Room 210 for Teachers

The smackdown of those spoiled teachers

2011-04-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

In my latest Huffington Post blog, I address the anti-teacher bill being pushed through by friend of the working child Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, The bill calls for the elimination of teacher tenure, does not allow for years of experience or added education to be considered in teacher salary schedules, and divides teachers in all school districts into four pay tiers, based primarily on standardized test scores. The following passage is from the blog:

In the world of Jane Cunningham, experience does not matter. Advanced degrees and the debt that went into earning them are meaningless. In Mrs. Cunningham's world, if you remove all originality and empathy from your teaching and spend the lion's share of your time teaching test-taking tips, you have a 25 percent chance of becoming a highly-paid teacher.

With public education turning into a nightmarish Dickensian and American Legislative Exchange Council vision, one question remains unanswered:

Why in the world would anyone want to become a classroom teacher?

L. A. teacher says New York should release teacher effectiveness scores

2011-02-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

In an op-ed in today's New York Daily News, Los Angeles teacher Diane Hollenbach says it is time for New York follow L. A.'s example and release teacher effectiveness scores:

We may soon see the scenario play out again in New York City. When the Times made the information public, there was a firestorm - one that spread all the way east, where a number of newspapers, including the Daily News, began seeking to get their hands on value-added data reports for thousands of New York school teachers. The city's Education Department said yes; the teachers union said no. Last month, a judge ruled in favor of the release - and the union appealed.

I'm perplexed by those opposed to making public the test results of teachers - teachers who work, after all, in a "public" school. However, I understand the argument that the reports may be flawed in some cases. On two occasions, I had students I'd never heard of turn up on my report, and their scores weren't good.

But that was the exception, by far. In my experience, the value-added reports accurately reflected which teachers were doing their jobs well. New York City teachers, and the union that claims to represent them, should stop fighting the release of this information tooth and nail. In fact, they should welcome it as a chance to discover what they and their colleagues are doing well - and what they can do better.

Educators of all people should be open to learning how to improve themselves

The most inspirational teacher

2010-05-28T19:33:00.001-07:00

Sixth grade block teacher Mrs. Kim Frencken was named Most Inspirational Teacher at East Middle School during the Awards Assembly/Talent Show today. The award was presented by her former student, eighth grader Taryn Parker, who wrote the paper nominating Mrs. Frencken for the honor.

Mrs. Frencken is the first teacher at East Middle School to receive the honor, which began three years ago at the old South Middle School. Previous winners at South were Mr. Rocky Biggers, Ms. Kathy Weaver, and Ms. Debbie Moore.

"To Sir With Love" revisited

2010-05-18T05:37:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1967 Sidney Poitier film, “To Sir With Love.”
The movie has always been a favorite of teachers. In it, Poitier, a first-year teacher, is thrown into a classroom of students just a few months away from graduating high school and entering the real world.

These are the rejects from other schools, Poitier’s character, Mark Thackeray, is told by the principal. And worse yet, the school permits no type of punishment.

And when Poitier enters the classroom, the students are unruly and uncivilized. So naturally, all he has to do to quiet them down is clap his hands.

All he has to do to civilize them is to throw away their textbooks and have them start treating each other with civility.

And by the end of approximately an hour and 40 minutes, these previously incorrigible teens are shining examples of the miracles that can be achieved by one teacher who cares.

I love the movie, but despite its roots in a non-fiction book, it is far away from reality as “Avatar” or Harry Potter.

Several weeks ago, when the Central Falls, Rhode Island, superintendent fired the entire high school faculty, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised the board for backing that decision, citing its courage.
Every teacher was given the ax because of low test scores at the poverty-ridden school, everyone from those who have given up, and with the battles they were facing at that school, I am sure there were a few of the Mark Thackerays of Central Falls who went the extra mile to give their students the help they needed to cope in the outside world.

The story has a semi-happy ending. All of the teachers have been rehired after the union reached an agreement with the superintendent. From today’s Boston Globe:

Under the agreement, which is expected to receive final approval next Tuesday by the Board of Trustees, teachers will be required to work an additional 30 minutes a day, devote 90 minutes after school every week to planning, and submit to rigorous evaluation to retain their jobs after the 2010-11 school year.
The teachers will also eat lunch with students one day per week, attend five to 10 days of professional development every summer, and accept a staffing policy that eliminates strict seniority. The high school principal will be replaced..
“We will not have persistently low-achieving schools in our state; we will not have it,’’ said state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist. “We are incredibly serious about this reform effort.’’

