Recently a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to a political radio program in which the reporter was revealing the “danger” of Common Core.  Having implemented the Common Cores standards in my classroom this past year, I was intrigued by the comments below her video link.  Moms were asking how to monitor their children’s exposure to Common Core standards in the classroom.  I was curious, whatever do they mean?  My curriculum was explicitly aligned to Common Core standards, and I felt no moral qualms over my pedagogical decisions.  So I watched the link.  Here are the key quotes I listed from this radio program:

1. “Common Core is dumbing down America’s students.”
2. “Common Core encourages Communism.”
3. “Common Core’s New Math lessons are awful.”
4. “Elementary Literacy Curriculum is 70% Classics and 30% Manuals.” 
5. “Common Core is making our kids into slaves.”

Upon hearing this, I was definitely torn between 3 responses: throw up, laugh hysterically, or have a heart attack.  I replied to this post, providing my feedback as a seasoned teacher.  But what would I know?  The media must be the expert in education.

While visiting with friends at a dinner party a few weeks ago, the Sandy Hook school massacre was brought up.  People were passionately debating the issue of arming teachers in the classroom. They discussed how legislation  was introduced in about two dozen states, allowing school personnel to carry guns.  South Dakota has become the first state in the nation to ratify a law allowing school employees to carry guns on the job.  A few people asked my opinion about having a gun in my classroom.  I answered with, “As a first grade teacher who sits on the floor a lot, I would be concerned with accidentally shooting myself.”  That was debated with the idea of having the gun in a safe.  I answered back, "When would I have time to pull out a gun from a safe when someone is ready to shoot me?"  But what would I know?  The legislators must be the experts in education.

Arizona finally completed our week of statewide standardized assessments, otherwise known as the AIMS.  Teachers and administrators were nervous wrecks.  I helped administer the AIMS in several different classrooms this year, and there were 3 kinds of looks on the students’ faces: frustration, indifference, or excitement.  (Unfortunately I only saw one really excited student.)  Our school will receive its “grade” by the summer, and teachers will be contacted with a “grade,” based on the performance of their students on the AIMS.  The Department of Education and our school districts apply our students’ performance on standardized assessments to determine the teachers’ proficiency as educators.  This impacts our evaluations, which in turn affects our salaries.  Yet teachers have consistently communicated for over a decade the pitfalls of standardized assessments.  Teachers have provided administrators with alternative methods of assessment.  Have they been implemented??  Obviously the Department of Educations must be the expert in education.

What’s my point?  Is it to defend Common Core standards, propose school safety measures, or rebel against standardized assessment?  Not today.  I usually do.  But I am tired.  I’ve taught for 15 years in two different states.  I received my National Board Teaching Certification and attended countless professional development sessions, curriculum seminars, and teacher conferences.  I actively read the latest pedagogical articles and books to further myself as a lifelong teacher/ learner.  But am I viewed as an expert?  Unfortunately no.  The nation seems to want to appoint the media, legislators, and state administrators as the experts in education.  The next time you want to believe the “experts in education,” ask yourself, how often are they in the classroom? What makes them the experts?  Who is tuned in to the needs and wants of children?  Maybe it’s time to listen to the teachers.  We do have the answers.

This weekend I was home alone. This was it, my chance to settle in with my National Board renewal process and knock it out. My goal was to revise component one on Friday night, then write component two and three on Saturday, reflection on Sunday. I had my videos ready to watch. I could find the 6 and 10-minute clips I needed.

Well Friday came and went. I caught up on golf, watched ESPN all night. Humph. Okay, I just needed a day to chill out, right? On Saturday, I went for an early run, went to breakfast with a friend, and avoided anything to do with National Board renewal all day. I washed the floor, did laundry, diced carrots, and dusted the blinds. I even ironed! I hate ironing. Okay I still had Sunday. I got up early, went for a run, brewed some coffee, and pulled my National Board standards out of my bag. This was a good sign, right? I found documentation to support my four professional growth experiences. I even watched my videos and logged times that I could use and then it happened.

