I stand with unionized teachers

every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. I teach in a non-union state, with minimal protections and no collective bargaining. Hence 5 years of furlough days, loss of local supplements, no supplies, no heat this week (seriously, I kept my jacket on every day). I seriously doubt our esteemed leaders in politics and commerce would have the balls to face a crazed gunman, or even a pissed off parent.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/17/americas-teachers-heroes-or-greedy-bastards/

Who needs to learn, really?

This sounds like an extreme extension of everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten- and I say this as a certified science teacher. But, I'm also a certified social studies teacher, which warps my perspective.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/egan-in-ignorance-we-trust/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20121214

This is no "revolution", it's just good teaching

The New Dorp HS turnaround that was largely based on focusing on the students' writing skills- why is this revolutionary? It's what we SHOULD be doing, if only we weren't busy training students to fill in bubbles on answer sheets for multiple-choice questions that measure exactly SQUAT about their written expression. Imagine, a school where every kid has to write, properly, clearly, grammatically, for every teacher. No exceptions, no excuses, no more "but why is the math teacher critiquing my baby's writing?" Imagine, a school where the expectations are universal and inexcapable. Where the students are accountable for learning, and teacher accountable for helping them do so.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/?single_page=true

Here's the problem with student surveys

If all you do is use them to prove that the test scores show what you think you want to measure, then the surveys will become pointless. I can't use something like that to improve on what I'm doing in the classroom. (Of course, it would help if my assignment didn't change every bloody year, but who cares about having a second shot, right?) It will only be another metric to be manipulated. And, if you've never had the pleasure of witnessing somebody's little angel exercise their own agenda through these "instruments", then you live a deprived life. But, take a look:
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/09/23/what-education-reformers-did-with-student-surveys/
and for the original Atlantic article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/why-kids-should-grade-teachers/309088/ 

And here's why it should be scrapped

Value added 'measurement' simply doesn't measure what it claims, if in fact it measures anything. I'm not personally convinced it does measure anything, not even the growth of a particular student over time. Perhaps you've been fortunate, but I have personally witnessed students deliberately throwing the test for their own reasons. Some because they realized they couldn't possibly pass, so why bother trying? Some because they knew high scores would qualify them for more demanding classes, and they wanted to stay in 'easy' classes. Some have even done it because they are satisfying a grudge against a particular teacher and wanted to screw up the teacher's pass rate. If you think adolescents don't do these things, you must be smoking the kool-aid.

http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/air-pollution-in-ny-state-comments-on-the-ny-state-teacherprincipal-rating-modelsreport/

What's that you say, Warren Buffett?

You think Jamie Dimon, the man who almost ran JPMorgan Chase into the ground singlehandedly, should be Secretary of the Treasury? Puhleease! You have got to be kidding me! Does anyone seriously want him to duplicate his "achievements" on a national scale? Not me, that's for sure.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/warren-buffett-jamie-dimo_n_2197455.html

The same Jamie Dimon who allowed 'performance' bonuses to be paid to the managers and executives who lost billions of dollars trading derivatives on Wall Street created the subprime real estate debacle?

Is this the same Jamie Dimon who spent a million on office renovations while his company was in shambles?

Jamie Dimon who thinks he did the right thing? Is this really the person who should be setting the nation's economic policy?

Shock doctrine all over again

A good crisis should never go to waste. So goes the thinking of the behind-the-scenes folk who think they know what the rest of us need. Find a flaw, spin it a s crisis, and then swoop in like a hero, offering to provide the 'solution' (for a fee, of course).  Thus is our current situation in education. See the guest commentary in Valerie Strauss' column from last Friday. Thanks to Diane Ravitch for picking up on it.

Here's Bloomberg's model at work

I might be wrong about the originator, but my recollection is that Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York came up with this approach to running schools and "improving" them: bring in someone whose entire professional career was spent not in education, but in business. The corporate world. After all, you don't need to be a teacher in order to run a school and supervise teachers. You just need management experience, right? Someone who understands finances, resource management, performance review, etc. That's all you need ("...you don't need nothing else", says Latka). Right?

We saw how that's worked out. Witness the chancellorship of Joel Klein, formerly US Assistant Attorney General. And, in it's most extreme incarnation, it brought us the Cathie Black debacle.

