New Year

May your dreams come true. May your hopes be realized. May the yearnings of your heart be sated.  May 2014 surpass 2013 in every way. 

Happy New Year1

I Don't Know Art

Around 1899 Mark Twain said, “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.”  The same is true for me.  Unlike some, however, I take no pride in this statement.  I do not think it makes me more manly somehow or a better person to not know art.  I wish I knew more about art, and the only reasons I do not are my reasons.  I do believe if I knew more about art it likely would increase my understanding and possibly alter my taste.  Should we listen more to those who know art and have them tell us what they like and why?  Should I reach a point of expertise whereby I could say I do know art and I know what I like?  Or, is this another chocolate versus vanilla question, and why early on a Tuesday morning am I even concerned with the notion?

I am a professional educator, have been for 40 years.  I shall not inflict my curriculum vitae on you but shall simply say I have taught and administered in a host of venues and have never been fired.  I have, however, been Hunterized, Johnsonized, Rosenthaled, Gooded, Brophisized, Lezotted, Ericksoned, Glickoned, Englished, Vygotskied, Gardnered, Bloomed, Senged, Wheatleyed, Deweyized, Skinnerized, Coveyed, and Demminged.  (And, there are others, many others.  I elected not to list Tom Peters as there really was no polite way to do so and keep a parallel structure.)  I have a vast array of theoretical knowledge at my disposal as well as a rich history of experience as a practitioner in what works and what does not work.  I am a pro.  If education is art, I do know art.

As a school administrator I have been through the dress code wars and the school uniform wars, I have been through the closed campus wars, the cheerleader wars, the starting quarterback wars, the immoral employee wars, the class rank wars, the merit pay wars, and the whole language wars.  I have seen multiple iterations of sound research return under a new rubric, but based in the same notions, resulting in the same positive outcomes, whether those outcomes are student performance, staff development or leadership theory.  I have implemented, observed and evaluated a host of strategies to improve schools for kids.  The best ones work and keep working regardless of the name brand this year.  It takes a while to be able to connect whatever is “new” or whatever is this year’s silver bullet to the vast history of educational research.  Once connected, an experienced pro has an intuitive sense regarding the likely success of a possible future effort.  Because I know education, I know what I like because it is theoretically sound, based on good research, and practice and observation imply that it works.

So, what works?  For those of us who are pros and have with open eyes, mind and heart listened and learned and read and studied and observed I believe we know the following:

• Schools must be places of nurture and safety, and as a preeminent requisite must inflict no harm on kids.  Students must leave us better off than they were when they came to us.
• To ask the adults in the system to foster such an environment for kids we must follow the same premises for grown-ups as we do for kids.  Makes little sense to beat up the babysitter then expect them to be good to my kids.
• Schools and staff who practice high expectations are much more likely to be successful than schools and staff who practice implementing high standards.  Any legislative body can raise a standard.  Trained, caring, professional educators maintain high expectations.
• There is no curriculum, no hardware, no software, nothing that can be purchased that can guarantee student learning.  If so, we would all have done it by now. 
• Real learning occurs when a trained, caring professional educator interacts with kids, regardless of the mandates and the resources.
• Real learning occurs when we can define what it is we want kids to learn, and we have pedagogical, parental, administrative and legislative support to accomplish those goals.
• Supporting and praising the positive is a much more powerful tool for improvement than criticism, increased monitoring and heightened accountability systems.
• No research supports high stakes standardized testing.  It harms kids, teachers and school systems and provides little meaningful data.
• No research supports shifting money from public schools to alternative experiments such as charter schools or vouchers.
• No research supports improving instruction by either a merit pay system, a staff evaluation system based on standardized test scores, or union busting efforts. 
• No research supports punishing the victims for the purpose of yielding better results, however we measure such results.
• No research supports making schools more like the private sector for the sake of kids.  All the research shows is that such an effort makes it better for the private sector.
• We are killing educational leadership via mandates and compliance.
• Most education policy today is written by non-educators or those who feed at the trough of non-educators.
• The real issue in public education is not so much how we measure success, but how we define success.  What do we want our schools to do for our kids?  Is it something we can measure annually or is it a much longer event horizon?  Will Rogers said, “Leadership is the ability to get the herd moving roughly west.”  Our great debate today is which direction is west?  I believe we have mistaken how to measure west rather than defining where it is.

Around 1939 James Thurber said, “It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.”  Sadly, our policy makers in Washington, Austin and on local school boards do not know what they do not know, and do not know that they do not know everything.  Few questions are asked.  The recipients of the majority vote somehow feel empowered to enact their own personal educational theories.  I find that incredibly sad.  I believe it is hurting kids.  Again Will Rogers:  “There are three kinds of men.  The one that learns by reading.  The few who learn by observation.  The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”  I find it scary that when the rest of them pee on the electric fence it is kids, teachers and schools who get hurt, not the legislative bodies.

I do not know art, and am ashamed of that.  Were I asked to design an art gallery or museum I would have enough sense to know I do not know enough to do so and would call on experts.  I do know education and am proud of that.  I worry deeply about those in elected and appointed positions who do not know education and are proud of that.  It appears they do not have the sense to call on experts.  In fact, I find it shocking that they are not willing to listen, observe and learn and prefer to preach and experiment with a private sector bias and belief system that is not grounded in expertise. 

My hope is that such officials learn to learn.

Where is Wisdom?

I am amused by three recent political events: the new Texas NCLB flexibility waiver, the recent actions of the Texas Legislature regarding the Common Core, CSCOPE, STAAR, and graduation requirements, and the ongoing fight at the State Board of Education regarding evolution in science textbooks.  From the perspective of a school system it is clear that our very conservative state government adheres to the identical political philosophy as the more moderate federal government regarding educational policy.  That policy is that local school systems do not have the wisdom, knowledge or motivation to structure their own improvement.  The only difference in Austin and Washington (and sometimes local school boards) is venue.  The philosophy is the same:  No entity beneath my perspective and bureaucratic level has any wisdom at all, and once I am elected to a political position I become an expert in education.  The outcomes from such philosophies and mind sets have reached the level of absolute lunacy and I am shifting from LOL to LMAO with a few tears in between.

When George Bush ascended from the Texas Governorship to President of the United States he took Texas accountability notions with him to Washington.  Under Bush, the historic Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was up for reauthorization and Bush helped re-shape this federal policy to more closely align with the Texas accountability system.  The new ESEA was authorized under Bush as the No Child Left Behind act, or NCLB.  Public education is still subject to the provisions of NCLB because Congress is reluctant to re-authorize the bill.  However, because the implementation of NCLB revealed monumental flaws in public education policy, the federal government allows the US Department of Education to grant waivers to certain provisions of NCLB.  Typically, for a state to receive a waiver from the federal government, the state must agree to certain provisions.  This is monetary blackmail at the highest level, legitimized by legislation and bureaucrats.  Want to be exempt from being labeled “Missed AYP”?  Agree to develop a teacher appraisal system that includes test outcomes as a variable of measure and agree to adopt the Common Core, a national curriculum.  I find it hysterical that Texas balked at these agreements.  Washington requires of the Texas government what the Texas government requires of local school systems.  From the Texas legislature point of view, the wisdom lies in the state legislature.  From the USDOE point of view, the wisdom lies in Washington.  Texas chafes under a requirement to adopt teacher appraisal prescribed by Washington and curriculum prescribed by Washington while Texas requires every school district in the state to comply with the Texas prescribed curriculum and teacher appraisal.  LOL. 

We now have begrudgingly received a NCLB waiver from Washington.  Funny that there is no waiver for public school systems to seek from the Texas government for the state accountability system.  Why would there be?  The state perceives that the wisdom to define accountability, design curriculum, implement teacher appraisal systems, and develop standardized tests all reside at the state level.  Such wisdom does not reside in Washington, nor does it reside in the local school boards, and it surely does not reside with the professional practitioners in schools. 

The mental flaws in all this are catastrophic.  The first flaw is that any governmental body of elected and bureaucratic officials who are not professional educators should develop educational policy oblivious to professional advice.  The second flaw is the assumption that these elected and bureaucratic officials have the wisdom to implement such requirements for the sake of school improvement driven by political agendas.  So, the argument continues:  does Washington know best what is best for Texas schools, or does Austin know best what is best for Texas schools?  Meanwhile, local boards and practitioners really see no difference in complying with either federal or state requirements.  From the ground level a compliance requirement is a compliance requirement regardless if the author of the requirement is a politico from Austin or Washington.  From a superintendent’s point of view, both Austin and Washington believe they are the emperor dressed in educational finery arguing over who is best dressed, and both appear to be naked to the professional practitioner.

Meanwhile, there are factions in the Texas government regarding accountability.  In one legislative session our accountability model is tweaked while the voices of professional educators go unheard.  In the next legislative session the system must be re-tweaked due to the fact that legislators do not know what they are doing and the unforeseen consequences predicted by professionals come to fruition.  As the legislature re-tweaks the system they still do not listen to professional educators; rather they choose to listen to political cronies and lobbyists.  In fact, every time the pros stand up and tell the legislature what the consequences may be those pros get labeled as whiners.  Clearly, legislators in Texas believe they have the wisdom and professionals do not.  So sad. 

We transitioned from one high stakes standardized testing rubric to another.  From TAKS to STAAR.  The tests were re-written and kept secret though school districts, schools and teachers will be held accountable for the outcomes.  At the high school level complicated formulas were developed to determine graduation requirements based on tests administered at the end of each core course.  These tests are cleverly labeled End of Course exams, or EOC’s.  After the first year of implementation two interesting things happened.  First, the predictions of professional educators regarding this implementation came true, though unheard by the state.  Second, the parents in the state rose up and in no uncertain terms demanded that the legislature follow a more rational approach to testing, such approach to reduce the number of tests and the requirements to graduate.  For fear of losing their jobs as elected officials and education policy makers, the legislature responded by dictating more flexibility.  The implementation of the flexibility was assigned to the State Board and the Commissioner of Education.  Neither the SBOE nor the Commish are educators.  Hence we go back and forth regarding which of the inappropriate high stakes tests should count.  Again, naked emperors writing policy.  Again, the wisdom is in Austin.

While the state was at it, they passed legislation demanding that no one agree to teach the nationally prescribed curriculum.  However, there is no option but to teach the state prescribed curriculum.  Am I the only one who finds this somewhere between hysterical and frightening?

And, a lone senator who is a radio talk show host in real life arose in arms over a curriculum management system because he believed some of the lessons encouraged kids to think in ways that went beyond compliance with his value structure.  This system was known as CSCOPE.  I spent a lot of time elsewhere in this blog addressing that decision making process.  Bottom line, this senator got the authors of CSCOPE to back down and required districts to get public approval to use the system.  Where is the wisdom?  It clearly lies with this senator and our public.  It does not lie with the professional educator.  Editing lesson plans?  Our legislators are losing their minds.  Rational thought is out the window.

Finally, the State Board of Education (SBOE) returns to the adoption and approval of science textbooks.  Once again, they have the wisdom, not science teachers.  Once again, the decision becomes political and religious, not professional.  The issue for some members of the SBOE is how to address evolution in the books.  If the proposed book addresses evolution in ways that conflict with the religious beliefs of the SBOE member, the book will get vetoed.  Shall we simply take a majority vote regarding religious beliefs then ensure that our schools only teach the beliefs of the majority?  Uh, why did folks come here from Europe and elsewhere?  Why do we find it so important to separate church and state?  What is the difference in this approach and the Taliban approach to education where only approved belief systems may be taught? 

I am amazed that the same group of believers has not attacked math books.  If one believes that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one entity, then one believes that in this case 3 = 1.  Any math book that states something other than 3 = 1 is blasphemy and should not be approved.  Sound ludicrous to you?  The evolution debate sounds equally ludicrous to most educated folks.  So, once again Texas receives national attention and the inspiration for a host of jokes and laughter for the evolutionary war fought at the SBOE level.  Those members of the SBOE who insist that evolution be taught with caveats and alternative explanations fly right in the face of all we know.  And yet, they perceive they have the wisdom to make such a prescription.  Again, am I the only one who finds this hysterical and frightening at the same time?

The only elected body left to discuss is the local school board.  Once again, there resides the belief in some members of local boards that the mere election to a position qualifies them to enact their beliefs and perspectives regardless of what professional practice and research say about such beliefs and practices.  School administrators easily get caught in the accusation of disloyalty if they question inappropriate beliefs and practices supported by the local board.  The wisdom again lies with the elected, not the professional. 

Where is wisdom?  I have not been elected to anything.  I am not on a school board.  I am not a legislator or a senator or a governor.  I am not employed by the US Department of Education or the Texas Education Agency.  I have not been elected a Representative or Senator to Congress.  I am a professional educator.  Hours and hours of graduate work and forty years of professional practice in roles from teacher to superintendent. I have no wisdom.

So, I should apologize for taking your time as I clearly do not know what I am talking about. 

Poppycock and balderdash.

Dinosaur?

