September 2010 Archives

Doug Johnson shares many educators' skepticism of standardized test scores as a meaningful gauge of student learning and (especially) teacher effectiveness. But, given that schools realistically need to show some form of measureable output, he questions why educators haven't come up with an "alternative means means of assessing effectiveness." In particular, he wonders why we've haven't seen some sort of coordinated effort to quantify the results of more formative and varied types of classroom assessments:

I have always been a big fan of authentic assessment tools to measure student performance. Checklists, rubrics, conferences, etc. help kids improve and achieve mastery. Correctly designed, they can be objective and result in some form of numerical data.

What I've not seen is a classroom, building or district aggregate this data to produce a score for groups of students. Such aggregation would result in both meaning and reliability.

It's an interesting point, I think. Teachers generally seem to value the types of assessments Johnson refers to. Can they be quantified in any systematic way, for broader consumption? Is it a matter (so to speak) of teachers putting their money where their mouth is?

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When you think of 100-student lectures, chances are your mind will flash back to a course you took as a freshman in college. But one middle school in Texas is looking to change that by incorporating the college-style lecture format into their curriculum, according to the Houston Chronicle.

At Thomas Middle School in south Houston, each class has an average of 75 students, with anywhere between five to nine teachers moderating the lesson. One teacher will take the "lead" role, while the others help struggling students or chime in on the side. The classes are taking place in two converted band rooms, the auditorium, and the school's library.

"How is it that one college professor can teach a classroom of 600, but in K through 12 that can't happen?" asked new principal Lannie Milon Jr., upon arriving at the Houston Independent School District in July.

Milon's plan for college-style classes for met with plenty of opposition from his teachers at first, but many appear to be coming around. They have come to appreciate the flexibility the format offers. If one teacher excels at teaching fractions, for example, he or she can take over the lesson for a day, and the entire class doesn't have to stop to handle disciplinary problems.

"In the beginning, we felt like he was invading our privacy. We're used to having our own area. It's gotten better and better everyday," said teacher Tereva Wright.

H/T to Teacher Twitter follower writediteach.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In a review of "Waiting for Superman," Time's Richard Corliss defends director Davis Guggenheim from the ire of public school teachers:

But a documentary movie is not a dry treatise; certainly this one isn't. Guggenheim wants to start conversations, debates, elevated arguments--to get people thinking about a crucial problem whose solution has eluded Presidents and parents of the past half-century.

In a similar vein, Dan Brown, who teaches at one of the successful charter schools featured in the film, describes some of the practices that make the school work—the main take-away being that the administration gives its teachers a great deal of autonomy and support.

Pivoting off Brown's post, Bill Ferriter points out the apparent irony, from a policy-making point of view:

We're so willing to celebrate charter schools but we're unable--or unwilling--to ensure that public school teachers have the same kinds of working conditions and opportunities. How does THAT make sense?

Meanwhile, after seeing just the preview of "Waiting for Superman," a "seething" Cindi Rigsbee urges public school teachers to set the record straight:

Let's make our own movies. Grab a video camera and record a success story, a student talking about the public school experience that kept him in school, another talking about the teacher who made a difference. Let's edit all the clips together and make our own movie - Superman is HERE. I have my camera ready? Do you?

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Miss Eyre fesses up to a subversive act: teaching a lesson on the mechanics of writing. She even—for shame!—circled students' errors on their papers and drilled them on the proper use of puncuation marks. She repents:

I know. I'm a terrible teacher. I'm supposed to assume that my students will magically figure out the rules of the conventions of the English language simply by being wide-eyed ingenues before the great literature of the world and writing about their lives, this despite the fact that relatively few of them have learned any great life lessons at their tender ages. This is what I'm supposed to do.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

As promised, NBC held a press conference this afternoon to address educators' concerns about an apparent lack of teacher representation in the networks upcoming Education Nation event, which kicks off this Sunday.

In general, the NBC executives who spoke at the presser—NBC News President Steve Capus and NBC President of Strategic Initiatives Lisa Gersh—suggested that reports of teachers being overlooked by event organizers have been exaggerated, or not fully informed. They stressed that, as part of Education Nation, the network wil be hosting a Teacher Town Hall on Sun., Sept. 26. This event will be aired live on MSNBC, educationnation.com, and msnbc.com, and teachers will also have the chance to participate in a live chat on educationnation.com. (You can register here for the live chat.) In an earlier reply to teacher Brian Crosby, an NBC official explained that the organizers decided on holding the Teacher Town Hall on a Sunday so that working teachers could watch it live and participate in the discussion.

