A Master Teacher Speaks

I worked for 4 years as a mentor to 19 new teachers (TFA corps members getting their Masters) in my role as a field specialist at Fordham University. I explained to them how different my preparation to become a teacher was compared to the lack of preparation they received.

One major difference was that when I student taught at Taft H.S. in the Bronx I had a master teacher, Phyllis Opochinsky, as my cooperating teacher. I was not allowed to teach for weeks. I only observed her and other teachers. We discussed methodologies. We prepared lesson plans. We discussed techniques. Only then was I allowed to “teach a class” once a week with her observing and coaching afterwards. Finally, when she deemed me ready, was I allowed to take on one of her classes full time.

After several years of observing what has happened to her chosen profession, my guru speaks:

 After three decades of teaching I know what many of you have yet to learn.  I wrote the lessons and tests and decided what my students needed to know about history, government, and current events – And then I graded the tests. 

However, I learned to build in other measurements because I recognized my own fallibility. What arrogance would it have been to think I could decide and then measure what they knew? 

So I questioned them, using questions designed to be thought-provoking rather than one word answer fact driven, listened to their answers to and added their participation in calculating grades.  In addition there were grades on term papers and projects.  

I learned to look for those who came at the questions differently– the creative thinkers.  I wanted them to love learning and leave the classroom still talking about what they learned.  Interestingly, I had MANY colleagues who did the same!  This all happened in the Bronx at Taft and Walton High Schools.

We were not measured by our test results. We were taught and supervised not by business people and politicians, but by supervisors, colleagues and our students about what worked and what didn’t work. 

Where is the time for a “teachable moment” in classes where an answer takes the class and teacher in a never to be forgotten experience? 

Where is there time for the one sentence comment to a class or student that is life changing? 

 Where is the opportunity for teachers, not those outside the profession, to design and grow something like the Walton High School /Lehman College Pre-Teaching Academy where high school students interned and taught their peers?

I am so saddened about this testing system and lock step teaching. 

Hopefully, this will change but the change must be fast!

“What Would You Do?”

My man Bill.

educarenow

It’s not unusual for me to get push back from friends and others that goes something like this. “You give lots of criticism, and no answers.  What would you do?”

I hate it when that happens.  For a number of reasons.

One reason is that what these questioners are really asking is, “What is the solution that you would impose on others if given the opportunity?” The question is asked in ignorance of the fact that education is under assault because some, mainly business leaders, outside of education are imposing their solutions on others.  This question obscures issues of power.  It doesn’t recognize that any solution has to be determined with those directly affected by the solution.  In this case, those directly affected are educators, parents and children. The question  also accepts the assumption, ignorantly again, that “failing schools” and teachers are a problem, thus the need for a solution. To quote Peter Block,  “When…

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ON TEACHER EVALUATION: The following is a guest post by Bernie Keller, a close friend and former colleague at A.E. Stevenson HS in the Bronx. I was evaluated as he was for my entire 38 year career from 1970 – 2008.

Let me see if I can offer some assistance and clarity in the teacher evaluation conversation.  Before I make my argument, however, I need to bring some facts to the front of the discussion. One thing to bring to the discussion is the fact that there have always been teacher evaluations.

They were there when I attended school fifty years ago, they were there before I got to school, and they were there throughout the forty years of my teaching career. I was evaluated all forty years I taught, but the one major difference between my first thirty-five years and the last five was that during the first thirty-five years I was evaluated by people with expertise in my subject area and/or experience in teaching that often exceeded fifteen years.

Another thing to bring to the front of the discussion is the fact that during the thirty-five years the people doing the evaluating were educators-not politicians, or theorists, or businessmen who stood to profit from the production of these evaluations, or the “consultants” who would be sent out to participate in or actually conduct the evaluation.

Yet another point to make is the fact  the evaluations weren’t “automatic”,  they had to be earned and earned every time the teacher was observed,(as was the case with tenure which I know because I know what it took for me to get my tenure!).

If you were deficient/lacking in an area, the evaluation, usually assessed by a principal or assistant principal who had taught your subject or had at least had several years of teaching experience before becoming an administrator,  spoke with you after the evaluation,  explaining the problem and offering practical,  pedagogically sound solutions/methods, as opposed to you being sent to professional developments or directed to view internet videos/ visit internet sites to resolve the problem.

Having said that, it is important to reiterate the point that there have always been evaluations. Every profession from baseball player, to astronaut, to engineer, to zoologist has an evaluation process, so it would be the height of stupidity and absurdity not to want evaluations. However, firemen don’t evaluate doctors, and police officers don’t evaluate the work of pilots, therefore it only makes sense that educators should evaluate educators.

What amazes me most is that this idea is a no-brainer in every area – except education! Policemen don’t run firehouses,  doctors don’t draw up blueprints, soccer coaches don’t manage baseball teams-only in education do people who know little or nothing about education are the people who are out in charge of “fixing” the problem .

My problem with the evaluation process as it is currently espoused is that as it pertains to students and teaching is the idea that students must have “ownership” of the lesson in order for any lesson to have success. (Here, I have a slight disagreement with My buddy Bernie. Getting feedback from students is an important factor in understanding how well one teaches.)

Another point that needs to be made is that teachers themselves perform evaluations with regularity. As a teacher, I gave tests to assess my students’ understanding, and if they failed the tests, I, (like so many other teachers), looked to see why they failed by asking myself if had taught the materials clearly, provided enough opportunity for application, if the students poor attendance didn’t afford him/her the chance to acquire the information, or if he/she might have needed some sort of additional services. That evaluation didn’t occur a month later, or the following year-it happened immediately!

While the job of a teacher is to help students learn, no teacher can make a student learn, therefore to hold a teacher responsible for a student’s grade on a test is flawed in at least two ways:

• If teachers are responsible for students’ failing grades, logic would demand they be held responsible for those students’ 90’s and 95’s as well. The problem here is that teachers receive no credit at all for the grades of successful students – in fact they are usually told that the good grades can be solely attributed to the students’ efforts and diligence.

• There are things over which teachers have control. After all, what happens if a student is frequently absent? It’s safe to assume that student would most like fail the test. The question is would that failure be the fault of the teacher? How about if the teacher’s students were well below grade level as compared to teachers, classes or school districts in which students were on or above grade level?

For me, good teaching, teaching that engenders and facilitates learning, is composed of three elements:

• Practicality of method or procedure,  (meaning the method can be repeated and duplicated by others)

• Application of method/procedure,  (meaning the method can be applied or used)

• The ability of the student(s) to perform the tasks in the method.

If you follow sports you know that the most successful players are the players who can repeat or duplicate what they do whether it’s an inside out swing, or making a certain pitch, or shooting a basketball, or hitting a ball in golf or tennis.  As a coach in sports, the most successful coaches are those coaches who have the ability to teach methods that can be repeated. The problem is that the coaches can only control the practicality and the applicability of the method- they have no control over the ability of the athlete to perform the method. Bob Kersee could provide a practical, applicable method to help someone to become a world class athlete, but without the talent of Jackie Joyner Kersee he would not have enjoyed the success he had with her.

A teacher of calculus might very well have a practical and applicable method to teach calculus, but it is likely that teacher would not be successful if he/she were teaching calculus to students who have not successfully learned the prerequisites for success in calculus. According to the Cuomo evaluation system, that would make that teacher incompetent and ineffective.  Would that be a responsible, reasonable, accurate evaluation? Would that evaluation genuinely and honestly assess that teacher’s ability? Not from where I’m standing.

Teachers understand the importance of education and take their role in education seriously. I, and I daresay the people I am proud to call my colleagues, know. Speaking for myself and them, I can say we don’t want ineffective,  incompetent people in our profession to detract from our efforts and hard work. We don’t mind being evaluated.  All we are asking is that the evaluation be honest, genuine, accurate, fair and able to be used by the people being evaluated to make them more successful teachers.

It seems to me that in the end, the most important goal is to ensure education takes place and to do everything humanly possible to empower and assist teachers to become the best teachers they can be to help that education happen.

TO TEACH OR NOT TO TEACH: THAT IS THE QUESTION

Nancie Atwell, winner of the Varkey Foundation’s first Global Teacher Prize, recently spoke to CNN’s “New Day” show about receiving a $1 million award that she subsequently handed over to her school, the school she founded, the Center For Teaching and Learning.

I admire Ms. Atwell and all her work. I am sure she is a great teacher, but I have a problem with any teacher, even me, being called the best Global Teacher and winning an award of $1,000,000.

Although she humbly noted that she thought that the gift and award to her was symbolic of the Varkey Foundation’s acknowledgment of all teachers, only one was singled out. I know many “world’s greatest teachers” of English, Social Studies, Science, Math, World Languages, Art, Music, and Physical Education. No single teacher should get any award like that. It is simply an unfair contest. But that’s what we do in our society — we make everything a competition.

One of the three CNN co-anchors asked her to describe what she does that is so special. I listened to her then looked up what she described. It’s all very Impressive. Then I realized that these are all things I have seen many English teachers do every day when they are in an environment that allows them to really teach.

Then, as curious as a kindergartener, I went to the CTL website and discovered how different this Independent (Is that code for private?) school is from public schools.

I gathered this information from the CTL website:

At CTL, there are small class sizes with 16-18 students, (with just 8-9 in kindergarten), a full-day kindergarten program focused on helping children feel secure and competent as they learn the essentials of writing, reading, and math and bond with a teacher and classmates, and never a standardized test.

Also at CTL, there is a library in every room, tens of thousands of books for students to choose from, time to read them every day, individualized instruction that results in both high proficiency and a passion for books and reading; a five-year spiral curriculum in science and history in which all students, grades K-8 engage together as researchers of paired concepts; a science lab and hands-on learning in science, and history with field trips, guest experts, experiments, project-based research, collaborations with regional environmental agencies and institutions, participation in the Maine Model United Nations Program, and explorations in the arts.

Each student also has access to daily writing workshops in which they develop his or her own topics, write in many genres, confer with their teachers about drafts in progress, communicate their ideas to others, and achieve recognition for writing excellence; an exemplary art program, weekly music classes in grades K-4, drama in grades 5-8, a school literary magazine,

daily whole-school morning meetings that create a community as children and teachers chat about current events and natural phenomena, celebrate birthdays, sing, read poems, and laugh together, multicultural studies and celebrations, and daily recess, a well-equipped playground, and woods with a nature trail.

…Just like every public school we know. Hardly.

The other two top 10 finalists from the U.S. were Stephen Ritz, from Public School 55 in the South Bronx and Naomi Volain from an inner city urban high school. Why not them? But I digress….

Back to the TV interview. Then came the bombshell.

Atwell was asked, “What do you say to kids out there who are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up, and might be considering teaching?”

Her response was, “Honestly, I’d encourage them to work in the private sector.” When asked why, she told the anchors what she could of what we know teachers are faced with constrained by CCSS and tests, turned teachers into technicians, not reflective practitioners. “And if you are a creative, smart young person, I don’t think this is the time to go into teaching unless an independent school would suit you.” What? Really?

Isn’t working in an independent school like working in the private sector?

Anyway, let’s get back to the real issue here. The reasons Ms. Atwell felt are reasons for students not to go into public school teaching are exactly why many public school teachers are leaving the profession earlier or sooner after starting. If the question, as asked, was referring to her middle school kids, then is she saying there will never be a return to creative, smart, young people to public school teaching? Is all hope gone unless you work in an independent school, as she does?

But let’s suppose she was really referring to today’s 20-somethings. Are we to give up on public schools and public school teaching? Are we to lose the oral history of the craft that master teachers hand down to younger teachers in the schools in which they work? Who then will teach teachers to teach? TFA? Will how to teach be taught from online or print sources? Who will be there to pay forward the craft?

I disagree with Ms. Atwell. Now is the time to actively recruit those “creative, smart, young” people who have what it takes, not only to become master teachers, but who also have the will to become masters of their own fate, fight back, defeat the “edupreneurs” making policy, and reclaim our great profession from those who have stolen it from our children. I bet both Mr. Ritz and Ms. Volain, and others, would agree.

David Greene is the author of DOING THE RIGHT THING: A Teacher Speaks

David Greene: Was I an Effective Teacher, a Developing Teacher, or an Ineffective Teacher?

Thank you Diane Ravitch.

Diane Ravitch's blog

David Greene taught for many years and most recently has been mentoring new teachers. He read Pasi Sahlberg’s post this morning which said that Finnish teachers are not “the best and the brightest,” but those who are both capable and are committed to becoming career educators. Reflecting on Pasi’s article, he wrote this one of his own. 

David is upset by the suggestion of the Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents that “high-performing districts,” with high test scores and high graduation rates might be exempted from the teacher-principal test-score based evaluations. Her purpose, one suspects, is to tamp down the opt out movement, which is especially strong in suburban districts.

He asks:

So, according to [Chancellor Merryl] Tisch, those who teach our “best and brightest” (i.e. mostly wealthier and whiter) would be exempt as a result of New York’s two-tier education system that also is the most highly…

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How the Common Core and High-Stakes Testing are Sabotaging Students

A Powerful and Truthful Message

Lakeland Federation of Teachers

By Michael Lillis
President, Lakeland Federation of Teachers and ST Caucus Hudson Valley Coordinator

Let’s talk about the Common Core and high-stakes testing as an experiment.

Why? There are two reasons.

First, when experimenting on people, it is important to acknowledge it’s an experiment because it has the ability to do harm.  This is a significant point because Governor Cuomo and the State Education Department refuse to acknowledge the damage being done to children.  

Second, as an experiment, it is as likely to fail as it is to succeed.  The proponents of Common Core and high-stakes tests like to immerse themselves in a lot of data and pretentious language.  Testing proponents and the State Education Department use data and complex language to hide simple realities that when exposed are indefensible.  They cannot defend a great deal of their reform agenda and it seems smarter when packaged in this way.  As comedian John…

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CHANCELLOR TISCH: DO YOU EXPECT ANYONE TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY ANY MORE?

Please ” Stop This Madness!”

This morning I read two different points of view about teachers. One was Diane Ravitch’s look at a Pasi Sahlberg, the great Finnish educator’s, piece about how Finnish universities select future teachers. The second was a short front page article in my local newspaper about NYS DOE Chancellor Merryl Tisch’s take on which teachers should and shouldn’t have to be evaluated.

Ravitch tells us:

“Finnish universities are famously selective, accepting only 10% of the high school graduates who want to become teachers. But how do they select? Sahlberg’s very bright niece was turned down when she first applied.”

Hey, what about legacy?

 “What Finland shows is that rather than get the “best and the brightest” into teaching, it is better to design initial teacher education in a way that will get the best from young people who have a natural passion to teach for life.”

Sahlberg tells us that those who got in ahead of his niece had to take a two part entrance exam comprised of a national written test with the best performers going on to the second phase, a specific aptitude test.

 “Last spring, 1,650 students took the national written test to compete for 120 places at the University of Helsinki. Applicants received between one and 100 points for the subject exams taken to earn upper-secondary school leaving diplomas.”

“A quarter of the accepted students came from the top 20% in academic ability and another quarter came from the bottom half. This means that half of the first-year students came from the 51 to 80 point range of measured academic ability. You could call them academically average.”

“The idea that Finland recruits the academically “best and brightest” to become teachers is a myth. In fact, the student cohort represents a diverse range of academic success, and deliberately so.”

“A good step forward would be to admit that academically best students are not necessarily the best teachers. But they don’t do this because they know that teaching potential is hidden more evenly across the range of different people. Young athletes, musicians and youth leaders, for example, often have the emerging characteristics of great teachers without having the best academic record.”

“What Finland shows is that rather than get “best and the brightest” into teaching, it is better to design initial teacher education in a way that will get the best from young people who have natural passion to teach for life.”

Sahlberg made me wonder. I went to NYC public schools. After taking an entrance exam I was enrolled at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science (at the time high school in NYC was grades 10-12), where I floundered as a sophomore and junior, finally maturing and learning how to learn as a senior.

I barely got into college. At the time City College of New York was incredibly difficult to get into. As a poor kid from the Bronx, the city university system was all my single mom could afford. However, Fordham University took a chance on me with recommendations from teachers and my guidance counselor. I received enough aid to attend the School of Education to which I was accepted.

It took that circumstance for me to figure out that I also I wanted to teach. What I learned I had was a passion for teaching. I had always worked with younger kids in camps, coaching and teaching them skills and how to get the best of themselves. I was inspired by my great teachers, most importantly my second grade teacher, Ms. Rita Stafford, who eventually became a world renown professor, researcher, and leader in individual learning styles. I also inspired myself by telling myself that I probably could do a better job than many of the teachers I had at Bx Science.

I went on to successfully teach for 38 years at three different high schools with three very different populations.

Then came Tisch’s bombshell. For years she has been pushing (partly as a Cuomo puppet) for all students to have the “best and brightest” teachers and the only way to ensure that was to have their evaluations tied to the standardized tests administered by the NYS DOE.

But Tisch suggested last week that “high-performing districts” with a record of strong student performance, including high graduation rates, should be exempted.

Said Mount Vernon schools Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton.

“To exclude some implies that teachers are single-handedly responsible for how well students perform on standardized assessments,” Hamilton said. “While it is certainly a major factor, it is not the sole indicator of student success or failure.”

NYSUT’s president, Karen E. McGee said the plan was divisive and unfair to districts dealing with student poverty.

“Instead of doing everything possible to recruit, support and keep great teachers for students burdened by poverty, he’s boxing them in with test and punish.”

Louis Wool, the Harrison, NY superintendent, agreed.

“Here’s the conundrum with this proposal: It separates those with resources from those who have few.” He went on to say that a district should not be able to opt out of evaluation “because they are fortunate to have high resource/high readiness students.”

So, according to Tisch, those who teach our “best and brightest” (i.e. mostly wealthier and whiter) would be exempt as a result New York’s two-tier education system that also is the most highly segregated in the nation.

Tisch makes me wonder. Was I a highly effective teacher in wealthy and white Scarsdale High School when I taught her nephew? Was I a developing or effective teacher in mostly middle class and integrated Woodlands High School? And did that make me an ineffective teacher at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, the nation’s poorest urban county, regardless of the huge number of success stories that emanated from there?

Really Merryl?

David Greene: Author of Doing The Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks

What Happens When Highly Effective Instructors Are Not Good Teachers?

What Happens When Highly Effective Instructors Are Not Good Teachers?.

From my friend Harris Lirtzman

The Lunacy of Education Reform–New York State Style and the Need for Non-Violent Direct Action JP Lee-Style

I listened to Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the NYS Board of Regents, yesterday morning on the Brian Lehrer show while I was driving into the City. Among other lunacies, she openly admitted that it would take at least a decade for the State to figure out whether its Common Core-based curriculum and the high-stakes testing regimen connected with it was “going to work,” meaning improve student achievement.

Truly, Tisch knows that she is dead-woman walking in next year’s Regent election now that her protector, Sheldon Silver, is going off very soon to Club Fed. Truly, she knows that she has no ally anywhere in the state beyond a few senile co-Regents who will soon be booted off the Board along with her. She has been reduced to babbling and making-shit-up on the spot: untimed testing, releasing high-performing schools from testing, calling down the terrors of a PARCC national test upon the wee little children of the state….

I was at an opt-out information and planning meeting last night in Tuckahoe with Dave Greene and Lisa Rudley sponsored by NYSAPE. Fifty people in the back room of a pizza joint. Even Westchester folks from Scarsdale and Bronxville have watched enough about what’s going down in Long Island and upstate and have seen the education-wars up-close-and-personal during the state budget battle to figure out how rigged the whole thing is.

Mothers from Hartsdale and fathers from Dobbs Ferry ready to commit what for them is the equivalent of “non-violent civil disobedience.”

Scarsdale matrons are starting to climb onto the barricades.

Tisch says it will take a decade to figure out whether any of this monstrosity works?

Tisch won’t last the year and the whole rigged system will collapse in on itself within two or three years, falling in on the governor and the Heavy Hearts Club members of the Democratic Assembly Caucus in the Legislature who voted all this stuff in with this year’s budget.

I only hope teachers will watch what the parents of their students are doing and have the courage to engage in some NVCD of their own, Jia Lee-style.

WHAT SCHOOLS REALLY NEED TO SUCCEED.

Recently, Peter De Witt reported this: Russ Quaglia and his group at Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center released the Teacher Voice Report.The participants were 8,053 non-administrative school staff consisting of:

• 73% classroom teachers
• 14% certified support staff
• 12% support staff

According to their 4-year study from 2010 to 2014, Quaglia and his group found there are 8 conditions that are vital to every successful school climate. Notice none of them are about money or other rewards.

Belonging:

• A sense of community and participation
• All participants in the educational process are valuable members
• All employees can be fully active, contributing participants in the life of the school.
• Staffs are appreciated as members of the school community as a whole, and for their individual contributions.

Heroes:

–   Highly motivated school employees who set and meet high aspirations form meaningful relationships with others in the school and in the profession.

• Mutual respect and commitment to one another are the hallmarks of a staff dedicated to system-wide school improvement.
• Collaborative support replaces adults isolated from one another in a culture dominated by individual competition.

Sense of Accomplishment:

• Effort, perseverance, and citizenship are recognized and appreciated.
• Highly dedicated employees make contributions beyond the “call of duty.”
• The school encourages effort as well as end products.
• When recognized for their effort, staff members are more motivated to persevere through difficult tasks and to create a healthy work environment through hard work and dedication.

Fun and Excitement:

• Interest and engagement in one’s work
• Enjoyment improves one’s effectiveness
• When staff are excited, they are eagerly engaged, actively involved, and they contribute more.
• If we expect all employees to be enthusiastic about coming to school, we must provide diverse, interesting, challenging and enjoyable work experiences.

Curiosity and Creativity:

• Allowing and encouraging all the participants in the school building to question and explore.
• Staff should be encouraged to trust and nurture their own curiosity and creativity.
• Limitation of mundane routine that can set in day after day, term after term, year after year.
• All staff members are open to the same growth and change we expect of students.

Spirit of Adventure:

• Supporting healthy risks
• Trusting that it is all right to make mistakes and knowing there is something to be learned from any consequence–positive or negative.

Leadership and Responsibility:

• Gives every member of the staff a voice in the school
• Letting them know they matter and are trusted to make decisions.
• If all personnel are expected to be responsible members of the school community, they must be trusted enough to have a voice in their classrooms, departments and in the building as a whole.

Confidence To Take Action:

• Encouraging all staff members to believe in themselves
• Trusting that they can be successful and make a difference.
• Though society’s expectations of schools are high, the confidence needed to meet those expectations must be internal to each employee.
• The intrinsic desire to provide the best service one is capable of must drives the most effective employees.

However the past 15 years, especially the past 4, have brought national and statewide curriculum changes, drastic budget manipulations and an increase in standardized testing, accountability and mandates. NYS Governor Cuomo and his “rubber stamp” legislature just made it even harder to achieve better schools in NYS by making conditions in schools even more reliant on standardized tests tied to Common Core Curricula all the while ignoring what research tells us works, Quaglia’s 8 conditions.

It seems that Cuomo’s 8 conditions being forced on all NYS schools are:

• Fear of job loss
• Pavlovian response to rewards
• Reliance on Data driven drivel
• Robotic use of non educator produced materials
• Worker bee mentality
• Being seen and not heard
• In step marching ability
• Love of uniformity and conformist conditions

Quaglia’s 8 conditions provide school leaders and teachers with a positive school culture as they try to create or recreate their school. They most certainly existed in the 3 high schools where I was lucky enough to have worked. Unfortunately, I had many (in fact most) friends and colleagues in other schools that were not so lucky. These are the conditions that administrators, teachers, support staff, parents, and students all know make great schools work, even under the toughest funding conditions.

What do Cuomo’s do?

God help us all.

David Greene is the Author of: DOING THE RIGHT THING: A Teacher Speaks