Live From NBPTS

Ah...back home. I'm unpacked, readjusted to Pacific Daylight Time, and planning what to do with my remaining days before school starts. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 2009 Conference and Exhibition is now history, but I've brought back plenty of information - packets, handouts, lists, web links, business cards. What next?

I face this situation any time I attend a conference, and if you're reading this blog after having attended NBTPS or any other conference or workshop this summer, maybe you can relate. While I was there, I had so many ideas about how I could apply what I was learning to my own work, but now, the question is where to start.

Experience suggests to me, just start somewhere - anywhere. It doesn't have to be a large step, but follow up on one possibility. If you attended a particularly memorable session or workshop, review those materials and see what one item you can adapt for your use. If someone told you to keep in touch, start today. Don't let that momentum go to waste. For my own follow-up, I've invited nine of my fellow California National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) to join a project I'm involved with - Accomplished California Teachers. I used NBCT Link to connect with a colleague in Los Angeles, and I've been reading up about the Alliance for Excellent Education, an organization led by the Chair of the NBPTS Board of Directors, Bob Wise, former Governor and Congressman from West Virginia.

You might notice that none of these activities seem likely to directly change my curriculum and instruction, at least, not in any obvious or rapid fashion. As for indirect effects, it's too soon to say. So, why am I doing all of this work during my summer "vacation"?

I'm hoping that these activities will help me to be an effective leader in my school, district, state, and even on the national level, however small the impact might turn out to be at that point. And that's what distinguished this gathering of educators from most others. While there were sessions with more direct classroom applicability, almost everyone I spoke with had come to Atlanta in an effort to improve teaching and learning at a level beyond their own classrooms. After meeting so many dedicated and motivated educators, I can't help but leave such an event feeling optimistic about the future; however, if I take a more measured look at the conference, I am left with some concerns, too.

Yes, it is understandable that the economy caused a decline in attendance comparing this conference to the prior one, and perhaps the location did not hold quite the same appeal as Washington D.C. But in the two years since that prior conference, the number of National Board Certified Teachers has grown by almost 20,000. There are many factors involved in people's decisions to attend or not attend, and I trust that NBPTS is looking carefully at those reasons as they plan ahead and try to make the next conference even better. I hope NBCTs are providing suggestions.

Additional responsibility for involvement belongs to the membership as well. I hope my fellow NBCTs - those who attended and those who did not - will keep in mind that we have some untapped potential to be a leading force in education reform. Let's capitalize on that potential - not starting at the next conference - but starting now. Reach out to your colleagues, your administration, parents and community members; network with NBCTs in your region or state, and talk to your school board members and legislators. Do your part to grow our numbers and amplify our voices. If you're already deeply involved in that work, keep it up, and if not, today is a fine day to begin.

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I can't leave Atlanta without mentioning one of the more exciting projects I heard about. Lori Nazareno is about to take the helm as the Lead Teacher at Denver’s brand new Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy. Nazareno is an NBCT on the Board of Directors of NBPTS, and a member of Teacher Leaders Network. Her new school will be run entirely by the teachers, and it is a project that has certainly attracted attention, reflected in the full enrollment, the number of teachers who applied to work there, and the promises from staff at Denver Public Schools to lend the school its full support.

Nazareno thinks that the highly qualified applicant pool reflects an important characteristic about this type of teacher: they are not interested in working at schools that have tightly regimented principal leadership. (And I would add, they aren't likely to apply at schools that use scripted curricula or impose other requirements that restrict the practice of accomplished teachers). With so many applicants, the school has been able to hire people who will be a good fit for the team. Nazareno says the staff has been working together to determine what it means to open a teacher-led school, considering everything from broadest principles down to minute logistical details - “everything from 30,000 feet, down into the weeds.” The team has also divided up all of the administrative tasks that teachers usually don't manage, and they will balance those duties with their teaching.

How will a teacher-led school be different from traditional schools? One example is in teacher evaluation. Instead of a traditional and more common approach in which teachers are evaluated few times and rather superficially, Nazareno and her colleagues will identify weaknesses and goals immediately, and engage in critical self-studies, including analysis of videotaped lessons, at regular intervals throughout the year. To help ensure teachers have the time to dig deeply into their practices, the school will put teacher release time into a larger block of time each week rather than spread it too thinly.

