TFA update on Dr. Royal's Speech

First, I thought Dr. Royal's speech in Philadelphia to TFAers had been taken down at YouTube but apparently not. 

This inspired Trish Millines Dziko, noted educator and head of Technology Access Foundation and the TAF Academy in Tacoma, to weigh in.  She, like Dr. Royal, is an outspoken advocate for children and public education.  She is strong and fearless.  Here's what she had to say in reference to Dr. Royal's speech:


Comments

StopTFA said…
Thank you Ms Tziko. The premise of TFA's expansion into the PNW was more Messiah Complex than actually filling a need and connecting with the children these individuals mean to serve. Our children find themselves more as political pawns, than individuals who deserve the faith and support of community and the government safety net. A read of the TFA emails on www.scribd.com/SPSLeaks shows how little the fate of impoverished students had to do with TFA's plans, in comparison to the ambitions of Dean Stritikus, interim superintendent Enfield and others.
Anonymous said…
Ed reform has never been about the students. In fact, there is no evidence to prove that any of the many facets of ed reform have accomplished one iota of good for the students.

Instead ed reform is about an actually minute number of adults and their desire for power and political clout.

The students only exist as a means to self glorification.

Urban Legend
StopTFA said…
Tziko, Dziko, sorry.
Anonymous said…
What's the source of Trish' weighing in? Did she write this for the blog?

I agree with her and admire her greatly for her independence in action and thought and contribution to the community. But how did this come to be? And please Hanauer and others: read it.

n...
Hey n, I wrote this on my Facebook page and some folks forwarded it around and it made its way to Melissa.

I will say this is a very tough issue for me because I do see the value in all schools that truly focus on students (regardless of whether they are public, private or charter). We do need serious education reform, but I'm afraid the approach leaves little to be desired and that has unfortunately made some really good ideas sound like bad ones (kind of like people paying attention to the messenger instead of the message).

So I find myself trying to pull all the good out of these ideas and applying them to the students TAF has the capacity to reach. Basically sticking to our knitting and poking our heads up every once and a while to make sure the train isn't going to hit us head on while we're trying to educate kids.

Thanks,
-Trish
Anonymous said…
I don't always agree with Trish, but I do I'd go further than she, however, and say the local Ed Reformers crossed the paternalism line long ago. Hell, it's their brand.

The biggest snag with TFA for me, is the idea of 2 year, flash-in-the-pan, hot-shots having the arrogance and ignorance to believe in their heart of hearts that they know more about teaching than somebody who's ridden the roller coaster for 10+ years, just because they raised test scores a bit while working 80 hour weeks for a couple years in their mid-20s. How "awesome" would they be at 35, with three kids and a mortgage? Do we respect teachers enough as people to allow them a life outside the classroom? Or will we continue the drumbeat that we desperately need nothing less than superstar teachers to educate the pants off this generation to cure all the ills we and our forbears laid at their feet due to our own ineptitude and irresponsibility?

And how much "knowledge" do you all remember from the bubble tests you took way back when? I'll never recall the date Rome fell, but I'll always know why, and that can't be answered on a bubble test. Which is more important?

The whole Ed Reform model, especially of tying test results to teacher evaluations, etc. is wrong-headed and broken from the get-go. There are no simple solutions, yet despite all the rhetoric, the Ed Reformers believe just the opposite, while employing mercenaries and anti-democratic tactics all in order to "win." (Paid, deceptive signature gatherers, for example. Shame on you, Ed Reformers.)

I hope others can appreciate the irony of this discussion as we say goodbye to JP Patches, someone who for decades loved and cared about kids, and educated thousands of them along the way, with kindness, respect and decency at the core of everything he did. Quite a contrast to the bullies, frauds and profiteers within a lot of Ed Reform who proclaim their efforts are "all about the kids." WSDWG
Anonymous said…
Boy did I butcher that first sentence! WSDWG
seattle citizen said…
Thank you, Ms. Dziko. Eloquently put, and a needed statement from a respected member of our local education community. As WSDWG writes, I don't always agree with the directions you take, but I deeply admire your commitment to your students and the community around them. Bravo.
And at the heart, as you say, are the people in the communuties around the country that are DOING things, organic and homegrown, that they think (and they are often right) will help students. No one needs paternalistic, somewhat suspect outsiders to dictate what should be done on the ground.
Thanks again.
Anonymous said…
Here is a link to an interesting story regarding the rising rate of bullying of teachers
http://neatoday.org/2012/05/16/bullying-of-teachers-pervasive-in-many-schools/
Sadly, in recent years the majority of teachers in SPS who are bullied (and forced out) are those who work well with and have made long term commitments to difficult to serve populations.
I believe that principals get away with this bullying because these students typically don't have a strong parent or community voice for a number of reasons. Also, there is an underlying false belief in the education community - the "best" teachers are those who teach the highest level students. Further, if a teacher does well with hard to reach students it is because that teacher does not have high standards.
My students are held to the same standards as any other students. It may take them much longer to reach those standards. It may take multiple stepping stones. It may take my hand leading them along with respect and patience and recognition of every achievement no matter how small others may see that success. BUT we all get to the goal eventually. Maybe not all at the same time but we always are eager to cheer the stragglers along. My commitment to all students is not a two year flash in the pan. I was the "best and the brightest" - a magna cum-laude graduate of a excellent private school. I was a member of Phi Delta Kappa, which is an exclusive organization reserved for the top 4% of private schools students nationally. Never mind the fact that that was nearly 25 years ago- I am still the same person but a much better teacher.
Near the end of the article I have linked to there is this paragraph-
According to Dr. Matt Spencer of the Workplace Bullying in Schools Project, “the bully steals the dignity, self-esteem, confidence, joy, happiness, and quality of life of the targeted victim”. And when the target is an educator, it is a great “injustice” because the bully deprives students of a caring adult who is crucial to their education.
This is what ed reform has accomplished has in SPS.
Shame on those who have feasted their appetite for power on the flesh of countless students and teachers.

Salander
Anonymous said…
Children of color living in poverty have been targeted by TFA and many of the for-profit charters. It follows the same historical trend that included the Tuskegee experiment. Vulnerable populations in this country, especially African American and Native American (and now Latino) folk are easy targets for the moneyed elite. They usually put it in the guise of "we're just trying to help" (see the deculturalization that occurred during the Native American boarding school era). It is usually a modern form of colonialism (which starts out sounding like paternalism).

I am thankful Ms. Dziko woke up. Her strong defense of her school's hiring of TFA on this blog several months ago was very disheartening. Apparently, some language that she heard, or the respect of this particular messenger, was the impetus for her change of heart.

Ms. Dziko, the simple veteran teachers of SPS may be more helpful to you than you have previously been aware. Welcome to our world, at least on this issue.

--enough already
Anonymous said…
I hope, Trish, that you don't take offense at comments. I welcome your contributions to the blog and hope you will engage us in more conversation. I am interested in your take on things since you've worked with at-risk kids yourself and come with a different perspective. We teachers have gone through a lot and the campaign to further reduce our image in the community continues. Most of us care and work hard. We have lives to live, too.

There will always be "average" kids no matter how high that average becomes. And there will always be low-achieving students. It's not a perfect world. We need jobs for those students.

n...
So, where do I start...

"enough already" I have the same view of TFA that I had before. I think TFA served a need when they focused on rural and urban schools that could not draw experienced teachers. They, like many growing organizations, got drunk on their own expansion and started thinking they could and should be everywhere. That said, I don't paint every TFA candidate with the same brush. We have a TFA person who turned out to be an excellent teacher of physics, calculus and engineering for our high school students. On her own initiative she served as a lead for senior projects. We like that kind of initiative from all our teachers regardless of the level of teaching experience they have. We have STEM professionals come into the classroom to teach subjects our teachers have no capacity to teach, but are learning along the way. We provide comprehensive professional development all our teachers (experienced or not) need to effectively teach in an interdisciplinary project-based environment (which is not something taught in most teaching colleges). We also employ blended learning solutions that have nothing to do with teachers or computers.

And as I said in one of my posts, there are some good things out there that come from the education reform folks, and just because it came from them doesn't mean it's all bad, so we take a look and use what we can. The key is 5 out of 6 on my leadership team and about half of my foundation staff comes from the neighborhood we serve and they understand who they're working with.

So to sum it up, I have not changed sides. I don't have a side. I think it's detrimental to the students I educate to have a side. My job is to find everything I can to support their development (regardless of where it came from) and make sure all the adults working with them believe in every single kid and do everything possible for success.
Jan said…
Great posts, Trish. Thanks for giving us some insight into your views and conclusions.
Anonymous said…
No one has all the answers because every child is unique. The problem with ed reformers is that they believe that THEY do has all the answers and everyone must so things their way or suffer the consequences. Even when research shows that the reform methods don't work they are unwilling to change their approach. Charters are an excellent example of a movement that continues to be forced down out throats even though we have rejected the idea based on an overwhelming body of data that charters are not THE ANSWER.

Urban Legend
"My job is to find everything I can to support their development (regardless of where it came from) and make sure all the adults working with them believe in every single kid and do everything possible for success."

That's the hard, intimate work of education in a nutshell. Kids come as they are to school - we can't change their life at home - but we can give them the best education at school. And, as Trish, says "do everything" and not just one line of ed reform.

That's how we find common ground.
Anonymous said…
My problem with the reformers and groups that represent reform is that they make it political. Trish, you are not politicizing it. There's a big difference.

I wish we could go the way of community schools. We need to address the whole child. And I'd love to have more really good, authentic project-based teaching. Perhaps some of what you are doing could be spread to the creative approach notion. You might consider working with schools and our new superintendent to sort of curricularize your approach.

We need new ideas and the freedom to implement them. In my years of teaching, I've only seen old ideas tweaked and called "innovative." We need help at least to reach the kids who are failing.

Trying to think out of the box.

n...
Charlie Mas said…
The dichotomy between education reformers and education activists is a false dichotomy - unless you buy into it.

They certainly do, but that doesn't mean that you have to.

There is common ground - acres of it. That's where Ms Millines Dziko lives and works. That's where the kids are. That's where we all should try to be.

We all - Reformers and Activists - need to avoid the constraining orthodoxy that forces and enforces this false dichotomy. We should be more pragmatic than that.
Anonymous said…
Rather than sides, what I see here is empiricism and wisdom gained from experience in this community. I think it's crazy to buy into wholesale, radical changes in our schools brought to us mostly from the other 40 states with charters. I love being in the minority, rather than being jerked around like say, Chicago, NY, or DC, regardless of the fact that some good things are going on there.

We don't need radical change and turmoil like Rhee in DC, for example. We are a small enough community to improve and bring about our own changes, with scores of bright-minded people capable of implementing the needed improvements, if only the local Ed Reformers would help out, instead of trying to change everything to suit their views and agendas borrowed mostly from far away places.

As for working together, I do it everyday, with my kids, their teachers, our principals, and other parents throughout our schools, cluster and district. The incredible dedication of all is why I'm infuriated when I witness teachers being attacked and scapegoated by many Ed Reformers who've never walked a step in their shoes, let alone a mile.

A little respect and dignity go a long way. I deeply appreciate your recognition of that, Trish, and don't see you on one side or the other, but simply on the right track.

May empiricism reign supreme! WSDWG
Anonymous said…
"The whole Ed Reform model, especially of tying test results to teacher evaluations, etc. is wrong-headed and broken from the get-go"

But where did that idea come from? It came from "we the people". We voted for officials who tied high school graduation, and other benefits on students who got test scores. We tied "value" to test results. And by doing that, it is inevitable that teachers will be accountable to that thing we value. And make no mistake, we as citizens created that value. Would it be fair to hold students accountable to test results, but not teachers? No. It would be ridiculous. Next up: principals.

I like Dr. Royal's equating of "achievement gap" with anglo-norming. How true! There will always be an achieement gap if we insist on anglo-norming (or any other norminh). Afterall, if everyone succeeded, success would not be something we wanted!

Reader
Anonymous said…
But teachers do need to be evaluated and teachers who need help, get the help to improve, and ones who cannot improve, shoud be let go. The same goes for principals all the way to our top administrators. There should be protections for workers, but we still need to be accountable for the job we do and that we do it well. (Montgomery Co. SD in Maryland had a respected peer assistance and review process that begs replicating.)

It's not just this issue alone that is the brick wall for me. I'm pragmatic, I can be open to TFA if they come in with needed skills and the ability to learn and teach in places where teaches are hard to come by. I'm open to charters if they are run like Albert Shanker's charters (or to schools like TAF or the old TOPS). I'm ok with some cost-effective standardized testings as long thye're useful to teachers and kids and not used inappropriately.

I see that we do need district administration for large district such as SPS, but NOT the scelerotic, bloated one we have now where people command big salaries with big titles, but are inaccessbile to parents, teachers, and students. It's down right depressing when you see your brand new principal being blindsided by admin with last minute major changes and watching this person trying to navigate between implosion and staying professional. Or the whole transportation SNAFU. Or the difficult with SPS communications dept. Why do these things happen all the time? Yet there is little accountability from our past Superintendent or the board to demand better.

The brick wall is big. The hands from CRPE, Stands for Children et al. seems to be building an alternate wall compounding the problem. I was hoping otherwise, but these folks get bog down too and they are not very transparent either with their decision making and plans. Maybe it's because the people behind these groups often work in the same manner as the folks at SPS. At times, their methods in convening public meetings and the need to vett questions/people first just scream fear (fear of us, I think) and losing control. Some may have very good intentions, but it's also about the paycheck and the people they answer to that drives what gets done. Even the PTA seems to have gotten caught up in all this and appears to miss the community input part as it steps into the state political arena.

stuck
Anonymous said…
I saw an ad for A+Washington Schools on MSNBC last night. That must have cost some big bucks. First time I've seen an ad for any Washington ed group. Is A+ just Washington or is it national?

n

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