I started to make excuses why I couldn’t complete the process this year. I am too busy. Next week is AIMS testing and I won’t have any time. I have to focus on teacher evaluations and end of year procedures. I won’t have time to re-videotape the first grade class I am borrowing. If I defer I can really spent time over the summer writing and articulating what I need top for each component. I will be too busy scoring Master Teacher applications. If I defer I can pilot the Standards Continuum Guide with my teachers, I am a first year principal, what was I thinking? The list went on and on. I had myself convinced that I would defer until next year. I even told my husband when he called. Told my mom, too. I said it out loud and I believed it.

I even told teachers at school on Monday. Then I went to a certificate renewal meeting and met with friends and colleagues who are also going through the renewal process. Sitting there and listening, thinking and reflecting, I realized if I had another year I wouldn’t do anything differently. So a huge THANK YOU to Arizona’s renewal candidates and the Arizona K12 Center for supporting me and giving me a nudge when I needed it the most.

Driving home, I realized I can do this renewal and I will do this renewal. My goal is to upload and submit on April 30 – Counting today that leaves 14 days. Game On!

I became a National Board Certified Teacher on November 19, 2004. At that time I was a kindergarten teacher and quite frankly I thought I would always be a classroom teacher. I had no idea the journey of accomplished teaching was just beginning.

In 2005, I left the classroom to become a Title 1 Intervention Specialist. In 2006, I switched schools and moved into the role of a Reading First Coach. In 2008, I changed districts and began my role as a K-5 Instructional Coach. In 2012, I stepped up to the challenge and become a K-5 Elementary Principal.

My goal was to go through the National Board certification renewal process as a principal. I know that the most important work in a school happens in the four walls of the classroom. Research says that the greatest impact on student learning is the teacher in the classroom. I want to be a principal who doesn’t lose sight of teaching and the work inside the classroom. That said, I sit here pondering my choices and wondering what on earth I am doing. The renewal process consists of four components. Simple enough, right?

Component One requires you to respond to prompts related to four areas demonstrating your professional growth. These professional growth experiences must include current content and pedagogical knowledge, as well as acquisition of effective and appropriate technology. They must be on going, varied and multifaceted. They must reflect continuous commitment and contributions to the professional activities that ultimately have an impact on student learning. You are required to prepare a 12 page written commentary and include 8 pages of samples.

Component two requires you to feature one of the professional growth experiences from component one and demonstrate its application in a classroom teaching in the same content and developmental level as your original certification. You are required to prepare a 10-minute video and a 3 page written commentary.

Component three requires you to feature one of the professional growth experiences from component one and demonstrate its application either in a classroom or with professional colleagues. This may be a 6-minute video recording or learner work samples and a 3 page written commentary.

Component four requires you to submit a written reflection in which you analyze the connections and patterns among all three components and your perspective as an educator.

Well, it’s as simple and as complex as that. I struggle with finding a balance between my role as principal and scheduling time to teach in a classroom. I know what I have to do; however I find every excuse not to do it. I have selected my professional growth experiences and begun writing component one. I have contacted two teachers and they have agreed to share their classroom and students with me to meet the component two requirements. I have even videotaped for component three. I feel confident that I can complete it, however I continue to push it down my list of things to do.

How would you approach the renewal process?

There is a LEE rising up from the southwest, a force to be reckoned with, marching onward with a goal in sight!

The League of Extraordinary Educators[1]  is growing in Arizona. I witnessed over 140 of them walk across a stage through a gauntlet of handshakes, a blaze of lights and to the cheers of a crowded banquet hall. The 140+ strong were new National Board Certified Teachers, NBCT Renewals, and Master Teachers, representing a variety of certificate areas, deep content knowledge, and pedagogical expertise.

These are the very teachers our country needs; people who have what it takes to bring Arizona and America out of the educational decline of the last 20 years. Even so, the unique event which celebrates the accomplishments of these teachers, went unnoticed by most people in the state, and the country.

