:

What exactly is Teacher Advocacy?

Teacher advocacy is simply speaking up in support of teaching and learning and promoting those policies that improve the teaching and learning conditions in our country.

Why do teachers need to be advocates?

Of all the stakeholders in our education system, teachers are uniquely positioned to know which policies work and which ones don’t. While teachers may not have all the answers, they do get to see what all the answers look like as they play out in classrooms. When teachers see what works and what doesn’t work in schools, they owe it to their students to speak up.

How has Teacher Advocacy changed over the years?

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By Tom

Normally we shut things down during July here at Stories from School. It gives us a chance to reflect, take a break and pursue other interests. This year is no different. We'll be off playing at the beach, reading in the backyard or, in my case, riding bikes. When you check back in August we'll be rested, relaxed and full of new ideas.

We'll also have a few new bloggers. Betsy, Rob and Tamara are joining the team, and all of us are excited by the prospect of new directions and new conversations.

There is one other change. Our behind-the-scenes producer, manager, editor, benefactor, founder and friend is leaving. "The Sandal Queen" has taken a new job. She will be dearly missed. This blog is but one manifestation of her enduring vision that the voice of teachers be amplified and included in the important conversations about education policy. Everything you like about Stories from School is because of her and we can't thank her enough.

Goodbye.  

By Tom

I spent about an hour this morning slogging through an article by Dan Hanushek about the imperative of having good teachers. It's an intriguing read, in which he makes the case that having an excellent teacher will increase the expected lifetime earning by up to $400,000 per student. A lousy teacher, on the other hand, would have the opposite impact. While he allows that "The majority of teachers are hardworking and effective," he argues for renewed efforts to eliminate the least effective 5 to 10 percent. That, and merit pay.

Like I said, I spent about an hour with this thing. Then I taught a full day in a real classroom, where I tried to be excellent. I'm not sure the extent to which I increased the future earnings of my students, but I'd like to think I did some good.

After school got out I went to a meeting. There were seven of us in attendance. In addition to the other third grade teacher and myself, we had the principal, the psychologist, the math specialist, the reading specialist and the ELL specialist. We talked about our students. Our students. Not my students, not the other teacher's students, but our students. We looked at lots of data and talked about the faces behind the numbers. We talked about which of those kids will need more support next year and what that support will look like. 

It seems extremely ambitious for Hanushek to place a dollar figure on something like a teacher's impact on a student's future earnings. I have a lot of respect for data and I appreciate the fact that advanced metrics have allowed us to isolate the role teachers play in student achievement. But I don't see how it's possible to tease out the impact one teacher has on any given student. 

What Mr. Hanushek and others don't seem to grasp is that teachers in this day and age don't "own" their students and the data they generate. We work collaboratively. Remember, there were seven of us in that room, talking about two classes of students. And everyone there played a role in their education and holds a stake in their success.

Furthermore, the students with the highest needs, the ones that need the most support, are the students on whom the most people collaborate. And they're the same students that tend to "drag down" classroom data as it's assigned to a given teacher.

Collaboration is a great thing, and it's here to stay. It's high time the research community accepted it.

By Tom

I have pink hair. Not normally, but currently. Long story short, I lost a bet that involved a fund raiser for a great organization called Clothes for Kids. The students at my school raised close to $1000 to help clothe other kids. And to see me with pink hair. It's been pink for two days now, and I've had a chance to do some reflecting:

 - Kids love seeing their teachers humiliated. I'm not sure why. Maybe it involves turning the tables on authority or something. Or maybe not. Who knows, but you've never seen a happier class of third graders than those kids when they found out I was going pink. 

– It's difficult to scold someone when you look ridiculous. 

– Shampoo doesn't get "Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink Hair Dye" out of your hair. Neither does Dawn dishwashing soap, salad oil, orange hand-cleaning stuff or Selsun Blue medicated dandruff shampoo. If you know what works, please comment. 

-There's a vast difference between having students look at you and having students give you their attention. Trust me on this. 

– Earlier this year I was in Pakistan, where I saw incredible poverty on a large scale. It's shameful that in this country, with its vast wealth, we have children holding fund raisers to clothe each other. Shameful, yet wonderful.

– Coloring your hair is complicated and it takes a long time. It took me most of the evening. I'm 49 and my real hair is turning gray. I'm not going to color it. 

– We do very important work as teachers and we need to to take our jobs seriously. If we don't, we're in trouble. But when we take ourselves too seriously, we'll be in even more trouble.