Built in Conflict of Interest?

The buzz in School Reform Redux under Arne Duncan and the Obama Administration is to hold teachers accountable for the job they do.  (Nobody else has been held accountable lately--memos change 'torture' to 'extreme measures', ponzi schemes on wall street, underhanded realtors push adjustable rate mortgages on uneducated buyers--but teachers are a special breed and should be held to a higher standard.)

Ok, ok, no whining here.  No one likes an ineffective teacher less than I, so we should have some method of ensuring that teachers are earning their salaries.

But are student test scores the right way to go?  There have been many arguments that there are too many variables in student abilities to hang all the outcomes on a single teacher.  

But there could be other arguments against this method.

A local story got me thinking.  Tying raises and advancement to student achievement could build in a conflict of interest - the teacher's self-interest trumping what is best for children.

The local paper reports that a stellar athlete has chosen to sit out the spring season of her senior year.  She wants to avoid running regular weekly races that would interfere with a different sort of training.  Her - now former- coach declined to comment.  

There may be many things going on in this story that have gone unreported and I have no idea what the many reasons are that she is not running or why the coach won't comment. 

But I could understand that a coach might be frustrated in losing a top athlete at the end of what has been a very long career shared by the two.  Perhaps this is the year she would drag the rest of the team with her to states-and reward the coach for the years of sustained support.  But suppose it IS the best thing for the student - developmentally and over the long haul of a sporting career.  

Therein lies the problem.  A coach interested in building a reputation on the performance of an outstanding athlete may be tempted to use his considerable influence to counsel a student to stay to meet school goals over student individual goals.  

Teacher reputations are often made in just such a way - when a gifted student performs at their peak for a teacher or coach.   

If we institute a system where teachers are measured against student performance--and tie bonuses, raises, and new positions to such a system--in addition to already documented cases of cheating tied to meeting strict percentages, we could see an explosion of the exploitation of children.  

There are many ways to motivate people to produce results (torture-for instance).  Some can produce long-lasting damage.

In the main, teachers are great people, but they are people, and most human beings act in their own self-interest first.  See Campbell's law.

We'd better be sure we get this right before tying big stakes to narrow, one-dimensional measurements.

Choosing Silence

Lucinda Roy has a new book out No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech. I remember her well. 

My son graduated with an English degree from Tech in 2006, the year before the tragedy. Roy was serving as the department chair and was a spirited, entertaining, and witty speaker. I liked her right off, recognizing a humanitarian who clearly loves young people.
Her part in the tragedy was to have tutored the shooter, and to urge everyone she could find - and him- to get help, because he was clearly in a frightening psychological place.
Having failed at that -- marshaling other adults and professionals to rally around a young man in trouble -- her reward is to have her nights haunted by sleeplessness and the guilt associated with not being able to ward off a tragedy.
It could have - could - happen to any educator.

I have a pin my sister gave me, which, tongue in cheek, reads: "I'm a teacher. I know what you're thinking."

But, if you read the writings of students like Roy has done, that can be true.  And occasionally it is clear that a student is struggling with mental illness.  In the K-12 world resources are extended to the classroom teacher to help these students, and their families if necessary, and it can be as easy as filling out a form or picking up the phone. But because you cannot prove a negative, we don't really know how many tragedies have been avoided.  We only know when things go horribly wrong.

But when things are working -- and nothing bad is happening -- its really hard to argue for some of these costly positions.

One student from my past had the kind of selective  mutism Roy describes in the Tech shooter. Very early in the year the school psychologist was brought in to work with my student and the family.  Tragedy avoided?  We don't really know.

I do know this.  The next year our school psychologist position was cut.  My immediate concern was the end or reduction of resources for this situation.

A school should be a hub of resources making life better for all the students - social work, psychological resources, dentists, clothing closets, meals, you name it.  By law, we know where those students are at least part of the day.  That is the time to make intercessions.  When students reach the age of majority, we have less opportunity to interfere in mental and physical health.  That choice is left largely to the discretion of the patient - a patient who may be in no position to make a rational decision.

