October 2009 Archives

Recently, as I sat in the waiting room of the dentist's office, my past flashed before my eyes. On the table across the room, there was a magazine that held pictures which so titillated me as a child I could still recall details from them as adult. Unfortunately, the little kid in the red t-shirt was faster; he beat me to the Highlights Magazine and I got stuck with a six month old Newsweek. I went to the chair having never had a chance to linger over the hidden objects picture puzzle.

Way back in the day, Weekly Reader and Highlights were my favorite periodicals, so I was curious to see if they still even vaguely resembled the editions I remember. After further investigation, I'm happy to report that both are alive and well, in print and online. I'm even more pleased that Highlights looks almost exactly like it did half a century ago when I was eight years old -- complete with my favorite, the hidden objects picture puzzle. And do you know what? It's still a darn good feature.

The instructions for the hidden object puzzle are simple. You are given a list of items to find that are "hidden" in a very busy line drawing. From a metacognitive perspective, it's an interesting task. You have to deal with lots of input into the working memory while searching for critical information. You know what to look for, but if you visualize, you run the risk of constructing false knowledge. If the list says, candlestick, which candlestick is the right one? A saucer and thumb-loop kind? Tall? Short? Decorative? Simple? To draw on your recollection of multiple images of candlesticks while searching the puzzle is actually pretty complex. Of course, you could always peek at the isolated pictures on a back page, but I always thought that was sort of cheating.

Last week, TM featured a story on Highlights Magazine's State of the Kid survey. The sample was composed of about 850 survey respondents who self-identified as Highlight readers, which presents an obvious bias, so it may not have been the most sophisticated research tool, but I'm guessing the results may still be representative of the general American kid population. The survey tells us that kids worry about school, they wish they had more time to play, they have to do chores, they value their friends, and many would like to have more of their parents' attention. But the most interesting question and response came in the wrap up:

"What should grown-ups know about being a kid today?"--[it] elicited some perplexing results. The top two responses, which comprised more than 50 percent of the total, were "Being a kid is hard" (28.9 percent) and "Being a kid is fun" (21.3 percent).

It's not unlike answers teachers offered in another survey for another day. We'll talk about Teaching for a Living: How Teachers See the Profession Today next week. Meanwhile, if you too have a hankering for a good old Highlights hidden pictures puzzle, they're now available as an iPhone app!

Posted by Susan Graham at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The Wall Street Journal headline read Obama Wins a Battle as a Teachers' Union Shows Flexibility. The story went on to say that

A showdown between the White House and the powerful teachers' unions looks, for the moment, a little less likely.

Under pressure from the Education Department, the country's two powerful teachers unions, Ms. Weingarten's AFT and the larger National Education Association, are already budging in ways that were previously unthinkable.

It is also noteworthy that the AFT seems almost as pleased with New Haven as Mr. Duncan.

The Education Week headline read Teacher Contract Called Potential Model for the Nation and went on to say

This week in New Haven, Conn., the local teachers union agreed, in a 21-1 vote, to changes widely resisted by unions elsewhere, including tough performance evaluations and fewer job protections for bad teachers.

Here are some of the issues addressed by the new contract:

A committee of union representatives, district representatives and parents will make recommendations on the best ways to measure student growth. It will consider growth in test scores, as well as other measures of achievement.

Tier III schools will be reconstituted with new leadership and staff members. Teachers will have to reapply for their jobs, and principals will select the teachers to be hired. These schools would also be freed up from most contract provisions.

The take away message seems to be that stakeholders are working together to develop multiple criteria assessments, to compensate the highest performing teachers, to support struggling teachers, to acknowledge that school success is a joint effort, to give successful schools autonomy and to broaden unrestricted restructuring of ineffective schools. There is a modest 3% annual salary increase.

These are two stories about one event with divergent messages. The Journal saw a battle with winners and losers. EdWeek saw consensus among stakeholders. There is agreement that teacher quality is the critical factor in student success. The question is whether cooperation or coercion is the most effective way to achieve that goal.

In terms of readership, Education Week is a David to the Wall Street Journal's Goliath. The Journal has apparently decided that if good teachers are the missing link, then practicing teachers must be the weak link. We see evidence in another Journal editorial, How Teacher Unions Lost the Media, where Whitmire and Rotherham propose that
.

..in the past it was difficult to measure teacher performance. But now, as a result of data collected under No Child Left Behind provisions, it is easier to figure out which teachers are succeeding. "Data and results are challenging an industry that was traditionally driven by hope, hype and good intentions," says Jane Hannaway, the director of education policy at the Urban Institute. Ms. Hannaway argues that in the long run these emerging databases may be the most important dividend of today's school accountability policies.

