Warring on Women

I've read The Handmaid's Tale.

Maybe that's my problem--an English teacher who's thought too much about how language is manipulated in 1984 or how women were stripped of their power in the 1985 dystopian novel.  In one day of coordinated mass firings, coinciding with ATM cards that suddenly showed a zero balance, Margaret Atwood's women lost all of their freedoms.  (ATM cards did not even exist when Atwood wrote her novel.)

It can happen fast, apparently, when the leaders decide to disenfranchise a whole group.  The Iranian revolution of 1979 flipped a monarchy to a theocracy in just months.  Protests that began in August 1978 ended with the Ayatollah Khomeni in charge - and modern women forced into burkhas and out of work--by December of 1979.

The formula for disenfranchisement is simple: take away jobs and access to power through economic security, and hand all that power and access over to a ruling class.  Once the power is shifted and discrimination becomes law, as happened to the Iranian Constitution, returning to levels of equality is an uphill battle by a greatly weakened constituency.  The Ayatollah is long gone, but the laws remain.  In 1998, the parliament rejected a proposal for equal inheritance rights for women. A woman is only entitled to half that of a man.  No indication of changing back to more equal status for women.

So maybe I'm a little paranoid when I read about:

• Outlawing collective bargaining for unions serving mostly women - the teacher's unions.
• Zeroing out funding for Planned Parenthood that provides health care to women exclusively.
• Reducing funding to WIC by as much as 10% - a program that provides funding for healthy food options for women and infants.
• Cuts to literacy programs for children like RIF that have been proven to boost literacy for the poorest children.

Why are women and children being targeted for cuts?

Let's face it: poverty is primarily a woman's issue since women with children comprise the majority of the poor. National arguments are centering the blame on victims and removing the few supports that get children and their mothers through the first year's of life.  Simultaneously, the women who rear those children are facing cuts to their livelihood, placing more children at risk and ensuring a divided nation.

This is more than a woman's issue.  This is a "what kind of future can we look forward to?" if over half our population is stripped of the ability to improve their lives.

Who benefits?

Just Sayin...

In case you thought my last blog was overkill:

In North Carolina, for example, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools this spring field tested 52 (yes 52) new standardized tests, including four exams each for kindergartners and first-graders, and kids lost as much as a week of instruction. That won’t stop the district from adding even more tests next year, for art, music and physical education, and many teachers and parents fear that this is becoming the face of public education.

From Valerie Strauss' April 18 blog.

Beware the Forty-Percent Rule

Virginia has recently passed a new expectation for Teacher Evaluations.
Normally we are assessed in six areas.
The new ruling adds a seventh area of evaluation: Student Growth.
Though it is the seventh category, a full forty percent of our evaluations are now dependent on evidence of Student Growth.  Twenty percent of the evaluation must be tied to the student's SOL scores.  The other twenty percent will be left for Districts to determine.
This is a bad idea.
It will be bad for children.

Why?
This means that every teacher in every subject and grade must find a way to measure student growth.
Think for a moment on that.
Kindergarten teachers, art teachers, phys. ed teachers---all must collect some sort of data at both the beginning of the year and the end of the year in order to prove some growth.
No one knows what this will look like, but in the case of SOL tests this means a beginning of the year assessment followed by a state test at the end.
But if you are an insecure teacher, this may also mean many other standardized smaller tests throughout the year in order to gauge how well students will do at the end of year test--because your performance relies upon theirs.
Picture yourself as a child facing a battery of tests implemented at every turn throughout the days, weeks, and months of the school year.  Start with the image of a five-year-old sitting still for one assessment after another.
Now imagine the listless, passive graduates who manage to survive such a mind-numbing thirteen years in a test-driven system.

This also means that all the grownups will now be focusing like a laser on how well their students will do on these assessments.
Please note: People's livelihood will depend on how well children test.
If that is not a recipe for corruption, I don't know what is.