The irony is that when nothing is happening, things are working.  It just isn't always easy for those outside the school to see what it is that isn't happening.  

But if you drive by a quiet, orderly school each day, where nothing ever happens, we thank you for your support.

Brainiacs

Brain research might just make my job obsolete. A stunning article in the New York Times reveals that scientists have been able to erase memory by the injection of a drug in lab rats. The scientist offered that this treatment would be helpful in removing debilitating traumatic memories or the influence of addiction on memory.
Would be kind of a bad thing in the wrong hands......
Then on the radio I hear the results of a huge marketing research project on how we are manipulated to buy products through our senses.
For instance, the smell of fresh cut grass pumped into a retail outlet makes buyers yearn for the products of their youth.
I SO get this. On my daily walks that cut-grass smell always takes me back to Saturdays on Grant Avenue. Add a little sunshine and I get a craving for Lik-'m-aid and comic books bought in the Kensington drug store.
So, all these studies circumvent cognition.
Who needs to think anymore?
What me worry?
About test scores?

Swimming in a Sea of Politics

Yesterday I swam a mile, I think. I lost count. It takes 64 lengths to reach a mile. I was swimming really hard and really fast but I lost count on account of my current count of the number of times I've been duped by countless, dirty, lowdown, no good, no count politicians.
It was a good thing to have that physical outlet. It put the latest insult to rest for the afternoon at least.
The spigot of money for schools has opened and is just as quickly being siphoned away by localities and for that I feel like, you know - duh - did you really think that anything would change?
It appears that all over a similar scenario is playing itself out.
Schools were asked to prepare budgets by their governing bodies which reflected huge cuts.
Said budgets were prepared, cutting out essential and non-essential personnel, supplies, transportation, summer school, etc. etc. All salaries were frozen (but not the health insurance premiums). Some teachers have even voluntarily taken pay cuts so that positions won't be lost. We're all in this together. Things are tough all over. Take one for the team. Play nice. Be fair.
Then the amounts for the local stimulus packages were announced.
Governing bodies returned to the schools to request more budget cuts beyond the first go-round, which in many cases, coincidentally - match the amount of funding about to be released.
Huh? Now who's playing fair?
Things were supposed to be different this time around.
This time we were going to put our money where our collective mouths are and make sure that kids don't pay for everybody else's mistakes.
Ha!
Have you ever met a politician who didn't run on an education platform?
Have you ever met a politician willing to do the hard work and make sure that initiatives and the will of the people are funded, even if it means raising taxes?
Pfff! For those of us in Virginia who are old enough to remember, that's how we got our Lottery tickets. All the money would be for schools! Yeah! Who wouldn't want that?
All the money went in the General Fund and from there.....to every pet project but schools. AND - overwhelmingly it is the poor who buy those tickets and then send their kids to underfunded schools. Brilliant. Imagine buying a dream like that.
And now, stimulus money = general fund. Let the shell games begin!
I feel another 64 lengths coming on.

Young and Restless Writers

Yesterday was one of those fun days when a whole lot of work pays off.  The Teacher Consultants of the Shenandoah Valley hosted a Young Writer's Workshop at Shenandoah University.  It wouldn't have happened without the support of the staff at the NVWP offices at George Mason.  Mark Farrington and his student staff did all the behind-the-scenes paperwork that gets the kids, parents, directions, fees, and publicity together.For overworked classroom teachers, that is the only way that an enterprise like this could take flight. Thank guys.

And Young Writers Director Erin Hubbard was the uber-organized leader of NHS volunteers, an accommodating schedule, and Teaching Consultants from surrounding schools that made the morning run with precision. 

On a rainy, wet Saturday, 22 fourth through twelfth grade students trekked, sometimes from long distances, to pursue their interest in writing starting at 9 a.m. on a Saturday!  From nine to one they were prompted to record their imaginative wanderings and share them with their peers.

It's teaching heaven.  Rewarding work for those who often labor throughout the week before an unwilling audience.

And grown ups too, were a part of the fun.