However, it was wonderful to hear a few industry and educational leaders, as well as a member of Congress laude the significant accomplishment of the honorees.  Yet, there was no paparazzi. No press conference. No one to pepper these superstars of education with questions on how and why, as well as flood the news with their stories and faces.

Even so, the evening represented so much more than the well-deserved accolades. It meant that now in Arizona:

• 140 more teachers voluntarily submitted their practice to the scrutiny of learned peers, much like the litmus process engineering, medicine, and law requires for their practitioners.
•  Approximately 1500[2]  more students will benefit from a year in the classroom of one of the best teachers in the country. Period.
• 140 more teacher leaders fostering the habits of collaboration and problem-solving in their students.
• 1500 more learners can break generations of poverty or entitlement, of inequity or ignorance.
• 140 more advocates for transforming teaching and learning, one classroom at a time.
• 1500 more future leaders can move closer to college and/or career readiness.

 While the numbers are interesting, I realize this is not enough. 1500 students only represents the population of one junior high school; 140 teachers can staff only one large high school.  

This is a sobering realization.

 However, when you add the evening’s honorees to the growing number of National Board Certified Teachers already practicing in Arizona, we are a force nearly 1000 strong.  Now, that’s over 10,000 students who will be directly impacted by accomplished teaching!

Not quite as sobering, but still not nearly enough when we consider that there are over 1 million students in Arizona. 10,000 seems a single drop in a deep, deep bucket.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but think exponentially: What would happen if in this next school year, all 1000 of us purposed in our hearts to recruit at least one other teacher to the National Board process, and dedicated our time, energy, and expertise to their success? 

This commitment could potentially yield the following by the year 2020:

At the rate of each one reach one[3], by the year 2020 we could potentially have 128,000 NBCTs practicing in Arizona. Which means that every 1 in 10 students, has an accomplished teacher in the classroom.  This growth is enviable for any state. But more importantly, it can empower districts and schools to make a greater impact on student achievement on a much grander scale. Which begs the question of priorities when looking at educational reform.  But that topic is for another day.  

All students in Arizona deserve a LEE— a League of Extraordinary Educators[1] equipping them for the opportunities that await.  This will only happen, when all of us- every NBCT- rises up from the corner of our classrooms and shares with another teacher about the rewards of the most rigorous, reflective process known as National Board.

 LEE, the call is out: each one, reach one[3]. And, Jaime Casap of Google Global Education put it best, “We need great teachers more than ever!”

Now, go forth!

______________________________________________ 

[1]LEE is a term coined by Alaina Adams, National Board Project Director for the Arizona K12 Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

[2] Determined by the average number of students the various certificate areas represent. For instance, an early childhood or middle childhood educator typically teaches 30 students daily, while the early adolescent or young adult teacher typically connects with 150 students on a daily basis.

 [3]A phrase from a song recorded by B. Mason.

Dear Dr. Pedicone and the Tucson Unified School Board Members:

Our district deserves hearty thanks for the support they gave me and 38 other people last year in our pursuit of National Board Certification. The district has been through rough times politically and financially in the past few years, and takes hit after hit on the opinion pages of the newspaper. I think it is really important to highlight how the support you gave us last year has led to success for us as teachers, and success for our students. I’m sharing this on my blog, because I believe what TUSD has accomplished might be used as a template for other schools.

Here is a list of the material support I and others received from you. All candidates in the district received the opportunity for this support as long as they met criteria:

1. A district National Board Mentor. Julie Torres is highly trained to coach teachers, and is a leader who trains and plans with the other Candidate Support Providers in the district (CSP’s are NBCT’s who are trained to help candidates through the process.) Julie visited my classroom, provided moral support, technical support and effective advocacy in the district to help communicate what we were accomplishing and the resources we needed. She also ran all the evening meetings and planned our work days in the district.