Finally, the district must come up with some equitable formula for the other 20% of teacher evaluation.  This will likely take the form of some quick and dirty test.  (I recently sat in on a meeting where purchasing a test for our assessment of that twenty percent was mentioned.)  That will cost money.  That will be a part of the limited funds available to districts that will not be spent on instruction.

Again.

Putting all other arguments aside, this will be BAD for CHILDREN.

Standardized tests are now being asked to perform a function they were never designed for and the tests are wagging the entire teaching dog.  We have entered into a national experiment where the future of our children is hanging on the outcome of an unproven, widespread trial that includes four and five-year-olds as the experimental subjects.

But surely somebody can benefit from measuring and weighing our students at regular intervals.  Oh, wait, this is good for the Testing Industry.  My guess is the stock is going up.

There is an answer:

• Prepare teachers well. Currently billions is spent on "teacher proofing" schools rather than trusting the professionals. (Think of the entire education industry from textbooks, to outside professional development, to standardized tests.  All are predicated on the idea that we can staff our schools with anyone and everyone, and it will all be OK for kids if we put enough rules in place.)
• Leave the assessment to teams of teachers. (This works well in high performing nations like Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and the province of Ontario.) 
• Stop outsourcing the intellectual property of teachers to distant, impersonal, child insensitive, profit-making enterprises.

Why Teachers Like Me Support Unions

I have been a teacher, and a union (in Virginia, an association--we are a right to work state) member since 1978.  And I have stayed a member for a number of reasons.
The first reason: Everything that happens in my state house that concerns education concerns me.  (Look to Wisconsin for verification.)  And I do not have the time to read the bills that affect how my time in the classroom is spent.  I rely heavily on my association lobbyist to read those bills and let me know what might rob my students of resources.  This takes vigilance.  And if you think state law does not affect classrooms just look to our famed "King's Dominion law" which mandates that schools start after Labor Day (so teen employees can continue to work through the amusement park season) or the minute of silence and mandatory pledge of allegiance.  There are also mandatory lessons and courses, textbook adoptions, required professional development (most recently in recognizing child abuse and verifying our skill with technology--all good training, all association approved.), requirements for recertification, and windows for testing.
The teacher voice needs to be heard clearly.
My association provides that voice.
The second reason: I was the adviser for the school newspaper for seventeen years.  I never needed my association's lawyer's fees because, I hope, I was vigilant in making sure my students understood their - and my - responsibilities when putting something in print.  Even though I emphasized that we were not immune from liability laws just because we were in a schoolhouse, working with novices made me understandably nervous.  The association was a resource for peace of mind.
Finally, there is strength in numbers and the VEA has an active membership.  Though I have never lead beyond the building level, I have attended the state level meeting and truly seen democracy in action as the membership hammered out their positions from the floor of the convention hall.
Yes, I am a union (association) member and happy to see that the voices of classroom teachers is clear and loud.
It is sometimes all that stands between our children and the forces of politics.
Color me a lifelong union member.

Mourning in America

Tonight was Parent Conference night and my room was full.  My juniors and seniors lead their parent conferences, explaining goals, sharing work, describing their scores.  They introduced their parent to me, offered refreshments, and then lead them to a private corner where they could describe their work and their personal goals for the course.  The parents love the opportunity to hear about school from their child.  I love to hear them describe what they are learning.

I learned how to do this from a colleague in the National Writing Project.

Today, in two classes, we worked on good beginnings--how to get your reader interested enough in your writing to want to read on.  I modeled, they wrote, I wrote.

These three things I learned from colleagues in the National Writing Project.

Earlier in the day, while my students took their state tests, I wrote notes on their personal essays.  I use sticky notes and first respond to the strengths of the writing.  "I love your personal belief.  I agree that you need to set goals before you can achieve them."  "Thank your for sharing a powerful story about the losses in your life.  I'm so happy that you have taken away a positive lesson from these experiences."  And then I ask questions that, I hope, will make the students want to revisit the writing and make it even better.

I learned to encourage all of my students from colleagues in the National Writing Project.

