How much longer are we going to continue down the path of absurdity seeking the promised land of teacher evaluations? Spending millions of dollars on complicated and convoluted systems that only demoralize teachers will eventually result in backlash from taxpayers and voters. Evaluating teachers on student test scores will inevitably prove once again that low income students do not test as well as affluent students and that effective teachers who want good evaluations will move to schools with higher income students. Coupling test scores of students to the evaluations of teachers who never taught those children will never hold up in court. The irony in all this is that there is an effective system for teacher evaluations, one that has been around since the 1980's.

Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) programs have been the exemplar for strong teacher evaluation systems. Teachers trained to evaluate their peers are able to distinguish the inexperienced from the ineffective---a significant difference from other evaluation systems---and can help teachers improve their practice. For the politicians and so-called reformers who complain that our systems are broken because we do not fire enough teachers, these programs offer the answer. PAR programs have exited more ineffective teachers than any other evaluation system and have minimized legal bills while doing so. For the unions who demand due process and fairness, PAR has provided evidence difficult to refute in grievance procedures or courts. For all teachers, these evaluations offer support for improvement, mentoring, and sometimes the revelation that teaching is not their calling. For principals, PAR programs offer information leading them to a more focused and effective use of their time in personnel development.

The first Peer Assistance and Review program was born and nurtured in Toledo, Ohio. Other districts that have created PAR programs have adopted the basic components from Toledo and then customized the program to fit their own culture, finances, and laws. The union representing teachers and the district administration jointly manage PAR. Anecdotal reports from observers of the decision-making body note that they cannot tell union representatives from administrators. Both groups have high stakes in the integrity and success of the program. A key component of an effective PAR is a well-trained cohort of consulting teachers who mentor and evaluate their peers. Principals continue to do basic evaluations of all teachers, but they share with consulting teachers evaluations of new teachers. Principals also refer at-risk teachers to the PAR program for intensive support and further evaluations.

Some critics have said principals fear that they might lose power and control over the school faculty, but the experience of those in the program have shown otherwise. Human development is a full-time job. Principals can have only so many full-time jobs. The demands of evaluating teachers, especially in a large school, can be overwhelming. The ability to have assistance with new teachers and ineffective teachers is a godsend. Laws that require principals to evaluate all teachers every year create inefficiency and are unrealistic. Evaluating teachers every two or three years is enough. Just remember, Finland as a nation has no formal teacher evaluation systems because they ensure teacher quality before the hiring process. A PAR program coupled with more attention to quality control in preparation for and entry into the teaching profession would better serve our interests in the United States.

Given all we know about strengths of the PAR evaluation system, why is it not in place in every district? The usual answer is money, but I would contend that it is a lack of understanding. If you isolate PAR from legal budgets, human capital losses, and efficiency, it may seem expensive, but if you look at the program systemically, you will find that it adds tremendous value in building an effective education system.

Peer Assistance and Review programs are the best choice for teacher evaluation and, if implemented, could result in an accomplished teacher in every US classroom.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Rachel D'Avino, Dawn Hochsprung, Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Rousseau, Marie Sherlach, and Victoria Soto were killed in the line of duty on December 14, 2012, protecting their innocent students from a deranged gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Charles Albert Poland Jr. was killed in the line of duty on January 29, 2013, protecting students from a mad gunman on the bus he drove for Dale County Schools in Alabama.

Dr. Vicki Kaspar, assistant principal at Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, was killed in the line of duty on January 5, 2011, when yet another crazed gunman opened fire in the main office.

And, sadly, the list goes on and on.

We will not forget them and the others who sacrificed their lives doing what they loved and protecting children from the gun violence and mental illness that our country has refused to address in a meaningful way. As we appreciate teachers this week for the job they do, let us also remember those who have fallen in the line of duty. But more than remembering, let's support an effort to memorialize these brave and courageous educators.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame has announced an effort to build a "Memorial to Fallen Educators" on the campus of Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. It will be a black granite monument with the names of fallen educators inscribed. Not only will it include the names of recent educators who deserve to be memorialized, but it also will go all the way back to 1882 when Robert Bailey was killed at his school in Illinois.

