Isn't that Our job?

Politico.com released an excellent story on December 30, 2014 called "Testing under fire".  I loved it for a few reasons: great message, local shout-outs, and national exposure.  I've read many articles about the same topic, some support what the Department of Education has done, some debate the DOE.  In every article though, there is a point that is made that has only recently begun to disturb me. Here are a couple of examples of arguments made for the high-stakes accountability system:

• Education Secretary Arne Duncan:  “Annual statewide assessments are critical to ensuring that all students are held to the same high standards and parents, teachers and communities have the information they need about how their children are doing every year.” 
• Unnamed New York State school district, as offered by Jeanette Deutermann with Long Island Opt Out:  “One district told me it’s the same thing as not taking your kids to the doctor. How would you know if something was wrong with them?"
• Education Department official:  ”We’re responsible for student learning every single day and every single year. I want us to never back away from the fact that it’s our responsibility … Parents have a right to know how their students are progressing. Students have a right to know how they measure up."

These are the same arguments used in Florida, from the state's DOE to the legislators in Tallahassee to our local district school boards.  And I get it:  you hear these things and think to yourself "YEAH!!!  That's true!  Good point!  So, what do we do about it?"  As if these arguments must be taken as truth and we can pass right by them to talk about testing, or new laws, or school funding, or special needs, etc.  

Over the past 5 years we have heard about an educational shift in our Professional Development:  It's not about what WE TEACH, it's about what THEY LEARN.  As teachers, we have to let go of the old-school attitude that "I taught it, they need to know it" and move toward "what can I do to help you learn it?"  I have re-designed a lot of what I do in my classes to fit this shift and I feel I have gotten to a point where I can articulate to my students that I am holding them accountable to learning the material.  I articulate that it is their job to hold me accountable to providing them what they need to learn.

This year, it hit me clearly.  My class may be the first time some students are being held accountable to actually learning material if they are to get a passing grade.  In the past, I would reward "work for work's sake".  Turn in your homework.  Show me your notebook.  Copy these things down.  Pass the class.  It's a practice I learned from my own school experience and from watching my colleagues.  What's wrong with a D for effort?  Many students have come to me in their senior year of high school and still not understand basic math facts (but boy, they could copy some notes in their well-organized notebooks!)  So I'm not doing that anymore.  I'm doing my best to clean up the mess for which I have been responsible.  I am doing everything I can to ensure students are learning, and I am holding them accountable to learning it.  If you want to pass the class, you'd better be able to show me you know what you are doing.  You'd better make sure I'm getting you everything you need to make that happen.  You'd better be able to show me you have actually learned.  Not just worked.  Learned.

In comes Teacher Evaluation (which uses the same DOE arguments as before: don't I deserve to know how I measure up to other teachers?  Or what Value Added do I bring for students?)  I have not yet been able to write about how much I disagree with the way teachers are evaluated.  That's for another time.  But I can tell you this:  how I assess my students IS NO PART OF MY EVALUATION.  That's right folks.  Read that again.  How I assess and grade my students is not a part of my "effectiveness".  How I hold my students accountable means nothing.  Take a look for yourself to see how I am "graded".  Funny enough, this entire road map preaches that it IS ABOUT WHAT I TEACH, not whether or not students have learned.  Where is "Relevant and Valid In-class Assessments" or "Equitable Grading Policy" or "Student Grade is an Accurate Reflection of Content Knowledge"?  It's not there.  That has no bearing on my effectiveness.  So on one hand, we say it's about student learning, yet on the other hand we are evaluated solely on how we are delivering material.  There is nothing there about measuring student learning.

Do you see the problem yet?  Review the arguments from our Departments of Education and school districts.  Do you see it now?