Teacher-led schools are not a new idea: Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and San Francisco are among cities I've heard of that have teacher-led schools. I look forward to hearing about what develops in Denver.

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"I'm not a teacher, but as a parent..."

That's not the type of prefatory statement commonly heard in discussions at an educational conference. The speaker was Sarah Hubbard, of Belmont, California, and when she spoke up, I think every teacher's attention grew a little sharper. There were thirty to forty teachers in the room, and we applauded her for being here and speaking up.

Hubbard is attending the NBPTS Conference, as she attends other conferences, in a professional capacity for her employer, Professional Publications Inc. However, in this particular session on the topic of teacher leadership and promoting National Board Certification, Hubbard spoke up just providing her perspective as a public school parent. Her comment pointed out to us that for the moment, we had overlooked parents as a powerful ally in the effort to bring certification to more teachers in more schools. "If parents were more aware of what this professional development could mean for their kids, they would be demanding it," she remarked.

Speaking to me after the session, Hubbard said she has been around other groups of teachers, but never among a group so passionate about developing leadership and using their influence. However, her observation that we had overlooked parents was instructive.

In order to achieve National Board Certification, teachers must provide evidence that they work effectively with the parents of their students to improve student learning. Talking among ourselves about education policy, however, we sometimes get wrapped up in how we work with other stakeholders and lose sight of parents. If our reflections about teaching practice extend to reflections about leadership practice, then Hubbard has done us a service in prompting some reflection.

With a leadership position of her own in her school's PTA, Hubbard says that she intends to suggest that the PTA support National Board Certification, by providing information, advocacy, and perhaps funding to help candidates. Not only should the teachers in that district appreciate Hubbard's support, but also those teachers from all around the country who benefited from her perspective.

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In educational organizations and discussions, when we're talking about schooling up to high school graduation, we often shorthand the age range as "K-12" and leave out the "PK" - pre-kindergarten, or early childhood education. However, National Board Certification in Early Childhood education does include the first teachers who work with our youngest students.

Michael de la Torre is an NBCT and a bilingual pre-school teacher at Bryson Avenue Elementary in Los Angeles Unified School District (and also a member of the NBPTS Board of Directors). I met him at a Saturday morning conference session about teacher leadership, and I asked him about the status of pre-school teachers in conversations about education and teaching. "I don't feel any big distinction. I just include myself," he replied. He did add, however, that pre-school teachers "keep to ourselves a bit" and end up marginalized. Other people don't understand the educational aspect of the work. "They think we just play all day. I have to validate our work. They don't see the value." The implications of that lack of understanding are that policymakers don't understand the importance of early childhood education and they find themselves on the front end of governmental budget cuts.

Asked about the educational approaches in pre-school, de la Torre said "we assess our children more than anyone. We know our students because we observe and engage with them daily." He also emphasized that pre-school teachers engage and communicate with parents quite a bit, and even offer some parent education that supports children's learning.

Another pre-school teacher in attendance was Jonathan Gillentine of Kanehoe, Hawaii. Gillentine is an NBCT and also serves on the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board. In these two capacities, he is well-versed in the application of quality teaching standards to improve early childhood education; in an upcoming article in Young Children (the journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children), Gillentine argues for expanded National Board Certification among private pre-school teachers. In his experience at NBPTS conferences, Gillentine does not feel marginalized, despite working with a sometimes forgotten age group in a small and remote state. He finds people generally interested in his work and in the unique aspects of education in Hawaii, and adds that networking and connecting is particularly important for him due to the isolation of practitioners in Hawaii.

But then again, that sense of isolation doesn't depend entirely on geography; it can occur whenever we find ourselves too immersed in our own circumstances and localities. Having a National Board, and a national conference, provides a healthy antidote.

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Last night, I finally had my peach cobbler. Ever since I arrived in Atlanta, I've been waiting to enjoy a good peach dessert, but without getting into all the particulars, let's just say it took a while.

I liked it more than the kangaroo burger I ate a few weeks ago in Katoomba, Australia.

Whenever I travel, for work or pleasure, I try my hardest to sample some of the local food, music, and other culturally distinct elements of the place. In addition to the peach cobbler, I've had collard greens, black-eyed peas, and fried okra while in Atlanta. I tried escargot in France and a herring sandwich in Amsterdam, went to listen to country and bluegrass music in Nashville and zydeco in New Orleans. By making some effort to do these things, I return home with memories that help make the place and experience more distinct to me, which is important when you can find identical coffee shops, fast food restaurants and bookstores in metropolitan areas around the world.