Emporia State University has been very generous in donating land and committing to the maintenance of this memorial. It will be up to us to raise the funds with donations that can be made to the NTHF. Kudos to Pearson Foundation and Security Benefit Corporation for making substantial contributions to allow the project to proceed. Now our contributions are needed. Join me in sending a check to NTHF/Memorial Fund, 1200 Commercial Street, Box 4017, Emporia, Kansas 66801.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held June 13th, and a dedication ceremony is expected to take place as early as August. The location is next to the historic one-room school house on campus. For those of you who value the teaching profession and its history, a trip to Emporia, Kansas, should be on your travel list.

As we reflect on the challenges facing teachers, we wonder at and despair over teachers who have been put in positions of "first responders" to school violence. While we remember our dead, let us appreciate the living by standing with America's teachers and other educators and by offering thanks for each and every one of them.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last week, five teachers from Maryland to Texas came to Washington, DC, to meet with Secretary Arne Duncan, officials from the Department of Education, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel, and the NEA Board of Directors. What was so special about these teachers? They will be the newest inductees into the National Teacher Hall of Fame on Friday, June 14, 2013.

These veteran teachers spoke eloquently and from the heart about the challenges and joys of being career teachers. They are an impressive group, worthy of our praise and admiration. Allow me to introduce them to you.

Deborah Cornelison is a 9th-grade physical science teacher at Bying Junior High School in Ada, Oklahoma. She has been teaching for 25 years.

Rebecca Gault is a 6th-grade language arts/reading/intervention teacher at Bel Air Middle School in Bel Air, Maryland, who has been teaching for 22 years.

English teacher Darryl Johnson teaches grades 10-12 and works at Smithville High School in Smithville, Missouri. He's has been teaching for 21 years.

Martha McLeod is a 5th-grade science lab instructor at Fulton 4-5 Learning Center in Rockport, Texas, who has been teaching for 20 years.

Beth Vernon, an 8th-grade earth and space science teacher, comes from Brittany Hill Middle School in Blue Springs, Missouri. She has 28 years of experience.

The National Teacher Hall of Fame was founded in 1989 and located in Emporia, Kansas. Its mission is to recognize and honor exceptional career teachers, encourage excellence in teaching, and preserve the rich heritage of the teaching profession. If you go to Emporia, you can visit the National Teacher Hall of Fame at Emporia State University. There you will find a museum, teacher resource center, and gift shop, each of which celebrates teaching.

While only five teachers---each required to have a minimum of twenty years experience---are inducted annually, there is another program to recognize a million teachers who make a difference for their students. Anyone can visit the NTHF website, thank a teacher who has made a positive difference, and share words of praise. Every tribute will be included in a bound volume so that visitors can read the public's special messages to teachers. While at the NTHF, you can make a donation as a further special tribute to the teacher you want to recognize.

The NTHF provides a valuable service to the teaching profession by recognizing excellence and connecting teaching and learning to the community. We should salute the National Education Association, Pearson Foundation, Security Benefit Corporation, Bank of America, and California Casualty for providing funding to sustain the programs of NTHF. It also merits the support of every teacher and every supporter of teachers. Today is a good time to begin offering your support.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

This week has been designated as Teacher Appreciation Week, and Tuesday, May 7th, as National Teacher Day. There will be proclamations, contests, lots of goodies in teacher workrooms, and a multitude of conversations about favorite teachers and their impact on student lives. But will there be change in our behavior toward teachers?

This has been the most challenging year for teachers that I can remember. Their measure of teaching effectiveness has been relegated to a score on a single test on a single day. The high-stakes tests developed for a purpose unrelated to teacher evaluation have sucked the joy out of teaching and learning. Budget cuts have created larger class sizes, empty supply closets, personal economic stress, and more hardship on teachers' students and their families. Most tragically, teachers have lived through the worst shooting in K-12 school history with the senseless killing of six of their colleagues and 20 first graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

And still teachers go to school every day, embrace their students, and teach them even as they navigate the obstacles created by policymakers who do not understand that schools are not corporations, students are not widgets, and teachers are not robots. Every day teachers find ways to engage children in activities that foster learning, teachers spend their own money to buy necessary supplies, and yes, teachers sacrifice their lives to assure children survive school violence. Appreciation is the least we can give, and it is not nearly enough.

