Holst – Jupiter (The Planets)

It’s been two weeks since I last posted on my blog, and in my absence here, I’ve been pretty active on Twitter.

Unfortunately, 140 characters sometimes isn’t enough to explore a thought very thoroughly. In that vein, I am offering a preview of a new blog series I’ll be beginning later this week.

So what’s the series? This series will be called “The Observer Effect”, and while I don’t want to give too much of it away, a simple search on Wikipedia will lead to the revelation that The Observer Effect refers to a principal in quantum physics. I’ll then proceed to connect it with, yep, you guessed it, education policy.

What?! “Quantum physics”?! You’re kind of out of your league here. Yes, I know, but I love seeing connections between education policy and seemingly disparate worlds. (Plus, it’s not necessary to really understand the physics at all. I certainly don’t).

So why write a series? Why not just a post? Two reasons. First, if it were a single post, it would be FAR too long. The best arguments, I’ve found, are the ones that are developed over pages, not over paragraphs. Second, and probably more profoundly, writing actually helps me think, and figure out what I believe about certain issues. So while I have a general in-place framework for what this series will consist of, I’m still teasing out some of the details.

Fantastic. I look forward to reading your new series. And, by the way, isn’t it kind of weird talking to yourself like this? It certainly is. Now go away.

Be sure to subscribe to keep abreast of all the latest happenings in this blog. (If you’re not into education policy, I apologize in advance….sorry, Jenna). In the mean-time, feel free to check out my other Blog Series’ from days of yore.

• All I Want for Christmas: My 2011 Education Wishlist
• A New Vocabulary: Why the Phrase “High Performing School” Must Simply Go
• Charter Schools vs. District Schools
• A Response to the LA Times “Grading the Teachers”

Yesterday, education blogger Alexander Russo posed a question which I too had been curious about:

To summarize: What on earth should we be calling the education reform critics, especially when those they’re critiquing have been referred to de facto as “the reformers”?

Reformers such as Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, and Arnie Duncan have drawn criticism by a group composed of such folks as Diane Ravitch, John Thompson, and Valerie Strauss. [Note: A decent summary of this debate can be found here, for those unfamiliar with what exactly all this rhetoric is about].

As the Ravitch/Thompson/Strauss types have rallied against the specific strategies used by these “reformers”, bloggers such as Russo (and myself) have struggled to collectively refer to this group of those who oppose “the reformers” with a simple, memorable name. Unfortunately, the best that seems to have been done so far in describing the position of these folks is that of “anti-reform”, giving them the dubious status of being “anti-reformers”. 

The problem with the term “anti-reformers” is that is implies that these folks are simply for the status quo. This could not be further from the truth. In my reading of their insights, these folks do want education reform, but of a very different type than that espoused by the a priori-named “reformers” such as Rhee/Kopp/Duncan.

So, in response to the lack of a good collective term for the “anti-reformers”, I propose that they start calling themselves the “counter-reformers”.

So why does the name “counter-reformers” work?

First, the term “counter” indicates that these folks are, in fact, generally opposed to the strategies espoused by the reformers. As we saw this fall with the Occupy movement, identifying a common “enemy” can be a galvanizing move. “Counter-reformers” are clearly, by their name, against something.

Second, the inclusion of the word “reform” indicates that, while their movement may have started in opposition to something, these folks are definitely not for merely keeping the status quo. “Counter-reformers” do want education reform, but they want reform on the terms that they believe are best for students, families, and communities (in fairness, the “reformers” would say the same thing).

A final consideration for “counter-reformers” gauging whether to self-adopt this term is the potential for its staying power. Simply put, is the term sticky enough to be repeated in public space to the extent that its mere mention will conjure up the ideals and beliefs of its individuals?

To answer this question, I turn back the clock nearly 500 years, when another institution with hugely problematic and corrupt policies and practices underwent its own insurrection from a group of “reformers”, namely Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, who broke away from the Catholic Church and formed their own protest movement, the “Protestants”. What’s key here is that, in response, the Catholic Church essentially said, “yes, we’ve got some issues, but the way these protestants are dealing with them is completely wrong”. So in response, the Catholics launched the “Counter-reformation”, which sought (and generally did) reform many of the corrupt practices within the church without the divisive split which the protestants sparked.

While that’s probably as far as we should take the naming analogy, it’s of interest to note that the term “Counter-Reformation” is still taught in modern history books, and thus still is a term which both quickly and easily identifies to its modern hearers the content and owners of the practices and policies it refers to.

I think that the Ravitches, Thompsons, and Strausses of the world would do well to re-appropriate this term for themselves in the ever-growing rhetorical gap among education reform advocates today.

John & Yoko – Happy X-mas (War is Over)

Dear Santa,

Tomorrow is Christmas! And with it, I’m wrapping up with this last item on my 2011 Educational Wishlist. If you can’t recall (or have misplaced) all 10 so far, be sure to check the list below.

So Santa, what’d I’d really, really, really like this Christmas is a paradigm shift. Unfortunately, there do seem to be two “sides” in this debate, without much room for a more thoughtful and nuanced middle ground.

So Santa, my last item on my Christmas list is for me. Santa, give me the gift of patience. Give me the gift of not assuming malicious intentions of any education writers, bloggers, policymakers. Give me the gift of being able to challenge ideas that are wrong without resorting to vilification.

So Santa, just to recap, here’s my list one more time. Everything I want in 2011!

1. Rhetorical Nuance
2. Local Examples of Schools that Successfully Engage Families
3. District/Charter Collaboration
4. Real Coaching
5. More Classroom Visitations
6. A Revised Public School Choice
7. Better Data
8. Wrap-around Family Services
9. Increased Voter Turnout
10. End Social Promotion

The Who – Christmas

We’re almost there, Santa!

The recent personal event of having another nephew being born yesterday highlights, once again, the critical role that parents and families play in the education of their children.

While school districts¹, reform advocates², parent groups³, and unions⁴ all seem to agree on the importance of “parent engagement”, the sad truth is that every single initiative I’ve encountered from these groups has been a top-down strategy that, in the end, is either too specific to apply to an individual school like mine, or too vague to be any use at all.

For example, in LAUSD, we now have a whole division dedicated to family engagement. Led by former director of the non-profit Families in Schools⁵, the LAUSD Families⁶ office has begun its work in earnest. But what exactly are they doing? Well, they’ve written a document called Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities⁷(a document which no one at my school seems to know exists), and developed a poll (as of now about 700 parents have responded to it, which is in the range of one- to two-tenths of a percent of my estimate of the number of parents in LAUSD). Clicking on the “School Resources” link gives very few actionable steps to take at my school, and the “Parent Resources” link is even more dismal – “Hey parents! Click here and download a giant PDF of the LAUSD Parent handbook”.

Look, Santa. Here’s what I want. And I know you can do it because it’s easy. EASY. While having a district-wide strategy is important, tell the district that they mainly need to be focused on becoming a "Parent Engagement Resource Center”, or PERC, since we seem to acronymify everything nowadays (and “verbify” everything too). What does a PERC do? Really simple. It’s main jobs are to:

• Scour the district and find schools that actually are doing parent engagement well. I KNOW there are schools out there.
• Develop a system to catalogue not only what these schools are doing, but who at the schools are doing them (more on this later).
• Include both numerical data AND, just as (if not more) importantly, anecdotal data as well.
• Allow, encourage, and foster communication between schools who want to learn parent engagement strategies with those who seem to be leading the way.

But how do they actually do this? Well, assuming that the district know which schools seem to be doing parent engagement well, here are some ideas:

• LAUSD could compile an online database with names and emails of leaders at each school with exemplary parental engagement.
• LAUSD could provide stipends for leaders at these exemplary schools to provide workshops, classes, or PDs.
• LAUSD could provide sub-time for teachers, and principals to visit schools where parent engagement is done well.

Simply put, there ARE great things going on in the district right now, but no one seems to know about them. If the district can act as a facilitator rather than a manager in this regard, schools might actually be able to see not only “what’s working” but be inspired to tweak it to meet the needs of their own school community.

Santa, make it happen!

1. LA Daily News: LAUSD aims to engage parents in schools
2. Intersections South LA: “Don’t Hold Us Back” Movement Rallies at LAUSD Meeting
3. Transparent: A grassroots organization focused on making LAUSD better for our kids!
4. Long Beach Press-Telegram: UTLA workshop will help parents teach kids over summer
5. Families in Schools website
6. LAUSD Families website
7. Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

Aimee Mann – Calling on Mary

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

The Kinks – Father Christmas

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.

Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime

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.

RUN DMC – Christmas in Hollis

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. 

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

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.

Low – Just Like Christmas

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.