Recently, there has been much written about teacher certification – and the different pathways that teachers can take to receive their initial (or advanced) certification. Here in our own blog, National Board Certification has even been highlighted. So, it was with great interest that I began to follow the Washington State Professional Educators Standards Board’s (PESB) discussion about teacher certification, especially online teacher certification.
Category Archives: Education Policy
GRADES: A Necessary Evil?
Fall is a beautiful time…the colorful leaves, the crisp air, and the grueling grading period. Many of you will be sending grades out soon. Have you ever reflected on how you grade? Every year, I find myself closer to the ideal grading situation. There is nothing inherently wrong with grades. However, grades have always been a hot topic in education. What are your thoughts?
Join in the discussion on grades. This post is unique. I have not written a 400 word post, carefully crafted with my opinion. I do have a bias and it is relatively transparent…I suppose the photo for this post is a bit revealing. However, I want to hear what you think; I came to my current philosophy on grades by talking with parents and teachers and adjusting my practices. If we each take from the discussion a new way to impact our teaching, the students will benefit.
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor
“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.
NBPTS Survival Knife
What do about 1850 teachers have in common? What do 3.5% of Washington teachers have in common?
GRADE$$$ and TE$$$T $$$CORE$$$
What do you do with a struggling school or student? Bring in stronger teachers? NO. Improve the student to teacher ratio? NO. Offer before and after school support classes? NO.
What you do is throw money at the problem, and I do not mean investing the money in ways that will improving the educational system. What some groups are trying to do is throw money at students as a way to get the students to do better on state tests. Some say incentive, others say bribe.
Education is NOT a Business
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.
Riding the ELL Fence
It was the first day of school for my third graders, and they were all coloring. I roamed the room, trying to get a sense of what I was up against. I happened upon Jinhyuk. (Pronounce it Gin-Yuck, as in "What is this, gin? Yuck!") He was coloring everything turquoise. Himself, his family, their house, their trees, the dog, everything. Now, far be it from me to stifle anyone's artistic expression, especially on the first day of third grade, but curiosity ruled the day. "Everything seems to be the same color, Jinhyuk," I observed mildly, "Tell me about that." His neighbor, Cathy, the bossiest kid I've ever worked with, told me about it for him. "It's the only color he's got," she announced, "He only came with one crayon."
That told me something about Jinhyuk. (It told me something about Cathy, too, but that's another story.) It told me he was resourceful; a kid who uses what he's been given to make the best of whatever situation he's in.
This impression was confirmed two months later when he became the center of a minor scandal. One of the fifth grade teachers was holding an "unauthorized" candy sale to raise money for a field trip. Only fifth graders were supposed to know about it. Somehow Jinhyuk, with his limited English skills, caught wind of the sale and managed to sneak across campus during lunch, without a pass, to buy twenty dollars worth of candy from this classroom. Twenty dollars is a lot of cash for a third grader to carry around, but by the time we caught on to him, he had enlarged his fortune to thirty bucks by retailing the candy at a considerable mark-up. People were furious. It was suggested that he donate his earnings to the fifth graders from whom he bought the candy. I argued against it, saying he might not have even known he wasn't supposed to be buying and then selling candy to other kids, and that he'd only been in the country since August. I was told: "That kid knows a lot more than you think he does, Tom."
Meme: Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know – Kelly’s Take
1. 72% of students in my school qualify for free or reduced price lunch. Whether or not you live in an area with entire neighborhoods in poverty, visit them and get to know the issues of students and families there in order to deepen your understanding of perspectives rarely represented at public meetings.
2. Observing how a student increases persistence or treats classmates more respectfully or overcomes reluctance to participate in discussion can be far more valuable in understanding student learning than a test score. . . .
Meme:Five Important Things Policymakers Ought to Know–Shelly’s Take
This meme was sent out by Nancy Flanagan, a thoughtful blogger at Teacher in a Strange Land. The purpose was to get a group of people sharing their thoughts on what policymakers should know.
1. The students in my classroom deserve a well rounded curriculum that both challenges and inspires them. When making policy decisions, keep in mind that education goes far beyond skills in reading and math. A few years ago I had a student in my classroom who struggled with reading. One day she ran up to me crying at lunch recess. I asked her what was wrong. She handed me her class schedule. She had been taken out of choir to attend an additional reading class. I will never forget her looking at me and saying, “I know I need to work on my reading, but I love to sing.” My kids deserve the chance to sing, dance and create in addition to learning the basics.
Meme: Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know–Travis’ Take
This meme was sent out by Nancy Flanagan, a thoughtful blogger at Teacher in a Strange Land. The purpose was to get a group of people sharing their thoughts on what policymakers should know.
So, after many hours of whittling down my list of 104 items (trust me, that was down from the previous number), I have my five.
1. Forty-seven minutes is not an adequate or desirable amount of time to do deep, mature, extensive, thinking. You know . . . the level of thinking that creates meaningful learning and life-long learners.
2. . .