Standardization - how far do we want to take this idea? To someone who only thinks casually about this issue, it might seem inconsistent that National Board Certified Teachers embrace teaching standards but have more reservations about certain learning standards - especially those we haven't been invited to help draft, or even see before they come out. The difference is this: we embrace standards that state what we should know how to do, not standards that dictate what to do, how to do it, and when. All teachers should know how to manage a classroom, but our classrooms are too different to standardize the techniques. All teachers should know a variety of approaches to teaching core skills and concepts since not all students learn in the same way, but we don't need standards that reduce the teacher's initiative. All English teachers should know how to teach writing, but we don't all need to dedicate the same amounts of time to teaching the same forms of writing in the same sequence.

Back to the food example, would anyone want national executive chef standards that go beyond skills? Every chef should know a variety of culinary techniques, but do we want to dictate which ones to use? An accomplished chef should know how to adjust a recipe based on available, fresh ingredients or based on customer feedback, but we wouldn't dictate to the chef how to do that.

The localization of education is essential, just like the localization of cuisine, music, and other culture. If students in a fishing community in Maine have access to tide pools and boats, why should they spend the same amount of time studying dinosaurs and geology as children in Colorado? Those students will learn more about science by capitalizing on their local resources. And for students living near a Civil War battlefield, wouldn't it make more sense to do some deeper study of the Civil War, even at the expense of some time that would have otherwise covered the War of 1812?

So, we're not against standards that ensure quality teaching, but many of us are highly concerned about standards that inhibit quality teaching and ignore local opportunities to deepen student learning. If we're not thinking that way, then it seems we don't care if everyone turns out more or less the same.

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I've been struck by the sheer size of our nation today, the complexity and diversity of the United States. I've been talking with people from every region of the country, from Hawaii to Maine, Florida to California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama, and the list goes on. And what really stood out this afternoon was how different our situations are.

Our states vary significantly in terms of the structure and funding of education, and how teachers and students are assessed. In some states teachers are unionized, and in some they're not, and the mythical "union" position on any given issue dissolves when you find out that certain state associations participate in activities that are actively resisted elsewhere. Certain states seem to have everything figured out in one area of education, until you find out things are a mess in some other area.

The lesson I take away from that is never to assume I know it all, and never to assume that anything is impossible. For teacher leaders out there, if you can imagine it, it's probably happening somewhere. Working conditions and organizational structures become so entrenched they seem like they've always been there and always will be - but there are other ways. Change is possible. Change happens. So develop your network, expand your outreach and your vision, and find out what you need to know to make a difference in your state or in your school.

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Today's luncheon panel at the NBPTS Conference included two principals from schools in or near our host city, Atlanta. Both gentlemen, Shannon Flounnory and Darian Jones, lead schools that have made broad use of Take One! - an introductory version of National Board Certification - as a professional growth and school improvement strategy. They were able to cite multiple measures of the impressive results for students that followed from having their teachers engage in a genuine learning community, doing work based on National Board Standards.

Here are some of the notes and quotes I took from their talk, in which they both described how they have implemented effective principal leadership techniques that improve teaching and learning, building the capacity of their staffs.

Shannon Flounnory decided that if all staff members at Stonewall Tell Elementary School were going to do Take One!, then he would do so as well. We're talking not only about a principal simply doing some teaching, but submitting his teaching to rigorous evaluation, acting as a model for his staff. He rearranged the school schedule to optimize teachers' ability to work and learn together. Staff meetings have been replaced with learning time dedicated to analysis and reflection; the dissemination of information that often occurs at staff meetings has been relegated to email distribution. In those study sessions, when teachers review data and find kids are struggling, Flounnory states that it is the responsibility of the whole school to address those needs.

Darian Jones went through some similar steps at Carver Health Sciences and Research High School (known as The Lab), and added that he sees part of his role as being a "filter" for teachers. He helped his staff work on Take One by "shielding" them from the district-based version of professional development. You could even say he shielded teachers from himself - in a good way: "I needed to get out of the way and let the people who knew what they were doing go ahead and do it." Jones promotes teacher learning as he probably would facilitate student learning: he observed that too often in education, we differentiate for students, but not for teachers.

