The TeacherSolutions 2030 team

Professionalism In The Time of Incentive-Based Studies

Hey John,

A couple of weeks back, a few of us on Twitter had a conversation about the comparison between teachers and athletes (everyone does it, including me). The always poignant John Spencer (@johntspencer) echoes sentiments I’ve heard friends like Stephen Lazar make before: “I’d rather pay teachers a living age and ‘reward’ them with creative control and autonomy.” In baseball terms, that’s a fastball right down the middle, with the batter striking out looking. As a corollary, I would also add that I might be influenced to take on merit pay if I knew that every teacher got paid the way professional athletes do, and the way they’re represented in their unions, the media, and our society as a whole.

I have nothing against athletes getting their six to eight figure salaries because that’s their slice of the multi-million (often billion) dollar pie of their sport. So what does that say about the way our society pays teachers (and many other public servants) for the value they add to our civilization as a whole?

Barnett Berry made me think of this conversation after his piece on some economists’ flawed studies on education. He writes:

Would it be outrageous for economists to have to pay back part of their salaries if their theories don’t improve the economy? What if education economists had to return consulting fees to the think tanks that paid them if their methods were flawed? Or if their conclusions ignored other research findings and the realities of teaching?

If you think this would be a good idea, then Harvard professor and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Roland Fryer and Freakonomics co-author and University of Chicago professor Steven Levitt (and colleagues John List and Sally Sadoff) might just have to cancel their vacations this fall. They would have to return the pay they received for their recent paper and recommendation that teachers must return salary bonuses (paid up front) when their students’ test scores do not improve sufficiently from one year to the next.

This dude abides.

Not sure why economists would suggest taking away monies from teachers here when we barely make a living wage, even with a masters’. To further complicate their argument, they use Chinese factory workers as a a model, implying that teachers here are the equivalent of factory workers there. Are teachers just assembly workers or real professionals? If people view us in the former, that would explain the erroneous policies levied on teachers now, but if we’re the latter, then we have a huge challenge ahead of us.

Let’s face it: even those of us in the middle of the line-up have to do extra hours of outside of classroom time getting ready for the school year. The harder we work at our craft, the better we become as teachers, and the easier we make it look. Good teaching isn’t easy, though. It’s hours upon hours of arduous, focused practice for a few hours of showtime. Even in the off-season, we have to stay abreast of the latest happenings before we lose ground in our performance. Study after study shows that merit-based systems based on what economists think (even the Broad- and Gates-funded studies) don’t work. I try hard enough as is, as I’m sure those teachers did.

But I don’t expect to get paid the way our athletes do right now; I just hope we can get paid enough so we can keep doing our jobs properly, as the experts we are.

Transform Teaching? Challenge Accepted

Jose,

I read your recent Ed Week article on teacher voice and found everything you said to be true. Teacher voice is our phrase for what teachers do who are leading in their schools and school districts, on the local, regional, and national stage. Teachers who are thought leaders, who change the rhetoric, and who influence policy.

I think we may need to consider a new way to describe teachers who are “actualizing” a new vision of the teaching profession. The term teacher leader is so broadly defined we may need to consider defining types of teacher leaders who are creating a self determined teaching profession through their actions. I don’t want to  settle for being a “bobble head” or being heard. I don’t want to be a part of the conversation, I want to lead the conversation. Teachers, along with parents and communities should be defining and creating the education system students deserve not merely accepting the financially beneficial system businesses have been so adept at creating through support of the standards movement. That is why we wrote Teaching 2030, to take a step in that direction.

I offer the graphic above for young professionals want to teach but have reservations because of how teaching has been defined as a profession. Maybe you want to be a teacher but you don’t like the way teachers have little autonomy, maybe you don’t like that you might have to teach a prescribed curriculum, maybe you don’t like that you would always be defined by your conditions instead of your imagination. I suggest you take the risk, become a teacher but not “just” a teacher, become an expert teacher, and at the same time change what it means to be a teacher. Create a profession where you can define the terms and standards from the perspective of students and teachers. Accept the challenge to reinvent teaching as a self-actualized, self-determined, self-defined profession.

