School Reform through the Eyes of Albus Dumbledore

"No spell can reawaken the dead, Harry. I trust you know that. Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." - Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I can't help but think of this quote when it comes to education reform, so I'm going to list how things are done the right way and how things are done the easy way in various realms of education.

Implementing Change in a School District
The Easy Way: Write a policy
The Right Way: Have your buildings/staff make the necessary changes they need to help students learn

Technology Integration
The Easy Way: Buy some Smartboards and show the community our commitment to technology
The Right Way: Invest in technology that changes a teaching practice, not technology that isn't much different from an overhead projector

Community Relations
The Easy Way: Cave to whatever demands are placed upon you by the community, tell them you'll do everything they want
The Right Way: Stand up for something and explain to the community how it benefits your district, even if it means spending some money

Instruction
The Easy Way: Hand out some worksheets from a textbook manual and have students follow and copy down what you've done
The Right Way: Find out what each learner needs, and provide them with as much support for those needs as you can

School Structure
The Easy Way: Force all students to assimilate in to one model of what a school is
The Right Way: Provide students with several different options to attend school (brick and mortar, cyber, blended, etc) and have them choose which one works best for them

Grading
The Easy Way: Give points, then slowly and methodically remove them for each successive mistake a student makes. 
The Right Way: Have a list of things that a student does well, and some things they must improve upon.  Constantly revise and add to this list throughout the year.

Grading II
The Easy Way: Use a formula to calculate some type of average to summarize what a student can do.
The Right Way: Students have portfolios, that you can go through and look at to see their strengths, weaknesses, and interests. 

Personnel
The Easy Way: Make decisions based upon tenure/seniority/contract status
The Right Way: Make decisions based upon who is best for your district

Why Schools Do Not Innovate

This post is in response to Scott Swindells' post of "Where's the Innovation?".

A recent blog post by Seth Godin really resonated with me as to a school district's reluctance to innovate.  He writes:

It's impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can't have heads without tails.

Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that.

You can't have success unless you're prepared to have failure.

As soon as you say, "failure is not an option," you've just said, "innovation is not an option."

This is precisely why most schools systems are institutes of non-innovation. Innovation within a school system(okay, within all systems) frequently involves money.  A district doesn't want any money they spend to result in a failure, since taxpayers demand a constant "positive return on investment" (that phrase mixed with education makes me cringe, so I'll only use it once).  Nobody wants to anger our taxpayers by spending money on something that fails.  

This is the failure is not an option approach.

Who decides what kids should learn?

Stop me if you've heard these before...
"Kids these days can't do simple math without a calculator!"
"Kids these days can't write well at all!"
"Kids these days are lazy!"

So what?  What gives you the right to tell students today what they should learn?  You've never met my students, so in my view you have zero authority to tell them what they should be learning.  On the flip side, if you've never met my students, why is it okay to tell them what they don't need? (as you begin making those budget cuts to eliminate foreign languages and the arts)

Ultimately our kids should have the freedom to learn whatever they want.  There should be no reason that every student should have to take Algebra II before they graduate high school.  If they're interested in it or would like to try mathematics, then go for it.  If they have an interest in art, why would we then tell them that they can only take one art course this semester since they have to take 6 other subjects they don't care about?

Imagine if we required every student to take a painting and drawing class every year from 7th grade to 12th grade.  Why does that sound so blasphemous, yet we can easily require them to take a math class (or two) every year from 7th grade to 12th grade?

Don't get me wrong, I see the great benefits in students taking any mathematics courses.  I'm a math teacher.  I want kids to discover their own interest in learning mathematics on their own schedule, not on some mandated timetable. 

How does change happen?

First of all, check out the new blog format.

Second of all, today we played the Making Change for School Improvement game with the fellow Montgomery County instructional coaches and it was awesome.  Our group successfully moved every teacher to becoming a routine user, but ran out of money to perform a complete curriculum revamp. .  Amazingly, we still had plenty of funding to give our kids standardized tests (kidding).