Parents were welcomed to a free workshop on supporting their young writer.  Later they could sit in on a workshop of their own to develop inspiration for personal writing projects.

In the adult workshop, I found inspiration from my own prompts for a writing that has already begun to take shape.  Writing in a room of silent, scribbling writers IS inspiring.  In the summer institute, in my own classroom, in workshops, there is an energy that isn't matched when sitting solo at a computer all alone.  Writing in community is a powerful muse.

How does that work?   Hmmm......

Ya Gotta Love the Numbers!

Bernie Madoff was once a respected businessman.

In fact, he was once the chair of Nasdaq.  

It was his earlier reputation which shielded him from the kind of scrutiny that would have quickly exposed his scandalous Ponzi scheme where he duped his investors into believing that money was being made when, in fact, nothing had been invested at all.

In his defense, Madoff claims that the pressure to show quarterly gains led him to fake the billions he assured his clients they were earning.

A lame excuse, but at least it acknowledges how human behavior can be manipulated by the rules.

I see parallels in our current emphasis on proving student growth by distilling learning to sets of numbers.  Though we like to think that numbers don't lie, when personal fortune rises and falls with the numbers, it is a sure bet that some of those numbers will lead the public into a false sense of security that "Our children is learning."

Here's an example:

The math scores in one building were not showing gains.  The solution: at the halfway mark of the year, take all the students who are not showing learning gains (i.e. they are failing) out of the course.  Create a new course that repeats the first semester.  By renaming the course, these students do not have to sit for the spring state tests until much later.

Result: Big jump in scores that year because only students who are adequately prepared take the test.

Well, you say, what is wrong with that?  The students who aren't ready are given the opportunity to relearn the material, aren't they?  The scores jump. The school is no longer 'failing.' Our children IS learning!

Here's where I take issue with scores as a representation of true progress and gains in student learning.

Like Inigo Montoya says to the Sicilian genius Vizzini in Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. ['Inconceivable' for Vizzini. 'Learning' for the rest of us.] I do not think it means what you think it means."

Scores did jump, but it was a deception played on the public.  Nothing was essentially changed except slowing the pace of instruction for some students.  As a result, many who struggle with math are doomed to repeat the same material presented in the same manner, or are subjected to mind-numbing drills designed to prepare them to pass the test.

True reform would exhibit itself in helping teachers locate new ways to engage students who struggle.  And there ARE new strategies out there.  But it would take time for teachers to re-think, re-learn, re-tool an entire course.  No time and resources were part of the scenario described above.

It would mean spending money on professional development for teachers, helping them help students find a way into and through the math puzzle.  No money for that.

But enormous pressure, along with piles of money spent on the bubble tests, must show immediate progress or heads are going to roll.  Desperate people do desperate things.

YOU do the math.

So, what happens to students who must sit through math again?

I envision my recurring nightmare: I have missed a course in high school and they drag me out of my current life, back to my old school to take the WHOLE YEAR OVER AGAIN.  In the dream I am panicked and disheartened.  My whole life is disrupted and, on top of all that, it's boring me to death because I know I can do the work in a week!  But they won't let me!  I would drop out, but I know it would be the death of all my hopes.  The whole dream is bathed in an overwhelming feeling of asphyxiation.  I can barely breathe and wake up in a sweat.

Well...  Some of our kids do drop out, anxious to get on with some kind of life outside of school. Who can blame them?

Our current love of data extends beyond those we consider left behind.  Students in upper-level courses are distracted by numbers represented in SAT scores and fall into a single-minded obsession with high grades in order to compete for colleges.  It perverts their thinking.  And -guess what?- sometimes they cheat.

Just like Bernie Madoff.

Should we hold teachers (well, the whole system, really) accountable?  You betcha.

How can we do it in a way that honors both teaching and learning?  

Some teachers have made suggestions.  Check out this plan formulated by the teachers in the workforce and a part of the Teacher Leaders Network.

Let's get honest about what we are hoping to do and be sure that everything is being measured - including our support for true learning.

