Reading between the lines of education reform

Having read Valerie Strauss's blog about Donna McKenna the ESL teacher who dared the DOE to measure her value, 

I began to read between the lines of Race To The Top Reformers. You'll find NCLB/RTTT reformers love to pit parents against teachers, and teachers against parents. They love using the words "accountability for children", "parents, teachers, and schools", but yet they never hold themselves accountable.

In 2001 we passed NCLB and we allocated $1.2 trillion federal dollars to fund this educational reform.   

$1.2 trillion only accounts for about 10% of what we actually are spending, since local and state funding picks up the difference (an additional $9 trilion)
.  These reformers have had their way for more than ten years.
 They have spent most of that money. All this money with little to show for their reforms.  
They will point their finger in blame at others; never at themselves. 


But, last time I checked they were the ones in charge.
 

They claimed that their new testing and standards would save our children in 2002. 

They got their new standards.

They allocated where the money went.
 

They claimed in '02 that Reading First Schools would make every child a reader by grade 3. 

They picked the scientifically based reading curriculums and assessments. 

They supported those schools with extra resources, extra money, extra professional development,.
 They celebrated Reading First Schools everywhere in the media. They held these schools up a model for the teaching of reading. 

But then after 6 years, independent research indicated that the 3rd grade students in Reading First Schools comprehended even less than the control group in the non-Reading First Schools, (2008/9 U.S. First Grade Impact Studies).


In 2004 the U.S. DOE's Golden Child of NCLB/RTTT Reform, New York City's very own Commissioner of Education Mr. Joe Klein said "Children have to be held accountable".  He ended social promotion for third graders. Mayor Bloomberg has since extended this to fourth and fifth graders. To this day researchers advise against what New York is doing.  New York City children and parents are still being left behind. 

In 2008 reformers promised that Race To The Top would have schools compete against each other, and this competition would save our schools. In Summer 2011 Arnie Duncan made a statement that claimed "without NCLB waivers 85% of our public schools will not make Adequate Yearly Progress, (AYP)."

Again, who is still in charge?
   The reformers now find themselves banging their accountability drum for "Teachers all over our nation", and once again the U.S. DOE is promising that new assessments and new standards will save our schools.

While they cannot measure one ESL teacher named Donna McKenna;  we certainly can measure their failure at education reform. 

It's worth reading Valerie Strauss's blog about Donna:

Teacher: I dare you to measure my ‘value’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teacher-i-dare-you-to-measure-my-value/2012/03/19/gIQAGGNGNS_blog.html

An ESL teacher tells about the reality of her classroom and issues a dare to school officials who insist on evaluating teachers by value-added methods that rely on standardized test scores.

If you are wondering what the walking man is listening to after his walk it's Peter, Paul and Mary's singing If I had a hammer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UKvpONl3No

There are more important lessons than test prepping our children

There are lessons to be learned every day in our schools; lessons that never  appear on the mandated test our leaders use to measure academic success.
I find this lesson begging to be taught, begging for meaning, begging for a place in our classrooms, and I found it in an article from the Hiffington post:

A Virginia high school English teacher is under investigation for allegedly asking the only black student in the class to read a poem in a "blacker" manner. Jordan Shumate, a ninth-grader at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., says he was reading aloud Langston Hughes' "Ballad of the Landlord" when teacher Marilyn Bart interrupted him. "She told me, 'Blacker, Jordan -- c'mon, blacker. I thought you were black,'" Shumate told The Washington Post.

When the 14-year-old student declined to continue reading the poem, Bart read it herself to demonstrate what she meant. "She read the poem like a slave, basically," Shumate told the Post. When he asked whether she thought all black people speak that way, he was reportedly told to take his seat and reprimanded for speaking out of turn. The poem was written in 1940 about a black tenant thrown in jail for challenging a landlord."It's very, very unprofessional," Shumate told WJLA-TV. "It should not happen. She didn't do it to any other kids. Why did she have to do it to me?"

The student brought the issue to his mother's attention after the teacher reportedly singled him out again during a lesson about stereotypes. Shumate said Bart asked him to explain why blacks like grape soda and rap music. Shumate's mother, Nicole Page, told WAMU that she is "very sad" for her "child's loss of innocence" through the experience. The teacher had also previously asked the student to rap out a poem by black rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, Page said. "We're in 2012 with the first African American president," Page told WJLA-TV. "In this era how could such a statement be made, particularly by an English teacher?" Shumate's claims come after two shocking and racist YouTube videos surfaced in Florida last month that feature white teen girls making disparaging statements against black students. At least one of the incidents forced the video's creators to apologize and leave their Gainesville, Fla., high school. (story link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/george-c-marshall-high-sc_n_1358044.html)

Young Jordan Shumate's Youtube video link will be part of my lesson this week. Want to see the face of a young Black America not seen on commercial television?  watch, listen and learn from Jordan Shumate what it feels like to be black in our schools:  http://bcove.me/0bqnam4x 

As Dr. Seuss said " The Places you will go:
" KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS..So be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray, or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So get on your way!"  