I'm pretty sure that the majority of successful teachers put a pretty high value on hope and good intentions. What parent would want their child to be in a classroom that lacked either? On the other hand, teachers often resist the push toward "data-driven instruction" because they understand that data is only information -- not answers. Its dependability is relative to the validity of research questions, designs, and conclusions. Data may reveal that students who use mechanical pencils outperform those using #2 pencils on standardized tests. It is possible, based on that data, to conclude that mechanical pencils are a critical factor in student learning. Acquisition of mechanical pencils could be promoted as a school improvement initiative.

Test score data is an "easier" way to measure teacher performance, but easier is not synonymous with more reliable or more informative. New Haven set a new standard in contract negotiation because there was mutual respect and cooperation that addressed the contribution of teachers as colleagues, as leaders, and as part of the decision making team. Teachers don't resist accountability, but they do resist inappropriate and inequitable measurements of teacher performance.

"It's always been hard to get rid of bad teachers," says Linda Perlstein, public editor for the national Education Writers Association. "But now people are realizing it doesn't have to be, especially at a time they're hanging onto their own jobs with their fingertips."

Yes, and it's always been hard to recruit and retain good teachers. And it's going to be harder still when teachers are vilified as the problem even as they are being identified as the solution. Scapegoating teacher unions and teachers may be easier for the media than to really "figure out which teachers are succeeding," but it is a simplistic response that lacks journalistic integrity, snuffs out hope, and it makes it pretty clear that good intentions matter less than flashy headlines.

Posted by Susan Graham at 2:13 AM | Permalink | 7 Comments | Recommend

Earlier this week I sat in a professional development class with teachers from across my district. One of the best things about this sort of event is getting to spend time with other teachers talking about our classrooms and our practice. My elbow partners were a good friend from my own school and an elementary teacher who is one of the most intentionally positive people I've ever met. Of course there was the obligatory "ice breaker" where we paired and shared bits about ourselves both professionally and personally. For the "something I like to do for leisure" response, Jacke smiled and said "I like to clean and I'm really good at it." She laughingly admitted that she might be a little obsessive/compulsive about it, but that cleaning gave her a sense of control. "Of course,"she added "my kids at school make a pretty big mess of the classroom. Sometimes it bugs me, but hey, it's not my room, it's theirs."

I've thought a lot about who classrooms and schools belong to in the last week of so. I thought about that each morning when my seventh graders, who are working on a project walked into the room, got out their supplies and quietly and efficiently took care of business until it was time to clean up.The classroom was their workplace and I was there as an on-site consultant and that's about as good as teaching can get. Good teachers know that the classrooms belong to the students who populate them because the children have taken ownership of their own learning.

Because I live in the shadow of Washington, D.C. I've thought a lot about how of the current problems in DC schools is about power struggles among adults who ought to know better. There's a mess in too many of the classrooms of DC schools; but the kids didn't make it. It's a mess made by grownups who can't seem to move beyond power struggles that continue to spin out of control, creating a vacuum that sucks the life out of everyone involved and leaving lost opportunities. Like Thing One and Thing Two, the grown ups dabble in this and that and then whoosh out the door leaving the kids behind amid the mess.

Michelle Rhee, who has been chancellor for just over two years is determined to fix D.C. schools. She is a firm believer in the importance of the classroom teacher and has made it clear that she'll do whatever she has to improve the quality of education in a system that is heartbreakingly dysfunctional and that is laudable. But as she closes schools, and fires principals and teachers her decision making process lacks transparency; she displays a tendency to be dismissive of any dissenting opinions; and she often seems unnecessarily rude and almost intentionally combative.

The Washington Teacher's Union maintains that its members have been committed to student learning in DC schools for a long time and that Rhee has an agenda of removing career teachers and replacing them with Teach for America and New Teacher Project short termers who are true believers of her philosophy and bargains at the bottom of the salary scale. They point out that the years and layers of administrative problems in DC schools were not of their making. They argue that there has always been a procedure in place for dismissing incompetent teachers but administrators were negligent in implement those policies. They question why Rhee invested in an extensive new IMPACT teacher evaluation tool but dismissed teachers without any clear criteria. While WTU makes no apology for the making the welfare of its members their priority, the interests of members are poorly served by protecting incompetency. At the same time, there have been too many instances where union representatives have protected adults at the expense of children and have been distracted from their professional responsibilities by political gamesmanship.