2. Evening Coaching Meetings with CSP’s. These meetings were designed to respond to our needs and provide essential tools, information, reminders and morale boosts as we found our way.

3. Work Days. We each had three or four work days where we were released from duty, given substitutes and allowed to go spend the entire day working with a coach or independently. This time was essential. It was hard to miss the time in the classroom, but I accomplished a lot on these days.

4. Stipend. We received a stipend which, after taxes, covered the cost of all of the Arizona K12 Coaching Saturdays, weekend work retreats, and the preparation workshop for taking the exam, as well as the cost of a flip video camera for filming our teaching. These tools were highly beneficial.

5. Coaches at our Disposal. Our CSP’s were not just available during meetings, but offered their services outside of the structured times together. My CSP Mary Stevenson met me for a long, angsty conversation over coffee after reading 27 pages of my rambling about one student. I had to reduce it to 5 pages and wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then we connected on Googledocs, and hours and hours and hours later, the rest is history. I gave her multiple drafts of every entry, I think. Her feedback and ongoing support made my success possible. The hours the CSP’s spend giving feedback stretch their stipends out to a slight token of an hourly wage.

6. Building Level Support. Within our school, when I asked for extra student aides because I knew I would have to do filming, or when I asked technical help with software for the flip camera, people came to my aid because they knew I needed those things for my NBC process.

The level of support pleasantly surprised me. With all the austerity of the past several years, I didn’t expect to have release time or the stipend. However, they were essential, because what they did was basically buy time-- time away from family obligations for weekends, time away from classroom duties for a whole day at a time. The depth of thinking and all the swirling mess of issues that come to mind as I wrote required large blocks of time, not a stolen 45 minutes here or an hour there in order to work. The work is too deep. Maybe I could have certified that way, but I had more authentic growth as a teacher because for once in my career, I was given time to think. And that was priceless.

And what made the time so useful was the amount of focus I was able to achieve because of the tools and reflection made possible by our coaches. Unlike early achievers of National Board Certification, I never felt alone. Because of your support, we had a cohort of colleagues who motivated each other to keep on going. Because of the coaches, we had ongoing feedback, cheerleading and critical thinking strategies that kept us from getting stuck, that kept the momentum going and the quality of work high.

I will never look at my students the same way. I have never so deeply felt the responsibility I have toward each and every one of them as individuals. I have never so clearly felt the successes and the obstacles to success for myself and my students. Through National Boards I have gained clarity about why I am here, about my strengths, and my areas of needed improvement.

And so, now, the question of the day is, what will you do with all of these certifiably amazing teachers at your disposal? How will you harvest our reflections to create change? How will you encourage us to share our expertise? How will you learn the solutions we can offer? When and where will be get the tap on the shoulder that lets us know that our potential leadership is welcome and needed? The National Board process has made us better at what we do; how will you use us to make schools better places for student success?

In the climate of less than stellar public perception and new teacher evaluation tools sprouting up across the state, I wondered if anyone would respond to the invitation, extended by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), to join a national conversation about teaching, at one of several gatherings across Arizona and provide feedback on some ideas that are being considered for transforming teaching in our country.

As an integral part of several major cross-stakeholder conversations that took place in Arizona early in December, I can tell you that stakeholders enthusiastically responded to the invitation. The dialogue proved powerful and enlightening as ED representatives sought feedback about the best ways to implement the most urgent components of RESPECT, and how to move that work forward in Arizona.

Before I share outcomes of a few of the conversations, let me put the visit in context.

ED chose four regions of the country to expressly speak to the needs of students and teachers in their area. The first stop on this four-region tour was the Southwest, specifically Arizona and New Mexico. Both states have similar successes and issues that uniquely position them to speak to teaching as reflected in their region.

Just as they are similar, Arizona and New Mexico are also very distinct in the way they conduct the business of education and the stakeholders involved in the process. It is also safe to say that when it comes down to the RESPECT document, they face many of the same challenges and opportunities as other states in the union.