In the twelfth grade classes we dove into poetry with a three-reading exercise.  The students read a poem three times.  After each reading they write a metacognitive passage and describe what they think, wonder, or notice after each reading.  Then they rate their understanding on a scale of 0-10.  Three readings.  Three writings.  Then they discuss the poem with their peers.  Then we all discuss the poem.  At the end of this process most students can articulate a clear understanding of what the poem says, means, and why it matters.  The students will practice this on their own tonight.

I learned this from a colleague in the National Writing Project.

In fact, I cannot think of a single move I make in the classroom that is not the end result of the close examination, sharing, and planning of the teaching consultants and fellows of the National Writing Project.

Here is a list, off the top of my head, of things I do that I learned from colleagues in the National Writing Project:
--Reflective writing
--The Daybook (a cornerstone of my teaching practice)
--Peer review groups (and how to manage them)
--Publishing student work
--Invention strategies (hundreds of them)
--Revision strategies (dozens)
--Multi-genre papers
--I-Search papers
--Building community and trust
--Portfolio assessment


I know there are even more techniques and strategies, all based on a philosophy fed and nurtured in the Writing Project.  
The success students realize are the direct result of work done through the National Writing Project. I am still in the classroom teaching because the National Writing Project has kept me learning and growing so that students can learn, improve, and describe their own growth.
On March 2, President Obama signed a bill to keep the government running until March 18. 
The bill cuts about $4 billion in spending from the FY 2011 budget, eliminating a number of education programs, including 
The National Writing Project.

This can not stand.

Untying the Equity Knot

The school system in America is a swiss-cheese model.  For areas of high-poverty there are gaping holes in both physical and human resources.  The reasons for this are myriad, but a large part is due to the pervasive (though not exclusive) model of basing school funding on property taxes.

So, just thinking out loud, here's an idea that came to me on a walk:

What if the 'hardware' of schools were under the purview of the Federal Government.  That is, all school buildings and their resources were audited and brought up to the same high standards as the most fully funded school facilities, being held to a Federal standard that would be kept current from year to year. (We build schools in Iraq....)

This would expedite, among other things, the acquisition of the technology that is constantly changing but that is also a necessary component if the nation is to deliver 21st century learning.  Access to the best is very much a hit or a miss--mostly a miss if you are poor--in the current system.  (Hey, Bill Gates, here's where your donations would be most appreciated:  Make sure every kid has a laptop and wireless access.)

For those who are fond of the corporate model, think McDonald's.  McDonald's is the largest holder of real estate in the United States.  They maintain quality from sea to sea by owning the buildings in every burg.  A steady stream of income for corporate headquarters comes from the rent that franchisees pay.  I haven't thought about that aspect--whether there would be rent--or if there was rent what criteria that would be based on.  Go ahead and toy with that on your own.  :-)  I'm leaning towards no rent.

Then we could leave the 'software' to the localities: tying curriculum and the hiring of high-quality teachers (with 'high-quality' being a measure left to the accreditation board of a yet-to-be established professional governance system) to the community.

Schools need to be both standardized and flexible because of the highly contextual nature of teaching and learning, and its multiple variables.  Some things must be standard (like access); some things must be specific to the kids and the community (like what we prepare a population to know and be able to do in terms of where they live and what the local needs are.)

For years the state of Virginia has had the Standards of Quality - which was the state's commitment to providing equal access--while the teachers were held to the Standards of Learning.
Though the teachers are still contractually obligated to the Standards of Learning (SOLs), the state has repeatedly reneged on their part of the deal, consistently underfunding the Standards of Quality.

If we want to repair the education system and make sure that our students are ready to compete globally--rather than continue to win top honors as the industrialized nation with the highest population of working-age men behind bars (gosh, we're always building up-to-date prisons....)--then we need to make equal access a pillar of that education system.

You may now talk among yourselves and find the holes in my vision.

Just sayin'.

Fired.

Nearly 2,000 teachers in Providence, Rhode Island.  If all are fired, then the cheapest [least experienced] can be hired back.
See previous post.
There will be two school systems.  A privately held one for the haves.  An under-resourced and weakly staffed system for the have-nots.