A Quick Teacher Voice Follow-Up

Hey John,

I’ve been around the world and I, I, I, I … OK, maybe just to Washington State and Florida, but it feels like I’ve spent more time at the airport than at my own house. The tons of hours I’ve spent learning about the future of education policy (especially as it relates to the Common Core) only emphasize the points we’ve been making for years about the need for teacher input.

Recently, I wrote a few tips for teachers at Education Week about improving their teacher voice, mostly met with promotion of their own efforts (OK), but various degrees of trepidation (fair). I’d like to address the second because it matters so much to the progress of this discussion. The truth for so many of our teachers in all sectors of education is that, no matter what their years of experience say about their status in their communities, very few teachers feel protected in their jobs. They’re reluctant to use their teacher voice because they either feel alone in their efforts or they simply fear retribution. I have to respect that; as a new father, getting a reasonable income matters in these odd times.

However, I can’t help but feel some sort of way about the risk / reward dynamic that’s played itself out when it comes to advocacy. As professionals, how long can teachers wait until our profession gets completely stripped away from us? How much will we tolerate policy committees and education panels without so much as a former teacher, much less a current one? How often do we value the opinions of self-proclaimed experts and leaders and don’t look towards ourselves as such?

How many houses have we been asked to build that didn’t ask for our input on the design, no matter what the perils?

I envision the future of the teaching profession as one centered on the expertise of teachers, especially around student needs. As the old cliche goes, “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.” Teachers who feel isolated will have to find spaces where they feel their voices mean something, usually in their unions, or professional organizations (hint: Center for Teaching Quality). They’ll have to sign up for Twitter, Google+, or EdModo. They may even have to create their own blog, even under the guise of a pseudonym, until someone pays attention. Their voices might creek, clank, and crash at first, but eventually, they become attuned to the needs and wants of their colleagues.

Just like ours did, right? Right.

There Is No Comparison

Jose,

I hope you are enjoying your summer of “rest” where I know you have traveled well over 10,000 miles in the name of professional development and in support for the teaching profession. In what other job do professionals use their “vacation” time to build their practice?

In a recent discussion with a mother of a soldier who is moving out of the the air force I found my new friend concerned about her son’s job prospects. She explained that his training as a munitions handler for fighter jets had left him without a career. She had suggested working for the power company possibly as a lineman as a potentially comparable career. Her son explained that he didn’t want to work as a lineman because it was too dangerous. In his opinion working with live rockets designed to destroy was less forbidding than fixing downed lines so I can have coffee in the morning.

For someone who hasn’t lived as an ammunition expert I felt myself feeling almost offended by her son’s lack of imagination. Well of course he could do both jobs. They are both high-risk, both depend on high-quality training, both require physical interaction with potentially deadly materials. Then I thought about teaching and I realized, I could never really know what it was like to handle rockets unless I had done it, or live electrical wires for that matter. He may still change his mind but this lack of comparison got me thinking about what other professions could be compared to teaching in comparable skills, knowledge, and practice. I found the quote below and I thought I would share it.

“If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.”
― Donald D. Quinn

The only reason I could think of that would make this soldier second guess another high risk career is the training he received as an ammunition expert. This soldier felt sufficiently prepared to work with ammunition and maybe he had reservations about the training he would receive as a lineman. The training that teachers receive before entering the profession might give someone changing careers a similar cause for concern.  In a recent post by Larry Strauss on the potential obsolescence of teaching he remarked:

“we can do what machines can never do: care about children, empathize with them, and always find new ways (ways that those virtual reality programmers would never conceive of) to reach them and inspire them.”

It is these skills that teachers use every day that make them incomparable to other professionals, virtual or flesh and blood. How can we honor this type of expertise in an accountability system that doesn’t consider these skills valuable? We prepare young teachers to enter the profession teaching to the whole child but, every step farther into the school they are told, “the test is what matters”. Perhaps the strongest teacher prep programs not only prepare teachers to help students master knowledge and skills but also to maintain their moral compass and honor the children in front of them, even when they have been told, it is the score that matters.

NCLB is Out of Time but Not Influence

Jose,

The state I live and work in, Virginia, received word Friday that it would be exempt from meeting some key requirements of NCLB. This is great news and yet, not so great news. NCLB has turned into the Vietnam of education reform. It is too important to dismiss but to messy to agree on how to fix.