My thinking is, there are so many things more important than test scores.
There are things we need to do in our schools.
Things that are more important than making children, teachers, and schools compete against each other.
There is meaningful work needed to be done that is not covered in the new Common Core State Standards.
Work not covered on any state mastery test.
Work on improving our teaching,
Work needed to be done that is more important-than test prepping students,
Work that values Langston's use of dialect in respectful ways,
We can do better,
Our students deserve better.
Jordan certainly deserves better,
And if we could see our children as gifts, not mere test scores, perhaps we might be able to start that work. 
We have teaching mountains waiting, and policy makers who cannot see beyond the numbers.

And most importantly, we have a whole generation that expects more from us than a Race To The Top.


One last lesson missed. This one is from Florida, I found it on a Facebook plea this morning to post a picture on people's walls.
Perhaps this is by far the most important lesson facing our schools, the lesson of a young Trayvon Martin whose only crime was his skin.
Where is the lesson of the February 26, 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in our schools?
Does his tragic death fit within Secretary Arne Duncan's new Common Core Standards? 
How many young African American males have to die, before we teach the lessons most needed in our schools?
May Trayvon Martin be carried in the arms of angels,
May our Lord comfort his family in this their hour of darkness.
May God forgive a nation for failing once again to teach the lessons most needed in our schools.

.s

Silence and apathy are not acceptable,
Jesse
If you are wondering what I'm listening to on my walk this morning it's Bob Dylan's How many miles can a man walk down http://www.wat.tv/video/bob-dylan-blowing-in-the-wind-1a9d1_2g7bz_.html

U.S. DOE smoke and mirror tricks, and teachers as scapegoats.

Readers in today's New York Times I found the following request from a respected colleague, and friend Joanne Yatvin. She suggests the following invitation to dialogue on teacher evaluation in the NY Times: Before I share my response to her invitation that I forwarded to the NY Times please read her respectful request:

Invitation to a Dialogue: Evaluating Teachers

Over the past year states have scrambled to rewrite their teacher evaluation procedures to satisfy federal demands. Because the main thrust of the new procedures is to remove ineffective teachers and, perhaps, reward superior ones, their key element is “value added” test scores — measuring how much students’ scores have improved.

To the Editor:

But they are also stuffed with multiple observations, often by different observers, long lists of criteria and lengthy written reviews. So freighted, they are not only unfair but also unworkable. There must be a better way.

What schools need are not only simpler and more flexible plans, but also evaluators with enough time and the expertise to do the job. At the elementary level, finding them should be relatively easy: appoint good principals and free them from bus duty and never-ending out-of-school meetings. In high schools, where principals have large numbers of teachers and numerous subject areas under their supervision, the evaluators should be department heads.

As for the evaluation process itself, it needs to be yearlong, with evaluators working alongside teachers and observing many different lessons. Thus, they will see what good teachers do: grading papers at lunchtime, coming in early to tutor a struggling student, staying late to meet with a worried parent, inspiring students to learn more than required.

Primarily, however, states would do well to abandon their obsession with student test scores. As many critics have observed, too many factors beyond a teacher’s control influence those numbers.

But an even bigger problem is teaching to the test. With so much weight given to the scores in new evaluations, only a few brave teachers will be able to resist concentrating on tests. As a result, real student learning will decline sharply, along with good teaching.

JOANNE YATVIN 
Portland, Ore., March 13, 2012

Joanne Yatvin is a retired teacher and elementary school principal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Editors’ Note: We invite readers to respond to this letter for our Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Ms. Yatvin’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-evaluating-teachers.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

My response sent to the N.Y. Times was:

Rather than have a dialogue on teacher evaluation I rather have a dialogue on evaluating the United States Department of Education landmark "No Child Left Behind/Race To The Top" federal policy.

It appears to me that the U.S. Department of Education is playing Smoke and Mirrors, and is looking for a scapegoat to defer blame from their failed polices.   We should ask ourselves why is the U.S. DOE in a rush to include valued added assessments in the form of test scores? Lets have a quick NCLB review. NCLB promised that it could close the achievement gap by mandating new rigorous standards, and annual testing. A decade later perhaps it is time that we evaluate the United States Department of Education reform policy using those very same valued added assessments they are recommending be used for teachers? Well our NAEP scores for 2009 17-years olds have been relatively flat since 1971. Andrew J. Coulson, the director of the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom, reflecting on those flat scores states in his review: “The latest NAEP results reveal a productivity collapse unparalleled in any other sector of the economy. At the end of high school, students perform no better today than they did nearly 40 years ago, and yet we spend more than twice as much per pupil in real, inflation-adjusted terms. I can’t think of any other service that has gotten worse during my lifetime.”