What I left my meeting with today is that I don't talk to nearly enough people in our district.  I have a great rapport with our teachers.  I am friendly with our administrators.  It's REALLY hard to have a conversation about things that need to change with administrators though.  As a whole, I feel like preservation of the status quo can sometimes be more important to them.  Or, the need for change is viewed as such a huge problem that mere mortals are powerless to do anything about it.

It's become necessary for me to provide data at every waking moment to support what we're doing as instructional coaches.  I'm the one responsible for providing it, when there's a real easy way to collect that data.

If you want to see the effect that an instructional coach is having, GO INTO A CLASSROOM  and see.  Look at what is happening in the classroom first, then decide what additional data (if any) that you need.  As a statistics teacher, my recommendation is to gather data to assist in making an informed decision.  Please try to avoid gathering data to support an argument for/against.  It turns litigious and confrontational.

I had the pleasure of speaking with @kenrodoff about how his administrative team walked through classrooms for 6 hours as part of an ISTE site visit and was amazed at what was happening with technology. Hopefully this leads to a continued and improved support for instructional technology within their district.  Honestly, I have no doubt about it.

My classroom door is wide open for anyone that would like to visit.  My students and I would love to share what we're doing with you.  I have no reservations and I don't get scared when an administrator walks in to my room.  I want you to come in.  I want to share.  I want to be seen because I believe what I'm doing is in my student's best interest.  I am proud of the fact that what happens in my classroom is different than every other classroom in the district.  I have no idea how well my students will do on an AP Exam, in fact, I don't really care.  I care that my students are producing something they genuinely care about and are interested in.

Here's some of the great things happening:
Probability presented through Penalty Kicks
Binomial vs Geometric Probability: A Jimmer Fredette Example
Experimental Design: Pokemon and Smash Bros

PA Education Budget...Am I reading this correctly?

To all my fellow educators in PA, readers in PA, and educators nationwide, please visit the link below and open the Excel file.

PA Dept of Education Budget

Check out line 10, the line for "PA Assessment".  Yes, that 36, 590 is in thousands.

Compare with line 9, the line for "Information and Technology Improvement".  4,266.

Pick jaw up off floor.

A statewide system of standardized testing is costing us $36, 590,000, yet they are calling for teacher layoffs?

Am I reading this correctly?  Please tell me if you have a different interpretation. If I am reading this correctly, then every person in the state of PA needs to see this.

Big props to Scott (Tuesday's With Swindy) for pointing me towards this.

What defines "failure" in education?

This week is state testing week in our school district.  Watching these kids go through this procedure, I can't help but feel bad for them.  This is what their schooling career comes down to, in the eyes of the people giving out money and deciding whether or not they are a part of a failing school.  Read that last sentence again.  Really?

So you're telling me if the students in my class decide they want to solve the world hunger crisis using what they're learning and what they know, this won't be factored in to the final decision as to whether or not they fail? What if we decide to use our knowledge to assist those in need in Japan?  Just how much of an impact do we need to make before this is acknowledged before test scores?

Those two outcomes get us a nice article in the newspaper, but we could still be considered "failures" without the right test scores.  How is this right?  How does it change?

Know What's Wrong With Kids These Days...

Absolutely nothing. 

A 16 year old will never rarely act like a 30 year old.  Especially when surrounded with 1000 other 16 year-olds.  

They're teenagers, so why do we expect that they'd be studious individuals that devote 4 hours per night to studying for our tests (I've stopped giving tests to eliminate this ridiculous expectation). Did any if us actually spend hours upon hours of studying?  In high school? In college even?  Also, does anyone actually sit and show students how to study/prepare for one of our tests?  Then why do we expect them to be studying experts? 