I'm not so naive as to think the chancellor and the union are going to walk hand in hand into the sunset, but they should be allies. They do, after all, share a common goal of education children and they both risk loss of face and control through lack of cooperation that results in student progress. Instead there is accusation, disparagement, disrespect, disruption, disillusionment, and damaged lives. . I don't pretend to know whether the DC budget crisis was contrived; if the teachers who were dismissed were removed with good reason; if the WTU is being obtuse; if Chancellor is acting in good faith; or if the City Council and the mayor are manipulating the situation. But I do know this much, McKinley High School students have learned some rather disturbing lessons this week:

"You always hear stories about how dirty politics is. Now I have some personal experience."

"Im tired of always being somebody's pawn or guinea pig."

Maybe the policymakers could use a little professional development lesson.

"Hey, it's not your classroom, it's theirs."

Posted by Susan Graham at 2:25 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

I walk my last class back down the sixth grade hall at 2:40 and if I really hustle I can go to the bathroom, gather up a set of papers to grade, and still make it to the back stairwell before first load bus riders are dismissed. For the next half hour or so, I'm on hall duty, monitoring the departure of the eighth graders. Every teacher knows that supervision is an integral part of teaching. From the time they get off the bus to the time they go home, we keep a close watch over our kids at my school coming and going and in between.

But at the end of the day, we load them on to the bus and send them home to empty houses and apartments. Far too many of our children spend long, unstructured afternoon hours without a grown up around; and while Hollywood cashed in on the idea as hilarious, there is actually nothing funny about the number of middle school students who go Home Alone. Education Week reported that

Roughly 15 million school-age children are left unattended after school--up from 14 million in 2004, says a report released Tuesday by the Washington-based Afterschool Alliance.

One might surmise that most of these children are economically disadvantaged, but they are not. It seems dealing with the latchkey child issue is an equal opportunity problem for working parents. On Sunday, I read the confession of a Washington Post staff writer who shared the dilemma of what to do about the after school supervision of her own middle school son. At eleven he is too old for day care, but she realizes that he is still rather young to face the afternoon alone. Her situation is not unusual. Parents who have always been thoughtful and careful about childcare arrangements are often stymied when their children reach middle school because most after school care is designed for elementary age children.

Often with great concern and guilt, parents grudgingly give their middle schoolers a key, make them promise to call the minute they get in the door, and send them home alone. But research indicates that

The afternoon hours are the peak time for juvenile crime. In the last 11 years, juvenile crime has increased 48%. The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development found that 8th graders who are alone 11 hours a week are twice as likely to abuse drugs as adolescents who are busy after school. The Council also found that teens who have sexual intercourse do it in the afternoon in the home of boys whose parents work. Unsupervised children are more likely to become depressed, smoke cigarettes and marijuana and drink alcohol. They are also more likely to be the victims of crimes. When home alone latchkey children generally watch television, eat snacks, play with pets and fight with siblings.

While most parents would prefer their children be supervised, finding an after school care solution for older kids isn't easy. According to the Afterschool Alliance, parents want their kids to enjoy the program, for it to be conveniently located, and for it be affordable, in that order. But middle schoolers don't enjoy being supervised unless it is by choice and unless it is purposeful supervision. As a result, there is a huge demand for after school sports, performing arts, tutoring and enrichment classes that are delivered as an extension of the school day. Because, what could be a more convenient and what could be more economical than supervision than just having them stay at school for some structured activity?

While some argue that in house afterschool programs distract from the educational mission of school; others support an extended day as a viable tool to enhance student learning. But an extended day makes heavy demands on limited school resources and requires thoughtful design. Of course it is expensive. It has logistical complications. But perhaps most problematic is staffing. If the kids stay at school, who will be there with them? Most teachers sincerely care about their students, but they also care about their own children and a twelve hour day, regardless of compensation, is just not realistic.

Even if there were unlimited personnel and unlimited funds, in-house after school programs are not the answer for all middle schoolers. What about those adolescents who don't make the team or don't want to be in the band or drama club or yearbook staff or any other organized activity offered at school? What about the child who is not an extrovert and who really needs quiet time after six hours at school? What about the one who needs some help with homework? What about the twelve year old who goes home to the responsibility of caring for younger siblings? What about the one spends the afternoon alone, locked inside, because the neighborhood, where there are lots of latchkey kids, is a breeding ground for bullying and peer pressure?

