Till, We Meet Again

I may be outstanding in my field, but I am no gardener.  I take no pride in that, in fact, I wish I were good with plants.  Alas, it is my wife who is the good gardener, the mulch master, the seed sower, and the water wizard.  Indentured servitude most aptly describes my role.  I am the hoe hummer, the wheel barrower, and the token tiller.  I do as I am directed in hopes that when harvest comes she will share the bounty with me:  tomatoes, peppers, okra, peas, and beans.  It is spring break in Texas and after a weekend of cold and wet, I roll out the tiller under warm and heavy air to re-break the garden soil, turn it over, stir it deeply and leave it rich, dark brown, earthy, fragrant and waiting. 

She plants by hand, somehow knowing how deep the hole should be to receive the seed or the small cube of dirt bearing a young plant.  Each patted just so, spaced just so, watered just so.  I stand amazed at her artistry and know that for centuries human beings have been tilling soil, planting seed, praying for the right weather, and waiting.  At afternoon’s end, I sit and look at the furrowed rows nurturing life.  We now await the food to be.  The miracle that allows each separate seed to sprout, grow, and produce according to its genetic code.

We will water.  We will fertilize.  We will prune and cull.  We will pull weeds.  We will ward off predators.  We will do all that we can to nurture the plants to become what we hope they will become and produce what they are programmed to produce.  Mostly we wait.

There are similarities to teaching here, but not many.  Yes, as educators we attempt to prepare the soil, water, fertilize and wait.  But seeds do not have a mind of their own.  Kids are not pre-programmed to produce a certain fruit or a certain vegetable.  The soil in which each child is metaphorically nurtured is vastly different from every other child even if the gardening techniques are the same.  The outcomes will be different too and are less guaranteed than gardening.  If I get anything from a bell pepper plant it will be bell peppers.  With kids, you never know.

Well, you might think you know.  If you do, you will write measurable objectives for every child for each year and each subject then predetermine a time to harvest a predetermined fruit on a pre-printed bubble sheet.  The gardener will be held accountable for the soil, the weather, the water, the fertilizer even though the seed has a mind of its own and a genetic code of its own.  Even farmers can take out insurance to protect them from a bad crop.  Teachers cannot.

Regardless, now is the time to plant a garden.  September is the time to plant a classroom.  I wish for each of you a great spring vacation.  As we return we begin to harvest in our classrooms, mandated by those who believe kids should all bear the same fruit.  For me, today, it is simply time to meet the till again.

Confessions of a "Bad" Administrator?

I just read William Johnson’s op ed in the New York Times today entitled “Confessions of a ‘Bad’ Teacher.”  You can read it too at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/opinion/sunday/confessions-of-a-bad-teacher.html?emc=eta1.  It was sent to me by a teacher friend in Indiana.  Yes, I have teacher friends.  And yes, I was outraged on behalf of Mr. Johnson.  It occurs to me that if I am outraged on his behalf, perhaps I am a bad public school superintendent.  If so, I confess and the compliance police may now take me into custody.

Here’s what I know, (and when I say “know” I mean the following are true statements based on research, based on observations, based on three decades plus of experience):  The more affluent the parents the greater the likelihood that students will do well academically.  The more money per pupil that schools spend the greater the likelihood that students will do well academically.  No one measure of student performance is a good predictor of student success, however we define such success.  No high stakes standardized test comes close to being a good measure, much less the measure.  Public school “reforms” such as school choice, vouchers, charter schools, high stakes standardized tests, teacher appraisal tied to student standardized outcomes, re-structured schools by firing teachers and principals, and continuing media hype regarding  "failing” schools are much more about political posturing than real educational reform.  In fact, the politics behind these so-called reforms are firmly supported by people who oppose the notion of public schools and hate paying tax dollars to support them.  In other words, the Kool Aid is out there, but I refuse to drink.

Here’s what else I know:  Every kid is different.  Every single one of them is in some way gifted, disabled, precious, flawed and wonderful.  Every teacher is different.  Every single one of them is in some way gifted, disabled, precious, flawed and wonderful.  Schools are messy because they are full of human beings and the little ones dramatically outnumber the big ones.  The adults in the school are now charged with an array of missions schools, teachers and administrators have never faced, and student performance is measured using an array of indicators beyond anything we have ever seen.  The dream of non-school people to make all this a science or a private sector model of efficiency and effectiveness is merely a dream.  If you doubt that, go to your nearest school and have lunch with kindergarten kids then have lunch with high school seniors.  Assume responsibility for their performance and see where that gets you.  And lunch room duty is a cake walk compared to teaching! 

Real school improvement is a vast and highly complex process that involves all the players in the community including the kids, the parents, the teachers, the administrators, etc.  For every highly complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is wrong.  Real school improvement happens inside out, not outside in.  A memo, a law, a fiat, a mandate, sent down the chain of command does not result in better learning.  It results in compliance.  And if what we want from kids and teachers is compliance training, then perhaps I misunderstood what this nation is all about.  And even if you really want compliance education, it cannot happen with fewer resources, it can only happen with more.

I agree with Mr. Johnson, “Until we provide equal educational resources to students and teachers, we can't say how well or poorly they're performing.”  So, Bill, if you get fired, call me.  If I still have a job I’ll hire you.

Charter Schools and Athletics

I sat in the Wharton County Junior College gym last night watching our varsity girls’ basketball team play a charter school in the bi-district playoff game.  We won, so you would think I’d be happy.  I’m not.

Charter schools are taxpayer funded schools of choice.  What that literally means is that any parent or student regardless of the public school attendance area in which they live, may apply to enroll in a charter school.  Charter schools receive state funding from taxpayers based on the number of kids enrolled.  They must hire certified teachers and they are held accountable for the state’s accountability system.  Yes, they take TAKS, STAAR, or whatever iteration of standardized testing is currently mandated.  But, there are crucial differences in charter schools and public schools.

Charter schools are not required to educate every kid within a certain geographical area.  They are not required to accept every kid or keep every kid.  They can filter, screen, and kick kids out.  The kids that are kicked out must return to the public schools.  If a student is a behavior problem, he or she can be kicked out.  If a student has learning difficulties and is academically challenged, he or she can be kicked out.  So, not only do parents have choice, the charter school has choice!  Public schools must educate every child within their attendance area.  Public schools do not have choice.  It doesn’t matter if the child is disabled, dyslexic, non-English Speaking, obese, mentally disabled, emotionally dysfunctional, behaviorally belligerent, etc., etc.  If they live here, we teach them.  We do not kick them out.

Every student enrolled in a charter school has a home public school where they could attend.  Every parent who has opted to take his or her son or daughter out of the public school and enroll them in a charter school has shifted tax payer money from the public school to the charter school.  Charter schools are free enterprise institutions funded by public tax dollars.  Public schools are public, governmental institutions funded by tax dollars where policies and procedures are set by a publicly elected Board of Trustees.  We are transparent, we are accountable, and we serve all the kids.

The Texas Legislature ruled that publicly funded charter schools may compete with public schools in UIL competitions.  Few have opted to play football.  Most opt to play volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball and track.  Public schools now are assigned multiple UIL districts to accommodate the charter schools.  We have a football district, and an "everything else" district with charter schools.  The charter schools not only cost us lost revenue for the kids enrolled, they cost us more travel expense in athletics.  I do not know that it is happening, but it could happen that a charter school could recruit athletes from public schools, much as private schools can do.  That is patently unfair.  We field teams based on the kids in our attendance area.  They do not.

I am not angry at the kids in charter schools.  It was a Legislative decision to create charter schools.  It was a parental decision to withdraw a student from the public school and enroll them in the charter school.  Why parents would opt to do so baffles me as the research is pretty clear:  charter schools do not outperform public schools.  They pay their administrators much more and their teachers less, but they do not outperform us.  They simply take tax payer dollars from public schools.  They are schools of choice, both for the kids and the school.

I am very proud of our Cowgirl Basketball Team.  They whooped Yes Prep Charter School.  I am not happy that we played a charter school.  I am not happy that charter schools exist and that they are allowed to compete in UIL.  From where I sit, that’s just not right.

Falling STAAR?

A small group of Edna ISD administrators just returned from the annual Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) Mid Winter Conference in Austin.  (It was a small group that went because the total number of administrators in EISD is a small group, and this year not all of us could go because we slashed travel budgets.)  I go each year for a variety of reasons:  I serve on some state-wide committees that schedule their meetings to coincide with this conference.  The 4,000 school administrators in attendance draw some great key-note speakers.  The sessions are presented by TEA staffers whom we assume have the inside scoop on what is coming.  Other sessions are presented by school districts who have found successful solutions and innovations for a variety of issues and programs.  And, the exhibit hall is full of the latest and greatest gizmos and solutions hawked by private sector folks seeking public sector dollars.  At no other time during the school year are you likely to find virtually every one of the 1,000 superintendents in Texas at the same venue.

Mid Winter last year was depressing.  The Legislative session had just begun and we were looking at a possible $24 billion cut in public ed.  STAAR was rising, and while we TASA folks were telling the Legislature that increasing standards at the same time resources were declining was poppycock and balderdash.  In the hallways between sessions we shared our strategies, our fears, our financial outlook for the coming year.  We continued to hear that our governor was going to throw his hat in the Presidential race and that the Potential President Perry Platform (PPPP) ensured that the Legislature would not tap the state’s fund balance to save schools and that they would not back off increasing the accountability stakes and the implementation of STAAR.  PPPP prevailed over TASA and the budgets were cut, we did not dip into the state fund balance for the coming biennium and we still got STAAR.  (The cuts were not as severe as initially feared, but it remains the first time in the history of our Legislature that schools were not fully funded and no additional money was allocated for the projected additional 80,000 kids who would show up this school year.)  Commissioner of Education Robert Scott was a keynote speaker, and though he attempted to put a positive spin on forthcoming budget cuts he continued to support implementing the STAAR test.  In fact, he unveiled the name of the test at this event two years ago and hawked it as bigger, better, college-ready, challenging, and very much worth doing.  He received both polite applause when he was through and then some very tough questions from the audience regarding the rationale behind increasing standards and cutting resources.  He held firm.  It was, after all, the year of the PPPP.

We had a tough spring and summer in Edna.  Our funds were cut almost a million dollars.  We reduced staff, cut travel budgets, re-assigned staff, froze administrator salaries, etc.  Our school year began, as you know, with a cloud hanging over us, one that did not bring rain.  We knew STAAR was coming and we would have to prepare kids for a more rigorous test with fewer resources, fewer teachers and smaller budgets.  We focused on the new high school construction, winning athletic teams and local uplifting events like the Fair.  We also joined one of the four lawsuits filed against the State of Texas claiming the current state funding of public education is unconstitutional.  Those cases are styled “Umpteen School Districts vs. Commissioner Robert Scott”.  Now in January STAAR is on the horizon, and we few, proud, professional Edna administrators head back to Austin for the Mid Winter Conference to learn what is going on.

I posted earlier about all the confusion with grading End of Course exams.  We have our own solution in place now, but I attended sessions at Mid Winter presented by TEA and by lawyers about what we should do.  No one knows and our solution appears to be as good as or better than many, though loud voices who support the PPPP continue to cry that we and others who have chosen a grading scheme that promotes student success are undermining STAAR.  I testified before a sub-committee of the Legislative Budget Board regarding how the funding cuts impacted Edna.  My co-testifier was old friend Alton Frailey, Superintendent of Katy ISD.  We did much the same here he did there, except he cut 120 central office positions.  (We only have 120 professional positions all together, so that was not an option for us.)  Otherwise, we both continue to support PreK despite the cuts, tutorials and remediation despite the cuts, etc., etc.  All of this led up to Tuesday afternoon’s key note address by Commissioner Scott.

The General Session began with the Clear Lake High School Symphony Orchestra, a wonderful performance by a talented group of kids.  The classical music soothed me, which was a good thing as I prepared to hear Mr. Scott.

Scott began by saying that the, “carrot, sticks and bully pulpit approach used by the state and federal government” to improve public education was not working.  He said that “We are complicit in creating this system and I am frustrated by it.”  “Testing has become a perversion of its original intent.”  Wow.  Tentative applause.

He went on to say that he apologized that he could not get back every single dollar cut by the Legislature.  He knew we were being asked to do more with less.  He understood that his name was on the school finance lawsuits so he must be careful about what he said to us as it might come back to haunt him in the trial, but he said, “I cannot certify a ban on social promotion without providing the appropriate resources to teach kids.”  Wow.  WOW.  Spontaneous, enthusiastic applause by all present ensued.

He spoke of saving the Regional Education Service Centers.  He spoke about improving teacher quality through a variety of methods, not just the appraisal system.  He spoke of amending Ch. 39 of the Texas Education Code which addresses sanctions against districts who are in financial trouble or are low performing.  Wow.  More applause.

He said that if it was within his legal authority to do so, he would ban the 15% grading requirement on the EOCs this year.  Commissioner Scott concluded by saying, “Let me be Captain Obvious:  there is change coming.  There is a backlash to standardized testing and we must look to the likes of the Visioning Institute to seek new ways to assess.”

All 4,000 administrators rose to our feet in thunderous ovation.  The air was sucked out of the room.  We were in shock.  Stunned, excited, jubilant shock.  I tweeted as I left the session, “Who is this man and what has he done with our Commissioner?” He speaks as though he is one of us!