 

When a student gets a 40 percent on a test, the first conclusion is that they didn't study hard enough.  The second conclusion is that they haven't been working hard enough.  These are easy conclusions to make, and maybe that's why we jump to them so quickly. Blaming the student for acting like a teenager is much easier than being responsible for making that student better.

It's hard to say that a student hasn't learned the material completely and they may need to spend some more time learning it.  So many would think that when we say this, it implies that we have "failed" as teachers.  You know, 'cause it's easy to provide instruction that leads to 100 percent mastery for all of the unique learners in our room .  We have to expect that not everyone is going to learn things the same way in the same amount of time.  This teaching game would be way too easy if there was a fail-safe method to get all students to the exact same level of mastery of a skill, in the exact same amount of time.  When we think we've failed or are failing, that's when we tend to blame others.

Bottom line: blaming is easy, much easier than accepting a portion of the responsibility for something. When we blame kids for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out. When we blame teachers for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out. When we blame parents for the problems in our classroom, we take the easy way out. When we blame politicians for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out.  When we blame administrators for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out.  When we blame lack of funding for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out.  When we blame unions for the problems in our classroom, we're taking the easy way out.  Throwing each other under the bus only results in having all the people we need help from being under a bus, and leaves us standing alone on the sidelines.

The calls for accountability really need to stop, so we can start acknowledging that we all share the responsibility for students learning. Real reform will occur once we start thinking about how students learn, and agreeing to collectively share responsibility for educating our students.  Pseudo-reform is going on when we start playing the blame game.  

Reading through state standards(PA), going "mental"

I am spending my snow day planning for a presentation on technology integrated K-6 math instruction.  The focus of my session is on generating student inquiry and keeping technology completely transparent.  I am keeping this presentation aligned to state standards and vision, and doing so makes me very uncomfortable.  These standards/essential questions/competencies seem to all center around being able to generate a correct answer for a test.  This elementary math curriculum framework can be found at the Pennsylvania Standards Aligned System Website.  Here's a few phrases I don't particularly care for:

Taken from the 2nd Grade Mathematics list of Big Ideas and Essential Questions:
1.  "How do we know when it is appropriate to estimate or when it is appropriate to use mental math for an exact answer?"
The person that included the phrase "mental math" is clueless in the area of mathematics.  Estimation and approximation are (in my view) much more "mental" than development of an "exact" answer, yet they are projected here as completely non-cerebral tasks.

2.  "Develop extended understanding of multiple models, and properties of addition and subtraction, leading to fluency with efficient, accurate and generalizable methods to add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers and develop quick recall of addition and related subtraction facts. Select and apply appropriate methods to estimate sums and differences or to calculate them mentally."
Again, here they reference calculation as being done "mentally" and estimation as something that's done as an alternative to thinking.  I also don't like the use of the words "efficient" and "quick recall" as they imply that the student that adds two numbers in 10 seconds is somehow better than a student that adds two numbers in 10 minutes.

As we move towards common core standards and the like, is this the language that is to be used?  If so, mathematics instruction will never be more than an instruction of process.  A focus on efficiency over a focus on an understanding of mathematics keeps us at this procedural level.  Maintaining that estimation is done non-mentally, now we're completely missing the boat.  Right answers are not the most important part of learning mathematics.  Isn't it time we start asking our students to experiment and create in their math classes, instead of simply generate the same right answer that 25 other classmates generated?

The "Achievement Gap"

I'm curious as to what educators would define as "Achievement".  One of our building goals is in line with increasing student achievement.  Just what is achievement?

We can define student achievement as making sure that we have less students failing this year than we've had before.  Also, we can look at the number of students that have earned straight A's and compare it with last year.  These would all potentially show increased levels of student achievement, thus, our building has met its goal, and we can proceed with business as usual.  If I go into my Gradebook tomorrow and change all the C's to A's, I have generated an amazing level of student achievement.