Teachers need policymakers to champion change in the bureaucratic and unrealistic policy requirements they have created. They can start by listening to the timely recommendation of NEA and AFT, and place a moratorium on all high-stakes decisions on testing related to the new Common Core State Standards. Launch-and-learn strategies will never be successful if high stakes strangle mid-course corrections and reasonable adjustments. Teachers and the profession of teaching are drowning in the convoluted set of policies that have evolved since No Child Left Behind. Gridlock in Washington, DC, and the lack of alignment in federal, state, and local policies are undermining teachers at every turn. If you really want to prove you appreciate teachers, throw them a lifeline.

Teachers need respect, autonomy, and responsibility for their profession. These three factors may be the best gifts you can give to teachers. We need to build a profession that has high standards for becoming an accomplished teacher and one that attracts career-minded individuals who demand those three elements. Those elements are commonplace for lawyers, doctors, engineers, and nurses. Why are they not found in the teaching profession?

As we thank teachers for giving their all to our children, let us stand with them to convince policymakers that change in current policies must happen if we are to ensure our children opportunities to be successful in the global community where they will work and live. Let's make this week Teacher Appreciation and Action Week.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Results have been released from the latest "My Voice, My School Survey" developed by the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA) and administered by the Pearson Foundation. Hearing the voice of students can be enlightening, and their views can be helpful in creating schools that are relevant and inspiring in advancing student achievement. The culture of a school is too often neglected but can make a big difference in student success.

According to this survey, this is what our students are telling us: 94 percent of our students believe they can be successful in school. Eighty-eight percent want to do their best in school. Ninety-one percent say good grades are important. Seventy-six percent have a teacher whom they see as a positive role model. It is clear that students are positive about themselves and their place in our schools. So where is the disconnect between these positive numbers and actual student performance?

The survey reveals some troubling responses about student perceptions of adult support and student engagement in the school experience. Only 42 percent of those surveyed say that students are supportive of each other. Fifty-five percent feel that teachers care about them as individuals. Forty-five percent say that school is boring. Fifty-three percent enjoy being at school. These numbers need to serve as a wake-up call that our test-driven, high-stakes culture is not creating the schools that our students deserve.

We can learn a lot from the Aspiration Framework developed by QISA that identifies eight conditions that can make a difference in the academic, social, and personal successes of a student. Imagine if we adopted these conditions for our students as a critical piece of changing the culture of school. I suspect those survey results that reflect badly on the relevance factor would change demonstrably. Can you incorporate these conditions and behaviors in your school culture as recommended by Quaglia?

1. Belonging: This may be as simple as using each student's name daily, greeting your students in an authentic manner, knowing your students' hopes and dreams, creating opportunities for collaboration among your students, and making yourself available to listen to your students individually.

2. Heroes: Giving daily words of encouragement, inviting graduates from your school back to share their current experiences in life, listening to students, attending students' after-school events to cheer them on, and instituting mentoring programs are all suggestions from QISA.

3. Sense of Accomplishment: Teachers can recognize the effort and hard work of their students, help students develop attainable goals, involve students in citizenship projects, create assignments whereas process is just as important as product, and allow students to self-evaluate their work.

4. Fun and Excitement: Asking students what their interests are in learning, giving choices and options, incorporating technology in learning, creating hands-on experiences, and connecting learning to students' passions and interests are all pathways to enhancing this condition.

5. Curiosity and Creativity: Some activities for this condition include allowing students the opportunity to solve complex problems, encouraging students to ask questions, creating open-ended assignments, incorporating the arts and physical activities into teaching, and designing homework assignments with students rather than for them.

6. Spirit of Adventure: Teaching goal-setting skills, modeling healthy risk-taking, supporting students when they succeed or fail, teaching reflection, and helping students develop courage to explore new opportunities advance this condition.