RESPECT itself has undergone significant transformation since those first educators and the Department put pen to paper, over a year ago. What began as a 3-page proposal with six components has evolved into an 18-page, seven-component blueprint for transforming teaching. Key to the transformation was the voices of hundreds of educators via round tables who provided feedback on the fledgling RESPECT proposal that subsequently birthed the document we have today.

Today, RESPECT stands on the precipice of HOW and WHEN, as it seeks a broader audience of stakeholders, those who may not practice in a classroom nor lead schools but who can support implementation, foster capacity building, as well as sustainability in each state. Hence, the focus of the four-region tour is to listen to and garner support from cross-stakeholder groups.

The significance of this juncture is that ED fosters what we all know to be true- it takes a community to create effective and engaged schools. Educators and parents alone cannot hope to sustain the level of relevance and support required for students to be college or career ready, and to compete globally for jobs that do not yet exist. It takes all stakeholders including businesses, foundations, unions, guilds, and community centers to prepare our children for the challenges of the future.

During the U. S. Department of Education’s visit to Arizona this month, several such gatherings of cross-stakeholder groups met to suggest the best ways to implement the critical components of RESPECT, and how to move that work forward in Arizona. 

A summary of three of those conversations follows:

1. The Rodel Foundation of Arizona hosted a round table that included representatives from the Arizona Department of Education, Arizona Education Association, Arizona Educational Foundation, Arizona K-12 Center, Arizona State University, Expect More Arizona, Grand Canyon University, Helios Foundation, and Rodel. Participants indicated that this was the first time that they have engaged in a conversation with each other about transforming education and want the collaboration to continue. The issues they face include the public perception of educators, the alignment of teacher evaluation tools and teacher preparation with RESPECT. They also believe that Common Core Standards can be used to redefine education. “Common core= common language= common goals= common beliefs.”

2. The Dysart Unified School District gathered leaders from multiple communities to discuss the teaching profession in their district. Voices represented in the conversation were parents, students, educators, business and community leaders, council and school board members, charter schools, and the military. Some challenges include the professional development to sustain successful implementation of technology, and the limitations of the current school day/calendar to meet students’ needs. They believe that informed parents are strong advocates for teachers. “Teachers are my kids future. I need to know how we keep them if these concepts aren’t addressed.”

3. The Humboldt Unified School District also assembled leaders from multiple communities to discuss education. The group consisted of educators, administration, council and school board members, community and business leaders, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Northern Arizona University. A few of their challenges are inequality in state funding and insufficient human capital and other resources due to a rural, low-income environment. They believe that shared resources means greater support for the school community, but that competitive funding undermines those efforts. “America was built on the fundamental right to equal education. Now we put competitive funding in there and it is no longer equitable and that’s not right.”

Regardless of the uncertainty of the times or perhaps because of it, stakeholders embraced the unique opportunity to provide insight on the opportunities and barriers that exist in Arizona around the implementation of RESPECT. To learn more about the project, and join the national conversation around how to begin the transformation in your area, go to The RESPECT Project.

The views expressed here represent those of Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellow, Cheryl A. Redfield.

Many of us believe that the days of segregation in America are long past.

The reality is that today’s classroom is one of the most segregated places in our country.  Born before the Civil Rights movement, segregation stared me in the face, just like the pictures— testaments of struggles long ago—that lined the entryway of Munroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, where I visited in September.

 As a Teaching Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education, I was a part of a team assigned to connect to the community of teachers when Secretary Duncan’s  “Education Drives America” bus tour rolled into town. Renowned for the landmark court case Brown v. Board of Education, Munroe Elementary served as a primary stop on the tour, with its legacy of hope and the promise of change. 

 But as I gazed at the pictures and the immortal words of Chief Justice Warren, “In the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place; separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”, I knew that the promise of those words, composed nearly 60 years ago, have yet to be fully realized by every student.

