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By Kyle, December 19, 2011 2:18 pm

Aimee Mann – Calling on Mary

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Dear Santa,

First, I hope you appreciate the format change of this blog post. Rather than embedding links, I’ve referenced all the links at the bottom of this post. Hopefully easier reading, and more knowing what you’d like to explore. Thanks and happy reading!

Waiting For Superman director Davis Guggenheim characterized charter schools as incubators. “We can take those ideas and pull them into mainstream schools,” he explains in a 2010 NPR interview [1].

To a certain extent, we’re seeing some of that right now. LAUSD and our union, UTLA, recently came to an agreement (you can view both LAUSD’s take [2] and UTLA’s take [3] on this agreement). That this agreement is characterized by some as giving charter-like autonomies [4] to campuses speaks to the fact that some do actually believe in the charters-as-idea-incubators descriptor. It is to this end that the original charter schools were created and it is to this end that I am actually in support of charter schools.

Yet, while the original intent was likely noble, the surrounding policies have created incentives that, more often than not, result in competition rather than collaboration. Again, while initially noble in nature, policies like California State Prop 39 [5] and LAUSD’s Public School Choice [6] devolved into systems that incentivized both District schools and Charter schools to not collaborate, but rather act in their own self-interests when it came to things like enrollment, data, and rhetoric.

Fast forward to 2011: We’re in a state of being in which, as a firmly committed LAUSD teacher, my mere mention of anything but vilification of charter schools will cause some to question just how firm my commitment to the district actually is.

So Santa, for this Christmas, what I’d really like is forums and opportunities to actually work with charters to explore actual strategies that might help kids. Everything from how to best serve all kids [7], to school culture [8]. Everything should be on the table as we work together to teach our kids!

Links:

1. Davis Guggenheim’s NPR Interview
2. LAUSD’s take on Tentative Agreement
3. UTLA’s take on Tentative Agreement
4. Deasy’s Twitter account regarding charter-like autonomies
5. Daily News: Charters See Win in Court Ruling (Prop 39)
6. Youtube: Deasy on Public School Choice
7. Miami Herald: South Florida charter schools admit few special needs children
8. Hechinger Report: A look inside a successful charter school culture

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By Kyle, December 17, 2011 6:13 pm

The Kinks – Father Christmas

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Dear Santa,

Since I know you keep up on world events via periodical reading, I’m sure you saw the fascinating article appeared in the October 3 issue of The New Yorker, in which the author, a surgeon, noticed that his practice seemed to be stagnating after a number of successful years. He decided to hire a surgeon “coach” (himself a retired surgeon) to watch him perform his surgeries, and give him analysis and feedback based on what he saw.

This is exactly what I’d like for Christmas, Santa. You gave me a taste of this 8 years ago when, as a newbie teacher, I had one of my school’s assistant principals regularly in my classroom, regularly giving me feedback, and regularly offering me suggestions on not only ways to get better, but which other teachers I should observe in order to improve my teaching craft.

Nowadays, this simply doesn’t happen, and when schools do magically find funding for a coaching position, all too often, they are simply overrun with administrative tasks and thus unable to devote any real time to the duty they are charged with.

So Santa (Father Christmas), how about some real coaching. Or if pressed for time, one of these to at least give me a different (and potentially painful) perspective.

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By Kyle, December 14, 2011 9:28 pm

Twisted Sister – White Christmas

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I get it, Santa. Principals are swamped. And with this new round of California budget cuts, it looks as if principals will be more swamped than ever nowadays. The last thing on their plates should be a routine visitation of my classroom, or should it?

Now I’m not suggesting principals frequently stop by to check to see if I’m actually doing my job – I assure you, I am – but as the instructional leaders of the school, to help me hone my strengths and posit suggestions on how to improve my weaknesses.

Santa, as I’m sure you’re well aware, LAUSD has launched a new pilot program that is designed to overhaul the evaluation system, which includes a revamped observation protocol.

However, at present, the potential main pitfall of this new observation is that it doesn’t really address the main failing of the old observation protocol, namely, that principals simply didn’t have or didn’t take the time needed to conduct all these observations, and more importantly follow-up conversations regarding how to actually improve upon practice.

Santa, it’s been YEARS (I believe since the first administration of George W. Bush) since I’ve been observed in a manner that has actually given me feedback on my lessons, my planning, my delivery, and other aspects of my teaching.

So Santa, this Christmas, send some more folks to my classroom. And even feel free to stop by yourself. Cochran Middle School. Room 216. When you find the one with the aura of a dental waiting room, you’ll know you’re there.

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By Kyle, December 11, 2011 11:58 pm

Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime

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In all honesty, Santa, I had written this list for you several weeks ago, not realizing that you had already started granting my wishes. It seems as if the next item on my preconceived wish list is already in the works.

Santa, what I was merely hoping for was a process that was less political, more transparent, and based on, you guessed it, better data.

However, Santa, it looks as if you’ve gone far past my wish for tweaking the Public School Choice process and gone ahead and killed it. While I am open to the idea that the original intent behind PSC was likely a noble and perhaps even forward thinking one, the process quickly deteriorated away from instructional improvements and into political posturing. While a tweak may have worked, Santa, saying goodbye to PSC may not be a bad thing insofar as it gives our schools time to improve instruction and our district time to improve the ways of measuring and supporting instruction.

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By Kyle, December 9, 2011 5:18 pm

The Beach Boys – I’ll Be Home For Christmas

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Dear Santa: I apologize in advance for the wonkiness of the following item on my 2011 Christmas list.

So I’ve ranted plenty on this blog about the travesty that has been the manner in which education management organizations have analyzed data in recent years.

The good news is that at least our district is starting to take data a bit more seriously now. For example, up until last April, the only way to gauge a school’s performance was the results of the California Standardized Test results, which as everyone realized, but no one admitted, was largely a function of the incoming performance of the students at the schools.

In a vast, but far from perfect, improvement of data systems, LAUSD has begun having the value-added (LAUSD calls this Academic Growth Over Time, or AGT) conversation, which, despite its potential shortcomings, actually is the right conversation to be having. In a revolutionary affirming that there are non-school factors that influence student outcomes, the value-added conversation attempts to isolate school factors by controlling for these non-school factors (see below).

However, a more detailed reading of the LAUSD FAQ sheet reveals its own internal shortcomings, particularly in the way it fails to differentiate in the continuum of socio-economic status, and rather relies on the arbitrarily defined and broadly categorized partition of “Free or reduced lunch status”, as well as the potentially ignored data on peer-effects. The district does admit that more precise measures aren’t included because data for it cannot be gathered.

So if this is the status of things, then what better data could I possibly wish for?

Well Santa, if you’re listening, I’d like some fresh ideas on how to include better data in these measures, which might include new and innovative ways of measuring them. Unfortunately, the rhetoric of the district implies that these data metrics are not only solid, but are as good as we’ll ever get. This has resulted in posturing that wants to place an arbitrarily high weight on this portion of an individual teacher’s evaluation. My issue with allowing the AGT to initially have a 30% weight is that it assumes that this metric has no room for improvement. I highly doubt this. We are in right at the start of this discussion, and with time, the data metrics will be better, the applications will be more appropriate, and as a result, better data will be had. Until that day, however, the usage of AGT should start small, and then, with improvement, be given a greater weight.

So Santa, with this rant, I’m hoping for a bit of modesty among ed-policymakers. Please give them a bit of humility as they apply data metrics to our schools and our teachers, realizing that current data, while a good start, may be far from perfect. Santa, help them to make policy decisions that actually allow room for the improvement of the data metric.

So Santa, for Christmas this year, I’d like better data!

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By Kyle, December 5, 2011 5:03 pm

Sufjan Stevens – Christmas In the Room

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For all of the criticism unleashed upon the 2010 film Waiting For Superman, the filmmakers did manage to get a few things right, one of which was highlighting The Harlem Children’s Zone. While HCZ can be considered a school-system in the same vein as many charter schools across the country, what distinguishes them from their counterparts is that they have had an honest conversation about all of the factors that are influential towards towards students’ success, rather than simply the school-factors.

In a day and age where so often the two “sides” of the education reform debate simply lash out at each other in caricaturish villany. HCZ, while being far from a panacea, actually seeks to bridge this gap by saying first, that yes, family factors do play a HUGE role in student outcomes, but also that that is no excuse to do nothing. While HCZ does have schools, it also provides Baby-Parenting workshops, Toddler parenting classes, pre-kindergarten, as centralized access to local and community health services and initiatives.

So Santa, my next item on my list is this. Will you please community with local policy makers and school developers, that while the HCZ model surely shouldn’t be copied, the same ideas of connecting parent education, school systems, and health services absolutely should be part of the conversation here in Los Angeles, and then perhaps on a wider scale.

Until we’re able to finally provide a unified system that works with and for families, then we’ll be spending an inordinate amount of time, energy, and effort seeking to define where these false partitions should be drawn and which levels of blame responsibility should be chalked up to whom.

Is it family issues, or health issues, or schools that influence kids? The answer, according to HCZ, and hopefully according to LA, is a resounding “yes”.

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By Kyle, December 3, 2011 7:15 pm

RUN DMC – Christmas in Hollis

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Tip O’Neill had it right. All politics IS local. And here in Los Angeles, 7 of the most powerful folks, the LAUSD Board of Education, are consistently elected by less than 10% of voters.

These folks set budgets, determine teacher layoff numbers, authorize data systems, approve new schools, close schools, and even hire the superintendent. The effects of the decisions of these seven individuals ripple throughout the community of Los Angeles, for good or for ill.

So Santa, my next item on my Christmas list is that you’d please, please, please increase the voter turnout in out school board elections so that the folks really are serving a representation of the public they are charged with serving.

