Professional Development Sortable by Company?!

Another (Subtle) Sign of the Educational Apocalypse

 

Education Week recently sent an email to promote their new online sortable Professional Development Directory.  Having been a subscriber to Ed Week for decades, I have always found the composite of events calendars and other special issues as informative as the weekly news.  Not so much on this one.

Perhaps subtle and unintended, the mechanics of the Professional Development Directory is a sad sign of the times. 

Means to search the data base offer two variables: Topic and Company.

Company?

 

I have taught and led in four school districts with remarkable models of professional development.  The teachers and administrators who designed and implemented these models are professionals, remarkable, dedicated, career-learning professionals.  A public school district is not a company.

 

In all four districts, we had as remarkable a relationship with local colleges and universities and  developed intern programs, implemented Professional Development School models, and established routine dialogue between academics and practitioners.  Washington University, Maryville in St. Louis, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Amherst College, University of Massachusetts, Bank Street College, Manhattanville College, and Teachers College are not companies.

 

For decades, teachers and administrators have learned with colleagues at NCTE, NCTM, NCSS, NSTA, AASA, AERA, Learning Forward and dozens of professional organizations. Content area and research professional organizations are not companies. 

 

Not-for-profits, consortiums, higher education, public schools, world cafes, local study groups… even shared blogs and clouds where learning occurs are not companies.

 

I hope that Ed Week's choice of a data base heading is not an indication that they, too, hav not sold out that corporate driven education is where we are heading. 

 

(and, no I don't think this being overstated on what might seem trivial.  Ten years ago Ed Week would not have clustered professional development providers as companies). 

Atlanta: We're All A Little Responsible

In 1999, many of my colleagues and I began writing about the perils of excessive standardized testing. I guess we should have anticipated the unanticipated consequences.  If only we’d been bolder and more courageous.

 

In 2002, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was enacted under the shadow of 9/11 when no Presidential initiative would be contested.  If only we’d been outraged when we learned the “Texas Miracle” upon which NCLB was modeled was fraudulent. 

 

In 2003 small groups of Massachusetts parents and students boycotted the first round of the State’s new tests.  If only the resistance had grown in spite of academic gains (attributed more to a focus on teaching and district attention to curriculum and evaluation than the increased testing).

 

The decade which followed brought one-size-fits-all curriculum maps, teaching scripts, Peace Corp-like “teachers,” take-no-prisoners CEO  school managers, election focused legislators seeking measurable results and quick fix reforms, public funds siphoned to private and parochial interests and schools, and billion dollar privatization and publishing carpetbaggery. 

 

Again, as respectful bystanders, we protested nicely as the inexperienced charter school leaders re-segregated schools, unofficially rejected students with disabilities and English Language Learners, and oppressed children with drill and practice methods. Today, Mr. Obama continues the misguided NCLB/RTTT effort with new elements under the guise of accountability which includes labeling teachers and principals (based on high-stakes and yet-to-be-validated tests) and ten hour testing of 3^rd graders.

 

There are (at least) two elements consistent in any atrocity.  First, the events and those who caused them.  Second, those who stood on the sidelines and watched. 

 

Indict the Atlanta educators - but we are all guilty of tolerating the new "reform."  We - superintendents, school boards, professional organizations (NCTM, NCTE, NCSS, NSTA...), principals - are guilty of not speaking loudly and vociferously enough of the perils of federal intrusion beyond its civil rights role in education, corporate opportunism, political quick-fixers, and excessive testing that suck the soul out of the only public institution that guarantees a level playing field and opportunity for every student in America and is governed as democratically. 

As many Occupy DOE this week and handfuls of parents protest spring tests, perhaps this wake-up call of pressure demeaning a district to the despair of cheating will inspire 2013-2014 to be known as the year the professionals and parents took back the public schools to allow school to be school the way it ought to be for every child in America.  Implementing meaningful, thoughtful, appropriately paced authentic assessments would be a good place to start. 

Value-SUBTRACTED Measures

Subtract: a) to eliminate, reduce, terminate, cut, or other action which reduces value or ability to succeed. 

In an era where "Value-Added Measures" (along with excessive testing and teacher labeling) are all the (out)rage, what about Value-Subtracted Measures which force actions we know are bad for kids and learning and neutralize and diminish the noble efforts and success of those adding value to learning? 

I read with interest about the U.S.A. World Cup preliminary round soccer match– in a Commerce City, Colorado blizzard. U.S.A. 1 and won; Costa Rica 0 and froze.

Conspiring to put Central American soccer players on a snow covered field, while pretty sneaky, is apparently not an uncommon World Cup strategy.  In a NYT article, George Vescey explained a similar reason Honduras scheduled a recent match against the U.S.A. in 100 degree afternoon sunshine.  Honduras won and as Vescey, noted, “the United States wilted.”

That’s Value-Subtracted!  Intentional value-subtracted actions.  I wonder if State and federal officials studied World Cup tactics in their educational briefings? 

While those inspired to do the right thing, to overcome the odds, to stand up to oppressors, and to never make excuses - those dedicated to a cause do “whatever it takes” - are at a loss. Why? The rules keep changing, the target keeps moving, and the State, federal, and corporate-inspired obstacles (and lack of courage to address mandates, ill-advised regulations, and other obstacles) are ever-increasing. State and federal elected and appointed officials and corporate profiteers have mastered the the art of taking "Value-Subtracted Measures." (Pick a State - any State) while imposing value-added measurements on teachers and principals. 

