Renee Moore

A Teacher's Day

Today was one of those glorious, exhausting teaching days; just what I needed to get my focus back on what really matters. 

Due to an unexpected interruption in my schedule, two of my Freshman Composition classes at the community college had essays due today. (I usually stagger the due dates).  Consequently, I had a full day of writing workshop helping over 60 students meet their first college writing deadline. 

Many of them have worked their way to this class through a gauntlet of English remediation courses, and all of them are nervous about this first assignment. Writing workshop in my classes is a cross between an internet cafe and a busy office. Three or four students are working on their laptops; others are writing with ink and paper. Some go back and forth from our second floor classroom to the available computers in the small library downstairs. Occasionally, students will pair off, quietly asking questions about their paper or getting last minute feedback on a draft. 

I sit at the edge of my desk/table near my own laptop, where I can keep our class Blackboard website and MS Word open.  Several of my students (some older adults, but some recently out of high school) do not know how to use word processing software. I get more savvy classmates to help some while I patiently show others how to setup double-spacing and explain for the third time why they don't have to hit Enter at the end of every line.  I have to do repeated tutorials on how to upload files into our class website since I require them to submit digital versions of their work. Many, if not most, of my students do not have computers and/or Internet access away from school, so deadline day finds them jamming the computer lab downstairs. I've noticed that those who have laptops don't share them; and I've only seen one student with an IPad all year.

In between the technical questions, students tentatively ask me about their drafts. Some bring hard copies, painstakingly written out; others insist on bringing a "clean" printed copy (which I've asked them not to do) because they don't want me to see their struggles. We've been working on these essays (I say we because I have been writing too) for over two weeks, but I was away for a week, and it's still early in the semester, so we haven't yet developed the trusting sharing that will come later. I can tell by their expressions and their body language that they are bracing themselves for what they expect me to say. Many hand me their work with their heads down, almost mumbling, "I know this probably isn't right, but could you look at it please..."  

Some are actually shocked when I start to ask them real questions about the content of their papers, and don't immediately start pointing out flaws; when I genuinely laugh at a well-turned phrase or sincerely ask about a revelation of personal pain or loss. There is a wave of shock, then relief when I announce that for this first essay, I do not have a required length nor will I deduct points for any grammatical error other than misspelled words ( I will, however, put marks in the margin of lines that contain other problems, which we'll address later). My goal with this first assignment is to draw them into the writer's world; to focus on development of an effective thesis; to wean them off the five-paragraph formula; and to encourage them to attempt some of the techniques they've admired in the model narratives we read together in preparation for this assignment. Of course, this is college and grades do matter. This first essay will be about 5% of their final grade. In the next essay, we'll add focus on some additional skills, and the penalty for poor writing will be higher with each assignment.  In between deadlines, however, they will be working on those individual areas of weakness that I've indicated in the margins and develop both fluency and technique as writers.

Most important, they will become more confident about expressing their own ideas in writing for academic and professional settings. I'm exhausted, and I still have almost 70 essays to which I must give meaningful response--in a relatively short turnaround. But I also have strongly mixed emotions because I know what's coming. At least a third of them, some semesters up to one-half, will not complete the course. Family problems, loss of babysitters, loss or change of jobs, poor health, frustration, and lingering self-doubt will dwindle the numbers. For those who persevere to the end of the course, I'm going to get a final portfolio of their work and a final exam essay that requires them to reflect over the semester and their own growth as writers. It will be some of the best writing they've ever done, and reviewing them will inevitably be a joyful, informative, and humbling experience for me. 

What a blessing.

The Illusions of School Choice

When I was in junior high school in Detroit (long before its current meltdown), my classmates and I were taken to a wealthy suburban public high school for an “exchange visit.”  We were stunned to see carpeted, well-stocked libraries; working restrooms with warm water and hand towels; real science laboratories; and a gym building with indoor track and swimming pool. We were never told what the purpose of the trip was, but its net effect on our young minds was to confirm that we were worth—less than rich people’s children.

My hard-working, middle-class parents, like millions of American families, depended on their neighborhood public schools to provide quality education for their children, and rightfully so. Certainly, all parents in the U.S. should be able to choose the educational option that works best for them and their children. Most important, in this nation, every family in every community should have access to good schools. The only difference among schools should be perhaps each having a different focus. No parent anywhere in these United States should have to move or risk arrest in order to secure quality education for her/his child(ren).  