Principals have a difficult job, with demands and responsibilities coming from many directions. Flounnory and Jones sound like two principals who have managed to focus effectively on the role of being instructional leaders. Here's hoping that their practices, which seem rather exceptional today, will gradually become more common.

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"Research says…"

How often have you heard that phrase tossed about? As teachers, we certainly want good information about how to help our students and our profession, but too often, we struggle with the gap between what “research says” and what we experience in our own schools and classrooms.

Friday morning of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 2009 Conference kicked off with a panel of National Board Certified Teachers discussing a report they helped write. Measuring What Matters was commissioned by NBPTS and published last year by the Center for Teaching Quality, (parent organization of Teacher Leaders Network). In their review of all the available research on NBPTS, these teacher authors found, (as did the National Research Council study published at about the same time) that National Board Certification does identify accomplished teaching.

However, of greater concern to this morning's panelists is the fact that researchers tend to rely on inferior indicators of student learning. The panel was introduced and moderated by CTQ President Barnett Berry, and included NBCTs Nancy Flanagan, Andy Kuemmel, and Patrick Ledesma. Flanagan pointed out that part of the problem specific to this body of research is that investigators don't always have a complete understanding of the certification process, which may compromise their interpretation of their findings. Then, standardized test scores are often treated as if they tell us more than they do, and debates ensue sometimes with total disregard for the actual design of the test and its intended purpose. All of those flaws led to the challenge from the panel and their co-authors, to measure what matters.

Audience member Christy Khan, an NBCT and doctoral student at the University of Kansas, has seen both sides of the research-practice divide. She described the problem as a gap between the quantitative terms preferred by researchers and the qualitative terms preferred by most teachers. The question posed by Khan was what specific measures of student learning could be used. The panel did not delve into details about the issue, but Ledesma was quite firm in reiterating a key point: the problem of finding quality data for broad research to measure real student learning is the researchers’ problem, not the teachers'. If they settle for limited and compromised data, they should be honest with themselves and others about those limitations.

This is a topic that I’ve written about in the past as well. When it comes to test score analysis, there is a tendency towards gross oversimplification that ignores the almost countless factors in student performance, some that can barely be identified, and most of which cannot be controlled for research purposes.

Another concern in the policy arena is whether or not NBCTs can improve high-needs schools. Reformers who suggest simply picking up NBCTs and dropping them in different schools miss the point, Nancy Flanagan noted. The problem of few NBCTs in the neediest schools is a reflection of the working conditions in those schools. Simply changing the teachers won’t solve the underlying problems, and I hope I’m correct in sensing a growing consensus around the idea of “growing your own” when it comes to developing a quality teaching force. Good teachers don’t just arrive as finished products to start work; they start off with a certain potential and either thrive or struggle in large part based on the circumstances in which they find themselves.

But thankfully, the overall tone of the morning was not about generating anger towards researchers and policymakers. Yes, the frustration is there, but the panelists made it a point to stress what teachers should do to improve the situation. Suggestions included having teachers speak directly to researchers, form partnerships, conduct action research, take on leadership positions throughout education, and even run for public office. Kuemmel summarized it this way: “Don’t wait for something to happen. You have to make it happen.”

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Before flying out to Atlanta, I asked a number of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) who aren't attending the conference to share their thoughts about the event and the organization. The cost of travel was naturally one impediment, while other teachers had to make choices about which learning opportunity to take and ended up at other programs this week. Most teachers who replied to my queries would have liked to attend, but some feel little connection to the National Board after certifying.

There's that idea again - all dressed up with with nowhere to go. But maybe some change is coming; there are projects underway to provide NBCTs with outlets for leadership and advocacy. Jolynn Tarwater is an NBCT from Maryland who was been working for the past year to try build up the NBCT Link. This online resource can serve as a discussion board, a place for groups to organize, and an avenue for increased communication between the Board and teachers. With a document library and a calendar function, NBCT Link could be an effective tool for teachers looking for tools to support their leadership efforts. However, Tarwater had hoped to see more teachers online. Those who are using it most tend to be recently certified, she says, though she has been able to boost participation somewhat by encouraging discussion of news items found in the the Accomplished Teacher news summary email provided by SmartBrief.