Value-Added Measures?  That concept is as follows: 

Let’s say you and I are eighth grade teachers and we have the exact same profile of classrooms based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, English proficiency, then we can compare what value each of us adds to our kids.  That’s (sort of) fair.  The current value-added models essentially propose to compare the effect I have on my kids with particular characteristics with all the kids in the state with the same characteristics.  Bell curve aside, if my kids who scored a 75 last year do better than all the kids with the same characteristics who scored a 75 last year, I might actually be doing something add value to their learning.
 

Apples to apples. Control for variables our of our control: gender, race, ethnicity, SES, English proficiency, disability, 504 status...  It makes (some) sense. And, given about 10 years to get the bugs out of the system, it might even be a fair component (among many) upon which to evaluate me. 
 

But, you know, they just keep changing the rules and putting up obstacles. For every ounce of value we add to a child’s learning, there are those subtracting value by the pound (and pound of flesh). 
 

Imagine a school district where eighth graders went to their school district pre-school and kindergarten, participated weekly in music and art, attended summer readiness programs, took foreign language classes, learned in co-taught classes, and sat in classrooms with fewer than 22 students.   Voters in the district passed tax levies with self-imposed limits or ceilings to meet their district needs and to control spending.  The school district is in a state where the State pays for its mandates to transport children to private and parochial schools out of state, to implement thousands of hours of teacher and principal development and purchase of assessments, and countless others obscure but costly requirements.  And, officials in the State addressed outdated requirements that cause skyrocketing costs of school district spending. 

Then, the State’s actions begin subtracting value by ignoring that which is out of our local control but absolutely in theirs.  State spending on education drops significantly, especially in high-need districts.  Costs of mandates are shifted to school districts.  Skyrocketing costs of district expenditure on regulations out of their control go un-addressed.  School districts are limited in spending what 51% of their taxpayers want.  No efforts to address poverty.  And, worst of all, state and federal officials drink the quick fix Kool-Aid of one-size-fits-all curriculum; high stakes testing; and exclusive, segregated small-business model McSchools taught  by Teach For Awhilers and run by non-educators.
 

The results?  Their lack of attention and funding for us to... Cut the pre-school that integrates toddlers with disabilities and typically developing children.  Cut kindergarten.  Cut art and music.  Relegate students with disabilities to isolated resource rooms.  Increase class sizes to 30.  Eliminate summer readiness programs and parent outreach.  Terminate highly motivated newly hired teachers and eliminate continued professional learning for as motivated veterans.  Eliminate purchases of new technologies. 

In my dictionary, words like cut, eliminate, terminate, and reduce define the word subtract and that is exactly what is occurring.  We take three steps forward to overcome predictors of low achievement and those in power force us two steps backwards with forced cuts to that which we know predicts student success. 

There is more research and predictability about the effects of class size, pre-school education, kindergarten, music and art, and amazing teachers on student learning than anything else.  Take those away...  the State ignoring local districts and funding which allows for those assets... well, it doesn't take a rocket-scientist, an economist explaining educational statistics, or even a politician to understand that if you subtract more than you add, the value goes down regardless of the value-added by those working furiously to overcome the research predictable obstacles out of everyone's control.

p.s. Yes, in my world, I am making decisions on cuts of that which I know adds value to students and counters the "value-added" work of teachers, principals, and all staff.   Where possible, like others hit harder and sooner than us, we work to reorganize, reconstruct, or transform but that doesn't make it any easier or keeps me from trying to get those in Albany and Washington to develop a HEDI rating on their value-subtracting. 

10 Executive Actions "To our posterity"

Dear Mr. President:

re: Education, please...

1.      Remind Americans that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence do not include the word “education;" whereas words like life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, created equal, unalienable rights, general welfare, blessings of liberty, justice, and domestic tranquility appear often. Those words pretty well cover education (so you can skip right to #4)

2.     Headline Supreme Court decisions and legislative action of Brown v. Board of Education, PL 94-142 (IDEA), Title IX, Plyler vs. Doe, and the core values of your Inaugural speech that (finally) launched the 21st century "to our posterity"

3.      Make a statement revising every-year testing to testing only English and mathematics in grades 3, 6, 8, and 11 (transition years as benchmarks of school and district progress), dismantle remnants of NCLB, eliminate RTTT; and then…

4.      Shut down the Department of Education and resuscitate the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW)

5.      Maintain departments that monitor and protect Civil Rights, IDEA, and the Supreme Court rulings and legislation noted above and collaborate with content professional organizations (NCTE, NCTM, and others) to lead educational development

6.      Focus HEW on health and welfare (root factors in student achievement), research, convening and educating state leaders, and using its bully pulpit to advocate for Parents As Teachers and other birth to five readiness programs, addressing poverty, knocking down real impediments of every student achieving.

7.      Confront every corporate CEO with their academically demeaning and counter-productive tactics which make money off the backs of kids

8.      Leave teaching to career professionals (not teach for awhilers) and collaborate with every union to formulate professional 21st century contracts

9.      Call out every self-proclaimed quick fix reformer and politician to let them know the '50s called and wants their factory model of education back; to encourage them to spend days (not a photo op) in rural, urban, and suburban kindergarten classrooms and maybe give them 125 junior English essays to grade in one weekend. 

10.  Re-establish the WPA (Federal Works Project Administration) that built our parents, grandparents and some of our schools, provided opportunities in the arts, built highways and bridges, and created jobs.