How is it then, that millions of American children live in neighborhoods with schools chronically neglected by the same political/educational system that now wants to condemn them as "failing"?  In such settings, it is hypocritical and cruel to use the illusion of "choice" and "free-market competition" to justify closing or taking even more resources from those same schools; sending parents scurrying for scarce or non-existent schooling options. 

In a widely read New York Times op-ed last December, a black, middle-class mother from D.C. described "Why School Choice Fails."

"But I’ve come to realize that this brand of school reform is a great deal only if you live in a wealthy neighborhood. You buy a house, and access to a good school comes with it. Whether you choose to enroll there or not, the public investment in neighborhood schools only helps your property values.

For the rest of us, it’s a cynical game. There aren’t enough slots in the best neighborhood and charter schools. So even for those of us lucky ones with cars and school-data spreadsheets, our options are mediocre at best.

Today, I live in and my own chldren matriculated through a school district that is still dragging its feet about ending the inequities of segregation ("Justice Department Files Motion.." May 2011).  Most of those with whom I have taught here in the Mississippi Delta have done amazing work, sometimes under disgraceful conditions, helping many of our students go on to productice lives. I often wonder how much more those children could have achieved, and how many more we could have helped, if all schools had the resources and support of our better situated colleagues? Real school choice should start with making every public school worthy of choosing.

The supposition behind publicly sponsored school choice plans is that the way to improve schools is by generating competition that would force schools to either get better or close. In reality, as  Cheryl Williams correctly notes that, "to the extent we rely on competition to improve some schools, others will be left behind. In that situation the losers are always children, and ultimately the rest of us as well."  What such plans promote is abandonment of schools in the neediest communities, and the students whose parents for whom moving/transferring is not an option. It is a simplistic to suggest, as some voucher proponents do, that we just "let the money follow the students." The already insufficient resources at many of these schools cannot be easily or adequately sliced off on a per student basis without causing multiplied damage to those left behind.

Shouldn’t ending such longstanding inequities be a higher priority than funding faulty school choice schemes?

Cross-posted at National Journal.com, Education Experts

Real Teacher Views on EdReform Shock Ed Leaders

Want to know what some of the best teachers in America told the NEA it needed to do to really advance the teaching profession?

Here's a sampling of the recommendations from the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching to the NEA:

  • Adopt the goal of improving student learning as a core organizational goal.
  • Partner with key stakeholders to develop a peer review preparation program that will select, train, and support peer reviewers with the goal of preparing at least one accomplished teacher as a qualified reviewer for every ten teachers in U.S. schools.
  • Collaborate with the American Federation of Teachers and other education stakeholders in pursuing a shared vision of transformation for the teaching profession through the establishment of a National Council for the Teaching Profession.

The Commission (of which I was a member) didn't have advice just for the NEA; we also made some very thoughtful and bold recommendations to school districts, state education agencies, and our fellow teachers. Our ideas stunned some education reform leaders, including some who consider themselves advocates for the teaching profession. Read the full report and share your reactions.

Pay Attention to the Details in Teacher Prep

Maybe some of our teacher education programs aren't producing enough high quality teachers because they're too busy trying to meet the over 400 reporting requirements demanded by the Federal government?  Working out the newest version of those reporting duties and deciding what counts as proof of a high quality teacher education program is being thrashed out now by a federal panel.

As with other aspects of ESEA, it is the establishment and implementation of these Federal rules and regulations where the law actually touches the life and work of schools, students, and teachers. More on this little-known, but critical component at this piece from Inside Higher Education  (hat tip to my friends at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching).  Also detailed coverage of the two-day meeting over at EdWeek.

On the one hand, some teacher prep programs have come under increasing (some would argue, burdening) regulation, while most alternative, quick-fix programs receive almost no oversight. These double standards and mixed messages have contributed to the educational inequality in this country. I'd advise those genuinely interested in professional preparation of teachers to watch these rules developments closely.

READ THIS: Teachers Hold the Key

By way of my colleague, Anthony Cody's Living in Dialogue blog over at Teacher Magazine, is one of the best things I've read on why teachers and the teaching profession are so disrespected and targeted in this country. Guest blogger Kelly Flynn, a 20-year teaching veteran and now a journalist tells us the uncomfortable truth: Our biggest problem is us.