7. Leadership and Responsibility: To enable this condition, involve students in decision-making about their education, create a genuine student government program, hold students responsible for actions, solicit and listen to student ideas, concerns, and opinions and use student feedback to design and modify lessons.

8. Confidence to Take Action: Finally, QISA recommends that you do the following to strengthen this condition: support and guide students who are non-believers in their own potential, teach students more collaboration skills, provide a balance of expectation and support, teach students to think globally and act locally, and encourage students to be supportive of each other.

The Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations has been studying these issues for a long time. Its partnership with the Pearson Foundation has enabled its work to be available to any school ready to address these important dynamics in educating a student. We all need to champion positive school culture as an essential strategy for school improvement.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Imagine that you are the only chemistry teacher in a small community with only one high school. You are recognized as a great teacher by your principal, parents, and students. But during the summer, you are told by the superintendent that your services are no longer needed. You later learn that your replacement is the niece of that superintendent, a young woman who has just graduated from college and needs a job. It happens when teachers do not have so-called tenure.

Imagine that you are a single, young teacher in a very conservative and religious community. A school board member drives by your house early one morning and sees a married man coming out of your house. You are fired without an opportunity for a hearing, and you are not able to disclose that a fellow teacher was just giving you a ride to school that morning and came inside for a cup of coffee. It happens when a teacher has not earned so-called tenure.

Imagine that you are an ineffective teacher in an affluent school. The principal moves to have you dismissed because of his own evaluations of your practice and complaints from parents. Your lawyer is able to save your job because she proves that you have some of the highest test scores in the school. And isn't that what teaching is all about? It happens when evaluations and tenure are tied to test scores.

These are all true stories of events that occurred while I was a teacher leader in North Carolina. So I say to politicians who want to eliminate so-called tenure---more accurately termed fair employment and dismissal procedures---and make tests scores the basis for teacher evaluations, be careful what you wish for. It may be that you have chosen the wrong path to assuring that all children have great teachers.

Teachers need the opportunity to earn the status of tenure with procedures that protect good teachers from nepotism and arbitrary, personal, political, and capricious retribution. We know those things do happen. Tenure should be awarded with the full knowledge and clear documentation that the individual will be a good teacher, not a bad or mediocre teacher. This should be the most important task a principal performs, and it could be a task shared with some of the best teachers in the school.

I urge school boards and administrators not to do a premature happy dance just because recalcitrant legislators are talking about eliminating fair employment and dismissal procedures, procedures that, for decades, have worked successfully when principals have had the time and the skills to do their job. America's teachers do have constitutional rights. They do get to go through the judicial system to protect their 14th Amendment rights to due process and against wrongful dismissals. If these legal protections are removed, do not complain when you have enabled the cost of dismissing a bad teacher to skyrocket for taxpayers. Unions have huge legal defense funds. They will do what is necessary to protect the rights of their members. Legislators who want to eliminate due process procedures should be willing to add millions of dollars for school boards to pay lawyers, court costs, and settlements. It is clear to me that this punitive action toward teachers will hurt taxpayers more than anyone. Could it be that our current procedures are more financially efficient than punitive action?

Enlightened legislators may want to choose instead the more cost effective path of developing teachers and elevating the teaching profession. Strengthen teacher preparation programs with high standards for admission and graduation. Strengthen recruitment and hiring practices to assure quality control. Incorporate "Peer Assistance and Review" programs like the one in Montgomery County, Maryland, which has the best track record in America for screening out mediocre and poor performing teachers. That program works because it focuses on practice, not test scores. Offer high salaries, provide autonomy for teachers, encourage and support teachers who wish to seek National Board Certification, and respect and revere the teachers who have dedicated themselves to your children, their students. Is that too much to ask to ensure a great teacher for every child?

Let's all take a deep breath and refocus on the things that matter for teacher quality. Stop the madness of using tests inappropriately, stop the madness of punishing teachers, and stop the madness of undermining the Constitution of the United States of America. Stop the madness of eliminating basic legal protections for teachers. After all, we all want the same thing---a great teacher in every classroom!