Now, Atlanta is facing the realities of following this approach, in the person of Errol Davis, a businessman whose only prior connection to education is that he served as Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. Before that, he spent his career at Alliant Energy and Wisconsin Power & Light. He appears to have last set foot in a classroom (any classroom) in 1967, when he completed the MBA with which he followed his Carnegie Mellon degree in electrical engineering. No question he is intelligent, but that alone doesn't make a successful educator, or superintendent.

Now, after upsetting folks with his handling of the APS CRCT cheating scandal, he has continued to draw fire by pursuing decisions without making sure of community buy-in. He has repeatedly misjudged the climate, and understimated the need to have the public, especially parents, on board with your decisions and policies for the school district. You'd think that someone with a seat on the Board of Directors of General Motors would have better people skills than that, but apparently not. Tonight, as I write this, the APS Board is deciding (maybe) the future of Davis' tenure as superintendent. http://www.ajc.com/news/news/fate-of-superintendent-erroll-davis-unclear/nTNGM/

UPDATE:
Board votes to extend Davis' contract: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/atlanta-school-board-extends-embattled-superindend/nTR5J/

Sorry, Thomas Friedman

So, Thomas Friedman, normally a very astute man, thinks Arne duncan would make an excellent Secretary of State after Sec Clinton steps down. I think he's completelylost track of what a good Secretary of State has to be able to do: formulate a plan, implement foreign policy, develop relationships, bring diverse groups to consensus. So far, as Sec of Ed, Duncan has done exactly the opposite.

 http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_22082363/thomas-l-friedman-my-secretary-state-arne-duncan

Arne Duncan thinks the way to “measure” success or failure is to give a test and 'analyze' the results. I can just see this enshrined in US foreign policy, can't you? He'll withhold foreign aid for literacy programs and universal education from nations that don't demonstrate adequate progress on a poorly designed instrument full of cultural bias. He'll require that public health be administered on a voucher basis, so that the recipients can 'vote with their feet' and chase after services offered by privately operated for-profit operators. He will go overseas to negotiate a treaty and leave behind people who are more polarized than when he walked in, and thoroughly insulted by his attempts to dictate his 'values' to them. Forgive me if that doesn't inspire confidence in the future of the US State Department.

Couldn't tell by looking at the shelves

Common core standards for English Language Arts call for much mor nonfiction reading (and writing) than fiction. Because, supposedly, that's what the kids will be mostly reading as adults. Now, I love to read. and I enjoy a hefty nonfiction title as much as anybody. But a look at my book collection (paper and e-book) will show that I read considerably more fiction than I do nonfiction.  At the public library the other day, I was amazed that at least 2/3 of a small branch library was filled with fiction titles. And that doesn't include the children's collection.
Now, I agree that primary sources should be a bigger part of our instruction, but I don't believe that the reason teachers object is 'lack of training' in using informational material. That's baloney, in my book. The reality is that human nature demands storytelling. No amount of practicality can change that fact.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/non-fiction-vs-fiction-smackdown/2012/10/18/08355a3c-1713-11e2-a55c-39408fbe6a4b_blog.html

Rigor, or Vigor?

So, while sitting through endless workshop on teaching with rigor, how do I infuse my math class with vigor?
Keep in mind that my middle-schoolers struggle with basic computations, and our curriculum calls for algebra (stuff I didn't see till HS). And then, there's this College Board product and all its issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/03/the-most-important-element-of-student-success/

A student's perpective

If you haven't seen it yet, this is from the account of a college student who shares his testing experience in the Washington Post:

 

 I enrolled in AP English due to my great experience with English the previous year hoping it would be more rigorous and I would grow even more as a writer and as a person. I was wrong. The entire purpose of AP English was not to improve our critical thinking or our writing, but to prepare for the AP Exam in May and to get ready for college. We read great pieces of literature that I highly enjoyed and wanted to learn more about. But, instead of analyzing themes or characters our teacher would give us questions which we would have to write essays about in a 50 minute class period similar to what we would find on the AP Exam and in college classes. It frustrated me to no avail and I ended up doing very poor in AP English.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/09/one-teens-standardized-testing-horror-story-and-where-it-will-lead/

 

Guess my problem is not unique

I've been struggling for a while with issues surrounding a College Board product that I'm required to teach from. Only one of my problems is accuracy. When i work problems with my class, I don't always get the answer that is in my TE. I try multiple approaches and still can't make their answer work. They can only say, "maybe we can get thatcorrected". When? This thing has been piloted for several years all over the country! When were you going to fix the answer key?
apparently this is not an isolated issue:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/23/sat-problem-of-the-day-gives-wrong-answer/