At the actual Education Nation summit, which will be held Monday, Sept. 27 and Tuesday, Sept. 28, at NYC's Rockefeller Center, 35 of the 275 attendees will be teachers, according to Gersh. When one reporter asked how NBC decided upon the teacher attendees, Gersh responded: "The teachers were solicited through both of the unions, through a variety of different groups, but, independent of the Dept. of Ed., Teachers of the Year were part of that solicitation as well."

Not all of the 35 teachers will be panelists on one of the 12 Education Nation panels, however. Some will be there just as attendees.

Capus tried to sum up NBC's position on Education Nation by saying that "NBC News [personnel] are not the experts in this place. ...the role of a news organization is to put a spotlight on these issues/challenges, and on the people who are doing incredibly strong work to try to affect change. The news division's involvement begins and ends with that spotlight. We're not coming at this from a policy angle."

We also learned that Matt Lauer will be holding a half-hour, one-on-one interview with President Obama about educational issues during the Today Show on Monday, September 27. You can submit your questions for Pres. Obama here.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In an impassioned open letter to California's education leaders republished on the Washington Post's Answer Sheet blog, English teacher David Cohen points out eight real-life scenarios that he believes call into question the effectiveness of value-added teacher-evaluation models.

In essence, Cohen argues that real-world factors often muddle the picture that value-added systems proport to furnish. How, he wonders, would a value-added system account for the fact that he has a new principal this year, especially considering research showing that inexperienced leaders tend to lower school performance? And what about the fact that, due to scheduling changes, he now teachers more of his classes in the morning—when sleepy teenagers are not known to be at their sharpest?

"Since half of my classes are now in the morning instead of the afternoon, please suggest a formula for the expected change in my effectiveness as measured on student tests," Cohen asks of his readers.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last week, we highlighted teacher-author Brian Crosby's concerns about the apparent lack of teacher representation in NBC's upcoming "Education Nation" special. Teacherken (among other bloggers) also chimed in, arguing that NBC's scheduled speakers for the event "lack any real knowledge about education, or are well known for pushing a particular view of education to the exclusion of any other."

The controversy has since taken a life its own, with many teachers expressing disappointment and frustration—not to say outrage—on Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, there's now even Facebook group called "Miseducation Nation".

Well, it appears NBC is taking the backlash pretty seriously. We've just received information that tomorrow, at 2 p.m. ET, NBC News President Steve Capus and NBC's President of Strategic Initiatives Lisa Gersh will hold a press conference at the National Press Club to speak about Education Nation special. Reportedly, much of the conference will be dedicated towards addressing many of these concerns from teachers.

We'll follow up when we have more.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The writers of the L.A. Times found themselves in a strange journalistic setting last week: reporting on a protest outside of their own building.

Hundreds of educators of the Los Angeles Unified School District took to the streets to protest the controversial value-added series the Times began publishing back in August. The series attempted to use statistics to analyze the performance of thousands of elementary school teachers.

"Teachers are more than a test score," said United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy, according to the Times.

The Times reports: "Tuesday's protest was organized by United Teachers Los Angeles. In recent days, Duffy has left recorded [phone] messages at teachers' homes, urging them to attend the rally to protest the articles that he described as an attack on teachers and their profession. Duffy has also called for a boycott of the newspaper."

A number of teachers quoted in the Times' article felt that the newspaper's value-added series was unfair in their portrayal of teachers.

"I feel, in a way, betrayed," said Lee Bartoletti of Ivanhoe Elementary School in Silver Lake, to the Times. "The Times has reneged on its mission of telling the truth."

Update: (Nora Fleming)

In the wake of the heavily debated and divisive Los Angeles Times' series, "Grading the Teachers: Who's Teaching L.A.'s Kids," which publicized the school evaluations of 6,000 LAUSD teachers as a means of gauging teacher impact on student performance, University of California, Berkeley, is hosting a forum titled, "Grading the Teachers: Measures, Media and Policies."

Participating panelists include experts in the fields of education and journalism (including Teacher's own blogger Anthony Cody) who will speak to whether the performance analysis used by the L.A. Times to evaluate teachers is an effective means of assessment, particularly in determining overall impacts to student achievement.