Schools becoming all about achievement undermines them as institutions of learning.  Is this a result of the demand placed on schools (by stakeholders) for some type of result that justifies the increased contribution of resources?  By demanding accountability and results, we aren't demanding higher levels of thinking and learning.

I'm in a school for at least 7.5 hours each day, approximately 180 days a year.  I NEVER hear a discussion about learning.

Changed My Classroom By Changing My Seat / Insert Catchy Title Here

Recently, I have moved where I work during class from the front and center of the room to the back center of the room where my desk is right next to a student's desk.  This was inspired by a few conversations I've had with students who went on exchange programs to France where I was curious to see how classrooms were set up in France.  Over the course of those two months, I have witnessed amazing changes within my classroom, more importantly amazing changes in my student perception.

Why did I move my desk?  I felt I was using the interactive whiteboard too much and that students should use  it more than me.  I felt like I was telling them what to do, rather than having them do.  I moved because teachers have been standing front and center for 50 years and I wanted to be different.  I  wanted to give my students more control of my classroom.  I had a curiosity about what would happen if I did this, and what types of changes would I see.

The most major change has been their perception of the classroom.  They've realized that it's about them, and hopefully by me being as far away from the front of the room as possible, they have gathered that I'm next to them acting as an investigator.  A great example of this is from my Calculus class where I assigned a project in which students had to use a piece of posterboard(they were all different dimensions) to create a box with the maximum possible volume.  Not only were they having a unique experience with the concept of optimization, but there was so much more in the realm of basic skill that they were doing.  Some students determined that they need to remove squares of size 6.43 from each corner of their board....so where do they find 43/100 on a standard ruler?  The amazing conversation and comparison of strategies that resulted was completely unexpected by me.  It wouldn't have happened if the students didn't feel empowered to have those conversations. 

A classroom run mostly by students has created a completely different challenge for me as an educator.  I never give a thought to the amount of work that I will distribute or which examples I will show.  I give most of my thought to what will create a good conversation and what will lead them to the skills I'm trying to develop.  Then, WE(me and the students) can develop a few examples and see if our generalizations are correct or need adjustment. 

When students are comfortable in this environment (after they've learned a different set of rules for maintaining the environment) they purpose themselves in whatever way suits them.  There's something great about providing your students with several different options that can all be unique to them, and watching them choose and interact with course content that way.  They may only do 2 or 3 "math problems" in the course of a day, but the learning experience is of such higher quality than cranking out 50 derivatives. 

Students are very capable of running a classroom and taking responsibility for their own learning, so give up control of your classroom and see what happens....

Thanks to MrsBMG for inspiring this post.

Money Trees - An Attempt at Reform

My goal is to "reform" the trees in the back of my house to become money trees. They are currently not growing money, but I would like them to start doing so in the near future. I have outlined two proposals and would appreciate some commentary as to the appropriateness of each proposal.

Proposal 1
I will begin by mandating that the trees produce money. Branches that are not growing money must be removed, since they are not meeting what is mandated. Each day I will step outside, and any branch without as much as a $1 bill on it would be pruned and discarded. The trees should eventually "reform" and provide the money that I have been requiring of them.  If they have not "reformed", they will be cut down so that another tree can have the opportunity to form into a money tree.

Proposal 2
I will research the task of growing money on trees. I will see if in fact trees can be changed to grow $1 bills, and follow all necessary steps to make sure I am "reforming" my trees into money trees. If it calls for planting coins/dollars at the base of each tree, then I will do that. If it calls for water every day and moderate sunlight, that is what they will receive. If in fact the trees do not produce money after this, an evaluation will need to occur. Do I continue my "reform" efforts? Do I seek an alternative method of "reform"? Shall I work on a new and innovative approach towards creating money trees? Do I cut down the trees at the end that are not money trees, or should I allow them to continue existence and let them serve a different purpose?

Which one of these proposals is the appropriate way at achieving the impossible task of creating money trees?  Are there alternatives to these approaches?