 Today, many students are not solely segregated by race, but also by socioeconomics. Low socioeconomics means that students living in remote rural communities, subsidized urban housing, or southern border communities will suffer deficits in their education and contribute heavily to the rapidly growing drop-out rate, due to three main factors: teacher quality, community resources, and school funding.  Since each of these factors warrants individual focus, this article will limit its lens to the first— teacher quality.

 Teacher quality has long been the focus of debate and of some reform. But no matter how we decide as a country to define a highly qualified teacher, an abundance of less qualified teachers are in our poorest, low-performing schools, struggling with our neediest students. The problem is recursive and will remain a vicious cycle until we no longer ignore it.

 To redress years of systemic inequity means that as a nation, we must wrangle with the following questions:

• How do we attract the best teachers to these impoverished, sometimes dangerous school communities?
• How do we equip and support the teachers who are in high-needs, low-performing schools to meet the demands of their students when these teachers lack substantive teacher preparation?
• How do we rigorously prepare future teachers for the 21^st century classroom?

 These are just some of the questions we need to address, and quickly. By the year 2014, the U.S. Department of Education projects that up to one million new teaching positions will be filled by new teachers—novice teachers most of whom, if statistics remain the same, will end up in the neediest schools.

 These schools will never be able to adequately educate the students they serve if the best teachers are not in the schools leading the reform. The true story of the Mitchell 20 illustrates the power of a National Board Certified teacher who led the way to transforming a school and community.

There are plans in place to duplicate this kind of success,  to improve pay structures and provide incentives to highly qualified teachers to serve in schools that need them most. Many of these plans are subsidized by federal grants, and as such represent only a beginning. In the long-term, state and local education agencies will need to find ways to support these pay structures.

 Also, states are beginning to link teacher education programs to student outcomes, so there is a great push to improve programs that are currently “ill-equipped to prepare teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom”.  Ill-equipped they may be, but I’m not sure linking programs to student outcomes on high stakes tests is the answer. I cannot imagine such a thing occurring in other professions, like medicine, law, or engineering.

 Arthur Levine, the former president of Teachers College, Columbia University, says changes at the university level may be slow because “we don't know what, where, how, or when teacher education is most effective." And if we don’t know, how can we effectively support those new recruits to the classroom who come by way of alternative programs and lack the pedagogical as well as clinical training? And how will this continue to adversely affect students?

 There are more questions than answers at the moment. But I believe that if we decide that teacher quality matters, and is one of the factors necessary to provide educational equity for all students in America, then together we can find the answers to address this issue.  As Secretary Duncan put it, “education is the civil rights issue of our generation.”

  If so, let’s come together as we did in the 60’s and create a new legacy of hope and promise.

Time is money. Otherwise we would all be extreme couponers. Nothing is free. Especially data. 

“Research-based practice,” “action research” and “reflective practice” are buzz words that every teacher should have in her arsenal for the variety of contexts in which educators are asked to justify what they do each day, down to wording our objectives so that they are specific, observable and measurable. Every day. For every interaction, it sometimes feels like. 

Educational “reforms” demand more and more data about student performance, and use that data for all kinds of initiatives (schoolwide, local, state and national) most of which seem to be overturned and redesigned on a yearly basis.

Every teacher I know who has taken an action research class while teaching a full load ends up facing the same dilemma:  How do I have time to be a researcher AND an effectively engaged teacher at the same time?

I posit that most of the data that good teachers collect about their students is invisible.  An experienced, engaged teacher is data collection machine.  

August and September are intense, transitional, getting-to-know-you weeks.  After that, when I collect a stack of papers, I have predictions about what I will find there. For the most part I know what I will see, because I have clear goals, and I have been interacting with my students, listening in, answering questions, giving additional clarification to the class as a whole. This invisible data is a good thing, because the time involved in assessing any kind of written work, including recording the grades and getting them uploaded for our student stats page, is formidable. I’m sure you can do the math. I spent first quarter this year with over 160 students.