What We Already Knew: The Truth About NCLB

"Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---"

So wrote Emily Dickinson, who could have been foreseeing the current debate around the legacy of NCLB on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

I was among several people invited over at Education Week to share my thoughts on what ten years of life under NCLB has meant. As I read the responses and the discussions in other media, I found one constantly repeated point to be particularly irritating, resulting in my posting an angry tweet:

@askgeorge I am SO tired of folk claiming we didn't know 'bout ed inequality until NCLB. Shows how much Blk tchrs & parents were ignored. (@TeachMoore Jan 6)

Supposedly, NCLB's one highly positive attribute is that, as Rep. Miller put it, "It turned the lights on in our schools." He and others credit NCLB with uncovering what was supposedly a deeply hidden secret: That some groups of children in our country, particularly, Black, Hispanic, and special needs children, were generally getting far lower quality of education than their peers. That is the truth, but here's the slant: It was not a secret. In fact, these inequalities are the results of long-standing, deliberate, systemic practices in American education. What's more, parents and teachers, particularly minority parents, students, and teachers, had been complaining loudly and bitterly about those problems for a long, long, time. Perhaps it was policymakers who needed the evidence from NCLB, as Rep. Miller claims, to be "convinced that all children can learn and succeed."

Miller and others argue that "we" didn't have data on how each group of students was performing, and without that information, "no one felt the urgency to fix the problem." Truthfully, what's being preferred as data wasn't that scarce; we have elementary school standardized test scores and college admission scores going back decades. The lack of urgency (again, on whose part?) was because of whose children were being affected. NCLB supporters insist that the law provided impetus, in the form of real penalties, to correct these problems. In most cases, however, those pressures have been applied, not to the designers or perpetrators of the inequities, but more often to those who had been trying for so long to shine the light on these problems: students and teachers.

As I've shared before, many of the schools we currently label as failing, are in fact too successful at doing exactly what they were designed to do: under-serve specific groups of children. How can we hold every child and every school accountable for the same standards, while we simultaneously and deliberately give some students inferior resources, underprepared teachers, inadequate facilities, and put other unnecessary obstacles in their already difficult paths? It did not take ten years of humiliation and frustration of millions of children to learn what we already knew.

Real education reform starts with truth and equity.

Cross-posted at National Journal.com

Future of Teacher Prep

Recently USA Today featured an editorial co-authored by NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and TFA founder Wendy Kopp that addressed changes needed in teacher preparation.

While some of the article's content is clearly problematic; taken in a larger context--it could be a signal of an interesting and much-needed shift in the educational landscape.

Kopp and the TFA leadership may finally be ready to address one of the strongest criticisms of their program model: It's insufficient preparation of willing, young candidates for the challenges into which they are being sent.  Hopefully, Kopp, Van Roekel, and other educational leaders are getting ready to act on recommendations such as those submitted by the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching (CETT)--made up of outstanding classroom teachers--that outline both the need and real steps for better teacher preparation. (I'd suggest reading that thoroughly then consider revising your editorial).

The CETT (of which I was a part) was firm on this point: All teacher preparation programs need to be held to the same level of quality, whether a university-based teacher education program or one of the hundreds of alternative route programs around the country, of which TFA is the most well-known.

Even more radical is our notion that those responsible for training new teachers should themselves be highly effective, high quality teachers, and every new teacher should be trained by those experts in real learning sites (brick-and-mortar, hybrid, or virtual).

The fact is there probably will be more people who do not enter teaching as a lifetime career commitment for a variety of reasons, and more people who will be entering teaching from other careers.

But picture this:

A team of six to eight teachers of varying expertise and experience (and with different career intentions) might work with 150-175 students over a number of years. Among the team might be several highly accomplished teachers who will supervise and work with a selection of novice teachers...supported by teacher assistants, content specialists, virtual mentors, community experts...Instead of continuing to pursue the impossible dream of finding a single, seasoned teacher expert for every classroom in every school, district-college-community compacts would focus on cultivating these close-knit teacher teams....As co-author Shannon C'de Baca notes: The work of 21st century teaching is too much to fall on the back of any one teacher. We need a fluid profesison that allows different types of teachers, all well-prepared, in scaffolding a career lattice to focus collectively on the needs of students. (Teaching 2030, 108, 111).