All things end.  All things change.  The day will come when Lee Childs, James Patterson, Randy Wayne White, Dean Koonz, Stephen King and John Sanford will write no more.  I shall feel lost.  The day has already come for so many wonderful writers who could take us out of where we really are to some other place, some other time, some other group of really interesting people in interesting dilemmas, and help us see the human condition in new ways.  Star Trek, X-Files, House and Buffy have all been canceled, I felt lost, so enamored of the bright and brave fighting for right.  I shifted to NCIS, Elementary, Blue Bloods and Person of Interest.  They too will be canceled.  Yes, I miss Buffy and Angel, Spock and Kirk, Mulder and Scully, but life has gone on.  But not without these fictions enriching my soul.

Reality changes too.  For each new school in Edna an old school was abandoned and/or demolished.  Had I had a hand in the construction of the demolished buildings I would feel the same: lost, sad, and sentimental.  Some day these wonderful new buildings will be perceived to be old, obsolete and in need of replacement and they too will be demolished or sold or redirected.  Hard to imagine today, but true I suspect.  Roy Ortolon understands that and has done a wonderful job of documenting the transitions with bitter sweet joy in his new book.

Relationships change too.  My children have left the roost and started their own lives, and that is the most incredible transition I have experienced; much more emotional to me than when I left home to begin my adult life.  People whom I loved and with whom I worked in Spring Branch are now scattered and elsewhere.  The same is true for folks at A&M, the folks in Cleveland, and Corrigan.  And I am now in the transitional stage with folks in Edna.  I so miss the day-to-day contact, the professional and personal interactions with Richard, Dawn, Melissa, Demetric, Bobby, Paul, Katie, Deborah, Eddie, Carla, Fred, Irene, Janice, Betty, Beverly, Jan, Heather, Jamie, Mary, Deborah, Matt, Sarah, Ann, Kelly, Michele, Peble, Nancy, Lisa, Josh, Rose, Estelle, Gail, Cathy, Theresa, Angie, Kyleen, Vince, Marla, Sonny, Madalyn and Nancy, etc. etc.  And I should list all the members of the District Team as well.  I love these folks.  I loved working with them.  I loved the relationships we built over time, and there is a hole in my heart as they end.  I know they may not actually end, but they have changed.  I mourn the loss, mourn the change.  But these relationships have enriched my soul.

And as things change new things emerge.  We have abandoned all our old iMacs and now have iPads.  We have new buses.  We have new principals and new teachers.  We have new school buildings.  We have new Board Members and we will have a new superintendent.  (I still say “we” because I continue to live here, pay taxes here.  My school district remains Edna ISD and my representative on the Board is Patrick Brzozowski.)  When I came to Edna it had a history, folks had been here a long time, and the system existed before I arrived.  As I leave I become part of the history, but the system will go on, perhaps better, definitely different. 

I have walked a fine line between my passion and deep feelings regarding public education and my sense of professional obligation.  I have sometimes wandered in one direction more than another.  I have paid a heavy emotional price for my tenure here, but I do not regret it.  To pay less would mean I cared less.  I care deeply.  (And secretly, selfishly, I wonder what of the current traditions will survive:  District Team, AEIS workshop, Cabinet Meetings, Board Notes, Minutes of the District Team, blogs, fire side chats, prayer before meals, and terrible puns?)

I will either retire or aspire to something new.  Right now my heart aches.  I suspect I feel much like a person after a divorce they did not seek.  I am wounded.  I am having a hard time thinking about a new relationship while the demise of the old relationship is such a fresh wound.  Yes, now you know I am a sentimental fool.

Shall my generation of school people become extinct?  Am I akin to the dinosaurs?  I am a baby boomer.  Born in the late 40’s, I spent my childhood in the 50’s and my teenage years in the 60’s.  I tear up at the national anthem; I clearly remember the JFK assassination, the first landing on the moon, and the fear of nuclear annihilation on a daily basis.  I also clearly remember the fight for equal rights by people less fair and blond and by gender less hard and strong.  I identified with the weak, the downtrodden, the denied and separated, those judged by external characteristics over which they had no control, and I sought to help, support and promote them.  That was the American way.  Such support led me to public education, a place where on a daily basis I could serve to secure a better future for all children, a future where gender, pigment, and zip code did not serve as the critical attributes for success.  I abandoned making a lot of money to serve what I believed to be a higher calling.  This was not a job; it was a mission and I a missionary.  As I entered education I was surrounded by folks of like mind, like heart.  We were a generation of folks driven to public service, driven to equal rights, driven to protect democracy by empowering citizens with learning.  Not all of us, but most of us. 

We knew the first steps of the likes of Nazi’s and Communists was to gain control of the schools and shape the learning of children via government approved beliefs.  Such practices are still true in the Mid-East and elsewhere, and there are among us today American leaders who argue for the same.  Thought is not encouraged; obedience and compliance are.  There was “right-think” and we deeply feared the Orwellian notions.  We sought service and freedom over income and safety.  We were baby boomers, a principled lot.  Our parents survived the Great Depression and World War II and we were determined to secure economic and political freedom for all.  The government was not the villain.  Our government was what we stood for, it was the seat of democracy, and it was what “We the People” chose and loved.  We were the perfect public servants, morally committed, called to do good deeds. 

That has changed as all things must.  We are now a people divided.  Many of my fellow boomers ended up making a lot of money and decided protecting wealth was more noble than promoting equality.  Now, there are those who resent, even hate the government at the same time they seek to gain control of it.  They resent the fundamental notion of “to whom much is given, much is required” and opt instead for the notion that for whom much is earned little shall be taxed.  They resent investments in children who are not their own.  They resent and fear the promotion of thought rather than obedience and compliance.  They would prefer to shut down the government rather than allow it to serve the people.  They would prefer reducing the taxes of the wealthy and shifting what taxes are collected to promoting private sector wealth rather than public sector service.  Somehow they have captured the thinking of people who have no business supporting such a philosophy, people who are working hard and not getting ahead, the uneducated, and people who earn less than $350,000 per year.  Worse, they promote the codification of their own religious beliefs.  In the 1950’s we would have called such a philosophy similar to fascism and the people who support it quasi-fascists.  Now we call them Governor, Senator and Representative.

Public education is now thought of as government education and the public has been taught to believe that such institutions are failing and alternatives are necessary in a context where the government is not the seat of democracy but the enemy of wealth generation.  That is a poppycock and balderdash.  Regardless, few are brave enough to stand and point out that the emperor is naked, and those who do pay a heavy price.  Witch hunts for the “non-believers” return from early colonial days and those witch hunts begin in our state legislature, and local boards have sipped from the same cup of Kool-Aid. 

The Board asked me to leave and I left.  I did not fight.  I deeply believe in democracy and have told every board I ever worked for that when they wanted me gone all they had to do was ask.  This board, like all boards, is selected by our community either consciously or by default.  Evidently our community through the voice of the board wants me gone, so I am gone.  I am deeply saddened by that.  I feel rejected by those I cared for the most.  The majority of the members of this board are not baby boomers.  I am of a different generation than they.  My values and my view of the world are for the most part different, my expectations are different.  My view of the role of public education is different.  I have always seen public education as the bastion of democracy more than the training ground for employment and competition.  More than anything else I believe this is why I was asked to leave.  The Board and I did not share a common sense of purpose for public education. 

The Board has now selected a new superintendent.  He is younger than I.  He will likely be more in tune with the Board’s philosophy.  I know him and wish him well and hold no enmity toward him.  I know things will be different in Edna.  Whether they are better, worse or just different will be up to the community and the employees to decide.  I encourage you to support the new supe and give him a chance.  I assume he will support changing the culture because if the board wanted the current culture to remain I would remain.  Or, perhaps they did not think that through.  I know it took me years to work toward our current professional culture.  It will likely take years to change it.

What is the current professional culture?  I believe and have worked hard to instill the following notions:  Real improvement is inside-out, not outside-in.  Real learning occurs with a teacher in a classroom with kids; not at a keyboard, on a monitor, in central office, board room or in the state legislature.  Standardized test data may be interesting or informative, but it should not be the bedrock of evaluation or judgment.  The horizon for determining the effectiveness of the education we provide is years in the future, not June when the scores come in.  The fundamental model for improvement is collaboration, not competition.  Everyone in the system and in the community has a role to play and all voices must be heard.  Honesty and openness are more important than who one knows or one’s title.  Consensus is always more powerful than majority vote or dictatorial demand.  Servant leadership is always more powerful than self-serving leadership. 

Change.  Morphosis.  Edna ISD is morphing.  My life is morphing.  I shall go somewhere else or retire.  I fear that my sense of calling for public education will not be sought by other governing bodies.  If so, that is very sad to me, not because of who I am personally, but because of the belief system that for me forms the foundation of the mission of public education which I perceive to be the bedrock of democracy.  Perhaps if that mission has truly morphed, it is time to retire. 

If so, I may be a dinosaur. 

But, for now I know that dinosaurs had teeth and I am not yet a fossil.