Instead of revising it or getting congress to pass a new law the USED (US Department of Education) has decided to use the law as leverage.

Virginia received a waiver on how soon 100% of it’s students would need to be proficient in reading and math. The 2014 deadline was unrealistic in 2001 when the bill was created. Instead Virginia will hold schools accountable for closing its achievement gaps across sub-groups of students including, ESL students, exceptional education students, and economically disadvantaged students. The new expectations include reducing gaps by 50% overall and in each sub-group.
Virginia joins Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Utah in being granted relief from AYP type requirements. Waivers have been granted to twenty-four states.

What did Virginia have to give up to get this “relief”? Virginia agreed to mandate that it’s school systems make 40 percent of teacher’s evaluations based on students’ academic performance. Most teachers I know wouldn’t have a problem with this except the state hasn’t quite figured out how to hold teachers accountable who don’t test or proven that there isn’t enough error in our current standardized state assessments to prove them a reliable indicator of the work teachers do in schools. Our state assessments were originally created to help determine funding decisions not teacher teacher effectiveness.

Virginia has a reputation for making slow and steady educational reform. I hope that it continues to maintain that progress without giving up its principles of well researched decisions for a little relief from a bill that should have been revised 7 years ago.

Image: http://minglecity.com/group/whatmenreallywant/forum/topics/do-women-know...

How to Put Your Foot Where Your Mouth Is

Jose,

Thanks so for much for posting your reflection. It is vital that teachers take the time to step back from the buzz and blur of the classroom and see the depth and breadth of their experience.

As you know this was a big year for me. It was one thing to suggest in Teaching 2030 that we should theoretically have more teachers who lead from the classroom. It is another thing to put your foot where your mouth is so to speak and do it for real.

One of the things I learned this year was that doing what is right for you as a professional can be difficult but ultimately rewarding. For instance, before as a child development specialist, I was essentially working in middle management. I made more money than I will next year but, because of the way the position was structured I was essentially paid as a teacher working on a teacher salary but getting paid to work an extra hour a day and working that extra hour a day. So I was working 8 1/2 hours. I was not paid for taking on additional responsibility only for doing additional work. Next year I will work the traditional teacher day but get paid for taking on more responsibility. It was a hard decision to decide to get paid less, especially with a family to think about, but it seemed worth it. In taking on this new role I feel like in some small way I made progress for the profession by creating a role in my school system that more fairly compensates me for my expertise.

I also learned that the leaders I most look up to respected me for doing what is right for me. I realized that I am a capital T-Teacher leader first and an educational leader second. Everything I am as a leader flows from the daily interactions with human beings in my classroom. I told one of my most ardent supporters recently of my move into* the classroom (*not back). This former state superintendent once told our policy analysis class that she thought everyone of us should be a principal some day. She said it was the most rewarding experience she has had as an educator. Hearing these types of things tend to nudge you along into thinking, “Yeah, maybe I don’t need to stay in the classroom. I can make a difference from the principal’s office. She really believes in me.” I think if I was in one building working with group of students and teachers I might have felt that way but, as a highly specialized pre-k educator I was not going to get that opportunity. I spent many of my days as a child development specialist traveling from one building to another, stepping into other teachers’ rooms and trying to make incremental progress for students in our program. It was that same dilemma I faced when I entered teaching. I decided to teach pre-k instead of art because I wanted to be with 19 kids all day not 150 kids for 50 minutes a day. When I told my education hero about my move she said, “Good for you. I’m proud of you for knowing what is right for you and doing it.”

So here I am, looking at next year with excitement to walk the walk that I talk for the first time in three years. My first goal next year is to make my room a wonderland of learning by pursuing the highest levels of engagement with the 3 year-olds I will be teaching. My second goal is to make a difference for the parents and families of my classroom. Being back in the classroom really reinforced the importance of Head Start beyond basic literacy and life skills for children, it changes the lives of families in ways that can’t be counted like beans. Finally, I will try to prove I can make a difference for my students and affect the quality of services delivered across the Early Head Start program I will be leading.