20 Questions Meme

I'm a terrible worker.  Can't write until the house is clean (how often does that happen?)  Can't blog until my TLN pages are caught up.  (Those thoughtful teachers have been throwing big ideas back and forth at a rapid pace lately and I can't keep up!)  Can't move on to a new subject until I've dispensed with the last.  Can't write emails until I empty my inbox.  No wonder I'm behind in posting.

And that's my problem.  Good friend and blogger Nancy Flanagan threw out a 20 question meme based on the FaceBook challenge to reveal 25 things about yourself and the questions have been sitting there until I can summon the time (see above problems) and answer them.

I give up.

The questions are too thought provoking.  I think too slowly to get to them all.  So here's the ones I can manage as a block.

Been teaching English since 1978, (first year was a long term sub gig teaching five classes of math. Guess who learned the most?) with a twelve year break raising my own kids.  I have taught exclusively at the high school and have hit every grade, every skill level from self-contained special ed to Advanced Placement 11 and 12.

My professional development book is hard to pin down.  I remember being transformed by Ken Macrorie's I-Search book.  Mostly because it turned the whole teacher/student paradigm upside down.  But more than that, it was the English 695 course from GMU that did the trick. Led by Marian Mohr and the Teacher Consultants of the Northern Virginia Writing Project it was the ONLY professional development course notebook I searched for when I went back to teaching in 1994.  Took that class in 1981.  Don't know why every teacher isn't teaching that way yet.  We should have been on to those best practices long ago.

My best teacher buddy continues to be the one I consider my mentor: Theresa Manchey. Intelligent, thoughtful, kind and nurturing, I want to be like her when I grow up.

Best administrator: hands down Don Shirley.  He was the first principal I had and I didn't know any better to appreciate his gifts.  He fiercely protected teacher time, never calling unnecessary meetings or asking for paperwork that would sit in a cabinet somewhere.  He trusted us.  It was clear he loved the kids and the teachers who worked with them.  The school was a fun place - most of the time.  He has (retired now) an impish sense of humor, and I still remember many of the inside jokes the whole faculty shared.

Most disappointing experience:  Ugh.  Too disappointing to share here.  In general, when those in power lack the courage to defend good instruction.  Happens too often.

Favorite class to teach: Any journalism class.  I knew those kids extremely well.  We generally became friends.  The work was real to the kids.  Their writing grew exponentially.  Whole groups of them went to college and worked on their papers there.  Several have become writers as adults. Much satisfaction all around.  Not teaching journalism now because of the disappointments referred to above. 

Most thrilling moment: The day two former students sent me the article they collaborated on during the Kerry campaign.  They'd traveled to Boston for election night coverage while students at UVA.  One student had the byline for the photography, the other had the byline for the story.  Proud momma moment for sure.  That they would think to share that with me was the biggest thrill.  But we move on, hoping for more moments like that.

Unions aren't allowed in Virginia, but I wouldn't enter a classroom without the protection of our association's liability insurance, lawyers, and the ongoing lobbyist at state.  Seen too many teachers abandoned by their district to take on the risk of a lawsuit by myself.  Been too busy in the classroom to follow legislation.  I'm glad someone is paid full time to protect our interests.

How would I spend $5 billion?  Can't hardly imagine the sum to begin with, but I would make teacher professional development a part of the job.  Free up time to get teachers together to work on lesson studies, improve instruction.  I think it would make the whole school program more humane and would affect student learning exponentially.  It would mean "buying" more teachers so the face time with kids could be reduced.  Of course, first we'd have to convince all of America that working REALLY HARD all the time (represented by long hours on weekends and all night and etc. etc.) isn't such a good thing - for us, for our kids, for our families. 

Finally, the last question I want to answer is about a personal education hero.  I have known many and have continued to work with many on a daily basis.  But, for me, the one who has expanded my understanding of policy and teacher work continues to be Nancy Flanagan.  She always has her ear to the ground, knows all the players and their interests, and is willing to share that knowledge.  She's been a relentless champion for truly professionalizing our work, a goal I hope to live to see.  Thanks, Nancy, for the free information and keeping the lights burning.