Posted by John Wilson at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Professor Andy Hargreaves will be a featured speaker at the April 12-13, 2013 National Forum on School Improvement, hosted by The HOPE Foundation, NEA, AFT, AASA, and others. He is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. The mission of the Chair is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education. The HOPE Foundation shares their conversation with Professor Hargreaves as a guest blog.

Andy, thank you for chatting with me once again to share some of your insights with our readers.

At the National Forum on School Improvement you are speaking on 'Sustainability'. Can you share a little more about what attendees will learn about this subject?

We often tend to equate sustainability with maintainability - can you keep an initiative going over time. We know, in this sense that the vast majority of initiatives concerned with improving teaching and learning have not endured. Ensuring that change endures means continuity of resources and support, orderly and well managed leadership succession and stability, and maintenance of focus despite surrounding distractions. All this is hard enough, but sustainability also means so much more. Sustainability means:

1. Depth of purpose and understanding - there has been apparently successful implementation of several literacy programs on a widespread basis to ensure fidelity but many teachers just go through the motions; they follow the bouncing ball of the script without really understanding what they are doing or why.

2. Distributed responsibility - teachers and leaders together have to have shared collectively responsibility for improvement and outcomes. An excessive emphasis on the wrong driver of top down accountability creates an atmosphere of fear and threat which increases isolation and detracts from shared responsibility. Accountability should be the small remainder that is left when responsibility has been subtracted - and so we are destined for unsustainable change in the current environment. Let's be prudent, not profligate about testing - test in 2 or 3 subjects in a couple of grades such as 3 and 6 like other high performing countries, rather than testing every student (and teacher) on almost everything,every year in the US.

3. Shared responsibility across schools as well as within them. We cannot and should not criticize teachers for being non-collaborative independent contractors if this is how their principals and schools behave. The best way to raise performance is not through temporary top down intervention teams whose effects only last as long as they continue to occupy the school. We need to raise achievement as the top performing systems do, and as the HOPE Foundation first did in Newport News School District by having professionals working with professionals, schools working with schools and the strong helping the weak. I am delighted to be associated with the Annenberg Foundation's work in association with Metro Nashville Public Schools to turn around underachievement through this method, I have been inspired by the California Teachers Association and their successful work in raising achievement in hundreds of California's lowest performing schools by supporting robust professional collaboration, and I am excited about starting to work with Education Northwest in raising achievement in poor rural schools in five US States by them helping them to create architectures of mutual support and assistance in this way.

When I spoke with you last fall, you talked about the need to invest in teachers and the importance of high quality teachers in the classroom. Are you seeing more of a focus on investment in professional learning in education in the US? And if yes, is the investment being made correctly?

Investment in professional learning is starting to increase which is a good thing. Technology and online professional learning is a big part of this. The danger, though, is that this professional learning model will replicate the strategies that have failed in the past of individual learning undertaken outside the school, disconnected from practice and away from colleagues. Now PD is back on the radar, we must work hard, including with technology, to enable teachers to communicate and push the envelope of their practice forward with their peers inside and outside their own schools, and in relation to their actual practice with students.

President Obama again spoke about the importance of education in his State of the Union speech last month. Do the goals/policies of this administration align with your outlook? What do you like and what don't you like about their education agenda?

The speech had an admirable acknowledgement of the value of and the need to invest in early
childhood education. This is one of the proven winners of educational reform that will save millions in years to come by not having to invest in remediation that early childhood education of real quality could have avoided. At the other end, the commitment to making college more affordable and accessible to more young people is also to be applauded. What was missing was the big piece in the middle on k-12 education. Are we just going to see more of the same on this? What's the honest assessment of where have we come, what have we achieved and where have we fallen short? What ideas are there about the leadership and focus needed for the next stage? The leadership that gets you to one point is typically not the leadership that will get you to the next. I don't really see any new ideas here. Perhaps they are there but we just haven't heard them so far.

Your new book, called 'The Global Fourth Way', written with Dennis Shirley, is a sequel to 'The FourthWay'. Why did you and Dennis decide to do a sequel?