Image from: http://allthegirlschitchat.blogspot.com/2010/04/fun-for-all.html

Five Reasons Why My School Year Was Memorable 2012 [And Every Year, Really]

Hey John,

Many of my colleagues throughout the country have already done their end of the year posts, but because NYC is special, we end our school year on June 27th. Yet, academically, the school year is done for all intents and purposes, especially mine who are preparing for their 8th grade graduation tomorrow. This year has been so hectic, yet so rewarding in the best ways. Last year, I dedicated myself to improving my craft wholesale during the summer, and, understanding that at some point I had to leave for paternity leave, I had to get more targeted about my instruction. Moreover, I had to get back to what got me here: the passion for teaching.

With that in mind, here are the five reasons (in no particular order) that made the year awesome:

1. I planned lessons daily like my first year.

At some point, I admittedly lost my way when it came to lesson planning. This year, I took my time, crafting every lesson plan as carefully as possible. I also had another teacher with me, which made me kick up the ante a little more, too.

2. My kids had character.

They honestly made it easy to teach them. OK, that’s not true, but they did make most of it fun along the way. They had a certain character that was more idiot savant than malicious malcontent, and that always makes for a great year.

3. Our curriculum maps actually gave us time.

Going on paternity leave is never easy, but particularly in the middle part of the year when you think you finally got a rhythm going. What helped me jump back into the swing of things was knowing that our team built in time to make adjustments. By the time the “big test” came, I felt most of my students had the preparation necessary to overcome most obstacles.

4. Coming in early means coming in on time.

I learned (or re-learned) that coming in 30-45 minutes early really settles me down before I go into the classroom. I’ve been early to school every day since last school year; the clarity pays off dividends when I started teaching first period.

5. Kids actually felt like they learned math.

Having a positive attitude about the subject you’re teaching students really helps, especially when it gets tough. I projected the enthusiasm as often as possible. Conversely, I tried to dissuade my students from discouraging themselves in their math. Thus, the one comment everyone made this year in my class is that I didn’t give up on them. That means a lot more to me than anything.

In the last one, I would hope that every year, this is true. This year, however, the students actually expressed that sentiment. I don’t have a homeroom (see my new excerpt about homerooms here), but I connected with this class so much. Here’s to a graduation, not just for them, but for me, too.

Awesome.

Teacher Voice Actually Matters [Open Thread]

First, let me show you all the premiere of my TEDxNYED video on teacher voice:

Teacher voice isn’t something we can ignore anymore. The time has now come to not just use our voices to speak up and out on our own professions, but also redefine it so we don’t feel like it’s just given to us. I don’t want to become the arbitrator of teacher voice, but I am a teacher with an idea of what people ought to hear when they hear this voice. Please join me in reframing the idea of teacher voice.

Valuable Professional Learning Discussions

One might not find it unusual to find a group of teachers chatting about learning. Recently I was in a virtual room of nearly 60 amazing teachers discussing their own professional learning.  The fact that so many teachers spent an hour sharing their perspective on professional development for educators was not unusual.  What was unusual was the insight and inspiration gained from participating in these discussions.  I find taking part in Twitter chats a fast-paced and deeply thoughtful activity. But the part I like best is the reflection after the chat.  (My colleague, Shannon C’ de Baca, has prepared a Storify of the May Twitter chat, which I highly recommend!)  Allow me to share a few of my thoughts on May’s chat on professional learning.

PLNs and Creating Community

I must redouble my efforts to support teachers in building their own professional learning community while supporting the creation of a culture of community in my school.  How will I do this?  Because so many of my #teaching2030 colleagues inspired this thinking, I will turn to them as I plan.  For example, when asked who is responsible for a teacher’s professional learning, Diana Laufenberg, Jerry Blumengarten, and Mike Gwaltney respond:

@dlaufenberg: The answer is the same as the student… learning happens in a community that values learning. All members are responsible. #teaching2030 and @dlaufenberg: The interesting thing is that we often think of tcher learning as somehow more difficult to ‘pull off’ than stdnt learning#teaching2030

@cybraryman1: I have seen great learning & sharing on Twitter which is PD 24/7 from outstanding & passionate global educators #teaching2030

@MikeGwaltney: As we all here know, PLNs are essential to effective professional learning, and we need to teach our peers how to make them. #teaching2030

I agree with Diana, Jerry and Mike wholeheartedly.  Their collective knowledge and experience on PLNs and creating community is the resource I need to support my redoubling efforts.