The forum hosts add, "While President Obama's administration has made a priority of compensating teachers, at least in part, for their performance, a big part of the controversy is the evaluation method that the L.A. Times used in its analysis and whether the paper did enough to make the readers aware of the limitations of the 'value-added' approach it employed."

Held on Sept. 27, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (PST) the forum will be streamed live as well as archived on the website a few days following the event. If you're in the area, "Grading the Teachers" will be held in Banatao Auditorium, 310 Sutardja Dai Hall on campus.

Background on the panelists and info on the current debate is available.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

H/T to Bill Turque of the Washington Post for noticing some questionable last-minute campaigning from D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who lost the Democratic primary for mayor to Vincent Gray on Tuesday. (Considering the District's heavy Democratic lean, Gray is now a virtual lock to become the next mayor.)

According to Turque, the Fenty campaign began calling Washington Post reporters on Monday (as in, the day before the election), asking if anyone had written about D.C.'s $75 million Race to the Top grant potentially being jeopardized by the election of Gray. (They had already written about it.)

On Monday afternoon, Turque saw a Tweet from the Fenty campaign's official Twitter page, Fenty 2010: "A thought: DC's Race to the Top's $75 million will be lost if anything is changed in #Fenty & #Rhee's education reform plan. Vote for 4 more."

Count Turque as one who was skeptical about Fenty's message. He wrote: "Difficult to know what "anything" means although it's hard to imagine that all $75 million would be off the table for minor tweaks, as the message implies."

Our EW colleague, Dakarai Aarons, wrote up a comprehensive summary of what may lie ahead for Rhee, now that Gray has beaten Fenty. Dakarai will be interviewing Rhee later today, so check back on his blog later for updates.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Educator Brian Crosby is wondering aloud about the inclusion—or lack thereof—of teachers in NBC's upcoming Education Nation special:

Do you see any irony in the fact that none of the "experts" (speakers) are teachers, students or parents? (Much less many of them?) Could that be part of the problem in American education that "sponsors", corporations, news people, administrators and others have a prominent voice in education, but all the REAL stakeholders are, "thrown a bone" so that they can participate if they are lucky to be chosen based on their "application" so they can talk during a show at noon on Sunday during football and baseball playoff season? Gee thanks.

For anyone who's been following our Teacher bloggers, Crosby's line of questioning may sound like a familiar refrain. Nancy Flanagan, Anthony Mullen, and Anthony Cody have all blogged about the failure to include teachers in education-reform discussions.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In Time magazine's most recent annual National Service Issue, which came out this week, John Cloud's article, "How to Recruit Better Teachers," questions whether the teaching profession has become "paid volunteer work," luring many recent elite university graduates or middle-aged professionals dissatisfied with their current careers to perform national public service rather than commit to teaching as a profession.

Programs like Teach for America and the New Teacher Project, among others, have provided many people the means to teach without going through a traditional teacher certification training process or education school, Cloud reports.

"Because it has been so difficult for poorly funded schools to find and keep teachers, TFA and similar organizations are quietly becoming part of the Establishment," he writes.

A substantial amount of non-federal funding is also now available to low-performing schools who attach themselves to such programs, exemplified by Memphis, Tenn., public schools' partnership with TNTP.

Many of these TFA and TNTP programs place young teachers in "rough" schools, but only for several years before they move on to another career path, which could serve to reinforce existing stereotypes of the profession, the article says. In addition, making temporary teaching positions could further decline teacher retention rates in some of the nation's worst public schools, while only offering a Band-Aid to the nation's need both to fill teacher vacancies and improve the general caliber of teachers nationally, it adds.

However, the article also cites studies that have shown little difference between traditionally trained teachers and TFA program-type teachers in terms of their success in the classroom and in improving student achievement scores.

Do the country's education needs in the 21st century call for new recruitment or placing methods for teachers? Should we reform traditional terminal degree education programs to meet the needs of today's learners or create more organizations like TFA to fill the desperate need for teachers? Is there a danger in hiring teachers who want to provide public service to our schools but do not want to stick with teaching long term?

Posted by Nora Fleming at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Our EW colleague Sean Cavanagh reported about Pres. Obama's back-to-school speech earlier today, so we're not going to spend too much time repeating him. (Be sure to check out his entry for information about Obama's speech, though.)

What piqued our interest in the speech, admittedly, was the presence of former Teacher blogger Anthony Mullen, the 2009 National Teacher of the Year, on CNN's expert panel.