The Fourth Way evolved out of work we already happened to have done - almost by accident. We had studied long term change over time for the Spencer Foundation and had gained a sense not only of the sustainability and non-sustainability of change, but also of how change varies over time from one generation to the next - this is how we grasped the first three ways of change - Johnsonian innovation that didn't spread, Reagan-era markets and standardization that are still with us, and data-driven additions in the Third Way that can deepen conversations about teaching and learning but often distract people from them as they become too obsessed with the metrics instead. Then we had, by chance, been the first to study and explain the success of the Finnish system in 2007 for OECD; we had been asked to investigate a network of high performing schools in England in 2008, and Dennis had deep experience in community organizing in education in the US. From this, we began to assemble the beginnings of what looked like another way, a better way, that we called the Fourth Way, for want of a better term. It was a start, but the idea needed more deliberate investigation and development.

In the years running up to our next book, we deliberately began to look at some of the world's highest performers on the international PISA tests and see what they had in common. We led a large team to evaluate a 10-year commitment to school driven innovation in Conservative Alberta: the highest performing English--speaking jurisdiction on PISA. With a team of nine, we undertook a 3-year evaluation of the reform strategies in Ontario (that performs almost as well as Alberta) in 10 (one seventh) of the school districts: the first prominent independent evaluation. We revisited our work on Finland and added to it new data on a partnership between Finnish and Albertan educators. We also went to Singapore for a month to investigate the Singapore system (highest performing country in the world) with our Singaporean colleague Ng Pak Tee who is responsible for all the training and development of school leaders in Singapore - so we really felt we understood the culture of Singapore in a deep way, from the inside. Then we added two outliers - high performers within low performing systems: schools in urban and highly diverse communities in England with extraordinary results, and the California Teachers Association which had committed itself to turning around 488 of the lowest performing schools in California.

What new ideas/learning will readers of 'The Global Fourth Way' gain?

They will learn that an inspiring and inclusive vision is more important than a Race to the Top vision. That when we benchmark ourselves against other systems and countries we should not be engaged in competitive bench-pressing to push harder and higher than them, but learn from industrial benchmarking in industry and learn actively and openly from other high performers. That the most important step forward in testing is not to have it or not to have it, but to be more prudent in how much we use it (a couple of grades rather than all) and with the resources saved, actually increase the quality of the tests so they truly reflect the deep learning and Common Core Standards we are trying to attain. That collective responsibility is a bigger driver than vertical accountability. That we need to reform unions, not replace them, and that many unions are already headed down that track. That technology is an important and essential resource for improving teaching, and that great teaching and smart technologies are a powerful mix; but that you cannot improve teacher quality by replacing teachers with machines. That - surprisingly - the best systems have very strong local districts or municipalities as a focus for professional efforts across schools and as a way of involving all communities in their children's education - that we should start seeing reformed districts as part of the solution rather than just part of the problem to school reform in America. And that alignment works best not through regulations and bureaucracy but through intensive interaction and constant communication between leaders who are always in schools, policy makers and university faculties who are always trying to connect their efforts, and so on.

When we last talked I asked you about ideas educators (or our readers) could implement at the start of the school year. Now that the year is half over do you have any 'words of wisdom for teachers nearing the end of the school year?

That the good things still happen - the children who can read who couldn't at the start of the year; the child you comforted when they lost a parent or grandparent, the colleague you lifted up when they had become crestfallen. And the bad things will not last forever. There is an end to everything. Stay in. Hang on. Find support. Take the lead. This magnificent profession that changes people's lives needs to have the best people to practice it, to lead it, to transform it. It needs you and so do all the children it serves.

Thanks Andy! To hear more from Andy and other leading education experts, attend the National Forum on School Improvement in Washington in April. Visit www.hopefoundation.org/ to learn more about the Forum and to register.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

If a student cheats on a test, he or she gets a zero and perhaps a suspension. If a teacher cheats, he or she goes to jail. That punishment should be enough to discourage any teacher from cheating. The real possibility of prison should be enough for any teacher to call the authorities if an administrator pressures her to cheat. But we all know that the current 'real world' system requires teachers either to follow orders or to face charges of insubordination and subsequent loss of employment. Given the way hierarchies of school administration work, the Atlanta cheating story may be more complex and more worrisome than it appears at first reading.

