Sacrifice and Celebration

Palm Sunday and it is time for a reflective, descriptive piece.  I’ve been thinking about sacrifice and celebration. 

School systems function in the present, are future oriented, and mindful of the past.  They are highly complex social and political organizations devoted almost exclusively to human interaction and qualitative assessment.  The event horizon for tangible professional assessment of the quality of their processes and products is almost an entire generation away.  The practical horizon for public assessment of their processes and products is daily.  These systems have virtually no organized political or economic clout, though their subtle impact on every community is dramatic and not fully understood until the impact is negative.  At the same time, there is likely no system that is more critical to the quality of life of this nation than the public school system.

There's more.

School systems function in the present.  They are subject to financial constraints and accountability.  They are limited by time and resources.  They cannot offer opportunities to young people that cannot be realized due to facility, personnel and budgetary limitations.  School systems teach the kids who walk in the door, and parents send the best kids they have to school.  School systems hire the best staff they can, but each teacher can only teach kids to his or her own highest professional potential.  And, principals can both manage and lead schools to their own highest potential.  Though every school system in the nation would love to be able to equip all staff and students with the most modern technology, offer a wide array of support systems for students who fail to meet expectations or arrive at school physically, emotionally, or economically ill, offer a wide array of learning opportunities in emerging enterprises, and a wide array of extra and co-curricular activities, it quite simply cannot be done by all systems everywhere.  What each system does is the result of the tension between available resources, local values and state and federal expectations and requirements.  Recently, that has felt more and more like sacrifice.

School systems are future oriented.  From pre-kindergarten programs through high school graduation the implicit goal of public education is to prepare students to have both an economically productive life and function as member of a democratic society.  Students must learn how to behave in organizations, they must learn self-discipline, they must learn how to learn, and they must demonstrate successful acquisition of those skills via a variety of measurement tools.  The true measurement of the success of the system is the eventual future success of each of the students.  Graduating a flock of seniors who have demonstrated mastery on multiple years of standardized tests in multiple content areas means little if the prison population increases, the number of patents issued decreases, the number of participants in elections decreases, the number of citizens in need of government subsidy increases, and the general productivity and outlook of the nation declines.  These are the important measures and they are not quantitatively available for years to come.  When they do come, they are real celebrations.

School systems are mindful of the past.  Every adult carries an image of what school should be based upon their own childhood experiences.  Positive experiences garner ardent support for the programs and processes that formed the context of that experience.  Negative experiences predispose adults to be suspicious of programs and processes that formed the context of those experiences.  Therefore, the programs and processes that tend to engender the most support from the adults in the community surround co and extra-curricular programs.  Athletics, home economics, cheerleading, Ag, Band, etc., are subject to passionate defense by adults even if the resources required to continue to implement those programs make little sense in a future oriented organization.  Curriculum and instructional decision making are likewise difficult areas to alter though they are most in need of new structures and expectations.  The math and science and social studies and language arts taught to the current adult generation are not the same subjects needed for the next and future generation of adults.  It is difficult for parents and communities to support new curriculum and instruction when they do not know what they do not know.  Most seem to recognize that schools must change programs, practices and procedures to prepare kids for the future, but seldom consider abandoning practices, programs and procedures of the past.  The school house itself has changed little in the past two hundred years and is ill suited for nurturing critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving, and information managing skills.

Schools are highly complex social organizations.  School systems do not have a tangible product.  They are staffed by hundreds and thousands of adults who are charged with the safety, health and improvement of thousands and millions of children.  There is no widget to weigh at the end of the day.  It is the mindset, values, culture and climate of the adults in the school and the parents of the children in the school that have a much more dramatic impact on the school day in and day out than any instructional program or process.  Schools operate on a daily basis much more like churches than like the military, or corporations, or retail outlets, or universities or amusement parks, or prisons.  If the adults feel disengaged then the system is in trouble.  If the adults feel undervalued, the system is in trouble.  If the adults do not connect with the students the system is in trouble.  If the school is structured to serve a mostly homogeneous population then there is much more likelihood of success.  The more diverse the culture and the ethnicity of the students and staff the more challenging it becomes to maintain a positive, productive, engaged climate in the school house.

