The Treasure Hunter

I had hoped that I could start this year with a report of something good happening in public education, but that just isn’t possible. The best I can do is describe the results of a survey given recently to Oregon’s eighth and eleventh grade students and then suggest some changes that might produce more positive results the next time around.

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An article in the December 30th issue of  The Oregonian began by saying “In Oregon the kids are increasingly not all right.” What it was referring to were the results of the biennial “Oregon Healthy Teens Survey” given to 8th grade and 11th grade students.  In responding to the survey’s questions more than 19 percent of 8^th graders and 22 percent of 11^th graders reported that they had mental health problems. In addition, very few students at either grade level said that they were able to cope with their everyday stress and anxiety. Even worse, 18 percent of those responders said they had contemplated suicide and 9 percent said they had actually attempted it.

From that point on the article focuses on the living conditions of  today’s young people as seen by two specialists: Dr. Ajit Jetmalani, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and Wes Rivers, adolescent health policy assessment specialist for the Oregon Health Authority. In both their views many outside factors have had a strong negative effect on adolescents. Jetmalani sees children’s lives as more difficult than in the past because of the wide differences in family incomes. Young people living in poverty are well aware of the fine clothing, toys, and technology their wealthier classmates have access to and their own lesser belongings.

In the opinion of Mr. Rivers the presence of social media in the lives of young people is detromental. Their continuing use of smart phones emphasizes-or exaggerates- continually what some children have and others don’t.  Although not all the information communicated is accurate, many young people believe what they see or hear and it makes them feel that their own situations are far less favorable.

To some extent I agree with the specialists that family insecurity and the power of social media have a strong negative effect on many young people. But I think they have overlooked a greater problem in not even mentioning the current public school practices that have made test results the determining factor of a student’s quality and future success. What’s more, many of the common classroom practices label students’ performances as good, mediocre, or poor for everyone else to see.

In order to lessen the mental and emotional problems that young people have I suggest two major actions by policy makers, educators and parents: changing many of the current school practices and limiting the amount of social media and where and when it may be used. Because describing in detail what I think should be done would take much more time and space than I have already used, I will defer writing further until later this week, hoping readers will come back for more of my opinions.

 

 

As this year ends I have chosen to pretend that I am Santa Clause for public education. I would come into all our public schools carrying a heavy sack, filled with all the goodies that children, teachers and parents need and deserve.

Afterward I’d be so tired that I will have to rest until January 1st 2018, while all of you will be dreaming of the goodies soon to come.

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First of all, I will sweep out all the junk that has been piling up in classrooms for several years. All the test-prep sessions, the tests and their scores, the unreasonable standards, and the negative judgments on schools, students, and teachers that emanated from them will be gone forever.

Next, I will herd together all the politicians, decision makers, and clueless experts who have made the stupid rules for students and schools, and banish them from power once and for all.

Finally, I will erase all the laws that that have hamstrung good teachers and principals for years and allowed decent schools to be shut down because of their low-test scores.

Then, after catching my breath and cleaning the dirt from my hands, I will bring in all the wonderful gifts I have dreamed into existence, and spread them around all public school offices, teachers’ lounges, and students’ classrooms.

Try to envision each gift as I describe it below.

 Golden links between each school and its community

Hearty projects growing and blooming in every classroom

 Neat Package of well equipped classrooms with no more than 25 students in each one

 Sweet tastes of recesses, physical education and interesting classroom activities every day

 Endless piles of Gold coins to fund every school

 Glowing and strong librarians with books stuffed in their arms

 Crowds of  well -educated teachers and principals with magic wands in every school

 A huge variety of silver-studded classes for students to choose from

Afterward I will jump back into my sleigh and call out “Happy learning to all and to all a good life.”

 

Although many of you may have read David Berliner’s article on the interpretation of students’ test scores in Diane Ravitch’s blog on December 12^th, I feel it is important for me to summarize his analysis here. When it comes to understanding what is really happening in education, David Berliner is one of very few real education experts. I, for one, believe that his analyses of the problems of American education are right on the button.

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Recently, Dr. David C. Berliner decided to examine closely the PIRLS* test scores of American students as compared to those of students of other countries where they appeared to be much better. As he explains, “Standardized Achievement Tests are quite responsive to demographics, and not very sensitive at all to what teachers and schools accomplish.”

What he found in examining the 2016 average scores of students from several countries was that the US students had a score of 549, while those in Singapore scored 576, in Hong Kong 569, and in Finland 566. Although on the surface those scores looked bad for the U.S., Berliner felt that it was important to consider the different demographics in each country before making a judgment.

One significant thing he looked at was the percentage of American students on Free and Reduced Lunch in a school. When those percentages were low, students’ test scores were higher than in the other countries mentioned above. In fact, the lower the poverty rate was for an American school, the higher were its test scores.  Berliner asserts, “it’s our social and economic systems, not our schools, that cause lower scores than is (sic) desired by our nation.”

Ultimately, Berliner concludes, “If we want better scores on such tests, we need to get off the backs of teachers and schools. Our teachers and schools are presently educating a high percentage of our kids to very high levels of literacy. But that is not true for another high percentage of our kids. What we need to do to help those kids is to exert a lot more influence on our nations’ politicians to give us the equitable society that will promote higher achievement for all our citizens.”

The only thing I have to add is “Amen”.

 

* “The Progress in International Reading Literacy” is a test given to 4^th graders in several countries. Since 2001, PIRLS has been administered every 5 years. It documents worldwide trends in the reading knowledge of 4th-graders as well as school and teacher practices related to instruction.

 

Today’s poste is a review of an article hidden at the bottom of a back page in “The New York Times” this past week.  It may be just the time of year that is affecting me, but I see a powerful organization moving in the the right direction.

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Over the past two years the New York State Board of Regents has begun to recognize the needs and efforts of students with disabilities and softened their requirements for graduation. Last year the Board required such students to pass only two Regents exams –one in English and one in math– instead of requiring them to pass all five. This year the Board went even further, voting unanimously to eliminate the need for disabled students to pass any of the exams– even though they still have to take them. Instead, those students may earn a credential demonstrating that they have mastered all the necessary skills in their classwork to make them ready for entry-level employment.

Although the successful students will receive what is called a “local” diploma instead of the traditional Regents diploma given to those who pass the required number of the final exams, the change in requirements opens the door for them to be accepted by colleges, the Military or employers in many fields.

Afterward there was strong criticism from the executive director of  “High Achievement New York”, an organization that strongly supports higher standards. Yet, the Board of Regents held its ground and its chancellor responded by declaring  “This isn’t about lowering the bar for what a student must know to graduate. Rather, these students need multiple ways to demonstrate they know it. The Board’s actions today provides them with the opportunity.”

From my perspective the Regents decision is not a display of softness toward disabled students.  The organization has always been demanding and firm in its requirements for all.  Their decision this time is not a gift of pity, but one of recognition that students’ classroom performance is as meaningful as test scores—and, maybe, even more so.

Although I may be too optimistic in viewing one organization’s sensible change as    an action that will bring on similar changes in other places, I still think it is the right time. What I’m hoping is that the Regents’ action will awaken others to the faultiness of commercial tests that operate on the assumption that “one size fits all”, and begin to understand that classroom performance is a much more reliable indicator.

 

Recently a magazine for educators titled “District Administration” sought out educational leaders in several states to ask their opinions about what should happen in public education in the near future and how it is likely to develop. Today I shall quote those leaders without commenting, and then offer my own ideas for change. Incidentally, the first two opinions appeared in the artical without the names of the writers.

P.S. I’d like very much to hear readers opinions about which changes are most likely to happen in the near future, or which ones they most hope will happen. I will post your opinions.

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Expert on Teaching:

Districts should be supported with the funding to retain their best teachers.

Expert Adminisrator:

Educators still need to upgrade their skills when it comes to teaching technology

Theresa Morris, mathematics assessment developer of Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity:

       Waiting for the one, end-of-year assessment is “archaic,”

Educators should shift to more frequent and varied assessments that judge students on assignments that require them to tackle real-life concepts.

States such as Texas, which is moving toward a frequent-and-varied assessment system, should provide proof of improved student outcomes to convince more states to make changes.

If what’s important is that the community is reflected in the classrooms, then you have to have the buy-in and connections that are missing in so many cases.

Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality:

We need a massive overhaul in pay and not just base pay, which is really low in some places. We also need differentiated pay.

States need to require more candidates to pursue special education credentials.

More districts should consider trauma-informed teaching methods and revise             disciplinary systems with practices such as restorative justice which focuses on repairing damage rather than punishment.

 Brian Eschbacher, executive director of planning & enrollment services of Denver Public Schools

Districts could provide more information to better help parents in the research process when choosing schools.

       How do we make getting into schools as equitable as possible?

How can we teach parents about schools so they don’t have to spend 40 hours doing research?

Tamara Fyke, author of Love in a Big World and SEL curriculum developer

Teachers need PD to blend SEL into everyday instruction, rather than offering it as a separate lesson

They need to see it as part of what they already do so they don’t see it as a burden,”

Jennifer Abrams, consultant, former coach for new teachers in several Silicon Valley public school districts

 Don’t abandon in-person PD for online programs

PD sessions also need to become more engaging and relevant than traditional “sit-and-get, rush-through opportunities about best practices or keynotes that talk at us about collaboration,

Educators need more training in communicating with parents, other community members and even political leaders.

Matthew Emerson, Federal programs specialist of Canyons School District (Sandy, Utah) 

I hope to see more curricular materials developed for older English language   learners as they work to grasp more complex academic concepts.

They require resources that engage them more deeply but still honor the fact that  they might be at a basic sentence level or might not have a single word of English in their vocabulary.

ELLs also would benefit if more schools adopted a co-teaching model. In his district, for example, a certified ESL teacher who speaks Spanish works in the classroom alongside science and math teachers to support students who are still attaining fluency.

Administrators should also consider creating bilingual, co-teaching schools that students could attend no matter where they live in a district.

René Islas, executive director National Association for Gifted Children

All states must develop policies geared toward equity in the identification of gifted and talented students.

States and districts need to establish clearer policies on allowing gifted             students to work at accelerated rates, including skipping grades.

 All teachers should receive more PD on gifted instruction as many gifted          students remain in mainstream classes.

Parents need the power to hold schools accountable for educating gifted         students through an IDEA or IEP-like process.

Kirk Langer, Chief technology officer of Lincoln Public Schools, Nebraska

We’re still going to be in a position where we’re not leveraging the technology to its fullest capacity because we have not ramped up teachers’ skills and the pedagogical skills.

He also hopes to see even smarter digital textbooks.

.Amy Klinger, Director of programs at The Educators’ School Safety Network

 I wish we would see teachers and educators being classified or perceived as first responders.

Personnel will need to develop their skills in dealing with more common incidents, such as medical emergencies, non-custodial parents and non-violent intruders.

Brisa Ayub, Director of educational programs at Common Sense Education

 Educators must extend instruction in digital citizenship from a one-time lesson to a topic that is taught every day and integrated into other subjects.

Educators should also find games or other tools students use to experiment with social media and other online communications in simulated environments that aren’t broadcast onto the World Wide Web.

Educators should recognize that each student learns in their own way and own time frame, learning easily and quickly and retaining what seems important to them and  soon forgetting what is not important.

Joanne Yatvin, Retired teacher and school Principal

Teachers should emphasize small group learning for difficult subjects, recognizing   that all students learn better with a friend than alone.

Teachers should accept the fact that any student is likely to score differently on different assessments, and so they should grade students on the whole picture rather than individual test scores.

Teachers should provide assignments that produce things of value in the real world, rather than ones just produced for a teacher to grade.

Principals should become familiar with the work of teachers in a variety of         situations rather than basing their assessments only on formal classroom lessons.

A Principal’s main responsibility is to make the school a desirable place for           students, teachers and other school workers to be and to feel proud of their     accomplishments.