Because I know my students, once I’ve read and graded several sample papers I can begin using that information to guide my planning. The reality is, I have to operate that way, because planning, teaching and assessing is an ongoing process that does not pause in between lessons.

Experienced, engaged teachers could often be more effective if we were left alone to create an organic ecosystem with our classes in which the “data” of daily interactions and various types of assessments were allowed to be fed back into the soil of the classroom instead of being constantly imposed upon to be clearly communicated in a variety of lesson plans, spreadsheets, scantron forms, rubric scores, websites, observations, checklists, profiles, PLC’s...  Didn’t we learn about overfarming during the Dust Bowl? I need those “nutrients” of time, energy and data for my students. We currently live in a fantasy of endless harvest.

Last year, working on my National Board Certification portfolio, I was asked to deeply describe and explain why I do what I do in blow-by-blow detail.  It was grueling, but extremely instructive.  My portfolio took about 250 hours to complete, and only represented a handful of the lessons I taught last year. Truly representing the data we know about students is time consuming. And really, except for the purpose of a) improving our teaching or b) certification, who wants to read all of that? Nobody but our closest friends and cheerleaders. By the time it’s in the portfolio, it is ancient history and all of that information has already been used to the best of my ability to help my students learn.

Every teacher needs the experience of reflecting on his or her practice in order to improve. But do we need to be constantly reporting out? Is there any possibility in today’s climate of simply living in the moment with our students without peeking over our shoulder to see if someone has poked their head into our room to read our clearly worded objective on the board? If students are working with a sense of purpose, for whom did I write that objective? It’s not for me. Usually, it’s not even for my students. If I do manage to get a well-worded objective onto the board, it is simply to make it easier to communicate to a passerby what we’re up to.  Learning to create and communicate clear objectives and assess to them is essential, but once those skills are internalized by an experienced teacher and the students are flourishing, can’t we just charge forward?

Or, if our school, district, state and country really need this data, maybe our schools should be funded and reorganized to give teachers the time necessary to do meaningful research on our own practice, meaningful peer observation, meaningful reflection, use meaningful (and not just easily spreadsheeted) data to plan further instruction. Small “performance” stipends or the old Career Ladder system in Arizona may reward those habits, but they don’t put more hours in the day. Administrators and others often criticize teachers for working behind their closed classroom doors, but maybe we have good reasons for closing our doors.  Give us the resources to open them, and attitudes might change.  [See my blog entry "Hoarders"for the analogy I use to describe the professional knowledge hiding in our classrooms.]

Money is not time, but money and imagination could change the system to reveal more of our invisible data, if the public is really interested in getting beyond spreadsheets and bar charts. If all they want is spreadsheets and bar charts, then I suppose we can keep creating those, too. But don’t be surprised if my classroom door is closed the next time you pass by my room.  I’m trying to hear my students think.

 

When ED comes to town, teachers wrangle time from exhausting schedules and open their doors to policy types, for the opportunity to influence educational reform.  This was the idea behind “Education Drives America”, to empower educators to leverage their expertise in the field in ways that are not typically available to them.

As a TAF for ED, I was privileged to be one of those who walked through their doors, listened to their success as well as concern, and left awed by their generous spirit, professionalism and pursuit of excellence. No matter their title, nor responsibility, the number one thing on their mind is teacher evaluations.

No surprise there.

From California, to Utah, from Kansas to Missouri (my stops on the bus tour) teachers want to know how anyone could fairly and accurately assess what they do when it is so complex.  Fair question.

In California at the NASA Ames Research Center, a handful of mighty educators passionately emphasized that at the heart of STEM education, must be the integration of content with real-time, authentic, embedded inquiry that stems from partnerships with businesses or organizations. They are viably concerned that a teacher’s ability to develop critical thinking skills in students in this arena cannot and will not be measured nor valued by current evaluations systems.

Other teachers in California expressed it this way,  “Teaching is so complex that anyone outside of education cannot grasp the depth and breadth of the ever-changing knowledge, skills and understanding required to effectively meet the needs of students.” You get the sense that these teachers desire to integrate technology within their content, even though they’ve experienced no training on new equipment.