I wouldn't want this to get around, but I sort of enjoy afternoon hall duty. Secretly I love watching the spontaneity of kids who laugh too loud and act a little silly. They jump down the last three steps or break into run the minute they hit the door; and even when I have to say, "Hold it down!" or "I heard that!" or "Go back up the stairs and come back down again and this time walk, please!" I envy their boundless energy. I admit savoring the gossipy "OMG, Mrs. G, you will not believe.." or "Guess what I made on my Algebra test?" or "I am going to be so busted!" as they confide the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat of early adolescence.

In the back stairwell, I keep a watch out for anger, anxiety, tension, and over-excitement because thirteen-year-olds may look like young adults, but they are still children on the inside. They lack the maturity required to self regulate without any support and it is often an unfair burden to transfer onto their shoulders. After seven hours of constant structure and supervision, being turned loose to go home alone is often it's more freedom than they can handle. Sometimes they need a grownup as a touchstone with whom to connect with on the way out the door because sometimes freedom's just another word for nothing else to lose. And I worry, that when their home alone, some of them are in danger of losing it.

Posted by Susan Graham at 1:39 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

The headline reads, More 'Progress,' Less Play-Doh. An area superintendent wrote kindergarten parents explaining that the school system

"...is committed to providing each child with the essential skills and knowledge he or she needs to succeed. Fulfillment of this goal must begin at an early age. The kindergarten curriculum is designed to engage children in the learning process, provide them with a sense of accomplishment and help them understand the value of what they are learning."

Translation: The essential skills and knowledge that 5-year olds need are not going to be found in finger paint, puzzles, the home living center, or outdoor play. But a daily dose of test prep will help them succeed, giving them a sense of accomplishment. Boy, if that won't make a little kid understand the value of what they are learning, I don't know what will!

Closer to home, another school system has parents up in arms about recess. A school scheduling consultant was brought in to help tweak elementary school performance. His advice: squeeze in a little more test prep by cutting the unstructured recess for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in half, down to fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes of free play, twenty minutes for lunch, and two bathroom breaks a day at five minutes each is an inefficient loss of of time on task. For a 9-year old, preparation for life long learning may look a lot like a life sentence. Even prison inmates get yard time.

Our poor kids! We're running them ragged without ever letting them go outside and run around. However, there's now research that indicates that maybe we could maximize performance by having them run more. Better yet, having them run faster! In a real world flashback to The Secret of NIMH, there is a new study that indicates that structured "running can push intellectual development." In Taiwan, researchers found that mice that exercise on little mouse wheels seem to think more than those who do not get physical activity. Furthermore, experimental mice that are put on tiny little treadmills that force them to run harder and increase their rodent exertion rates demonstrate still greater thinking activity. The conclusion: "Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more."

I didn't take time to investigate exactly how mouse thinking was quantified. Nor did I check to see if the researchers have any interest in qualitative research regarding what the mice thought about. But it did occur to me that someone somewhere is likely develop a new education initiative to have kindergarteners training for marathons to ensure that no child is left behind physically or intellectually.

The problem is that you can collect data to drive almost any decision for school. Basing it on data isn't enough, the data have to be viewed in context. Now if the premise is that life is a rat race and the responsibility of public education is to ensure that no child gets left behind in that rat race, then this is the kind of data that should drive instructional decision making. On the other hand, if the beginning premise is that educating children involves nurturing their physical, emotional, and social development as well as their intellectual development, then a clearer perspective might be gained from looking at an overview of data from an ERIC Digest titled Recess in Elementary School: What Does the Research Say?

• Experimental research on memory and attention (e.g., Toppino, Kasserman, & Mracek, 1991) found that recall is improved when learning is spaced rather than presented all at once. Their findings are compatible with what is known about brain functioning: that attention requires periodic novelty, that the brain needs downtime to recycle chemicals crucial for long-term memory formation, and that attention involves 90- to 110-minute cyclical patterns throughout the day (Jensen, 1998).

• If children do not have the opportunity to be active during the school day, they do not tend to compensate after school. Experimental research found that children were less active after school on days when they had no recess and PE classes in school (Dale, Corbin, & Dale, 2000)

Ah, but it's just not as good of a sound bite as:

Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more.

Pushing kids harder, physically or mentally, might get short term results because, as legendary marathoner Clarence DeMar put it, many will "run like hell and get the agony over with."

It's not a bad idea if you think life is a rat race, but it's no way to treat our children.

Posted by Susan Graham at 1:14 AM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend