Obama on Education

I thought Obama was going to be an early education president. Turns out he isn't even an education president. I think he is using education to shift some conservative votes to his side of the isle. This cartoon is in a contest for the New Yorker. Please vote. I would love for the political "game" to be more public.

Slamming bad teachers is easy... he should try something harder like improving the process of becoming a teacher.

Burning Down the House

On TLN and on my friend Bill's blog there has been a heated discussion of the role of creativity in schools. In a strange turn of events, I will support the opposite position for a minute. In our discussion of creativity it is important that we acknowledge the normative function of schooling. I am all for starting all over, burning down the house, and starting again by redefining the purpose and hence the accountability necessary for our schools. However, I think that some of the aspects of schooling that we might change might not be the parts that need to change. Creativity needs to be brought into our expectations, not basics pushed out. There have been numerous researchers who have found that the most effective way to teach at risk kids is to teach the basics and higher level thinking at the same time. Otherwise kids will not be ready to use either by the time they are adults.

I am sort of like the hammer that sees nails all over the place. I see creativity in many places where others don't.

Creativity sometimes substitutes for the word expression. I can see how teachers are fed up with the lack of expression of their humanity in their practice. In many cases it is not why we got into this gig. But, creativity and expression are not the same thing. Creativity is figuring how to get that test answer out of that kid as much as it is helping kids see past that test question.

Creativity is a big word with different meanings for a lot of people, sort of like schooling is different from learning. If all kids had to do was learn then they wouldn't need us, it is the schooling that makes teachers necessary. It is also why our creative expression is sometimes compromised for the sake of the an accountability tool that does not measure creativity. If the purpose of schooling moved past (but included) the basics standards we would probably have plenty of time for creativity, in fact we might be required to teach it 3 hours a day. Then what would we have to complain about?

The big issue seems to me to be that there is a conflict between what schools need to be about, and what they are held accountable for creating. These expectations are almost polar opposites now which can cause a great deal of stress for the people responsible for meeting conflicting expectations. We have a hunch about what kids will need in the future but right now, that doesn't matter. Right now what matters is the test. So we have to teach to both sides of the brain at the same time with out compromising either. It can be done, in fact it has been done in poor schools for years.

Image from: http://www.centralfpd.com/Portals/0/Clip%20Art/House%20on%20Fire02.GIF

No Child Left Inside

In the maelstrom of our current economic crisis, a radical new education bill has made it out of the House and is headed to the Senate. The bill titled No Child Left Inside is making tiny little waves in the sea of education reform. It is a bill that essentially requires environmental education in schools with the goal of developing citizens' feelings of stewardship.

As a pre-k teacher I am ecstatic to have a federal mandate to take my students outside. It is like your parents telling you that you "Have to have ice cream!" after dinner. If the government wants me take kids outside, I am all for it.
From Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's website:

On September 18, the House passed the No Child Left Inside Act, H.R. 3036. One of the greatest challenges facing current and future generations is to build a more sustainable, energy-efficient world. By teaching students about the role of the environment as an important
national resource, we can prepare them to take on critical issues – energy conservation, air pollution, climate change, wildlife protection – and become better stewards of the earth.

NCLI gets at what is wrong with education today without pointing fingers or directly challenging that other "No Child Left" bill that has narrowed curriculum to the point that schools had stopped teaching some subjects because they weren't tested. This bill fundementally transforms the role of schools from places to create a viable work force to schools as places to create a viable people.

The No Child Left Inside Act would address this by igniting students’ interest in the outdoors and spurring them to take part in outside activities. And learning to explore the natural world and their personal connection to it inevitably triggers an interest in spending more time in it.

The bill orginated from the work of Richard Louv, who coined the term "Nature Deficit Disorder" in his book, Last Child in the Woods. Louv talks about how a nature deficit has contributed to behavioral disorders in children. His book has sparked a national movement to get kids back outside. In Richmond Virginia this Spring there will be a symposium exploring this important subject at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, in conjuction with its 25th anniversary.

If this bill passes in the Senate, you may hear the joyous cries of wild children and adults who are fed up with days spent inside, thier eyes glazed over with the flickering colors of video games. The sound of America waking from the fitful sleep of SecondLife to realize the potential that living in the presence of nature could have on our collective soul might just change education for the better. I know it will confirm what pre-k teachers all over the country already know: kids need to go outside.

Photo credit: http://playborhood.com/site/article/taking_over_your_front_yard_and_or_sidewalk/

it doesn't matter how rich your kid is

Kids who go to preschool make gains, no matter their SES. You gotta love it if you are a preschool teacher.
Another, (yes another) preschool study covered in USA Today found that preschool benefits all students.
This is another log on the fire for expanding preschool services to all students.
Steve Barnett, the godfather or preschool research and the head honcho at NIEER said,

"It's the whole city, it's all of the kids, it's done through the public schools and it seems to produce pretty big effects for all of the kids,"

Now when we combine this with economic research on the costs and benefits of preschool we find we got good deal on our hands.
According to Dr. Timothy Bartik of the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2006), while investments in luring businesses can create large financial gains for a state in the short term these benefits are likely to plateau after several years. However, after an initial short-term increase in jobs by creating preschool classrooms, a time release earnings boom begins to tick when a state invests in universal preschool. Bartik also suggested that the return to the state may be less than the return to the nation because 2/3 of state program participants are likely to leave the state in the 12 years that it would take to realize the return on investment. But this benefit to the nation, in terms of higher income and less stress on social services also suggests a stronger federal role in funding preschool initiatives.

How about a preschool Title in NCLB?

When will it happen? Watch me turn blue while I hold my breath ...............................

photo credit: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=981

a gaping hole where Reading First died

Reading First lays dead on the floor of congress. Killed by faulty implementation and good ol' boy accountability.

I have no great love for some of the scripted programs Reading First has paid for but, I do appreciate the Professional Learning Comminities it has created almost nationwide in schools where there were none. Teachers talking to each other about how to best teach their students is a good thing.

But congress, I want to know what happens when you remove $1 billion from reading education in the matter of two years.
What happened to Reading Recovery? What will happen to the funds? Who will lose out more in this political drama?

The kids or W.

Please congress if you don't want to fund Reading First, fund something for these kids. There is a gaping hole where learning might have happened.

Thanks to Early Ed Watch for timely coverage.

Is your state a tortoise or a hare? the NCLB race - 2014

As some people may know there are different types of athletes but they basically break down into tortoises and hares. Tortoises set a goal and work towards it steadily, hares take their time in the beginning then dash to the finish.
A recent study by the Center on Educational Policy describes states' strategies for the dash to the finish line of 100% proficiency in 2014. Their descriptions include, Incremental (like Virginia), Backloaded (like California) and Blended (like Kansas). I can see the value in each. Virginia's seems sensible but I am not sure that raising the pass rate 5% every 2-3 years will necessarily be realistic down the road. There are diminishing returns on some investments and unless there is a financial push to help effects of poverty in the state I am not sure we can make it to 100% by 2014. However, at least we only need to make up about 25% in the next 5 years. California, possible thinking the law would not be renewed, only set pass rates aimed at 100% beginning in 2006 instead of 2002. Kansas may not want to work so hard as to make steady progress but perhaps wants to hedge their bets on NCLB being around in 2014 so they hope to make progress at varying rates. I wonder if Kansas's might be the most realistic? I mean, once the kids start to "get it" won't they make progress easier and progressively at least until the final kick?


Some states are faced with making huge gains in a short time or suffering consequences.
Jack Jennings, the president of CEP described it this way in an EdWeek article:

“Many states may have originally set lower achievement goals for the first few years under NCLB in hopes of getting systems in place or gaining some flexibility from Washington later on, But right now, they are still on the hook for the academic equivalent of a mortgage payment that is about to balloon far beyond their current ability to pay.“

Of course this presupposes that the bill will be intact in 2014. Will it?


IMAGE From The Æsop for Children, by Æsop, illustrated by Milo Winter

Project Gutenberg etext 19994

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19994

think outside the bubble

Have you ever seen a kid learn something you weren't teaching them at the time? When did learning actually occur? Was it while you were teaching, when they were doing seat work, in your class discussion? Was it valuable? Might it help them later in life?

The paradigm we operate with in education today is entirely technical. Policy makers and the public believe that students learn what we teach them. Period. But what might they be learning while we are busy trying to teach them to pass a test? If we only look for student achievement in relation to what we have taught we might never talk about the elephant in the room, that kids might not need everything we are teaching them. Or, kids might be able to learn some things that could be essential to their lives, if we only stopped paying so much attention to those test scores. If we become aware of what happens outside of the mind control testing we might see what is really happening in our students' lives.



This is what the post-positivist paradigm has brought us to in education. We have become bean counters. On TLN a teacher in New York has been discussing hourly measurable objectives. Yes, hourly. Can you imagine what that is like? Measuring ... constantly. Maybe it only bothers me because I am in preschool where the standards have only begun to quantify our students' learning. When we focus on quantity what do we sacrifice in quality? This is what testing has wrought, a world where nobody is looking at what really matters, kids lives.


Think outside the bubble ...


p.s. This video is based on some visual cognition research done at the University of Illinois. Check it out, its fascinating. As an avid road cyclist and commuter I am asking you to please take this public service announcement to heart while you are driving to work. You could save a life.

VA's Gov. Kaine to recieve albatross NCLB Opt-Out Bill

If there is one thing NCLB is good at it is being a dart board for politicians hoping to look good in the eyes of their constituents. Kaine, a proponent of early childhood access and friend of teachers, will be handed the albatross Virginia's Opt-out bill to be officially killed. Signing off on the bill could be a politcial boost or boon depending on whether the bill is killed in the U.S. Congress or turned into a better (more realistic) bill that the state would then have to reapply for funds under. Sometimes people forget that the NCLB is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in wolf's clothing. The original ESEA was a much kinder beast. If it took off it's costume would we follow it to school one day?

We have been discussing Virginia's theoretically possible Opt-Out from NCLB on an accomplished teacher's forum here in Virginia. The discussion has mostly centered around the same things that this post talks about. Politics. Most teachers seem to know that some sort of accountability measures are necessary and helpful, they also see the technocratic approach of NCLB as unnecessarily restrictive and punitive. So our "what if" conversation has mostly been a "what is" conversation.

The possibility that Gov. Kaine will sign the bill is extremely slim. If there is one universal truth in politics and education that I learned in a class about NCLB it is "never look soft" on accountability. According to Maria Glod, a Washington Post writer who covered Virginia's frustrations with the ED over English Language Learners and testing, she reported:

Virginia's Board of Education would be directed to recommend whether the state should pull out of a federal school accountability system under legislation that cleared the General Assembly Saturday. It now awaits consideration by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D).

This means that there is only one political stop gap between the bill's passing (and making many teachers happy, at least for a little while) and Kaine wringing its neck and looking like the farmer who killed the family bird. If the board tells Kaine to kill it he is off the hook. But, if the board says yes...

However, there is a reality check in place in the bill. Glod writes:

the bill would require the board to present a plan to the governor and legislature by June 30, 2009.

Plenty of time to come up with a $350 million dollar short fall and a plan for all those Title I specialists.

discovering other blogs is fun

I have been writing about education and policy for almost a year now. I was so excited when I discovered this blog today. Education Policy Blog. I couldn't believe I had never seen it before. It has some really deep posts about education policy, some from the teachers perspective. It is a group blog so it will be like checking out a different blog every time I check it. It will be added to my blog route asap.
Keep up the great work folks.