To get it done, they will rely on each other and the literacies of their students. This adaptability and willingness to place themselves outside of their comfort zone are admirable teacheresque qualities. But can these qualities be effectively captured in an evaluation? 

California is not the only place where teacher angst over evaluations is high. In Kansas and Missouri, groups of teachers expressed a concern that makes the system seem counterintuitive.  One elementary school teacher said that because teachers know nothing about the new evaluation, fear has crept in so that professional learning and collaborating is now stifled by “competition and a resistance to share” successes for fear that someone else may be promoted based on your ideas.

Concerns about teacher evaluation hits home as well, in Arizona. We know that the observers, our administrators, know little about what to look for.  Many have been out of the classroom and not engaged in learning communities so how will they be able to contextualize what they see (or don’t see) in the classroom? Principals need support and training too, on how to observe, how often to observe, and what to look for. 

Another concern is equity.  Is it fair to use the same measure for SPED teachers as for those who teach AP?  And shouldn’t a music or digital arts teacher be evaluated solely on their individual practice and not the performance of the whole school? If you want the expert’s support and not their nodding compliance, these are questions that need to be addressed, and soon.

It comes as no surprise that most teachers agree that evaluations should be multi-layered and accompanied by reflective conversation with an administrator

The fact that good educators make the complex process of teaching look easy, quite frankly, complicates the matter. Contrary to public opinion, good teaching is hard work. Yet, there are those who believe that by nature of the fact they’ve spent at least a dozen plus years in a classroom they are experts at what teachers do. Well that doesn’t make them an expert any more than my many doctor visits makes me a physician.

Good teachers make the cognitively challenging, emotionally exhausting, physically exhilarating, and socially dynamic work look effortless!  And I guess it’s a testament to their efficacy that former students now feel they know what it takes, without ever stepping into their teacher’s shoes.

Maybe therein lies the key to an effective evaluation system. Be a teacher. Walk in teachers shoes for a week or two.  Then, together maybe we can create an evaluation tool worthy of their work.

Every year, during Teacher Appreciation week (last week), one of our Spanish teachers invites students to write a thank-you letter in Spanish (with an English translation) to give to one teacher. Every year, I get a few of these letters and they always warm my heart.

As I'm closing out my last year in the classroom for awhile, these letters are felt a little more deeply. And as I'm composing my last blog with this entry, I can't think of a better swan song than to share one of the letters I received. Everything this blog is about - everything I'm about - is centered on students.

For privacy's sake, I will call this student "Alice." During the first week of school, I ask students to draw a non-linguistic representation that represents their personality. Alice drew a woman trapped in a bubble. In the "I Am" poem she wrote a week later, she stated, "I am calm and shy, I worry about my future, I cry about my unforgiving past." Alice hardly said a word this year, but I could tell she was learning by the caliber of her work and through the hungry, scholarly gleam in her eye. When I saw her name on the letter, I was surprised - and excited! The letter reads:

"Ms. Adams, as part of a project for my Spanish class, I was asked to write a letter to a member of the school who has influenced me during the academic year. I chose you because, although I'm sure you are unaware, you have greatly helped and influenced me to be better. On many occasions during your class, we learned about life and the (sometimes) tragic things that can happen to people. These lessons that you have taught us have really helped me understand myself, men, and my parents. Through what I've learned in your class, I've found the strength to forgive those who have wronged me and, each night I stayed up late to write an essay to meet your deadlines, I reflected upon how the topics of each assignment seemed to mirror my life. The time I spent on work for your class has helped me heal and let go of parts of my past. Had it not been for the work I did in your class, I would not be as liberated as I am now. I will always keep your teachings in mind and am forever grateful to have had you - not only as an English teacher - but as a teacher of life."

Now, how the heck can all of that be measured with a bubble-test or value-added formula!?