Now, I know, Santa, that you can’t change the will and attitude of the thousands upon thousands of folks who don’t show up in the elections for these local policy-makers, but in lieu of that ability, I offer up a series of actionable items you could (within your purview as Santa) take up to help this:

1. Stop with this madness of holding elections in March. Nobody votes in March. Always tie the school board elections to the larger elections as a whole, be it state or federal office.
2. A series of publically funded “Get out and vote” Public Service Announcements prior to school board elections. You could easily gather a coalition of folks who want to encourage voting.

I know, I know, Santa, this is a tough one. But I know you can do it. 

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By Kyle, November 28, 2011 9:28 pm

The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride (From “A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector)

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I fully realize that I instantly lose any moral high ground when my next Christmas song comes from a convicted murderer. However, despite killing The Beatles album, Let It Be, the wall of sound does, in fact, do ironic justice to the sounds of Christmas.

And that seems like a great way to begin my Education Wish List for 2011. So Santa, here goes:

First on my list (or last, depending on your theory of ordinal numbers) is my wish for LAUSD to end social promotion.

Santa, this wish has been on my list (and thus unfulfilled) for nearly 3 years. In case you’ve forgotten, students are socially promoted when those students, who have shown nearly no evidence of academic mastery of grade level-material are promoted to the next grade level anyway. This current practice is awful for a number of reasons. First, it may disincentivize (come on spell-check…”disincentivize” IS a word) students to perform well academically. Second, it hamstrings higher level classrooms where grade level material is increasingly difficult to teach due to the large numbers of students who have note mastered the prerequisites. Yes, they’re called “pre”-requisites for a reason. And third, and most importantly, the current system of social promotion flies in the face of the high expectations that teachers, schools, and families are trying to promote. It’s hard to say, “I expect you to work hard so you can do well in 8th grade”, but then "if you don’t, you can go there anyway.

Now Santa, you may be hesitant to end social promotion like I’d like you to. I know you may have read research that suggests that retaining students does little to improve their outcomes, or worry that district-wide ending of social promotion might not even be feasible.

I understand completely, Santa, and to help you out a little bit, I’ll suggest the following steps to ensure that this Christmas wish list can be actually fulfilled.

Step 1: Do not actually end social promotion district wide next year. Rather, end social promotion for all kindergarten. Then the following year, end social promotion for kindergarten and first grade. Then, the following year, end social promotion for K-2, and so on, and so on. Manageable? Absolutely.

Step 2: As research suggests, do not merely retain failing kindergarteners next year. Rather, identify them early, and in the process of retention, provide them with additional learning options and opportunities (be it intervention courses, parent workshops, or additional supports even in elementary school).

Santa, these two steps are totally manageable, and I know they can be done. So please grant my first Christmas wish. I’ve been good.

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By Kyle, November 26, 2011 12:31 pm

Low – Just Like Christmas

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Two days after Thanksgiving, one day after Black Friday, one day before the start of Advent and we’re now definitely into the “Christmas season”. When I was a child, I would usually take the post-Thanksgiving weekend to compose a fairly elaborate Christmas “wish list” which I hoped would conveniently find it’s way to my parents through your favorite middleman and mine, Santa Claus.

It’s in that same spirit, I’ll be brining you my 2011 Education Wish List, which, over the next month, will bring you 10 things that I would love to see happen in the “education world” (I can actually promise 10, I’ve got drafts already!).

So, Santa, instead of getting me a wool scarf or some snow pants (if you haven’t been paying attention to where I live), if you could manage one of the forthcoming gifts from my education wish list, I promise to make my way to the “nice” list next year.

Oh yes, and did I forget to mention that I get to share some of my favorite Christmas music along the way? So stay tuned for the first installment coming this Tuesday.

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By Kyle, November 20, 2011 4:04 pm

Jon Brion – Play the Game

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Once again, Howard Blume shows us in this YouTube video summary that yes, the media can, in fact, actually report education issues in a civilized and rational manner. His reasonableness applies not only to issues that are generally agreed upon by all (for example, more funding would definitely be a good thing), but also more contentious issues (such as charter schools – fast forward to about 1:20 to see).

Unfortunately, this method of reporting seems to be in the minority, as his colleagues have at times given up on taking nuanced positions in favor of headline-grabbing declarations, such as today’s “Teachers who just don’t care”. While I can empathize with the op-ed author’s frustration, expressing it in such virulent language does absolutely nothing to either inform or progress the conversation in a way than anyone desires.

And after being unsatisfied with the damage done after publishing their own value-added data rankings of LAUSD elementary teachers (see “Ratings, again” about halfway down the page), it looks as if some of the editors at the Times may now be trying to do the same using the district’s own value-added metric, which is designed to be confidential between teachers and principals (click to download our superintendent’s response).

Nice.

While this move may sell some more newspapers (though I doubt why, given the newspaper industry’s brilliantly astigmatic decision to give all their content away for free online), it will do nothing to further the discussion in a meaningful way, but rather will only undercut and further polarize what it is that the district (perhaps galvanized by the Times’ first exposé into teacher rankings) is actually hoping to do.

Apparently, some folks need to have their cake, eat it too, and then vomit it all over the room.