There is that well known biblical verse about those that "Live by the sword shall die by the sword" well when does the US DOE fall on it's own sword. After all after a decade of reform dominance clearly No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top/ are the status quo. Seriously what other education reform policy is completing with NCLB/RTTT? The U.S. DOE has led the show for over a decade, using 1.2 trillion dollars allocated under NCLB to dictate education reform at the state level. So states do what the U.S. DOE wants, or risk losing your federal funding. The Federal Government has cornered the market on education reform with punitive measures rooted in their high stakes test driven mandates under their promise that all children in grades 3 to 8 will be proficient at grade level in reading, writing, and math by the end of 2013.
NCLB allocated 1.2 trillion dollars for that purpose, and attached numerous strings to federal allocations through new state mandated standards and assessments requirements. We are less than two years away from that promise delivery date, and nearly a trillion dollars is spent on their promise. Shouldn’t someone be evaluating the promise of NCLB? NCLB allocations amounts to roughly about 10% of what we spend on our public schools. The other 90% comes from local and state funding. So roughly NCLB has spent nearly a trillion dollars thus far with the states adding nearly another 9 trillion. 

Rather than asking to discuss evaluating teachers we should be asking to evaluate NCLB’s promise? Just when do we ask what does the United State Department of Education have to show for their efforts?

Certainly no real improvement in 17-year olds NAEP scores, or SAT scores indicate this critical data point: reading scores in 1972 were 530, and today after a decade of NCLB reading scores are at 497. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT - cite_note-06Report-21)  

I guess it is too much to expect that the U.S. DOE in DC would be willing to fall on their own high stakes data sword. 

We also have the Reading First Schools failure. Secretary Rod Paige and Secretary Margaret Spelling advocated, and pushed Reading First Schools as the DOE's showcase models of reform. For the first six years of NCLB the U.S. DOE awarded over 6 billion dollars to public schools that adopted their recommended Gold Cadillac Scientifically Based Reading Programs and train all it's teachers to fully use these programs. Well after 6 years the U. S. 2008 Reading First Impact Study indicated that children in non Reading First Schools control groups had higher reading comprehension scores than Reading First School students. Certainly we should have started questioning federal leadership back then. They have a record of documented failure that should have been raising red flags long ago. 

The pathetic truth after spending nearly a trillion dollars, and mandating numerous fail attempts to close the achievement gap the U.S DOE is once again calling for new assessments and new standards. Someone tell Secretary of Education Arne Duncan "been there did that one Arne"?

Returning to my opening point about the U.S. DOE Smoke and Mirrors, and scapegoats we find United States Secretary Arne Duncan in need of a way to keep the public's eye off that DOE NCLB/RTTT massive failure to deliver on it's promise to close the achievement gap. Thus his new scapegoat becomes teacher evaluations and value added assessments that rely once again on high stakes testing.

Please people tell me you are not going to fall for Secretary of Education Duncan's Smoke and Mirror tricks? I do wonder if the buck ever stops at the top at the DOE in DC?

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Children Are More Than Test Scores  
If you are wondering what the Walking man is listening today on his walk as he thinks about his coming trip to DC to join United Opt Out Occupy The DOE in DC it all Bruce Springsteen's "Rocky Ground" Man am I inspired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0
In case you want to sing long with me:

Singing those Rocky Ground lyrics
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Rise up shepherd, rise up
Your flock has roamed far from the hills
The stars have faded, the sky is still
The angels are shouting "Glory Hallelujah"

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Forty days and nights of rain have washed this land
Jesus said the money changers in this temple will not stand
Find your flock, get them to higher ground
Flood waters rising and we're Caanan bound

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)

Tend to your flock or they will stray
We'll be called for our service come Judgment Day
Before we cross that river wide
Blood on our hands will come back on us twice

(I'm a soldier!)
Rise up shepherd, rise up
Your flock has roamed far from the hills
Stars have faded, the sky is still
Sun's in the heavens and a new day's rising

You use your muscle and your mind and you pray your best
That your best is good enough, the Lord will do the rest
You raise your children and you teach 'them to walk straight and sure
You pray that hard times, hard times, come no more
You try to sleep, you toss and turn, the bottom's dropping out
Where you once had faith now there's only doubt
You pray for guidance, only silence now meets your prayers
The morning breaks, you awake but no one's there

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Yeah I’m still walking, still marching, still talking, still blogging, and I’m coming Secretary of Education Status quo Arne Duncan.
I travel over rocky ground for over 10-years now,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner