Although I am a parent and a classroom teacher, I fight for students everywhere.
Enjoy the talk (below is the transcription) that started it all for me:
My TEDxUniversityofAkron Talk
Transcription:
Albert Einstein - "Everybody is a genius. But
if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid."
So, there I was, working with a
student, Natalie, on
solving equations. She had to multiply 2
times 9 and was stuck. No joke, my
students get stuck on that. So, I
decided to go for the teaching moment. 2
times 9. All she had to do was count by
2, 9 times, that was it. She tried and
failed three times, on paper and on fingers, in both English and Spanish, her
native tongue. THREE TIMES Natalie is
16. In 9th grade. And she is NOT ALONE. NOT BY A LONG SHOT.
I teach at a
high school with a student population of over 2,800. It is only one of over 30,000 high schools in
the United States. You have to somehow
begin to wrap your head around the enormity of the number of Natalies in our
schools, in our country, in our future.
I’ve seen
the best of the school system. I can
honestly say that our best students can compete with the best students from
around the world. In fact, when looking at the data from PISA
results that compares our students to other countries we rank in the 20’s, BUT…if we disaggregate it
by district poverty level, and look at the
US districts that have comparable poverty rates to the other countries, it is
clear that our students are at or near the top in the comparisons. But our best are only a small percentage of
our overall population, even in the honors classes.
But what
about the Natalies?
I have specializedin teaching Algebra to the bottom 25% of high school
students, and I work mostly with THOSE students.
The best of
THOSE want to do well, but when they finally realize how capable they are, they
find themselves either stuck in a path of academic mediocrity or they are so
close to graduation that all they need is their credit to pass. It’s a scene of wasted potential.
The worst of
THOSE have had no education of character, common decency, appropriate language
and behavior, or right from wrong. By high
school, they are so ingrained in their behaviors of laziness, disruption,
disrespect, and defiance that any measure of guidance is completely lost on
them. These are the students on the path
of dropping out, of incarceration, and abusing social welfare.
Parents will
talk their children into purposefully failing tests so they can qualify for
social security benefits, up to $800 per month per child. And these families find other sources of non
taxed income, in the way of pharmaceutical sales. There is a LOT of abuse of social welfare,
and the parents know how to milk the system for all it’s worth. This abuse is happening when people TRULY in
need can’t get the help.
What’s out there waiting for THOSE
students? Jobs?
College? They are in an
educational system that says “if you don’t go to college, you have no worth” so
their alternative is to be underemployed, find illegal work, or abuse social
security.
THOSE
students are marginalized by what I call our “Toxic Culture of Education”. It doesn’t matter if a student is a gifted
artist, a loving caretaker, a poetic writer, or a talented musician. THOSE students are the fish being measured
on how they climb trees. We say the end
all be all is college, or we leave students
to the lowest skill level work (which is more and more being occupied by
college educated people). Even with the
honors students, they are, in general, too worried about grades and results,
and not interested in true learning, which affects their performance in
college. I don't want to talk about the
college student loan debt crisis.
But you have to believe me, I am not placing blame on them, yes
they can take credit for who they are, but this is about something much larger
than them. Our Toxic Culture began with a classic Super Villain Archetype. Recall any Super Villain, I focus on Syndrome
from the Incredibles. The villain’s plan
is to unleash a doom onto the world, and the villain is the only one that can
stop it. Thus gaining all the desired
power.
This is
exactly what began in the 1980’s and
before and culminated in No Child Left Behind.
Private companies realized they can utilize the education system (at the
time a 600 billion dollar industry) to create a nearly endless stream of
taxpayer funds. They channeled millions
of dollars into lobbying efforts in order to create 2 buzzwords that put
everything in its place: “Accountability”
and “Rigor”. State statutes were passes,
district rules were put into place, and No Child Left Behind was finally
passed. But don’t get me wrong about
politics, these efforts were underway long before they were passed, and both
parties can take full credit for their disastrous results.
They decided
take the education system that produced the individuals that put a man on the
moon with technology less powerful than the phone in my pocket, and paint a
picture of “failure” using the word “accountability”. You see, we only have one way to address
accountability: Standardized
Testing. So, we implement standardized
testing, and it shows that schools are failing, teachers are failing, and
students are failing. And when
everything is failing, guess what we need?
We need new textbooks, we need new resources, we need new training, we
need charter schools, we need private schools.
And who creates all these things we need? Private businesses. The only way to feed the business model in
our Toxic Culture is to perpetuate the picture of failure. In fact, I’d LOVE to see any education
company that has a business model that is built upon success. There is no money in student success.
How can we possibly believe
standardized testing accurately measures student achievement? How can it measure student growth? How can it measure that "ah ha"
moment when a student’s light is finally lit?
That moment when a student says “thank you” for helping him graduate
with a 2.0 GPA? That moment when a student athlete works hard in study hall and
finally gets a C in her class because her coach helped? How can we attach a number to that moment
when a 5th grader finally has the ability to write his own name (who
is labeled a failure for himself, his teacher, AND his school)? But we crave education standardization, we
believe we need high stakes testing, and we eat up misinformation provided by
companies usinh the false validity of the results.
Our testing culture begins in
elementary school. Colleagues of mine deal with third graders who
are suffering from anxiety for standardized testing. From a one-day, 4 hour, computer-based test,
the future path of the student is set, the academic identity is established,
and the message is delivered loud and clear: either you CAN make it, or you
CAN’T make it. No matter what the teacher tells them about
how good they are or what talents they have, if they don’t score well on that
test, they know what it means. They define
themselves. In the 3rd grade. It’s starting to happen in kindergarten.
So these students continue testing, continue failing, and the districts
continue new initiatives that can solve the problem. Who makes these products? Who has these solutions? Our super villain. Companies like Pearson and McGraw Hill who
operate on legislation and policy written by private lobbying groups like ALEC. Buy the next textbook, the next workbook, the
next software package. I’ve been through
4 Algebra textbooks in 7 years. And that’s
where the schools and districts are spending all the money. And we
stick to the standardized test (guess who makes those?).
We
illogically attempt to compare education to business, we ignore the impact of
poverty and hunger, we pay no attention the non cognitive factors that are
realistic predictors and measures of student success, and that way, we can
place the blame on the teachers and schools.
And because we have a Toxic Culture of Education, policies, teachers,
and schools have accepted accountability for students, including all THOSE students. We take the blame for a student that has no
moral compass. We take the blame for a
student that cannot focus because he hasn’t eaten since yesterday’s lunch. We take the blame for a student that cannot
stay awake in class because she spends her nights on a different couch,
depending on which friend takes her in.
When those students don’t “score well”, we get blamed. (the following part had technical difficulties in the talk and had to be edited out) And we take it. We accept it.
Because we love the kids. We are the only ones protecting them from this
Toxic Culture of Education.
And what do we do as a system? Our only interest in education “reform” is to create policies that include additional
standardized testing, to place higher stresses on teachers and students, and
continue the picture of failure so private companies can sell the answer. And all this ignores highly publicized and
easily available data on effective policy-making and effective practices. And
it’s about to get worse. The Common Core
will do more damage its high-stakes test (not to mention its myopic standards
masked in a guise of “critical thinking” which is just developmentally
inappropriate “rote”. I see my
daughter's work in 1st grade. They ain't
fooling me). Any education reform that
does not address high stakes testing and the non cognitive factors of true student
achievement, like character and personal habits, is a waste of time and it
kills our kids.
Our main focus is on the schools, on
the teachers, on the curriculum. We need to start
paying attention to our students. If a
student fails algebra 1 in the 9th grade year, chances are it is not because
they do not understand the material.
Chances are it’s not because the teacher isn’t teaching. Chances are it’s not because of the school. Chances
are it is because the student lacks some type of intangible characteristic (a
“Non Cognitive Behavior”) that enables them to succeed. Things like persistence, initiative, social
skills, common sense, a full belly, or a good night’s sleep. However, none of these things are considered
in our definition of “student achievement”.
None of these things are considered in our policies.
All the talk about failing schools
and failing teachers and how to improve teachers and improve schools NEEDS to be
changed to failing students and how to improve students. How can we help them be better students? How can we help them be better people? How can we help them with these Non Cognitive
factors like integrity and work ethic?
How can we feed them? Give them a
place to sleep? It's the public narrative that needs to be shifted. We have to discuss what is happening with our
students, even the honors students.
Because right now we are simply creating a massive population of future
citizens who are afraid to attempt anything challenging, unable to read or
think critically, or unable to find ways to earn a meaningful income, and I’ll
get to that in a minute.
Right now, our system pushes ALL
students to study abstract classes in order to be “college ready”. We throw around buzzwords like “rigor” and
“STEM”. It sounds good, right?
The reality
is that the word “rigor” has completely replaced the word “relevant”. I met with our district and pitched an idea
to bring back Home Economics, but this time as a math credit. First words in the response: “it’s not rigorous”. So, forget relevance. Forget teaching students about measurements,
about taxes and discounts, about loans, about debt, event planning, or the
reality of fractions. It’s not as
rigorous as Factoring Trinomials and Graphing Logarithms, so it can’t fit. There’s no room for it in our Toxic Culture
of Education. There’s also no room for
the arts and for imagination, which are being systematically removed from
schools. There is no profit in that,
either.
We have felt the effects of our
education policies. There are thousands of highly skilled jobs
that are currently vacant. There is
opportunity for small business development and innovation like never
before. And we are relying on high
skilled immigrants. But where are our
graduates?
There is an
ENORMOUS opportunity in our economy for our students, but we just don’t enable
it in our schools because we are focusing on “college ready” and “rigor”.
If we focus our attention on getting
students the resources they need in order to find their place in the economy, THOSE students, would
value education more highly, use their time more wisely, and make better
decisions outside of school. Let’s keep the college bound students going to
college. They need to continue their
path, but we need them to be more successful and more innovative. But what about THOSE students?
I have
students that want to be tattoo artists, mechanics, barbers. They want work, some want to open their own
businesses. But..they are THOSE students. They consistently fail classes and get
themselves in trouble in school, and may not graduate. So I say: let’s scrap Algebra for them and
teach them some tangible skills (like we did in the system before it was
labeled as a “failure”). Let’s get them
out there making a living for themselves, rather than spending another $10,000
in tax money to pay for another year of school for them to learn how to factor
trinomials, which they won’t. Why Not
get them into the economy?
How do we address this on a large
scale? I believe in Horace Mann’s 1850's vision of
an education system that can improve mankind.
In public education, we have an amazing opportunity to mold a better
future. What we are currently doing is
so toxic that I have 2 solutions that would be better. I’m not a fan of this idea, but it would be
better than what is happening now: we
could completely defund public education and put the 750 billion dollars back
in our pockets. No more taxpayer money
going to private companies in the name of public education and on the heads of
our students. Because let me tell you,
it isn't reaching our classrooms and students and it's certainly not reaching
the teachers. The second plan which I am
in support of, is to double down on public education. Eliminate the toxic policies, eliminate the
corruption in profit flow. Get the money
more directly to the students. Allow them
to be successful, focus on them, on their non cognitive factors, on their
abilities. Train and allow the teachers to work with their students and assess
their students on what they truly need to know:
thinking, reasoning, and learning.
I believe in the potential greatness of a public education system DONE
RIGHT. In fact, most of my colleagues do
as well.
Speaking of my colleagues…what about
all the talk about teachers? The public narrative, thanks to "education
reformers" like Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates, paints a picture that our
schools are teeming with horrible teachers.
Most teachers are accomplishing amazing feats of human achievement and
motivation with their students. What teachers
are able to accomplish is being done in a “professional” environment of questioning,
belittling, and self doubt due to “accountability” measures for ALL teachers
because "teachers can't be fired".
If you want to compare education to business, check out HR and employee
relations. Companies empower employees,
encourage employee growth, believe in employee morale, reward employee
success. Yet in our toxic culture, we
call a teacher “successful” IF AND ONLY IF students can score well on a 4 hour
computer based test. We evaluate
teachers based on what is written on their boards or hung up on their walls, or
spotted by an administrator with an iPad in a 3 minute time period. We blame teachers for students who are
hungry, homeless, without guidance, or without character. And I don’t even need to mention teacher
pay. You cannot measure how successful a
teacher truly is in the life of a student!
How do you measure when a teacher acts as mental health counselor for a
student that has suffered a family loss?
How do you measure when a student is able to eat dinner only because a
teacher is paying for it? How do you
measure a student learning something new based on immediate feedback from an
assignment because the teacher stayed up until midnight the night before
grading papers? How do you measure when
a teacher spends thousands of dollars of their own money to have supplies in
their classrooms? And we blame the
teachers for accountability policies they had no place in creating.
Why not develop a system that invests
in the teachers’ relationship with the students? Why not invest directly in the students? Why not encourage teachers to create their
own assessment systems to fit their students’ needs? Why not allow them to collaborate with one
another or at least have a peer review system to better serve their students
(like in other professions)? Why not
involve them in the policy making decisions at the school level, the district
level, the state level, the national level?
The truth of education policy is that
it is written and enforced by people who have either spent little or no time in the classroom
with the students these very policies are affecting. Why not allow the individuals in direct
contact with students to mold and shape the environment of the students? Education
is the only industry that is developing a product without any valid market
research from its users! Students aren’t
asked what they want or need. Teachers
aren’t asked what would work for their students. Teachers are not the enemy: it’s the private
companies like Pearson and interest groups like ALEC, that write policies and
laws that are passed over steak dinners with words like “accountability” and
“rigor” to perpetuate their bottom lines on the heads of our students. Follow the money: of all the tax dollars that go into
education, how much goes directly to students? How much goes directly to a teacher’s
relationship with students (which by the way are another leading indicator of
student success)? Compare that to how
much goes to private companies for materials and resources, as well as
bureaucracy? Just follow the money.
So, we must change the public
narrative on education. We must fight our Toxic
Culture! We must end high stakes testing
for the sake of “accountability”. Let’s
have education policy that builds up our students with sensible human standards
instead of fitting them into robotic boxes for “college readiness”. Let’s focus on getting students out there in
the evolving global economy. Let’s focus
on teaching them the important things:
how to read, how to think, how to research, how to reason, how to master
basic skills, and how to be good citizens.
Let's talk about the Non Cognitive factors that are the true measures of
student achievement: persistence,
integrity, character. Let’s teach them
how to learn and how to innovate, not how to take tests. We must change the focus of our Toxic Culture away
from curriculum, teachers, and schools, and WE MUST focus on our students! Let’s stop measuring fish on how they climb
trees.
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