Immediately following the speech, CNN asked Mullen what he'll take away most from Obama's remarks. Mullen replied, "We hear a lot about the responsibilities that teachers have, and the responsibilities that parents have, but Obama focused on the responsibilities that students have. We don't hear that very often."

Indeed, Obama stressed the importance of hard work and effort for students in his speech, saying that "nobody gets to write your destiny but you." The president even related a story from his schooling days, where a casual-about-his-future Obama received a tough lesson from his mother.

"'You can't just sit around,' she said, 'waiting for luck to see you through,' She said I could get into any school in the country if I just put in a little effort. Then she gave me a hard look and added, 'Remember what that's like? Effort?'"

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The 2009 National Teacher of the Year, Anthony Mullen—who also happens to be a former blogger for Teacher—will be taking to CNN's airwaves today to respond to President Obama's back-to-school speech, to be delivered today at noon (correction: 1 p.m.) ET.

The speech is expected to last 15-20 minutes, and Mullen will be on TV right after Obama speaks.

We'll have the recap later!

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

New research by psychologists has found that "some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong," according to the New York Times.

For instance: The Times reports that many study-skills courses instruct students to find a particular place to study and stick to that location, but research suggests just the opposite is true.

Studies show that the brain makes unconscious relations between the information being studied and a students' study environment; therefore, "forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding," the Times suggests.

The article highlights other misconceptions surrounding studying as well. It turns out, for example, that mixing up content while studying (instead of focusing specifically on one topic) can help students remember nearly twice as much. And those infamous all-night cram sessions—come on, who hasn't been there before?—may help a student get a better score on a test, but most of that information ultimately ends up going in one ear and out the other (so to speak).

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Just a heads-up: We're excited to kick off the new school year off with two new teacher blogs on our site:

In Coach G's Teaching Tips, instructional coach David Ginsburg offers sage advice on classroom practice, with a strong focus on classroom management.

In Leading From the Classroom, Patrick Ledesma—a special educator, technology specialist, and classroom fellow with the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Ambassador program—explores issues surrounding instruction and education policy.

Check them out when you get a chance. You'll find some things you can use in your own classroom, as well as a lot to think about.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Mr. Potter, a D.C. math teacher, makes a brief reappearance in the blogosphere to respond to a hostile commenter and riff on the question of why experienced teachers aren't (in his experience) more helpful to novices (including TFA'ers):

When I was a first year teacher, I was terrified because I had no idea what I was doing. Do you know what I wanted the most? HELP. I wanted someone with experience to take me under his/her wing and give me guidance. Instead, from most of my more experienced colleagues I got polite disinterest, and from a few I got attitudes like the above commenter's ...The reason so many TFA and DCTF [D.C. Teaching Fellows] and new teachers in general leave DCPS isn't the kids--it's the adults!

Coming at it from a slightly difficult angle, Mildly Melancholy—who is now apparently out of teaching—writes that one of the things she most desired in her last teaching job was "colleagues/teamates to work with." The problem was that no one had time for that sort of thing:

The teachers at this school were amazing--fantastic people, and great educators. I loved being a part of their team. Of course, I barely saw them. Elementary teachers basically never get out of the classroom, and there was no teacher break room in which to rest and chat. After school I was always sequestered in my room alone for several hours. My grade colleague had been at the school for the last two years and was great at planning and teaching too--but she never had time to stay before or after school to meet and talk to me. I really, REALLY needed someone at the beginning of the year--I felt completely overwhelmed and in over my head. I needed someone to work together with, bounce ideas off of, and talk to. And she just couldn't be there for that.

Obviously, these are just two isolated examples (no pun intended), but I suspect they are representative of countless others. We've heard a lot lately about professional learning teams and collaboration among teachers, but those concepts don't appear to be trickling down to a lot of schools. What can be done open the lines of communication, particularly between experienced teachers and novices? Is this a problem in your school?

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

NYC Educator reprints his time-honored advice to new teachers on classroom management:

The best trick, and it's not much of a trick at all, is frequent home contact. It's true that not all parents will be helpful, but I've found most of them to be. When kids know reports of their classroom behavior will reach their homes, they tend to save the acting out for your lazier colleagues--the ones who find it too inconvenient to call. You are not being "mean" or petty--you're doing your job, and probably helping the kid. If you want to really make a point, make a dozen calls after the first day of class. Or do it the day before a week-long vacation.