It is amazing how the word “reform” falls trippingly off the tongue of the people who are doing the most to damage public education.

Politicians are demanding reform, business leaders say the only reform that will straighten out public schools is to follow a business model- the same business model that led this country into its current economic crisis.

A careful examination of these so-called “reform” measures leads to an accurate perception that they are heavily weighted toward one side of the issue. The reforms are based on the idea, carefully cultivated by those who want to destroy public education, that 100 percent of the problem lies with classroom teachers.

In “To Sir With Love,” Mark Thackeray dealt with students who, despite all initial appearances, wanted to learn. I can guarantee you that is not what the Central Falls High School teachers see in their classrooms.

Diligent, hard-working students are mixed with juvenile delinquents who do not care how much class time they cost with their disruptive behavior or how much their antics affect the learning of those around them.

Many of the children are products of broken homes and come from environments that include criminal activity, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. By the time they arrive at school, they have learned all the real-life lessons they care to know, and do not see why or how school should be relevant to them.

Does that mean there will be no success stories in schools located in areas where there are high poverty rates and soaring crime levels?

Not at all. In every school, whether it be Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, or East Middle School in Joplin, Missouri, where I teach, there are Mark Thackerays who go the extra mile, who do everything they can to to reach the seemingly unreachable student.

I have seen the success stories, but I have also lamented, along with my fellow teachers, the ones who fell through the cracks, the ones we thought we could reach, but somehow our efforts fell short.

As I examined the Central Falls plan, I saw nothing that would address the primary issues that affect learning. Each of Central Falls’ teachers will have to be interviewed by the school’s “leadership team.”

It is a shame that leadership team is not holding sessions with the children and their parents, the ones who hold the key to building the foundation for a strong education.

“To Sir With Love” could never happen in today’s environment. With the emphasis on standardized test results and educational “reform,” the Mark Thackerays of this world, the ones who struggle valiantly to reach as many so-called unreachable children as they can, no longer have a place in our schools.

And the children are the ones who will pay the price.

Blame it on the teachers

2010-04-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

Every evil that faces the United States can be laid at the doorstep of public schoolteachers.
It hurts to write those words, since I have had the privilege of teaching in public schools for the past 11 years, but a thorough examination of the legislation that has been passed, both on the state and federal levels over the past couple of decades can lead to no other conclusion.

Federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top target the classroom teacher when students fail to achieve at a certain level.

Undeniably, the classroom teacher is the most important ingredient in the educational recipe, but I have yet to see any of the other important contributors to children’s success even addressed. Apparently, such factors as poverty and poor parenting should not even be considered. The 50 minutes a classroom teacher has the student each day (if the student is able to make it to school, or shows up for the class) outweighs any other factor that might keep a child from learning.

When someone dares mention that these conditions play a role in the child’s education, he is immediately slammed as a slacker who is trying to avoid taking responsibility. Then someone will find one of those rare poverty area schools where test scores are above average and use it to show that it is indeed the teachers who are at fault.

What I have always found fascinating is that, despite the seeming contempt legislators have for classroom teachers, every time there is some public crisis that needs to be addressed, it is thrown to the teachers to handle.

The most obvious example of that has been sex education, where educators are supposed to overcome the home and cultural environments to teach about sex (or not having sex, as the case may be).

And now the latest cause du jour is bullying.

You won’t find a classroom teacher anywhere who is in favor of bullies, but apparently legislators think the responsibility for curbing the problem is another one that should be handed to teachers.

That is the case in Massachusetts, where the legislature unanimously passed a bill this week, which calls for a massive crackdown on school bullying, following the suicides of two students.
The bill calls for each incident of bullying to be reported. No problem there. That is being done in most school districts on an everyday basis.

This bill, however, goes far beyond having teachers and administrators control what is going on in their buildings. Consider this passage from this morning’s Boston Globe article:

The bill defines bullying as repeated acts that cause physical or emotional harm, place students “in reasonable fear of harm,’’ or create an “unwelcoming or hostile environment at school for another person.’’