First, let's remember that the vast majority of teachers are good people. They dedicate themselves to children. They teach children right from wrong. So what would make a group of Atlanta teachers agree to sit in a room together, erase wrong answers, and put in right ones? Were they doing it so their students would appear smarter? Were they doing it for the money? Or is it possible they were doing it because they felt it was a direct or indirect order from their administrators? I lean toward the latter reason. And I know for sure that until we empower teachers to say NO, we are vulnerable to more instances of cheating and possibly other scandals.

How much longer do we need to tell politicians, policymakers, and so-called reformers that the high stakes they advocate for standardized tests are poisoning the system? The unintended consequences of our testing mania are more hurtful to our students than helpful. Paying administrators and teachers for high test scores is demeaning to the teaching profession, at best, and immoral, at worst. Evaluating teachers and administrators on their students' test scores rather than on their instructional practice motivates bad behavior. Because the student tests weren't designed or intended for teacher evaluation, they are also invalid for that purpose. Ultimately, these high stakes could destroy the teaching profession and possibly our public schools.

If there were ever a time for Georgia teachers to have a strong union, collective bargaining, and the strongest whistleblower policies, it is now. The teachers who participated in the cheating scandal had, for whatever reason, lost their personal moral compasses and needed guidance to get back on the path of ethical and professional behavior. They didn't have that guidance. A union and a strong contract provide balance in every school system but are especially critical when teachers feel pressured to stray from ethical guidelines. Administrators could not have gotten away with this pressure on teachers if teachers had felt they had power. There are documented instances of Atlanta teachers providing a warning about the cheating, but weak voices are ignored by the powerful. It is frightening to stand alone; it is empowering to stand together and speak with a collective voice.

I look forward to seeing NEA and AFT step forward with strong policies and direct action to assure that we never experience this type of scandal again. Together, the members of the two unions are strong enough to say NO to bad public policies and to do whatever it takes to stop the high-stakes testing madness. Together, they are strong enough to assure the most protective whistleblower language in contracts and school board policies. Together, they can create a hotline for any teacher or school employee to report instances of threats or pressure to cheat, and together they can provide teachers the best legal services to protect their jobs when the teachers say no to administrators who are pushing for better test scores by changing answers.

Let's remember the old ditty we learned in elementary school: Cheaters never win and winners never cheat. It is time to focus on making our children and teachers winners in this system of public education and stop the practices that create losers.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I have watched and listened very carefully to the debate on the Common Core Standards among many people I respect and know to be knowledgeable on the subject. Of course, this debate comes after 45 states have adopted these standards, after hundred of hours of professional development by teachers and administrators, and after millions of dollars spent on implementation. Still this debate might be helpful if it leads to compromise and not polarization. When those on both sides of an argument make good points, it's time to look for middle ground. As a person who was involved in the early stages of the discussion of whether we should have common core standards, I would like to make some observations and suggestions.

First, let's go back to the reason that this course of action was launched. In some states, there were so many standards that it was impossible for any teacher to assure that her students learned all of them. In other states, there were so few standards that teachers had to question whether the students were receiving the education they deserved. This mixed bag of standards was putting our country at a disadvantage in the global community. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) stepped up to represent the voice of states in addressing this concern. This was their initiative. They owned it.

I remember listening to Gene Wilhoit, who, at the time, was the executive director of CCSSO. He stated that these standards would be state-shared. What is most important, he said, was that these standards would be higher, fewer, and clearer. We were also promised that the standards would be internationally bench-marked, research-based, aligned with college and career readiness, and inclusive of 21st century skills. Those are all worthy goals for world-class standards and so the goal of a set of common core standards for our nation was embraced by teachers.

CCSSO and NGA have been good stewards of this initiative. I know that when I asked for more teacher involvement, they were very responsive. Both NEA and AFT convened panels of some of the best teachers in America who reviewed the initial draft of the standards. The teachers made many suggestions, and most were integrated into the standards. The Common Core Standards deserve to be implemented.