This is not the first time I've heard this recently from a veteran teacher.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Just a heads up: Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant is hosting a series this week on the question of, "What Do Teachers Need From Administrators." From the first entry, by Brian Crosby:

Give us, and advocate for us, more time to plan. Effective teaching requires, more than ever, effective planning. I would love to have as much as 2 weeks (not including a day or two to set up my classroom) at the beginning of the school year. Time to plan as a staff, unit (for example - upper elementary grades), grade level and self. I know this costs money ... might be some of the best money spent.

I suspect they'll be a lot of sympathy among teachers for this point as well:

"Research Based" does not necessarily mean good, or right for our situation, great, effective, or proven over time.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Columnist Robert J. Samuelson looks at the anemic results of school reform efforts over the past 50 year and pins the blame on an "almost unmentionable" factor: lack of student motivation. He writes:

Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a "good" college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school "reform" is that if students aren't motivated, it's mainly the fault of schools and teachers. The reality is that, as high schools have become more inclusive (in 1950, 40 percent of 17-year-olds had dropped out, compared with about 25 percent today) and adolescent culture has strengthened, the authority of teachers and schools has eroded.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Dan Brown says that the best teaching books are driven by personal stories as opposed to abstract theories and generic technical illustrations:

When I read about an educator in the field, experimenting and developing her craft, I'm engaged. To me, the best professional development (PD) books are also steeped in the narrative of teaching. I think there's some human nature involved here; telling stories is at the soul of the human experience.

As someone who receives a lot of education books, I have to admit I'm very sympathetic to this. I love to hear that personal voice coming through—and dread slogging through seemingly endless bulleted lists and diagrams. I have also been known to argue that many education books, with their closely-packed type and wide pages, seem almost designed to discourage you from reading them cover to cover.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Teaming up with California Teacher of the Year Kelly Kovocic, Teacher blogger Anthony Cody has co-authored an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee responding to the now-infamous Los Angeles Times series analyzing teachers' effectiveness in connection with student test scores. Cody and Kovocic argue that efforts to evaluate teachers solely—or even mainly—on the basis of standardized test results are ultimately counter-productive:

But in the attempts to define teacher effectiveness, too many take the same well-trod shortcut taken by No Child Left Behind - the equation of educational quality with standardized test scores. This inevitably leads to the narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the test, making such data a poor indicator of quality.

But there are, they contend, other ways:

The best evaluation systems encourage teachers to examine and reflect on what their students are learning, from a variety of angles. They include, but are not limited to, test scores. The vast majority of teachers want to do their best for their students. We need an evaluation system that encourages and inspires them to do so.

More from the indefatigable Cody here.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A month ago or so, we reported on the idea of "teacher professional partnerships"—essentially schools that are run by teachers. Yesterday, the Christian Science Monitor picked up on the trend, pointing to examples of teacher-led schools cropping up at various points around the country. In general, these schools don't have principals or other administrators; administrative duties and decisionmaking are shared by the teachers themselves.

According to the Monitor, the growing interest in teacher-led schools stems in part from the recent emphasis on holding teachers more accountable for student learning—the idea being that, if you're going to hold teachers responsible, you might as well give them some actual control. Observers also note that the time is right for experimentation in models of schooling, since many districts are searching for solutions and open to innovative ideas.

The article suggests that teacher-led schools have collaborative cultures and, as might be expected, highly-driven staff. The Teachers "appreciate that their professional judgment is being respected," observes Lori Nazareno, a co-lead teacher at the Math and Science Leadership Academy in Denver.

Hat Tip: Accomplished Teacher.

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

So I've been been scanning through some teacher blogs to see if there might be any common back-to-school themes. One thing that jumps out: There are a lot of air-conditioning problems in classrooms out there.

Poor Epiphany in Baltimore, whose (low-income) school apparently doesn't even have A/C, is really struggling:

It hit 93 in my classroom today, and that, coupled with the humidity and a room chock full of kids, just doesn't make for a good learning environment. I do my best, but it's hard not think it's pretty inhumane not to offer a/c in every school when it gets this hot. At noon, I was feeling okay (I didn't wear a shirt/tie today), but, by 2pm, I could barely move. Kids were ornery and/or sluggish. I really wish there a way to get more humane conditions in all of our schools. I'll be on my 3rd sweat towel tomorrow.

This just doesn't seem right.

Update Sept 2: Is this a social justice issue? Hard not to think so. ...

Posted by Anthony Rebora at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend