Some thoughts on current education issues--But, of course, what do I know? I’m just a teacher.

Friends and family members often ask me about my thoughts on various changes and trends in education and education reform. The latest such question has left me dwelling on my thoughts on various issues with education reform. (These issues surround me on a daily basis, so they're never really too far out of mind.) 

The issue of fixing public education in American is most certainly big and complex. Our students deserve the very best education, and there are dedicated teachers, administrators, and advocates out there who are working towards positive change. I most certainly do not think that I have all the answers to the complex issue of fixing our educational system, but I definitely have some thoughts based on my years in the classroom and the impact that reform efforts have had in my classroom and on my students.

1. We need to realize that it’s not as simple as blaming “failing” schools and “bad teachers.” We have a flawed system and failing societies. Read and follow Diane Ravitch. Enough said.   Check out her book The Life and Death of the Great American School System  
2. Standardized testing is NOT the answer. It sounds like a good idea to have standards and to measure those standards. Despite the fact that standardized tests are not authentic assessments, they are being treated as the way to determine what a student has learned and can do. The standardized testing that has come with NCLB is not used as a diagnostic tool; rather, it is used as a weapon.  Yes, it points out that there are achievement gaps, “under-performing schools,” and links between academic achievement and social economic status, but it’s not fixing the problems.  Rather, it’s making them worse because of the focus on testing. Additionally, with the pressure to make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), some teachers, administrators, schools, and districts have resorted to cheating so that they pass. (And notice who is cheating in these situations. The students are not often stressing over those tests, but the teachers and administrators are. That alone should indicate a major problem.) For more about what is going on in “failing schools,” check out this TIME magazine article on the 10^th anniversary of NCLB And then there’s this interview with George W. Bush. He clearly has no clue about the real impact of NCLB. 

3.       Teachers want to see their students succeed, and we want to help them reach that success. NCLB implies that teachers are willingly, knowingly leaving students behind. Good, true teachers are not out to get their students. Teachers also know that a student’s true worth and achievement can’t be measured by a standardized test.

4.       Enough with the testing! Standardized testing is flawed in so many ways. Many teachers find themselves having to “teach to the test” so that their students will pass the test (and so that they and their school “pass," too). Some subject areas have to struggle with the curriculum crunch more than others, but many teachers find themselves cutting activities and more authentic assessments for the sake of preparing for the tests. Note: I do believe that, as teachers, we can work against the “teach to the test” mentality and provide authentic assessments and ensure that students have the skills necessary to pass mandated tests. However, this mentality is a reality of the times.  Daniel Dyer has a wonderful blog post about how education has changed from when many of us were in school.

In addition to the crunch in the curriculum caused by the “teach to the test” mentality, testing takes up a lot of TIME! Because of testing, students miss valuable hours that could be spent on true, meaningful learning opportunities. Teachers miss hours of time that could (and should) be used to plan these meaningful learning opportunities and assess students’ work because we must go to training sessions to prepare for administering these tests. And then we spend hours each school year monitoring these tests. (Note-These hours come out of our planning periods and class time.) We pace up and down the rows of students taking tests, making sure that no one is cheating. And we often have to wake students up because they have fallen asleep while taking the test! (Remember—they’re not really stressing over these tests.) As proctors, we can’t work on anything because we must remain vigilant at all times. I work through lesson plans in my head. It’s really a truly productive time. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) This year, our state is piloting an electronic version of the writing test. Most of our standardized tests have been electronic for years, but the writing one is just making the change. Because we must pilot the test, my students have to take a test (that won’t count) over two days later in March. Oh, and this pilot test happens weeks after the real one. More valuable instructional time is just slipping away this coming month.

5.      Merit pay doesn’t work. Check out Daniel Pink’s eight points about why merit pay doesn’t work  Pay is not a motivator. Teachers didn’t enter the profession for the pay, trust me. We’re motivated by working with our students and watching them succeed. We’re motivated by sharing our passion for our subject area. I already work very hard (all year long, I might add). I want to improve, and I am constantly working on improving my teaching methods. And I revise lessons constantly to best meet the needs of my current students. More pay will not make me work harder. I can’t think of how I could work harder than I already do without completely sacrificing my sanity. If you haven’t checked out my Starbucks story, this would be a good time. And, if you’ve never seen it, watch this video of Matt Damon defending teachers. If you have seen it, watch it again, especially if you’re a teacher. It’s a great morale-booster!

6.       Teacher education programs need to raise the bar. Yes, there are, sadly, “bad” teachers in our public schools. But, as Matt Damon points out, there are “bad apples” in every profession or career. This is a reality, but it should not be our only focus. This being said, I believe that teacher education programs need to raise the bar. I’m aware of more than one instance in which a mentor teacher has recommended that a student not continue with her education program and receive certification, but the education program directors at the student’s school ignored this recommendation, and the student was certified and is now in a classroom. (Note-She had passed her Praxis exams, standardized tests. But does that mean she’s ready to teach?) Students in teacher preparation programs need to be fully prepared to enter the classroom. This means students in education programs must spend plenty of time  in a variety of classroom settings. They must have real teaching experiences and receive a lot of feedback before beginning a teaching career.

7.       Authentic teacher evaluation systems need to be created and put in place. A two-minute walk-through twice a year, or even one half-hour visit each year, is not enough to truly evaluate a teacher. A teacher’s evaluation and/or pay should not be determined by these superficial assessments. Granted, administrators have full plates, too. But there needs to be a better system. And good teachers want to improve. Although it may be uncomfortable at first, many teachers would probably welcome comments, observations, and suggestions from honest, well-meaning colleagues.

8.       Teachers shouldn’t be evaluated based on their students’ standardized test scores, and pay shouldn’t be tied to student achievement on standardized tests. Imagine that a doctor tells her patient that he has high cholesterol.  She writes a prescription for medication and advises her patient about dietary choices that will help improve the condition. The patient doesn’t take the medicine like he should and doesn’t make the dietary changes necessary. The patient has his six-month check-up and it’s obvious that the condition has worsened. Should the doctor now earn less because her patient hasn’t improved? This would be crazy, right? Yet this is the idea that many have when it comes to education reform and teacher pay and rankings. 

      It’s also unfair to rank teachers based on student achievement because not all classes are created equal. In our state, students take the reading and writing tests in the 11^th grade. I teach IB HL 11^th grade English. My students will do quite well on their standard-level reading and writing test. But does this mean that I should earn more than a colleague who teaches regular-level English 11? Of course not!

These are just some of my thoughts on some of the hot topics concerning education and education reform efforts right now. But I’m just a teacher. What do I know? Clearly the legislators (non-educators) have it all figured out.

Teaching: "the most overcompensated profession"? Try under-appreciated and disrespected

I spent some time grading papers at Starbucks tonight. Usually, my Starbucks grading sessions are very productive, but that was definitely not the case this evening. A group of women sipping lattes on the couches in the corner were distracting me with their loud conversation about their husbands’ inadequacies. The husband-bashing was enough to distract and annoy me, but then the conversation turned to school and teachers and I became infuriated. The four women discussed their frustrations about daycare options for when school was closed or when students don’t have school because of “teacher workdays.” One woman, the ringleader bitch, if you will, complained about the existence of teacher workdays and in-service days (“why do they even need them?”). She then went on to tell her friends that “new studies show that, when you take everything into consideration, teaching is the most overcompensated profession. I mean, think about it—they get summers off, their day is over by two or three. I should just be an f***ing teacher!” (Oh, please don’t!)

As I tried to concentrate on the in-class writings I was grading, I wondered if any of these women realized what I was doing just two tables over. Off by two or three, huh? Here it is, a Saturday night, and I’m spending my time at Starbucks grading essays. Clearly I’m overcompensated to the extent that I actually have a thriving social life!

I struggled through a couple more essays—not because the writing was poor, but because I kept thinking about these women and their view of educators. These women are the parents of children in our public schools—and this is how they view teachers? Educators deal with enough negative portrayals from a number of sources, but we really need the support of parents!

I decided that I couldn’t just leave without saying something. Unable to focus enough to fairly grade any more papers, I packed up my bag and headed out, stopping by the couches on my way out:

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but overhear your comments about teachers earlier.” I made eye contact with each of the four women but mainly focused on the one who had made all the negative comments. As I was speaking this first sentence, she looked at her friends and said, “Oh, God.”

Calm, but assertive, I continued: “I just wanted to say that the study I assume you’re referring to regarding teachers being overcompensated is very flawed. I am definitely not overcompensated, or even compensated for that matter, for the time I spend grading papers at a Starbucks on a Saturday night. And I’m definitely not fully compensated for all the hours I spend working on grading and planning at home in the evenings during the week. I would encourage you to look into the facts and spend a week, or even just a day, with a teacher to see everything we do. We work very hard for your children.”

No response. The ringleader just glared at me. Two of the women avoided eye contact. The fourth woman gave me a small smile and a nod and seemed to mouth something—a “thank you,” maybe, but I’m not quite sure. Then I left and they sat there in silence.

I knew I had to say something to defend our profession. I hope that I made these women think, but I wish I had said more. To think that teachers are overcompensated is absurd. No, “when you take everything into consideration,” teaching is not the “most overcompensated profession.” Rather, teachers are perhaps the most underappreciated, disrespected professionals in our society today. The conversation these four women were having, sadly, supports this notion. “Considering everything” to this woman meant the length of the contract-hour workday and summers off. But most teachers work well beyond the contract-hour workday. And the “summers off” benefit that non-educators like to throw at us is obnoxious. True, we may not be teaching during the summer, but many teachers spend time at conferences, some work with students in summer-enrichment programs and workshops, and many plan to teach new material and review and improve lessons. As an English teacher, I read and plan new works that will become a part of the curriculum the following school year. I also write letters of recommendation in the summer months because the school year is so hectic. I most definitely still work in the summer, just in a different way. Also, this woman’s notion of “considering everything” isn’t taking into consideration the insane pressure that many teachers and schools are under thanks to standardized teaching.

Teachers do not teach because of the amazing compensation and benefits. We teach because we care—about the children, their future, our future, and the subject matter. I teach high-school English because I’m passionate about literature and I love working with teenagers. For me, it’s the best of both worlds! I love what I do, but I surely don’t do it for the money. Teaching is a calling, really. No one goes into teaching for the money. In fact, one of the top reasons teachers leave the profession in the first five years is because of the salary. Someone would be crazy to go into teaching because of the pay! It’s a lot of work for the money that we make. I spend countless hours outside of contract-hours each week, including weekends, grading papers and planning lessons. But I really can’t see myself doing anything else. It’s a lot of work for an inadequate monetary pay-off, but the other rewards—seeing a student grasp a concept they had been struggling with, helping a student overcome a fear of speaking in front of others, seeing a student smile because of the ‘A’ he/she earned on a paper, having a student thank you for listening and understanding—this “compensation” is oh so worth it.

A balanced summer day

As we are now nearing the end of July (can it be true? already?!), I think I am finally settling into summer mode. In fact, I think that today was my most productive-yet-relaxing day since school let out in June! And I didn't take a nap today. (That's saying something, trust me.) The key to today? I did some school-related things, and I did some "me things." It was a wonderful balance.

I spent some time at Starbucks this morning finishing up reading through course evaluations from this past school year. Doing school work at Starbucks is always more enjoyable than working at school or at home, and reading through the course evaluations is actually enjoyable...and somewhat entertaining. It's interesting to read what the students really thought, and the variety of responses is both interesting and reassuring. Reading the evaluations reminds me just how much I love teaching. Not that there are times when I question my life-calling, but it's nice to have a mid-summer reminder.

As I left Starbucks this morning, I decided that it's okay that some of my happiest moments are teaching moments, and it's okay if I can't completely part with "teacher work" in the summer. It makes me happy, and it keeps me feeling productive, whether it's reading English Journal or other articles, reading (or re-reading) a work I'll be teaching, reviewing course evaluations, etc. In fact, it's probably healthy that I don't drop the" teacher work" all summer. I don't want my students to stop reading during the summer, so why should I stop learning, preparing, and improving over the summer? No, this is by no means revolutionary, I realize that. But today I had a moment in which I recognized and fully embraced this truth. And then, for the whole afternoon and evening, I did "me" things--I organized photo albums, played my violin, and read a book that I'm not planning on teaching. Today was balanced.