Of course, there have been problems as the nation has moved toward implementation. The criticism of process and publisher guidelines is legitimate. We hear reading teachers say the guidelines contradict good instructional practice. Some sample lesson plans on official websites have been criticized by teachers. The involvement of so-called reformers should continue to be suspect and monitored. These valid concerns should be addressed now and fixed.

CCSSO and NGA, as parents of the process, have a responsibility to put in place a system that allows for changes in the Common Core Standards every three to five years to assure established measures of success are being met. This system should include collecting data from teachers, administrators, researchers, and policy-makers on the flaws that have been identified. A process to correct inadequacies is critical to gaining and maintaining credibility and support from educators. While the states have the flexibility of creating up to 15 percent of the standards on their own, this may not be enough to correct or overcome flaws in the other 85 percent, thus, the need for a clear process for evaluation and correction.

Second, let's learn from the old adage of go slow to go fast. If we rush integrating new standards into an existing learning system, we risk a backlash from teachers. The most critical element in avoiding this is the assessment piece. These new standards deserve authentic assessment, and that will cost more money. Personally, I will consider the two assessment consortia failures if the assessments they produce are all multiple choice. I will also be suspect if all uses of these assessments are not validated for the purposes for which they are intended.

I think it is important to place at least a three-year moratorium on all high-stakes decisions using these new assessments. I know this will disappoint those who enjoy pointing out any public school failure, but this waiting period is critical to gaining the confidence of those who teach the standards. Most high-stakes tests are not properly validated and are more political than educational. CCSSO and NGA should recommend this moratorium, and states should concur.

Debate on the Common Core Standards should be encouraged, but that debate, however heated, should never cause us to give up on state-shared standards and the larger goal of having states work together to do things more efficiently and effectively. And during that debate, states and our nation should listen to and respect the professional opinions of teachers and make changes in the implementation and content accordingly. As a result of this collaboration by all partners, our students will be better served, and we should always remember that the Common Core Standards are what every child should know and be able to do and not everything a child should know and be able to do.

Posted by John Wilson at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When over 90 percent of people with incomes over $100,000 vote while less than 40 percent of people making less than $15,000 vote, we have a huge threat to the foundation of democracy in our country. This is not the only civic gap. Seniors vote more than young people. Natural citizens vote better than naturalized citizens. Women vote better than men. Black and White people vote substantially better than Hispanic and Asian citizens. Meira Levinson of Harvard University refers to this as the "Civic Empowerment Gap." This gap needs as much attention in our schools as other academic gaps.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) includes civic literacy in its framework for 21st century learning. The P21 definition of civic literacy includes participation in civic life, exercising rights and obligations of citizenship, and understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions. We demonstrate our citizenship at the local and state levels, the national level, globally, and digitally. Citizenship can be taught, learned, and must be practiced to preserve our democracy.

The current version of education reform has been disastrous for civic literacy. We have relegated our curriculum to teaching only those things that are tested. We have minimized the power and importance of social studies teachers and curriculum. It is not surprising that the students who receive inadequate instruction in civics, government or American History are the students in high poverty schools. Did you make the connection? Poor people get the least education in civic literacy, and poor people participate the least in exercising their basic rights of citizenship. Even worse, the income gap between poor people and rich people is at an all time high. Our democracy is most assuredly threatened by these dynamics.

We need teachers to put on their capes and rescue our democracy. Teachers must do the following: integrate their curriculum and lessons with good teaching techniques to enhance civic literacy; utilize project-based learning that promotes understanding of government and citizenship; learn about other cultures, languages, and nations; incorporate service learning into all subjects to enhance the student's achievement as well as to help others; use digital technology to engage students in civics locally and globally; and recognize that public schools exist to preserve our democracy. We must never lose sight of this mission, and we must trust the creativity of teachers to close the civic gap.

While teachers are doing their good work, we must reject those ideas that would suppress civic empowerment. Voter ID bills are a smokescreen for suppression. Voter fraud is statistically not a problem, but voter participation is. Political offices that can only be held by the rich and powerful undermine our democracy. Don't let elections be bought. Talk, write, and argue for civic literacy as a major component of our schools. Our democracy may depend on you.

Posted by John Wilson at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend