Seattle Schools Community Forum

The first comes from an interview in the American Psychological Association with psychologist Daniel Willingham, PhD who has a new book coming out called, "Raising Readers in the Age of Distraction." The interview, though, was about education and teachers and what works.  I do not think that anything he says will come as ANY surprise to teachers. I find it all basic, reasonable and, as he says, common sense.  The truth is that most teachers in my experience really have a lot of common sense. There are ideas that are peddled to them that are wrong, but most teachers are pretty skeptical of them. They're in the classroom every day, so they have a sense of what works and what doesn't work with kids. On evidence-based techniques for the classroom: One reason is that what works in the lab doesn't always work in the classroom. In the laboratory, we're typically looking at one or two variables at a time, whereas in the classroom, there are lots of variab...

Pasi Sahlberg  of Finland wrote a lengthy and compelling piece for the Washington Post's The Answer Sheet.  He calmly and rationally explains why he thinks what is happening in the U.S. won't work.  (To note, he does not address charter schools or Common Core.)  He is talking, very specifically, about teachers and teaching.  In a short bite, he says: First, standardization should focus more on teacher education and less on teaching and learning in schools. Singapore, Canada and Finland all set high standards for their teacher-preparation programs in academic universities. There is no Teach for Finland or other alternative pathways into teaching that wouldn’t include thoroughly studying theories of pedagogy and undergo clinical practice. Second, the toxic use of accountability for schools should be abandoned. Current practices in many countries that judge the quality of teachers by counting their students’ measured achievement only is in many ways...

From Ed Week : Student feedback, test-score growth calculations, and observations of practice appear to pick up different but complementary information that, combined, can provide a balanced and accurate picture of teacher performance, according to research released today by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.   The $45 million study, in progress since 2009, is one of the largest and most extensive research projects ever undertaken on the question of how to identify and measure high-quality teaching. It involved some 3,000 teachers in six districts: Charlotte-Mecklenberg, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsboro County, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.; and New York City.  To the amazement of all:   Basing more than half a teacher’s evaluation on test-score-based measures of student achievement seemed to compromise it, the researchers also found.  Another piece suggests that teachers should be observed by more than one person to ensure that observations are reliable. ...

From the thread, Drawing Lines in the Sand , below is this heartfelt plea from a teacher.   I sometimes give these teacher thoughts their own thread, not so much for comments, but so we can all hear what it is like from the front lines.   (I have teased it out, line by line, to maximize the impact and realities of what teachers face.)  I have been teaching for 6 years. Last year and this year have been the toughest years of my short career by far. I have bigger classes, less support, and more district bull to deal with.  I spent countless hours last year battling badly designed alignment plans.  This year I have been told to raise my expectations to close the achievement gap as if I have not had high expectations for my students to begin with. As if raising my expectations more will make my students magically rise to that expectation. A mentality that conveniently disregards the need for boots on the ground support in schools. I ca...

A reader had asked Charlie about his plan to close the achievement gap.  He had replied that he has made suggestions in the past but that is the Superintendent's and Board's jobs to find a plan.  So far what we are doing is not working in any visible way.  I believe that the newly-constituted Board may have some new ideas. But this teacher also had some other thoughts and I applaud him/her for it because (1) in Finland, they have much more planning and collaboration time among teachers to great results, (2) I have been saying for a long time that no one experiences the kind of constant change at work that teachers do - it must be terribly frustrating and (3) more testing means teachers have less flexibility even as they may know students who may be rushed through curriculum. Maybe more planning time for teachers instead of the PLC, collaboration, team, staff and God knows what other meetings that we are required to attend. How about sustaining a curriculum beyond ...

That's the question that Thomas Friedman asks in the NY Times this week.    The reason he brings it up is a recent study by PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) which is the testing group for 15-years around the world on math, science and reading skills.  It's the testing used to compare countries' education systems. PISA was encouraged by OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) to go beyond testing and look at what is happening in the home.  They looked at about 20 countries and parents of 5,000 students in those countries.  They then compared that information with test results and published these three findings. “Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all." "On average, the score difference is 25 points, the equivalent of well over half a ...

From the Grand Rapids, Michigan Press, comes a story about Arne Duncan and what he thinks should happen for teachers and teacher training: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says teachers should be paid between $60,000 to $150,000 – but should be held more accountable. Duncan also told the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards last week that it should be more difficult for prospective students to enter college teacher preparation programs. The latter sentence is part of a bigger discussion over whether colleges of education in this country do a good job of attracting good students and if they are training them properly.   Indeed, a big worry expressed among some UW COE faculty about bringing in TFA is that if the COE doesn't step up and do better they could be shut down.   Some of the UW COE faculty seem to think the TFA training may be the training of the future for teachers.  

 Update:   I originally thought this was from a teacher but it is from a parent .  My apologies Below is a post from a parent, "No Confidence," from another thread but I read it and said bingo!  (Emphasis mine.) I think that the first change that could make some difference would be for teacher & administrators to understand the limits of their abilities to assess. At least the teacher could say, Sally is learning differently than many other kids I see and we don't know why. Johnny is refusing to do writing assignments and we don't know why. Next I think that PD should include training about learning & developmental differences, with case studies , to the extent that at least teacher are familiar with the possibilities. (I have spoken with so many SPS teachers & administrators who believe that twice exceptional kids don't exist.) There are signs to look for. I also think that there should be some staff members who develop expertis...

What is happening in our country? In Wisconsin it has gotten really ugly.  The governor there is determined to make his point and, I guess, show himself to be some kind of GOP superstar.  The teachers have agreed to take big cuts in their health care as the Governor wants.  Not enough.  If collective bargaining is the problem, Governor, why single out teachers?  Why not police or firefighters or state troopers?  Oh right, they supported your campaign and teachers didn't.  (Luckily some of those groups have come to their senses because if you break one union, then buddy, yours is next.) Honestly, let's set aside whether we think unions are a good idea or have morphed into self-serving adult groups who are totally selfish.  Let's talk fairness. It was one thing when teachers were named as the number one reason that some think education in our country is failing (it's not).  It's another thing when teachers' contracts are named as the ...

We have to stay positive so I want to hear some good news, big or small, from your corner of the district. First up, Chief Sealth's boys basketball team is rolling on at the state championships. To that end, a great story on their inspirational coach, Colin Slingsby, from the Times' Steve Kelley. Just like all great coaches, it's not just about what happens on the court. Here's a guy who wants to be a teacher: When Slingsby began his coaching career at Sealth, he worked the night shift at United Parcel Service, punching the clock from 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. He also went to school, an undergraduate at Washington before getting his master's degree at Seattle University. "He's a new age, old-school coach. A retro Father Flanagan," assistant coach Greg Kalina said. "A lot of coaches profess to do it, but he walks the walk 10 stories higher than I've ever seen anybody else do it." Of the 40 players who have stayed in his program since he ...

I know that the most important thing going on right now is all of the day lighting of the incompetent and criminal behavior going on at the John Stanford Center for Education Excellence. Please don't let up on this until every rock has been overturned. However, Cliff Mass wrote an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times that was published on Friday about the possibility that Washington may adopt the Common Core national standards. This would be a major tragedy for our students, especially in mathematics. Now I freely admit that I do not like the books that I have been saddled with to teach Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, but I do have to say that the new standards are excellent and I see no reason to do anything to them. To adopt the Common Core would be a step backward, as they are not as rigorous as out current standards and are hard to understand. Please remember as we send the current top administration down the road, the idea is to educate children and prepare them for the future. Please do...

From The Pitch Room at PBS: We want to hear more ideas. If you’re an educator and you have one practical idea that can be implemented in a classroom to help students, then take part in our Education Ideas project. Upload a video that discusses your idea to our YouTube channel, and we’ll pick some of the best ones to showcase on our website, and possibly our national broadcast. Here’s how to do it: 1. Use a digital camera or video recorder to make a video that discusses your idea. Please don’t use any copyrighted content or images of students without parental consent! 2. Log in to your YouTube account (if you don’t have one, you can create one here ) and upload your video. 2. Go to the Need to Know Education Ideas video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeN7MFVnmg 3. Click on the comments field. A button should appear that says “Attach a response video.” Follow the instructions from there. Looking for inspiration? Take a look at some of the ideas that have already been su...

I didn't want to let this day go by without acknowledging the date. It is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. More American schoolchildren probably watched that launch (or knew about it) than most any other. That was because of schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe. It was probably one of the hardest days ever for many teachers who had lessons planned around the launch. Ms. McAuliffe had been selected from more than 11,000 applicants and was scheduled to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Challenger. She was a high school social studies teacher in Concord, N.H. President Reagan said that he hoped sending a teacher into space would remind Americans of the important role of teaching and education for our country. At least 40 schools around the world were named after her. Her daughter, Caroline, went on to become a teacher. Her backup, Barbara Morgan, became a professional astronaut. She was the first teacher to successfully reach space (21 years after...

The Huffington Post has a whole education section and,as well, many guest bloggers. One of these is "freelance writer, humorist and educator, Brock Cohen, who wrote a funny, biting assessment of ed reform called " The Fairy Tale of School Reform ." He has a section called " Once Upon a time... " that starts like this: There lived a group of altruists known as the public school reformists . These munificent spirits selflessly set aside their unfathomably important lives in addressing such a dire issue. What this rarefied collection of heaven-sent do-gooders lacked in basic knowledge of classroom pedagogy and actual firsthand contact with nanny-less human schoolchildren, they more than compensated for in name recognition; soaring rhetoric; and the blind, unwavering conviction that nothing less than a systemic upheaval of the current school system could salvage public education. Yup, that's pretty much the story. Here's his second part , "...

We had a thread about pay for K that got into an interesting discussion about the length of day for a kindergarten and then, what they should be doing in that day. I think one of the issues is that the role of kindergarten has evolved. We started having longer days (because parents either thought their child should be learning more and/or wanted to have someplace for them to be while the parents were at work). But I'm not sure that evolution had a huge discussion following it. Another issue, that I vividly remember from my own experience with putting my sons into kindergarten is the wide range of abilities coming in the door. You had kids who could already read and you had kids that couldn't name colors. For a kindergarten teacher, that's a huge range of ability that he or she is supposed to bridge. Some of the kids have been in daycare/pre-school where it may have been babysitting or it may have gone from child care to introduction of ideas/concepts. So along comes th...

I saw this Washington Post article and thought it interesting. The premise is that some teachers are using sign language to communicate with students who need permission to go to the bathroom, get water, sharpen a pencil, etc. In that way, they can see the signal from the student and give back a yes or no signal without interrupting the lesson. From the article: "The very first year I taught, I realized how much time I was wasting in my classroom for my students to be constantly raising their hands," said Fran Nadel, 25, a second-grade teacher at Woodburn School for the Fine and Communicative Arts in Falls Church, Va. "I realized if they could do this without talking, I could send them somewhere with a flick of my finger." "On a recent morning, Nadel huddled with a reading group of four students while the rest of her students worked independently at their seats. Every so often, a hand would shoot up from the back of the room. Nadel would respond almost impe...