A Storm is Coming! (…again)

A new Commissioner will have as much impact on our state ed system as a new meteorologist will have on the weather. We will be told a storm is coming, to buy milk, and stay tuned after to see how badly some were hit in the most underserved areas. Then the new Commissioner will unveil a “new” plan (that will sound identical to the old plan to those paying attention) that will prepare everyone for the next storm.

Commissioners, like meteorologists, predict the future and review the past, while manufacturing chaos in the present. Neither a Commisioner nor a meteorologist can provide relief from heat or shelter from wind.  They do not rescue people from floods or those buried in blizzards. They do not remove fallen trees or restore downed electric poles. That happens locally.

New York’s Ed Commissioner has neither closed gaps nor fixed savage inequalities. Some could argue that the districts that needed the most “saving” are now in worse shape.

Meaning for students happens in the classroom because that is where their relationships exist. The work happens in the schoolhouse dealing in real time with real kids with real issues. The push for more data under the guise of “saving failing schools” insults those actually saving their students and their schools from the heat, wind, floods, blizzards, damage and powerlesness they endure before, during, and after their time in the schoolhouse.

We have not seen a Commisioner rise from the schoolhouse and stay to see the job through because the job is not the data. It is the relationships. It is the unmeasurable. It is the humanity that defines education and educators.

The school house is beautiful, messy, spontaneous, and unpredictable because it is built on relationships seeking balance, growth, expression, acceptance, and love. It is only through nurturing relationships that the truth about education is clear. Measurement cannot be more important than health.

A transformational leader, one who cares more about how kids learn than how they are scored, who knows more about how to connect with educators than how to manipulate data, who experienced more in the classroom than on a spreadsheet, could save public education. That person’s CV is not likely on the Regents’ desks.

So, celebrate Elia’s exit if you want. Hope for change if wish. A replacement will come and will share the same forcast; “A storm is coming!” The same promises will be made; “Gaps will be closed, better tests will be created, and all schools will be successful.” Perhaps, new buzzwords will be coined; “Emotional data” for example to appease those calling for more “whole child” focus.

The compassionate, dedicated, and aware educators must continue to love, shelter, and teach in our schoolhouses and never stop advocating for the truth and change that is needed; there is no storm, there are only relationships.

As one,

Dr. Anthony Griffin

To simply say you have a growth mindset does not mean you actually have one

By definition, you cannot have a growth mindset when learning is anchored to standardized tests.

Standardized tests are a one game long season and your team has a 70% chance of losing. There is no room for growth when the results are predetermined. You can try again, but you have to wait until the next season and demonstrate growth in a different sport (content changes drastically each year).

Growth mindset is far more than simply telling a child “not yet” or “keep going.” It is a philosophical shift in thinking. It is more than the little white book that collects dust on the bookshelves of teachers nationwide, or the YouTube videos played in faculty meetings. Growth mindset requires a complete overhaul to grading, approach, curricula, assessment…

The approach can and does work, but only if carefully thought out and given time. The goal is not to walk away with a better grade, but for the student to walk away with a better understanding.

To simply say you have a growth mindset does not mean you actually have one. Education is overwhelmed with fad ideas crafted in the boardroom and passed down. It is time the ideas from the classrooms start making their way up.

What growth mindset looks like depends on the buy-in of schools and their communities, not corporations and their tests.

 

Coloring Outside the Lines

I got my hair colored for the first time today. I always said I would go Ina May Gaskin gray, but alas, I couldn’t do it. There I sat, head full of tin foil, reasoning with myself that I was still a good feminist. Lucky for me, my thoughts were interrupted by the realization that the young woman painting my hair with goop was doing something quite remarkable.  Chemical reactions were happening on my head.

My mind jumped to thinking about vocational education.  I have discussed it before with my hair stylist.  She had shared with me that she was not a great student, and BOCES was what allowed her to get through. She left school every day to go to BOCES to learn the skills that she was now employing in her professional career. As I watched her in the mirror, I noticed all that she was actually doing, and it hit me that the current model of vocational education is so very flawed.

We should not be sending students out to learn a trade, once they have been deemed “not college-ready.” We should be highlighting the academic strengths that they have within the realm of their chosen trade.  Strengthen strengths. Build where the foundation is strong.

While she sees herself as a skilled hair stylist, but former weak student, I see her as an expert in her diverse field. She is an artist who is also a chemist, a business woman, an advertiser, and an expert in personal communications. Imagine the opportunity to have these creative, driven, highly knowledgeable young people included in the fabric of the traditional high school. Imagine their confidence and motivation when they are able to see the connections between their trade and their core classes. Instead of English class to prepare for the CC Regents, imagine “English for Entrepreneurs” and “The Language of the Contract”. We need to explore the idea of not only bringing CTE back to local high schools, but to bring it back into a non-college preparatory academic space as well, which is, quite frankly, where it belonged all along.

My Wishlist

“If you could have any program to use in your classroom, what would it be?”  This hypothetical question was the catalyst for three days of reflection about what my wishlist would be.  What I decided was that if given unlimited resources, I would not want any program.  I don’t need a program, nor do my students.  Here is what we do need:

1. More time.  I get 40 minutes per day with my high school students.  If I were to give each student individual attention, I would average 60 seconds per student– and that is not accounting for any group instruction time. This is not enough time to develop a meaningful perspective about each student’s individual challenges, strengths, goals or motivation.
2. Technology.  I don’t mean software.  I mean hardware.  Laptops.  Printers. Cameras. I do not want to take my students to a computer lab.  I want technology at my students’ fingertips.  I imagine in my fantasy classroom I would often say, “Great question!  Let’s all try to find an answer.”  Students would google their little hearts out.  They would share what they stumble upon. They would ask their neighbors, “Hey, how did you find that?”  My lesson may derail.  Maybe I don’t have time for such meandering. Maybe the students take the discussion in a way I hadn’t planned on going. But every good teacher knows when the students’ excitement changes the direction of the lesson, you buckle up and appreciate the adventure on which they take you. Common Core enthusiasts have students going very deep into texts and claim this is the same adventure.  That is akin to giving a prospector a 2×2 area and telling him to find gold.  Sometimes it doesn’t matter how deep you go. Sometimes you just need to dig somewhere else.
3. More adults in the building to address non-academic needs. Many students come to school traumatized every day.  Some have fled war-torn countries.  Some are battle-weary from their own houses. Many are hungry.  Many are afraid of what the day might bring.  The girl who skips class may be struggling with morning sickness compounded by the harsh reality of teenage motherhood. The boy who sleeps through class may be working a full time job at night to support his family. No curriculum program or individualized software is going to motivate these students.  The only thing that will motivate them is actual hope for the future.  It isn’t about wanting to graduate.  It is about believing in a future with conditions they have never experienced or even witnessed first hand. We don’t need more clinically proven programs that are aligned to Common Core standards in our schools.  We need more compassion, empathy, respect and hope.
4. Recognition that public policy has an enormous effect on student learning.  
   1. When mom and dad have four minimum wage jobs between them and still have to choose between rent and food, students learn that hard work does not actually lead to success.  In their worlds, hard work leads to frustration, strained relationships, anger and fear.
   2. When mom doesn’t have paid time off from work, so she has no choice but to send her baby to school with a fever, there is more at stake than the spreading of an illness.  When the school calls mom to pick up her little one, instead of saying what her mind is screaming, “Tell her mommy’s coming!” she has to say, “I’m sorry I can’t come right now.”  The school/home partnership instantly becomes contemptuous.
   3. When parents are drug abusers that are continually arrested and jailed, instead of treated for their addiction, children suffer. The drug addiction cycle is one that cannot be broken with curriculum alone.
   4. Children who are undocumented residents are here through no action of their own, and yet they are keenly aware that the promise of “hard work leading to reward” does not apply to them. The ever-looming threat of deportation, coupled with lack of real opportunity after graduation makes these children cautious observers instead of active participants in their education.
   5. The county in which I teach is home to the largest population of veterans in the state, and one of largest veteran populations of any county in the entire US. This population, and their children who sit in our classrooms, face challenges resulting from PTSD, TBI, physical disability, inadequate health care, insufficient mental health services, lack of transition assistance, and cuts to pensions. There is no curriculum program in existence that would not seem trivial in nature when compared to the stresses that these families endure.

So, my wishlist? Fix the world in which my students are living.  If you can’t do that, then please, for the love of all things good, keep your programs and just let me educate my students.  Trust my years of experience.  Trust the lessons I have learned from the thousands of children that have graced my rosters. Understand that programs are mere commodities, while teaching is an art that deserves freedom and respect. Only when the art of teaching is again valued as an instrument of change for our students will real progress be possible.

 

The Opt-In Letter

Dear Teacher,

Take this damn letter and make damn sure that my child, _________, will opt-in to unlimited, rigorous testing. 

After reading Newsday, I know the only way to receive a high quality education is through more testing. Teachers, like you, are the morons who created the so-called “opt-out movement” to meet your union’s demands to keep teachers unaccountable. I trust 18 hours of testing will benefit my child more than 180 days of your “teaching.”

High stakes state tests will ensure my _____ year old is college and career ready. If someone takes something from my child, I’m going to grab it right back out of their cold, twisted, sick hands and say it is his! You do not take what is his! And then I’ll punch them in the face and kick them in the dirt because bubble tests matter.

I have attached all of my child’s data including report cards, medical records, gamer profile for XBox, as well as the Youtube videos he recorded while playing Minecraft. Bill Gates only asked for 10 years of my child’s life. Let’s give him the full 30 and keep all that data safely stored by a reputable company such as, InBloom. If you’re not doing anything wrong, then you should have nothing to hide.

I fully subscribe to the methodology used by the New York State Education Department in conjunction with Bill Gates to tell me my child’s value. Questions without correct answers in addition to questions created with more than one plausible answers provide the type of rigor I value in my home. For example, I require my child to read passages from Bill Gates’ biography in a dark room and then ask him multiple choice questions on Mesopotamia just to provide some extra opportunities to show grit; “gritunities.” Although New York State fired Pearson from making the test I still fully believe in their validity. Use say cut scores, I say potatoes. The best part about these tests is how they cleverly teach children patience by providing the suspense of waiting 8 months to be told a score. As they say, “Test results are like wine; the longer you wait for them the better they are.”

In the world of global competition, it is important my child does not fall behind other countries. To fall behind such countries as Ohio and Arizona would be a detriment to our country and would not be a good way to make America great again.

Common Core is is a bipartisan agreement from 57 governors. Who am I to disagree with them? I am just a parent of a mediocre child. If my child is able to finish his test early, please allow him to take the test of those deadbeat children who decide to opt out to ensure we do not lose funding for our school.

Yours truly,

Billy “Deadbolt” Friedrich

 

 

NY Common Core Task Force Calls in “Experts” to Help

Cuomo’s NY Common Core task force member Sam Radford (president of the District Parent Coordinating Council of Buffalo) had this to say last week regarding Common Core standards:

“It challenged them to be better and it gave them a set of standards where they didn’t have standards. We should all have the same standards. An A should mean an A no matter where you’re coming from…We need to be clear about the fact that these are good standards. These standards challenge our students to be better. These standards are what our students are going to need to compete globally, and so we want to keep the conversation initially about the standards.” 

Quite a difference from what he offered reporters yesterday:

“Even with the diversity of our background, we don’t know everything. So, in some areas, we need some experts to come in and tell us what certain things are and how they work.” 

Cuomo has a assembled a task force of 15 and charged them with fixing all that is wrong in education in NY. Their very first step is to bring in the “experts” to tell them what to do and say…

NYSED ANNOUNCES TEACHER INVOLVEMENT IN COMMON CORE TESTS- AGAIN!

The next round of NYSED Common Core state tests begins in less than 6 months.

NYSED Commission Elia, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and NYSUT are claiming that the tests will now include input from teachers. Here is the notice from NYSUT announcing this opportunity. What these three groups fail to realize (on purpose or more likely as a badly oiled pr stunt) is that teachers have always been a part of the testing creation process.  )Click here for the roles teachers have played since NCLB testing started in NY.)

Teachers attempted to pair standards with test questions and were offered flexibility with the wording of questions to address the requirements of the standards. Sometimes, teachers were given a bit more voice. For example, when it was clear that none of the test questions matched the new Common Core writing standards, writing was completely dropped from the test (test items only appear as a response to reading, but not aligned to any writing standards). Speaking and listening also had to be dropped as Pearson was unable to come up with a single question that matched the standards. In fact, teachers had such a difficult time setting standards that only about 15% of standards and strands can be used on NY ELA Common Core tests.  Click here for a complete breakdown.

Teachers also score responses from field tests and help create anchor papers that are used during the scoring process. In addition, teachers are part of the final eyes review and can voice concerns before the tests are live.

To clarify, when I say teachers I mean 7 per grade level. 7 teachers per grade level in the entire state are tasked with putting together state tests. How is this possible? The answer is simple- it wouldn’t matter if there were 100 teachers per grade level as teacher input is minimal.

Leaves one to wonder, who makes the decision to put passages and questions on the tests? This is a job for none other than Pearson and its cast of merry psychometricians. Items are extensively field-tested. The items that make it to a live test have produced a desirable outcome (in the case of Common Core tests that outcome is 70% failure). Should the items not perform as the psychometricians predicted they would, Pearson can change cut scores or “equate” passing scores in order to match the predetermined number of students that are labeled proficient. I took on one of the Pearson affiliated psychometricians after he challenged me in the Daily News- still haven’t heard back from him… I guess I got my answer.  Click here for more info.

So what exactly can be done to correct all that is wrong with the 2015-16 tests. Nothing. The psychometricians have been hard at work and the field tests were already given. Still, NYSED, Governor Cuomo, and NYSUT want teachers feel as though they have a say in Common Core state tests.

The test development cycle is a laborious process.  NYSED lays out the 15 steps involved.  Are we to believe that a handful of teachers can somehow work their magic and fix the Pearson test, field test it for accuracy, and have it in the hands of the students in 6 months?  The answer to that questions is not A,B,C, or D.  It is an absolute NO!

Education in NY Headed for an Iceberg

John King had no intentions of leaving NY. While he deserves the credit for creating some of the worst education reforms in NY history, he should also be applauded for attempting to slow Cuomo’s teacher evaluation plan.

As John King was leaving his office in NY, Governor Cuomo sent him a letter.  The letter was meant to serve as a slap on the wrist and called King’s work in NY “unacceptable.”  John was crowned King Botched Implementer by Cuomo and was sent on his merry way.  During his farewell, King took credit for the standards and the curriculum in NY, but he stopped short of taking credit for the teacher evaluation system.  He correctly stated, that the evaluation issue belongs to Cuomo and Cuomo alone.  It was Cuomo’s evaluation plan that drove not only King, but John’s merry men, out of Dodge.  At first, we cheered King’s departure.  Now it has become clear why he left and the future isn’t as bright as we had hoped.

King never formally responded to Cuomo’s letter.  Instead, BOR Chancellor Tisch recruited an interim Commissioner to pen a 20 page response agreeing with much of what the Governor had to say.

Working in tandem- AFT, NYSUT, Board of Regents, and Cuomo installed a new Commissioner in NY.  They needed a Commissioner that wouldn’t waiver from Cuomo’s evaluation plan.  Commissioner Elia has been battled tested.  Her evaluation plan took her former district into the brinks of financial despair and she didn’t even blink an eye. She was the perfect fit.  At least King had the sense to leave, the rest of the folks are working together. This is the reason NYSUT never fought this plan until it was cemented into law.  Instead of fighting a draconian evaluation system that poses a threat to every teacher and student in NY, NYSUT’s President Magee was leading the troops on a wild goose chase demanding equitable funding.  Yes, we received more money and ironically it will not even cover the cost of the new evaluation system.

The message from Cuomo and his Commission (comprised of AFT and NYSUT leaders) will be a simple one- we must move forward.  A few chairs on the Titanic will shift, but we are still headed for an iceberg.

NY Gov Cuomo creates a Common Core Commission that is too big to fail

Governor Cuomo has once again tapped former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons to lead his second Commission on education. The first one ended in a report ironically entitled “A Final Action Plan.”  I wonder if this means a teacher will be tasked with directing Citigroup’s next $45 billion bailout?

This Commission is comprised a lot of fractured reputations that have privately agreed to do some mending. Let’s be clear, these reputations have taken a well-deserved hit because the parents of 225,000+ children have been screaming for help and these leaders have ignored their call. For many in this Cuomo Common Core group, it is not an act of altruism, but one of self-preservation.

Yet, I remain hopeful that the predetermined solution arrived at by this committee in a few months will present some form of compromise.  There is no way these figureheads would risk what little is left of their reputations.

Take for instance AFT President Randi Weingarten.  Randi has hitched her hopes and future to the Hillary Clinton bus and there is no way she can afford another misstep- especially in her home state of NY.  She robo called for Cuomo, fully supports Common Core testing IN ALL GRADES, stood by UFT President Mulgrew as he threatened to punch anyone in the face that opposed Common Core…  I could go on, but considering her role is the President of the teachers’ union, I think that should suffice.

Then there is our new NY Commissioner of Education Elia.  She wore out her welcome pretty quickly by insisting parents of the opt out moment just needed to be educated on the matter.  She shared some more of her profound thoughts on education when suggesting that the solution for NY’s education problems was to provide students with alarm clocks.  She has been a disaster for the champions of Common Core.  While she will take on the evaluations that forced former Commissioner King to leave, she doesn’t seem to possess the intellect or the acumen to handle the position.  As for her expertise on teacher evaluations, ask her former district- they in financial ruins because of it.

NYSUT leaders have already begun blabbing about the need to obtain curriculum that is tied to the flawed tests… Is this what the students, teachers, and parents of NY truly need?  Tying curriculum to tests you cannot see or even speak about???  I guess the cardboard Cuomo cutouts were the best they could do.

Cuomo claims Common Core is headed for a total reboot. Oddly enough, he has chosen 15 people that never had a problem with it to begin with. It is not often that you ask the bull to clean up the mess in the china shop.  None have the skill set nor the compassion to handle the task.  None have a child that has been impacted by Common Core, testing, or teacher evaluations.  None have crafted a vision that promotes excellence in schools, collaboration in the classroom, and a return to the joy of learning to the school house and dinner table.

But stay positive, the players involved have far too much at stake for this to fail- Gov Cuomo included.  We can expect mediocre solutions to severe and systemic problems.

We are truly at the crossroads

We are truly at the crossroads. Education is a powder keg ready to explode at any moment. Politicians have been listening with their wallets instead of their ears, but it’s clear their constituents are becoming more hostile by the second. Something has to give and it can’t be the usual window dressing that has been offered in the past.

It’s fair to say that today’s children no longer learn the same as previous generations. Many arrive to school with the world at their fingertips – literally. Technology has changed the landscape of this world and should have already started to make waves in schools, yet that is not the case.

Funding has played a big role in keeping 21st century learners back. Schools have limited budgets and simply can’t invest in infrastructure that has a shelf life of 4 years (or less). And it’s where these budgets are being spent that guarantees state of the art learning environments will exist only in the mind (or the home). The mandates dictated from high above have forced districts to exhaust limited resources on a flawed testing and teacher accountability model. There is a 2% tax cap… on learning.

Parents and teachers were looking for an evolution in learning. Common Core gave us standards that we already had and offered excuses for privatizers to pillage and plunder our school houses. Not quite what we were expecting.

It is time to give autonomy back to districts. It is also time to cut the testing company & charter leaches off. A system run by limited funds and operating on a 2% cap cannot afford to fatten the wallets of investors at the cost of already limited resources in the classroom.

Politicians & Regents- it’s your move.