Schools are highly complex political organizations.  Because schools do not produce tangible products and because resources are so scarce, many within the walls of the schools believe decisions are made for political rather than instructional reasons.  The system can be perceived as operating on “Who you know” not “What you know.”  Because school systems are funded by tax dollars every patron of the system perceives they should be doing more with less and every decision by a school board to spend money is scrutinized.  Because school systems are dependent on both state and federal dollars as well, they must comply with mandates from state capitols and Washington D.C., where policy makers are subjected to lobbying by virtually every group who has a solution that involves schools.  A school leader, that is superintendents and school boards, have the least influence in these settings.  Locally, groups may form to oust specific personnel or defend the continuation of a program.  School leadership must deal with the political realities of every decision they make and those realities stretch from the teachers lounge, the local coffee shop, to the state capitol and the seat of the national government.  Mandates with programmatic and procedural strings attached to funding are the most recent iteration of school improvement efforts.  The net effect of such mandates by governments on school professionals is demeaning, the implication is improve the performance of children by fiat, and perform these services for this dollar amount.

Schools are devoted to human interaction and qualitative assessment.  Ask a student how his or her day was and the answer will not be, “I responded correctly to 90% of the verbal queries posed to me in class, I consumed 100% of my lunch, I turned in 100% of my homework assignments, and I am at zero risk of dropping out of school tomorrow.”  The answer will be qualitative and will be based on human interaction:  “Johnny and I made up today.  Sally and Rachel are having a fight.  Ms. Jones was in a bad mood today.  Sammy gets to start Friday night, not me.”  Kids will report on the emotional impact of human interaction.  Adults are much the same.  A school building houses purposeful adults paid to work together to accomplish a mission with a swarming mass of young people who tend to be present only because they are required to be and whose mission is very different than the adults.  This inherent conflict in a compressed space leads to daily qualitative assessment by staff, kids and parents about the effectiveness of the school.  Kids may leave “happy” but unschooled and the community is at peace.  Kids may leave stressed and pressed and the community is aroused, but the learning is enhanced.  It is the daily qualitative assessment that forms public perception about the quality of schools, not the annual statistical report in the newspaper.

The event horizon for tangible professional assessment of the quality of a school’s processes and products is almost an entire generation away.  The notion that we can somehow assess whether public schools are promoting “college readiness” is absurd.  At best, we could perhaps talk to recent college graduates and ask what it was that public schools did to prepare them for college, or talk to those who either did not attend college or dropped out and seek to discover why.  Even if we found data that would inform instruction, it would be too late.  Public schools are not clairvoyant.  Those of us in schools have no idea what the work force or the world will be like in 20 years, what information or skills or processes will be needed.  We do know that teaching kids how to teach themselves, how to learn, how to problem solve, how to be critical thinkers, how to collaborate will be essential processes.  Yet, these skills are diminished in an environment based on standardized test preparation.  Teachers know that students will return years after they have left the classroom to thank them for the lessons learned and the attention given.  Typically, teachers are surprised by which students do so.  The event horizon of a teacher’s success is years away, not months away on a bubble sheet.

The practical horizon for public assessment of the processes and products of public schools is daily.  There is not a day in a public school where someone, adult or child, makes an error.  There is not a day in a public school where someone, adult or child, fails to perform at an expected level.  Because it is an intensely human enterprise, public education is inherently flawed by the humanity housed within.  A child is tardy because parents are running late, a child is pushed around on a playground and the adult was not watching, a child fails to earn an award or grade or starting position envisioned by a parent, a coach fails to lead a team to victory, a principal fails to notice a dress code violation, a student sneaks off to smoke a cigarette or joint unmonitored and unmissed, an adult stressed at home dumps emotional vitriol at school.  Any of these events and many, many more can trigger uproar and demands for heads to roll.  In tragic cases of serious injury or death the demand for blame and consequence exceed the boundary of the system.  Regardless, as glitches occur, and they always will, local leaders will look for lessons learned and people to blame.  It can happen any day regardless of the long term mission horizon for the school system.  On those occasions, the decision making can be more like “As the Knee Jerks” than, “As the World Turns.”  And on those occasions, public assessment of a school system may become fixed for years to come regardless of any other measure.

Public school systems have virtually no organized political or economic clout, though their subtle impact on every community is dramatic and not fully understood until the impact is negative.  In most communities, the school system is the largest employer.  In most communities, there is no other enterprise with more degreed and certified professionals than the school.  In most communities, there is no other food service that serves more meals and likely no other transportation service that moves more humans.  The payroll of a school system, not to mention the purchase of goods and services, has a huge economic impact on every community.  The public perception of the schools impacts the property values of homes and businesses.  Given all of this and more, one would think that schools dramatically shape political and economic decision making in any given region or state.  But we do not.  We are strictly forbidden by policy and law from entering the political arena even though our operations, programs, processes and funding are all determined by elected officials.  Recent elections in Texas demonstrate that even folks who are the payroll of public schools most likely voted for candidates sworn to reduce the funding and increase the accountability of public schools.  Poor performance of the school, however, that results in threatened closures, or talk of consolidation with another school system will arouse the passion of defiant citizens who will fight to maintain their own systems, realizing all too late that the fate of the local community is vitally connected to the fate of the public schools.

So what?

First, we must make decisions about public schools in a broader context with an eye to an uncertain future.  We cannot make decisions based on either standardized tests this year, a recently promoted “silver bullet” program, or the knee jerk reactions to a local issue.  We must promote funding that is disconnected from popular politics and prescripted programs.  We must find ways to share with our patrons that learning is a community responsibility.

Second, unless our goal is to provide cheap labor for the world, we must educate our children.  All our children.  There will never be enough charter schools, private schools or homeschoolers to provide the leadership for the next generation.  It must come from the public schools.  I would argue that any resource re-directed from public schools to some other option is a step toward promoting increasing the wealth of the few while converting the context of America to a second world or third world position. 

And finally, we must respect and honor our public schools and the adults therein.  Perhaps you had a bad experience in public schools.  I am sorry.  Perhaps you are concerned that your child will have a bad experience in a public school, or come in contact with children and ideas that you do not like.  I am sorry.  Perhaps you are convinced that public schools are wasteful governmental boondoggles that need to be dramatically reduced in funding to save your tax dollars.  I am sorry.  Public schools are the very first line of national defense.  Without education, we are prone to make terrible decisions as a nation and our productivity will decline.  The adults who show up at your schools tomorrow are dedicated folks.  They are not there to pick on your kids or harm your kids or hurt your kids’ feelings.  They are there for the future of your kids.  Support them locally, state-wide and nationally. 

How?  If you are a parent know that we are doing absolutely the best we know to do.  If we mess up we are truly sorry.  If we ask too much, we are not sorry.  If your child fails to get something you hoped he or she would get, we are sorry, but we will not change the outcome.  If you are a voter know that we are payroll intensive.  We serve children and even now they outnumber us tremendously.  We could do better with more staff, more resources, and better facilities.  We cannot do better with less.  We will not do better because the tests get harder.  If you are a voter, vote.  If you are over the age of 18 and are not voter, then get registered and vote.  Be mindful of the policies the candidates endorse regarding public schools.  Please know that for the public schools to provide an education to every child is absolutely in our best national interest.

Public schools, the kids and adults therein, are making sacrifices.  Let’s ensure they are the right ones.  Kids and adults in public schools have much to celebrate.  Join them and support them.

Thanks.  Have a wonderful Holy Week.

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.