I left the convention hall and walked to a reception.  As I approached the sign-in area, there stood Robert Scott.  I have not been his strongest supporter, and he knows that.  I told him that if what I had just heard was the new Robert Scott I would support him.  He gave me a guy hug.

The PPPP critics are already attacking his stance, and there is more to come.  Frankly, now that he has positioned himself to support reasonable assessment within the framework of reasonable funding I worry that he can retain his appointed position.  But for now, I am encouraged by our Commissioner of Education and he has my support.

     STAAR is still on the horizon this spring.  But it has slipped a little in the political galaxy.  That falling STAAR could be good news for kids, teachers, schools and school systems sometime in the future, like when the Legislature reconvenes in January of 2013.  My telescope cannot see that far, but I have hope.  Is that a wish upon a STAAR?

Please Do Not Read

Octoberfesters, posted 10/17/11.  After I posted that, all heck broke loose and I really regretted it.  I made mention of February in that post, and it looks like it is starting, so please, do not read that earlier post.

Not that I am superstitious.

Thanks.

The Future of Teaching

I had a great December.  My son had a son.  My daughter became engaged.  I celebrated 33 years of marriage.  I had a birthday.  All of this happened in the same month that includes Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Yes, an all-time positive, record-setting December.  Now, in mid-January I look forward to the remainder of this year and the beginning of the next:  STAAR.  Prom.  Graduation.  Promotion.  Banquets. Construction.  Budget.  Contracts.  Accountability.  It can be a great year for our kids, our staff and our community.  Yet I know many teachers spent some time over the holidays thinking about retiring or simply leaving this profession.

335,000 teachers in Texas teach 5,000,000 kids.  That is an average class size of 15 kids per teacher.  They earn an average of $48,638, and those with 20 or more years experience earn an average $58,691.  I know averages can be deceiving and wish the Texas Education Agency would publish medians and quartiles, etc. for the raw numbers, but averages are what we have.  You can find these numbers and many more on the TEA website under the state AEIS data at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2011/state.html.

There are 46,644 medical doctors in Texas.  There are roughly 84,000 lawyers in Texas.  There are 10,656 Dentists.  (And, there are 1,029 school superintendents.)  If you add all those professions together they do not equal half the number of teachers.  I happen to think that teachers are more important to our democracy and our economy than any of the other professions listed above.  In fact, none of those other professions would be staffed if it were not for teachers.  We know that 100% of the current patients doctors see will eventually die.  We know that 50% of the lawyers engaged in civil or criminal trials will lose their cases.  Doctors will still get paid, lawyers will still get paid.  And we know that the average salary of all those other professions is well above the average teacher salary. 

Knowing all of that, we ask teachers to ensure that 100% of their patients, their clients, their students achieve academic success as measured on standardized tests.  Tests that change, become more rigorous, and tests that teachers have not seen.  To compound the problem, there is a movement afoot to tie teacher employment and salary to the outcomes of these tests.  It does not seem to matter that no teacher takes the standardized tests, just their kids. 

There is something seriously flawed in this logic.  I understand that public school folks are paid and funded by tax dollars and that there is a constituency of folks in our country who really want to reduce their taxes and shrink government.  Public education is part of that government and an easy target, and Texas like many other states has experienced those cuts and targeted public education.  Private sector operations fight additional regulations because it costs more to produce when you are regulated more.  Public education is the same, but somehow that argument falls on ears that transmit to brains that have already decided that it is OK to ask the students in public schools to do more, learn more, and perform better with fewer resources.  Public schools have become the most regulated industry around.  And the heat falls on teachers and principals.

Couple that with a new wave of parents who have literally grown up hearing bad news about public schools.  The accountability wave hit in the 1980’s and since then it is hard to read a news source that is not lambasting public schools based on data from the latest round of standardized measures.  Long gone are the days when most parents told their children to do their homework and behave in school or they would get in trouble at home.  Now, if a child has a problem at school regardless of whether the problem is academic, behavioral, body mass index, or extracurricular, the assumption is the school did something wrong, the school is at fault, and it is up to the school and the staff therein to fix it.  School Boards get elected by such folks.  School Boards hire superintendents who in turn recommend principals and teachers.  Unless a Board has real courage, it is difficult to withstand the parental onslaught of “blame the school.”  (I am blessed to work for such a Board!)  Kids figure that out pretty quickly.  If I were a student today I could avoid the real work of learning that comes with doing homework, reading, thinking, writing, studying, doing what the teacher says to do, and thereby fail the course knowing my parent will storm the school demanding that the teacher fix it.  The simple truth is, the teacher cannot learn for the student.  The student must do the learning and the parent must support that effort.

In this context it is easy to see why many in our profession are considering getting out.  The top-down decision-making at the micro-management level is modeled by the Legislatures in state and national capitals, replicated by the voters who elect school boards who hire administrators.  Teachers have few folks to turn to if both the parent and the principal side with the kid who is either not putting forth the effort or arrives at our door ill equipped to do so.

I believe there is no more noble profession than teaching.  I am worried about the future of this profession.  If men and women of good character, sound minds, strong preparation and tireless effort on behalf of their students leave our ranks we as a nation are truly at-risk. 

Incentive pay won’t change that, it will make it worse.  Altering teacher evaluation processes so that outcomes are tied to student outcomes won’t change that, it will make it worse.  Ever new high stakes standardized tests over more rigorous curriculum won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More charter schools won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More home-schooled kids won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More technology may help.  Changing the way we staff schools may help.  Changing the way we pay teachers may help.  But we know that children aged 3 to 18 still learn best when taught by a professional adult who is committed to their success and knowledgeable enough to structure and scaffold that learning so that it is linked to what came before and what will come later.  Teachers teach children both the “what” to learn and how to learn.  Professional teachers do that.

Who will choose this career in this new context knowing they will make little money, have little or no support, experience ever increasing accountability and micro-management, and at the peak of their careers will earn maybe $60,000?  There are not 335,000 qualified folks in Texas who are ready to step up if everyone leaves.

I left the classroom after 10 great years.  I did so for two reasons.  I was angry at and frustrated with administrators who did not value the profession and too often made decisions without consulting teachers.  I also left because my wife and I both taught and between our two salaries we could not afford the two kids we had and own a home.  We flipped a coin; I lost and became an administrator.  Hopefully, a good one.  She still teaches.

Despite that I say, teachers, please stay.  Five million kids showed up at our doors in Texas this year, and there will be even more next year.  They need you to teach them if they are to have a positive future.  Some legislators may not get that, some parents may not get that, maybe even some administrators may not get that, but many do.  Our profession is morphing before our eyes and we must both change and lead the changes to come.  And changes are coming.  Stay and help.

Giving and Getting

Ahh, Christmas Eve.  Anticipation follows preparation, joy follows frantic.  Shopping and wrapping and cooking and singing and decorating and traveling and partying culminate in a host of complex feelings as I go to bed tonight, and the peace, joy and wonder of tomorrow morning.

Those feelings have changed over the years.  I clearly remember the Christmas Eves where sleep was nigh impossible, ears perked for the sound of bells and hooves, dreams of what would await me under the tree.  Would it be a tricycle, a bicycle, a swing set, a train?  I yearned for the gifts yet to be known, gifts hidden under seasonal paper and adorned with ribbon and bows.  I had browsed, I occasionally risked a shake and a heft, but all remained mysterious and exciting.  As a child, I was into the receiving end of Christmas and could barely wait for Christmas morning when all would be revealed.

I feel very differently now.  I will go to bed tonight sincerely yearning that the gifts I have procured for those I love will be well received.  I want to give the perfect gift.  I want to see joy on the faces of children, peers, family by blood and law as they unwrap what I selected and freely gave them.  The act of giving, a show of love and knowing, means so much more.  The quality of the commercial side of Christmas for me now is the artfulness of my decision making and selections made for those closest to me. 

It may be a comfort to many that I have grown up.  I prefer the giving to receiving.  I have a very difficult time generating a list of Christmas wants for me (OK: a new tie, a new shirt, and dress socks would be nice) and an easy time generating a list of Christmas want-to-gives for others.  This exercise takes place each year with a backdrop of sadness and guilt for those who will not be surrounded by loved ones, for whom Christmas will be sparse, those around the world who would celebrate good shelter, better clothes, safe food and water.  I give what I can to them as well, anonymously and through third parties, but it is not the same.

I would be crestfallen if one of my carefully chosen gifts for one I love was rejected, was trashed, was looked upon with disdain.  I give from the heart with hope of inspiring joy. 

And if that is true for meager, mortal me, how much more true must that have been on the first Christmas when the perfect gift was given.  That remains absolutely overwhelming to me.  I am not man enough, big enough, caring enough to even ponder giving my son to someone else in need, much less to everyone.  I could not bear the pain of seeing that gift (which I am unable to make) be despised, rejected and executed for a host of ungrateful others.  What love!  I aspire to such love, but fall ever so short.

And yet, I aspire to such love.  I’m better now than before.  I love the giving more than the getting.  I think that is what Christmas is about. 

I love you all, those I know and those I do not, in many ways and on many levels, and I sincerely wish for all the gift of love, and a very Merry Christmas!