Let's say you have an incredible stomach ache.  So to figure out what is wrong you see your doctor.  Your doctor watches you breathe, moves your arms and legs around, has you read letters on the wall, asks you several diagnostic questions about diet and stress level.  Your doctor gives out a few "hhhmmm"s and "uh huh"s and "mmmkaaay"s while doing this.  After a 40 minute visit, you finally ask "So what's the problem doc?  What do I have?"  At that point, the doctor wheels in Dr. Robot 4000.  Dr. Robot 4000 takes 5 minutes to run you through a shortened check up.  Your doctor types a few things in, then Dr. Robot 4000 makes some clicking and whistling noises.  Again, you repeat your question: "So what's the problem doc?  What do I have?"  Your doctor then tells you "I have to press the Output button on Dr. Robot 4000, and that is what you have."  Of course, you have to ask:  "Isn't that YOUR JOB, doc?"

Back to the arguments of the DOE and the districts.  These are the arguments we have all taken for truth for far too long.  I will no longer pass these statements without a giant red flag.  I have a big problem with this, and as a teacher I take it personally.  I completely agree that parents and students have the right to know "how they are doing".  But, ISN'T THAT MY JOB???!!!   How would you know if your student was struggling?  ISN'T THAT MY JOB?  What happens if a student falls behind?  ISN'T THAT MY JOB?

We already have the mechanism in place to ensure educational equity, or accountability, or let's even use the R word (rigor) for our students.  It's called a GRADE.  But we ignore the grade.  It's not even part of the teacher evaluation system.  We have replaced the grade with Dr. Test 4000.  Teachers have been completely removed from the assessment component of education.  We aren't even coached on how we can ensure valid assessments, equitable grading practices, or accurate reflections of student learning.  We have allowed this to happen to ourselves as teachers (and I understand why we have the urge to pass students for effort...but that must stop!)  We have allowed the assessment authority to be taken completely out of our hands because we have never ensured the validity of that authority (extra credit for bringing in a ream of printer paper).  What's worse is that there is absolutely no interest in the return of that authority from the district, the state, the federal department, or the many "venture philanthropists" involved in education.  There is no training on how we can do it better.  There is no Professional Development on in-class assessments.  It is not part of our Evaluation.  And we have allowed it to happen (Life Skills points).  Student measurement and assessment is a vital component of education and we let it slip right out of our hands.  We have allowed the belittling of our GRADE (which is what we spend most of our time doing).  I say it's time we take that authority back.  We must ensure that our GRADE means something, that it is fair, valid, and accurate.  Otherwise, Dr. Test 4000 will continue to diagnose our students.  But, isn't that our job?

Student Rights and Responsibilities

Each Quarter we, as teachers, are required to review the Code of Conduct with our students and have them sign off that they know and understand it.  Each of the past 3 years I have found this exercise to become more and more comical, since we are given a pre-made PowerPoint presentation to go over.  I do my due diligence and review it, and I answer all student questions about it.  But this year I am simply more aware of things.  I focused on one slide in the presentation that had a good line in it: "as students you have rights and responsibilities".  Before I clicked on the next slide, I pointed that line out to my class and asked them to keep track of how many "rights" I was about to cover.  Of course, I covered none of them.  In fact, not one of them ever came up in the presentation.  It took a few students and some internet searching before finding out what their rights actually were (page 3 - 5).  We had a brief discussion of why this isn't discussed more frequently, then went on to graph linear functions for the day.

Today a student brought up a situation she was having in another class, and she felt there was an injustice.  The details of her claim are irrelevant, but if they are true she most certainly has a right to be upset.  I asked her to pick a fight, using good manners and proper personal confrontation skills (I feel _____ when you ______).  She refused, afraid of how she would be viewed by the teacher, afraid of any negative repercussions.  I asked her what she could possibly imagine could happen as a result, and she couldn't think of anything.  Yet, she was still afraid.

I asked her what the last thing she bought was.  A $5 Starbucks mocha-frappa-something-or-another.  I asked what would she do if she took a sip of that drink and was so overwhelmed my cinnamon that she could drink no more.  Of course, she would return it, ask for another, or ask for her money back.  I asked "all that for a $5 drink?"  She asked what would happen if this teacher ignored her or laughed at her.  I asked what she would ask the young barista if she was ignored.  She said "I'd ask to speak to her manager."  I asked "all that for a $5 drink?"  She started to get my point.

Our students have been so drilled by responsibilities, they forget their rights.  We, as teachers, are told so many times to remind them of their responsibilities, we sometimes forget they have rights.   They have a right to be treated fairly, a right to know how they will be measured, and a right to learn.  We, as teachers, are very preoccupied in fighting for our rights (as well we should), but every now and then (and hopefully more frequently), we should think about our students' rights.  We should ask students to challenge us, to question us, to debate us on how we treat them and work with them.  I offer that every year to my students.  I ask them to fight me if they feel I'm mistreating them.  I ask them to challenge me on how I grade them.  I begged a student 2 weeks ago to bring a test he took to his guidance counselor and claim my grade was unfair (he knows I caught him cheating, but that's not the point).  This will force us to re-evaluate some of the things we do, but that is okay.  It will make us better craftspeople.  If we offer this challenge to our students, that they fight us, they will see something we have known for our entire careers:  it's not us.  We fervently fight for our rights, let's help our students fight for theirs.  We're in it together.

A Thought Exercise

Have you ever argued or debated with someone on an issue about which you were extremely passionate?  Have you felt the frustration as if your message was simply not getting across?  Have you felt that no matter what you knew was right, that nothing would change?

This about sums up what I have viewed as my role in the discussion on education.  I have felt passionate and argued about all the issues:
- national policies
- state statutes
- the legislative process
- venture philanthropy
- funding issues
- public vs. private vs. charter
- school board elections
- district leadership
- unions
- teacher evaluations
- high stakes testing
- teaching methods
- student learning
- poverty and hunger

I know I'm right about everything, because there could be no other reason for me to have these debates and arguments.  All my learning on these issues is done, and I still feel like we are going in the wrong direction.  So, I decided to do something a little differently.  I embarked on a mental exercise, and it's something we use in Geometry.  I attempted an Indirect Proof, or a Proof by Contradiction.  I wanted to take an issue, and make the assumption that those with whom I argued were actually correct.  That way, I can finely comb through their thought process and pinpoint the exact places they were wrong.  I had to begin my assumption with accepting that everything I thought was right was actually wrong.

So, I did that.  I'm still doing that.  But I'm encouraging everyone to do the same.  Let's assume that Arne Duncan is the best visionary Secretary of Education we have ever had, that Jeb Bush is correct about statewide policies, and Bill Gates is correct about efficiency, and Michelle Rhee was spot-on about teacher accountability, and Eli Broad is correct about leadership.  I must stop myself from accepting that these are evil people, as that would make me equally evil.  At the same time, let's imagine that I have been wrong, Diane Ravitch has been wrong, Peter Greene has been wrong, Mercedes Schneider has been wrong (although her research abilities are nuts), and Lily Eskelsen Garcia is wrong.  Just use an Indirect Proof for a second.

So, try that out.  Imagine, for a second, that hyper-accountability and data-mining and teacher-blame and childhood anxiety is right and good.  See where that takes you.  Let it blow your mind.

It has blown my mind (which is why I have not written in awhile), and I think it will be the beginning of my next big idea.

You are Not Your Grade

I have a different way of grading tests in my class.  Although I have a schedule to keep, and a Scope and Sequence to cover for the year, I allow students to take their tests when they are ready.  Yes, it's a lot to keep track of, and yes, I have to do paperwork for students who are....Late Learners I'll call them, but it's a system I've played around with for a year.

Last week, a student finally finished a test he had started awhile back.  He's been working on it periodically, pausing the test for a day or two so he could brush up on some concepts or get tutoring. Clearly, math is not his strong suit and I've known that from watching him work on problems in class.  This week he finally finished his test and, though he knew he blanked on two of the problems, he wanted me to grade it for him right there.  So, I did.  Now aside from my testing process, I grade a bit differently as well, more in line with a philosophy in the book Ahead of the Curve.  I could tell from his work that he wasn't a superstar with the material and where his learning gaps were, so his score turned out to be quite accurate: a 65%.  Having seen his prior work I was actually okay with this grade.  This is a student that has little interest in my class, a very active life outside of school, cares for people in need, and spends his efforts on community engagement for young people who have been cast aside from their homes for a variety of reasons.  He is a funny guy, and a loyal friend.  He's charismatic and I've never seen or heard of anyone behaving negatively toward him.  I also know that algebra isn't a high priority for him.

When I showed him his grade he seemed a little down about it.  But then I said something that gave him pause.  I explained how much of an improvement he had made, and then followed it with "this grade is not who you are.  You are not a grade on a test.  You are not a grade in a class.  You are much more than that."  He said he had never heard anyone say that to him before and was very appreciative of the kind words ("inspirational" is what he said).  He's a beautiful kid with much to offer the world, much like every other student I see, and I want him to know that his potential is limitless, not defined by whatever mark I put next to his name.  I think I'm going to say that to more students.

And then I think about my colleagues.  We are in a "teacher accountability" system that places the threat of our livelihood in the center of our "job performance".  Now, our "job performance" is measured by:
     - 50% from student test scores
     - 50% from administrative observations.   For the average teacher, these observations constitute around 1/2 of 1% of our total instructional time with students.  These observations are both formal and informal (whatever that measures), and can be conducted by multiple administrators within an at-best consistently subjective framework.  When all of this is said and done, we get a score.   The score is what determines whether or not we can be re-hired, whether or not we receive an increase in pay or the amount of pay increase, and how we are viewed by administrators and the school system.  We allow ourselves to be defined by these scores (and how CAN'T we?  This is our lives, our profession).  The problem is: good or bad, those scores are not who we are.  We LET them define us, because the system defines us by them.  The students do the same thing: they define themselves by the scores we give them.  But good or bad, the scores are NOT our students.  We have to check ourselves to make sure we are not judging students the same way the system judges students, or the same way we are judged.  They are just scores on mastery over a specific content area, not holistic interpretations of worth.  Unfortunately, our accountability system DOES INDEED find scores to be holistic interpretations of worth.  A student is only as good as their GPA or more accurately, their high-stakes test score.  A teacher is only as good as their evaluation score.

As professionals, we KNOW that these scores do not accurately reflect who we are as people or how well we perform as teachers, yet it is a constant struggle to ignore that.  These scores do not take into effect how we can finally reach a student that can recognize an author's intent, or finally teach a student exactly what an intercept is on a linear function, or being there with a hug when a student's mother passed away.  Those are not reflected in the scores, yet those moments are what defines us.  Those are the moments we live for.  Those moments are the reason why we do what we do.

In moments of clarity and defiance, we think "evaluate that!" when we inspire a student.  When a student shares with us their excitement over learning something new or getting a letter from Princiton or saying "thank you" for being there in a time of need, then they walk out of the classroom.  In the quite of a temporarily empty room, we reflect on what just happened.  And we wipe a tear away.  That is who we are.  Let's always remember who our students are.  Let's fight to remind everyone else that wants to label them.  We are not our grade.

The Hypocrisy of Grading Benchmark Tests

Our school Principal stirred the pot a bit when she announced a few weeks ago that the Benchmark Tests given to students in classes that were taking the state-issued high-stakes tests at the end of the year were to be counted toward student grades in classes.  Forcing student grades for Benchmark Tests is not a good practice.  This was in direct response to some students distributing flyers to other students asking them to boycott the Benchmark Tests.  The activist students knew that the Benchmark Tests were useless and a waste of time.  They knew that the statewide standardized assessments are invalid and unfair and the district's push to have Benchmark Tests for these assessments were equally invalid and a diversion of precious instructional time and resources.  

So, the Principal reacted by forcing teachers to count the Benchmark Tests for a class grade.  Benchmark Tests are not designed for this purpose, as a summative evaluation of student knowledge.  At best, they are formative indicators and predictors of student achievement on a future exam.  In Florida and in my district, we are not operating "at best" in regards to statewide standardized assessment.  

I will go on record stating that I adore our Principal.  She is caring for her students and she has a common sense of right and wrong.  Benchmark Testing is where we find our disagreement.  Let me share some gems from our faculty meeting this week:

• "We need these scores to let us know where our students are."
• "We heard some students weren't going to take them seriously."
• "It doesn't matter what you feel about standardized testing, these tests give us a glimpse of what your student's know."
• "You should use benchmarks to adjust your instruction."
• "The best way to motivate students is to give them a grade for it."
• "I know the test is invalid"
• "Use your professional judgement when entering the grade for this assignment"
• "If you are counting it as a test score, please use a curve".

I will do my best to restrain myself, but here are some thoughts I have on these comments:

This thought process is insulting to students, insulting to the entire process of learning, and one of the fundamental flaws of the current practice of learning in education.  If the only way to motivate students to care is to give them a grade, there is MUCH more wrong with everything than I originally thought.  It's quite disrespectful to think of students in this manner, that the only way to motivate them is to grade them. We should be teaching students for the sake of learning and knowledge and mastery, not for grades.  And when we incentivize something with a simple grade, we have taken ALL value of that thing away.  In Dan Pink's Drive, motivation is boiled down to 3 simplistic factors (and I tend to agree, having seen it in practice): Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. A major component to building motivation is to establish Purpose in what people are doing.  If people do not see or understand or agree with the purpose of a thing, they will not be motivated for that thing, no matter what other incentive is there.  So the belief is that we can offer an activity to students, one they feel or perceive is completely useless, fail to convey the purpose (because in the case of Benchmark Testing there is CLEARLY no purpose), and then threaten them with a grade for them to "take it seriously."  We have degraded students to trick ponies to do as we say for a treat.  We can convince them to do their best because...grades.  We can dangle this golden prize over their head if they just give it the ol' college try.  And this works?  Maybe for some, the nerds like me.  But not for all, not even for most.  To think that's what will do the trick is incorrect, arrogant, power-hungry, and condescending.  And that's our view of students?  Here puppy, take this useless and meaningless and time-wasting test.  Do your best because it's for a grade.  Good doggie.  

This thought process is insulting to us as teachers.  The belief is that we need these Benchmark Test results to show us where our students struggle and to allow us to inform our instruction based off those strengths.  The reality is that if we need the results of these Benchmark Tests to know what our students know, then we are in the wrong field.  Our day to day interactions and assessments paint a much better picture of what the students know than a Benchmark Test created by the district in a vague attempt at a "best guess" of what the state standardized assessment will look like (crap shoot), regardless of what has happened so far in the classroom (including time out for pep rallies, plays, fire drills, testing for other tests, and the prep tests for the testing of those other tests).  These Benchmark Test scores will supposedly tell us how well the students are likely to perform on the particular statewide test for which they are Benchmark Testing.  News Flash: they're going to bomb it!  We don't need benchmarks when Florida already paid Utah to get a good glimpse of how abysmal student scores on these tests will be!

What other pieces of evidence do we need that the test itself is flawed, the design of the test is flawed, the design of the questions is flawed, the grading philosophy of Item Response Theory is flawed, and the entire endeavor is wrong and unfair?  So, OF COURSE, the benchmark scores will be low.  We KNOW that, we KNEW that before the Benchmark Tests were given, and we will ALWAYS know that for every Benchmark Test in this system.  What's funnier/sadder is that we don't even know how the scale will slide for the actual statewide test.  Just this week, our state announced that it is looking to set the passing score on the statewide assessments.  How does this affect Benchmark Testing?  A student could BOMB these benchmarks, have the same exact performance on the test, and still PASS the test because the sliding scale hasn't yet been established.  And how could this happen?  Because the test is flawed.  But our schools HAVE to do something about these low Benchmark scores!  Our principals HAVE to address their faculties to "fix" the problem.  Our "data driven" obsession must be fed so we can continue putting fear into the hearts of our teachers until they whip their students into proper shape before this statewide assessment.  Let the beatings continue until morale improves.

Now, let's imagine for a second that the statewide standardized assessment was NOT flawed.  Let's imagine that it was a fair and valid test.  There would be NO NEED FOR BENCHMARKS because the in-class assessments from the teachers would be the benchmarks and predictors of student performance (whatever that would indicate).  The teachers would know well in advance the nature of the assessment, the weight assigned to the different types of questions (instead of the very unfair Item Response Theory), and the actual scope of the testing items in respect to the standards to be taught.  The teachers would be able to design in-class formative or even summative assessments throughout the year to either prepare students for what was coming or to accurately measure student growth and learning based on those standards, thus making the class grade a more reliable and valid statistic (hooray data!).  Even in an ideal situation, these district-made Benchmark Tests would be useless.

Back to reality, though.  We should understand and invest in the fact that the teacher knows every day where the students are.   At the high school level, the teachers have to do their best to adjust instruction for a 45 minute class period with 25 students in that period.  And guess what?  That's 25 different levels of understanding!  In one class period!  Now, wait a minute...you mean, not every one of my 150 students is at the same exact strength of each different topic that I am currently covering or have previously covered in my class?  Stop the presses!  And wait, what?  I need a district-made Benchmark Test (which remember, is a crap shoot) to tell me that?  If this is the belief that is out there, and the reality under which we are operating, and what we have chosen to accept, we as teachers may have picked the wrong profession. If we, as teachers, can't determine what a student knows unless we give them a Benchmark Test, we should be looking for another career.  How insulting to teachers is it to tell us we need these Benchmark Tests to know where are students are! If a teacher needs a Benchmark Test for that purpose, I say we FIRE that teacher. End of story.

And we close the meeting with double-speak. When opening with our need for Benchmark Testing (because we have no other way to assess our students), our Principal (and remember, I honestly love and appreciate her) insults us by bestowing a newly found "professional judgement" when it comes to GRADING our students on these Benchmark Tests.  If you think or believe we have professional judgement, then please do not tell us to enter these invalid things for a grade.  And by the way, she clearly stated her accurate belief that this testing system is, indeed, invalid.  And this is the only explanation behind her suggestion that if teachers are scoring the Benchmark Test as a class test they put a curve on it. I'm having difficulty fathoming the hypocrisy of her entire message.  I know she is better than this.  This just indicates the pressure that administrators are under as well.  But I will not allow that pressure to hit me.  I hate that it has hit my colleagues.  I wish our administrators will simply level with us, tell us the truth, let us hear their mutual frustration.  I wish our administrators would do something absolutely unheard of, and ASK US what we can do.  How can we work together to fight this injustice?  What can we do together to alleviate the pressure of bad policy?  Unfortunately, our leadership model is top-down, do-as-I-say, and power hungry.  This model is taught, it is preached, it is rewarded.  I dream of a day when we have good leadership.

So, what do we do?  Well, I have to ask myself "if I had Benchmark Tests for my classes (which I don't), what would I do?"  If I had a district Benchmark Test for my class, I would refuse every single instruction given to me to grade the assignment.  I would not enter the assignment in the online grade book. If I was confronted, I would suggest the administrators enter it into my grade book as an assignment (because they have the access to do so).  Once entered as an assignment, I would not assign a grade for the assignment.  If I were confronted, I would suggest the administrators assign the grade.  I would suggest the administrators grade the assignment itself.  And in the end, if all that were done, I would simply exclude that grade from the student's class grade.  Because I have the ability to do so.  I wish there more I could do to stand up to this.  But this is as far as I can think to do.

I am thinking to empower my colleagues to find their voice.  We are Greater When Heard.

"I believe in accountability"

At a school board meeting last night, the subject of accountability came up more than a few times. As I read about education reform over the past few years, and even recall my own TEDx talk, I realize that word has a polarizing effect.  (Coincidence has it that Diane Ravitch was thinking the same thing at the same time)

The word "accountability" has been tied in with high-stakes standardized testing in the age of education reform.  I have previously claimed that it is a word that was intentionally injected into the education reform vernacular in order to support the overuse of high stakes testing.  Over time, I have seen another use for the word and I just finally put my finger on it last night at that school board meeting as I was listening to our school board chair defend his position on accountability.  He said a phrase that is repeated by the education reform establishment:  "I believe in accountability."

The statement "I believe in accountability" has been used to defend the use of high stakes tests.  Well I saw last night that it also used to demonize teachers and the new movement that is against high stakes testing.  As a teacher, I'm pretty damn sure that I believe in accountability as well.  I just never had to say "I believe in accountability" to defend my grading policies.  I never said "I believe in accountability" to take attendance.  I never said "I believe in accountability" when I have to write a student a pass to the office or correct inappropriate behavior.  As a teacher, I LIVE the statement "I believe in accountability."  With the way I am evaluated, I live in accountability.

So, this phrase is used to defend high stakes testing.  The phrase was used to invent an entire high stakes testing industry because schools were "failing".  Instead of investing in the schools and classrooms, we used "accountability" to shift the focus of "success" OUT of the classroom and onto a test.

I think we need to start using that phrase to REMOVE high stakes testing.  We don't need statewide standardized assessments to make promotion/retention/graduation/hiring/firing decisions.  And why?  Because "we believe in accountability".  We believe in authentic accountability of behavior, performance, and mastery.  If we invest in a fair, equitable, reliable, and valid accountability system (which high stakes testing is most certainly NOT on any level), we would have no need for this bizarre overuse and overreach of high stakes testing.  If we invest in an authentic, productive, peer-involved, collaborative, improvement-driven (not punishment driven) teacher evaluation system, including teacher education and training, we would not need VAM scores or spot evaluations (which account for less than 1% of teaching time).  We need to invest in this system in the name of accountability.

For our students, we already have the perfect accountability mechanism in place:  GPA.  We just need to INVEST in that mechanism. We need to invest in training teachers about valid and authentic measures of student learning, growth, and mastery.  We need to invest in the teachers' ability to differentiate their learning opportunities for students to be able to more accurately assess students in a variety of ways.  We need to invest in a school's ability to vet teacher assessment systems to ensure that valid measurement of learning, growth, and mastery is taking place.  We need to use standardized testing for its intended purpose: to take a snapshot of where we are, and investigate the variables that led to our placement.  We cannot use standardized testing to come to conclusions. We need to invest in this system of assessment in the name of accountability.

No parent, teacher, or union wants to eliminate accountability.  All stakeholders in education believe in accountability.  However, the education reform movement has hijacked that word to demonize authentic measurement and assessment in the place of high stakes testing.  The reform movement has undermined the meaning and use of the GPA and the authentic assessment of learning, growth, and mastery that can only be accurately measured in one setting:  the classroom.   It's time we invest in our teachers, invest in our classrooms, and invest in our students.  And why?  Because "I believe in accountability."

Who's right about Florida?

Sometimes, things get very confusing.  What is truth?  How do we know who is right and who is wrong?   What works, and what does not?  Can everything be explained by science?

Well, when it comes to education in Florida, it can't be any more polarizing.  On the one hand, we have this argument from Patricia Levesque with the Foundation for Excellence in Education that not only is everything just fine in Florida, we need MORE of what we've been doing.  Even Jeb Bush uses Florida as a model for the vision of education nation wide.  The argument is that the teachers and unions have it all wrong.  There is too much focus on "the adults" in education (whatever that means).  Every solution to every issue in education is accountability, rigor, and turnover.

On the other hand, we have parents, teachers, students, and social scientists saying that what has happened in Florida is not the right direction.  There is too much emphasis on high stakes testing, not enough focus on true lifelong learning, play, or the enjoyment of education.  There are multiple reports of increased illness and anxiety.  Mental health counselors can track increases in business in the month of March due to incoming "testing season" (how can we even have that term?!!!??).

And who is right?  All I know is that we are asking the wrong people.  If we want to know how education is going, we need to ask 3 groups of people:  the students that live education every day, the employers that hire the students, and the college professors that teach the students.  Only they can tell you where the truth lies in the debate over how well Florida is doing in education.  When you're finished asking them, PLEASE spend time in the classrooms to get a good look at what is truly happening.  When policy decisions are made without the stakeholders at the ground level, we will continue this absurd debate without ever knowing the truth or improving a thing.  In the meantime, I'll just focus on teaching students how to graph and analyze functions for awhile (and maybe stir up some trouble)...