Re-designing every aspect of the teacher profession around the needs of the students we serve; that's the future.

 

 

'Tis the Season...

Few days ago, I was listening to the national news, and had this thought which I shared with my Twitter friends:

Taught for 21 yrs; earn <$50K; would take 20 more yrs to earn $1M. Tell me again why we can't raise taxes on folks making $1M/yr?

 That in turn, led to some other thoughts in my stream of consciousness, such as:

Why should Head Start programs have to compete for operating funds?

Why should educational programs with proven track records of success such as National Writing Project and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards have to compete with each other for funding?

Didn't President Obama just end the war in Iraq, bringing home the majority of the troops? What does Congress plan to do with that money next year?

Does the Beltway bunch think the rest of us are so preoccupied that we won't think about what they're doing (and not doing), or do they just think we're stupid? Well, we did elect them, so that might be a more reasonable assumption than it first appears)

Things to think about as we turn into a new year...

 

Do We Want A Teaching Profession or Not?

What might happen if we asked a group of teachers who have consistently demonstrated themselves to be highly effective to “craft a new vision of a teaching profession that is led by teachers and ensures teacher and teaching effectiveness”?

As the NEA recently discovered, you might get the unexpected.

After much examination and debate, the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching (CETT) put forward several recommendations, ideas, and challenges, some specifically to the NEA, but also to teacher preparation programs, school districts, state and federal education agencies, lawmakers, and teachers ourselves.

One of the most significant of these recommendations is the call for a National Council for the Teaching Profession to establish a consistent system of preparation, licensure, and certification of all teachers and teacher educators.

According to our report, this “NCTP will work to ensure that each state’s teaching standards are no less rigorous than the national standards. Alignment among state standards will facilitate teacher quality and mobility from state to state” (7).

Few people realize how difficult it is for teachers who are licensed in one state to move and teach in another. In our increasingly mobile society, that is not just an economic inconvenience, it also makes it unnecessarily difficult for schools and districts to recruit and retain teachers their students desperately need.  A coordinated system would end the confusing patchwork of teacher preparation programs and dissonant licensure rules across the country.

The uneven quality of teaching in America is directly proportional to our chaotic and archaic approaches to teacher preparation, certification, and evaluation.  My Teacher Leader colleagues and I, in our book, Teaching 2030, summarized the sad state of affairs at that point:

  • Over 600 alternative certification programs offering abbreviated pedagogical training (usually just a few weeks) to novices before placing them in some of the most challenging teaching situations.
  • 43 states require teacher candidates to pass some type of written subject area test, but only five require them to demonstrate knowledge of how to teach the subject.
  • Only 39 states require potential teacher candidates to do student teaching, and that may range from 8 to 20 weeks (out of the average 36 week school year).
  • In most places there are no requirements for who gets to supervise student teachers and no requirements that those supervisors should themselves be effective teachers who know how to mentor new recruits.

 The CETT calls for a coordinated effort, building on work done by other groups and stakeholders in teacher preparation, accreditation, licensure, and standards to weave this disparate but overlapping work into one coherent system that is “consistent, efficient, and cost effective” (7).  In our vision of such a system, teacher licensure would have a multi-tiered system: initial licensure, awarded by individual states; then one or more additional tiers of fully portable national licenses that “certify accomplished preparation and practice” (7).

 An important part of our recommendations on this point was the idea that those who hold leadership (administrative) positions in education and those who work in teacher preparation programs, should be effective teachers and have earned these same certifications. In fact, this entire national certification process should be led by effective teachers.

 Do you agree with us that teaching should begin to function like a true profession?

Read This: DoD Schools Show What Works

Great piece in New York Times on how schools on America's military bases are closing the achievement  gap. Here's a slice:

It has become fashionable for American educators to fly off to Helsinki to investigate how schools there produce such high-achieving Finns. But for just $69.95 a night, they can stay at the Days Inn in Jacksonville, N.C., and investigate how the schools here on the Camp Lejeune Marine base produce such high-achieving Americans — both black and white.

They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush’s signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Obama’s Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools.

 

123456789…next ›last »
Syndicate content