Terese Emry is another NBCT trying to boost teacher leadership. She is the Associate Director of The Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP), in Washington state. The Center has run workshops that train teachers to craft an effective message for a particular audience such as the media, a school board, or state legislators. This kind of direct political advocacy and action from the grassroots level represents a shift for many teachers who might look at the complexities of policy and budget and feel powerless, thinking I'm just a teacher. But with a little guidance and practice, teachers can be quite effective advocates. "A teacher leader has a specific, unique voice," Emry says. "When decisions are made about schools, teacher should be in the room. They have that lens – what does this mean for real teachers and kids?”

These workshops have been so successful that CSTP now receives calls from the media and government asking for referrals to speak with classroom teachers about various issues. Emry relates with great satisfaction the story of one teacher leader who faced some challenges from a legislator in a committee hearing, but held her own and helped move the committee to adopt her position in its subsequent report.

And in the past few years, with the help of CSTP, Washington has seen tremendous growth in National Board Certification. In 2008, the state raised its number of NBCTs by 89%, with half of its NBCTs in high-needs schools. The percentage of NBCTs in the state teaching force is over 5%, more than double the rate for the nation.

It's also worth noting that this teacher leadership initiative has succeeded in partnership with the Washington Educators Association (WEA, an NEA affiliate) and the state office for education. WEA was represented at this conference by Jim Meadows, and the state office by Michaela Miller, who has teamed with Emry to deliver a Grassroots Advocacy Training for NBCTs in Florida, California, and Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA.

It's encouraging to see NBPTS and other organizations stepping up to ensure that teacher leadership becomes more distributed, and at the same time more central to education policymaking. We've needed this growth for a long time, and must continue to build our leadership capacity. I issue that challenge not only to NBPTS and other teacher organizations, but to the would-be teacher leaders out there (including me) who have waited too long for invitations rather than seeking out or creating opportunities.

Posted by David B. Cohen at 11:17 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

Tectonic plates are colliding under the ocean of knowledge and information, and a tsunami is coming that will radically change the face of education as we know it. That was the message that Tom Welch delivered in today's opening session of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 2009 Conference and Exhibition.

Welch (seen here talking to Michelle Johnson) set out to affirm and inspire the National Board Certified Teachers in attendance, and also warned us ahead of time that he intended to challenge us. As someone who likes a challenge, I sat up a bit straighter in my seat when he said that - then tried not to sink back down too far as I heard what the challenge is.

First, the tsunami. The "plates" in question are technology, common standards and assessments, and a movement towards "performance-based credentialing" for students. In other words, if a student has mastered what needs to be mastered in a course before the school year is done, they move up to the next level, and conversely, if a student needs more time than the school year allows, let them continue working towards satisfactory performance rather than letting the calendar close the door on learning.

Borrowing from Jeff Jarvis's What Would Google Do?, Welch passed along his two key take-away ideas: "the age of the middleman is dead," and "focus on what you do best, outsource the rest."

Having outlined how many different ways students can obtain information and interact with the world directly through information technology, Welch then asked, "So, who's the middleman in education?" There was no need for him to solicit responses, or answer the question the question himself. There was a palpable "uh- oh" kind of reaction among audience members.

But Welch is not suggesting teachers are obsolete. Far from it. The second idea is the key - focus on what you do best. Amid all of the web applications and the personal electronic devices, the ways we work need to change; but teachers are irreplaceable because the core of the work is still there. We still need to know our students and how they learn, create the opportunities for that learning to happen, and monitor the results.

From what I could gather and overhear, those in attendance were receptive to the message and open to the challenge. Our collective "uh-oh" came with a smile. And that's the way it should be among National Board Certified Teachers: self-assessment and critical reflection are central to our certification. The hard part for me in a situation like this is seeing the gap. We have a long way to go in many schools and classrooms, including mine. The value of Welch's challenge is that it offers a vision and a frame for thought that can guide the small steps that will take years for me to implement.

Some schools and classrooms may look like they're further along, but Welch suggested a second look to make sure that our vision of the future is not just an electronic version of the past. Computers and multi-media resources have great potential, but when they just guide children through their text books without capitalizing on more than sound and images, they haven't really moved very far. Smart boards are tools with great potential, but are we using them simply as digital chalkboards? Are students learning to use them, or are they sitting in quiet rows as passive observers of their teachers' use of technology?

We need to have our heads up and our vision clear, and stay loose, because when that tsunami rolls in, we're going to be swimming in some rapidly shifting waters.

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