Rethinking Traditional PD

Another interesting question posed to those taking part in the chat was “What is the best professional development you’ve experienced and why?”  The responses didn’t look much like the traditional professional development offered by school districts today.  Here’s a sample.

@engaginged: My absolute best PD comes through my Google RSS reader. Amazing bloggers teach me so much. Twitter = close second.#teaching2030 and @engaginged: My own blogging has been great PD, too. There’s something powerful in sharing & reflecting. #teaching2030

@wendi322: My best PD comes when it’s something I seek out myself, something I deem crucial/important at the time #teaching2030

@teachingwthsoul: Best PD was #edcamp and Reform Symposium! Educator led and driven! #teaching2030 and @cybraryman1: Best professional learning nowadays are from #edcamps & #TeachMeets where you have choice & can give sessions too #teaching2030

@lhill40: What do you think about action research as PD? #teaching2030

Imagine what professional learning initiatives might emerge if these ideas were turned into PD action plans.  It really is time for the teacher voice to penetrate the professional learning agenda for teachers.  According to this Twitter crowd, the teacher is responsible for their own development.  Does that mean pushing for more innovation and diverse pathways for formal teacher PD?  Every month I leave the #teaching2030 chat with inspiration to find answers to such questions.  Advancing teaching as the results-oriented, 21st century profession as it should be is what these chats are all about!

The entire transcript from May’s Twitter chat can be accessed here.

The third Thursday of each month teachers gather on Twitter to chat using the hashtag #teaching2030.  Join us for our next chat on June 21 at 8:30 ET.

What Might Be Right For You May Not Be Right For Some [On Home Visits]

At the Education Week Teacher blog, my colleagues and I have written a fair amount about parent involvement as the missing link in school reform (here are a couple that I wrote). Generally, I agree that the parents of low-income communities have an untapped power that sometimes differentiates between the schools found in our neighborhoods and those in more affluent neighborhoods. I argued that we as teachers and liaisons to the learning need to help the relationship between parents and their schools by taking a proactive stance in all relationships. This works because it prompts the less active ones into action and the more active ones into a positive relationship with the school.

One commenter, Cheryl Suliteanu on the last post asked this question in her comments:

Jose I lam going to adopt the idea of “anything over three minutes merits a school visit”. One of my biggest concerns is the lack of parent interaction when students move into the upper grades. Having taught primary grades for the last 7 years, and moving up to teaching 5th grade next year, I am going to focus significant energy on maintaining consistent, face-to-face contact with families, even though it’s not currently considered the “norm”. Parents are my partners in educating their child, and I think that parent conferences once a year (our district’s current practice) just isn’t enough.

A step further is home visits. What is your experience with visiting families at home, if having them come to school is a challenge?

When I first read it, I bit my tongue … because I had no response. What does a New York City teacher really know about home visits? We don’t concern ourselves with home visits, and I don’t know why. Actually, I had to stop writing this and ask my fiancee, “Wait, we can do home visits?” I know I read about home visits, most recently from Greg Michie’s Holler If You Hear Me, but I never actually experienced a home visit.

What does it mean when you actually break the seal of the teacher-student relationship and truly entrench yourself in the community? What does it say when you take your best shoes into someone’s house unaware of the conditions you’re walking into and the eventual response the morning after about the visit? Is there a level of respect between all the parties involved, and are there protections for you as a professional walking into your student’s houses? Do lawyers follow us into the house or wait for us outside?

Here I am showing my bias.

In other states, home visits are part and parcel of a teacher’s responsibility, especially for the neediest kids. The entire community knows that they have an expectation that a teacher won’t call, e-mail, or text the parent to replace a home visit. Many of the same principles I discussed in the first aforementioned parent involvement still apply here. We still need to be proactive, and make sure those home visits are worth every minute spent.

Whenever teachers have an opportunity to occupy a space for the purposes of progress, then that’s a good place to be. Teachers can advocate better for children if they actually knew what they come home to every night. Until then, they’re just watching it on TV like everyone else does … and watching it play out in the classroom like no one else will.

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