It prohibits bullying on school grounds, on school buses, at school-sponsored activities, and through electronic communications. Bullying via e-mail or social networking sites such as Facebook would fall under the purview of the schools when it creates a hostile school environment, legislators said.

So now, teachers are going to be asked to be responsible for children’s behavior at home?
One more time, legislators have taken the easy way out. They have taken another societal problem, handed it to the teachers, and now they can pat themselves on the back and get back to the regular business of blaming those same teachers for low test scores.

School censorship continues in 2010

2010-04-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

The first encounter I had with the censorship of books in school libraries came 25 years ago, when I was editor of the newspaper in Lamar, Missouri, population 4,000.
The book in question was one that has been at the top of banned book lists for the past half-century, The Catcher in the Rye.

The chronicle of Holden Caulfield’s coming of age was included in a list of books that Lamar High School students could read for their English classes. As is usually the case when the fires of censorship spread through a school or community, the controversy began with a parent seeing four-letter words in a book, and then not bothering to read the book to see the context because “I don’t read any book that has words like that in it and neither will my child.”

One particular board member, a professional in the community, led the opposition forces.

The high school library was packed with parents, most opposing Catcher in the Rye, but a hardy few supporting the book. After they had all been heard from, the board voted unanimously to remove the book from the reading list, but to allow the librarian to keep it behind the counter where those who wished to read it could check it out, as long as it was not being used for classroom purposes.

Who knows how many times that scenario plays out in communities across the nation? Sometimes it is language, sometimes it may be sex, or it may even be violence. But somehow there are always people (many of whom are watching far worse on network and cable television) who want to play morals chairman for the rest of the community. In most cases, the media never becomes aware of the situation.

And it is not just books like Catcher in the Rye. The lists of books that concerned parents want removed from school library bookshelves includes classics such as Huckleberry Finn, which has almost been totally sacrificed at the altar of political correctness and the Harry Potter books, which, of course, convince children that they can conduct spells and play games in mid-air.

I can’t say that it is an isolated incident, for most assuredly that would be incorrect, but another book-banning incident took place this last week in Stockton, Missouri, about 40 miles from Lamar.

This time the book in question is of a more recent vintage. The Stockton R-2 Board of Education voted unanimously to remove the 2007 winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, from the library entirely.

The saga began, as usual, with a parent complaint about the book, which contains some strong language and brief sexual content. According to the community newspaper, The Cedar County Republican, the school superintendent appointed a committee, which included the high school principal, English teachers, a board member, two parents, and a young adult, to study the book and make recommendations.
The panel recommended that the book be removed from the classroom reading list, but be kept in the library.

The board rejected that view. From the Cedar County Republican article:

The board was presented with this assessment by the committee during the meeting. After a pause, board member Rod Tucker spoke up against the book, “I brought my kids here to protect them as much as I could from city atmosphere,” he said. “I vote we remove the book from the school.” After a quick motion and second by Dean Pate, the banning of the book was unanimously passed.

“I thought the content was inappropriate,” school board member and committee member Shipley said. “I can only speak for myself, but I assume others on the board had heard enough about it from other people to want to pull it out of the school. I encourage people to read it and judge for themselves if they think it’s appropriate.”

The English teachers were upset that some of the board members cast their negative votes without ever bothering to read the book.

Veteran English teacher Kim Chism Jasper was one of those who was upset by the decision:

“This book is a National Book Award winner for Young People’s Literature, and it is taught in many schools throughout the country, often at the ninth-grade level,” Jasper said. “It has been challenged in many places, but that is not unusual for books that promote discussion. In fact many books — including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Macbeth,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Little House in the Big Woods” and the Bible — have been challenged. The book focuses on a 14-year-old who has hopes and dreams of leaving the poverty of his reservation and making something of his life. Education and reading open the door to those dreams. In light of that, denying access to reading material is ironic. I hope people in the community will read this book. And, of course, I hope people who believe in the students’ right to read will contact board members.”

Mrs. Jasper should not expect the board to change its decision. That rarely happens. In a day and age when we English teachers have a hard enough time getting students to read, it is a sin to remove the kind of literature that could actually turn them into lifelong readers and improve their chances of success in high school, college, and life.

Still, my expectation is that many Stockton High School students will find a way to get their hands on The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian.

After all, when the Lamar R-1 Board of Education voted a quarter of a century ago to remove Catcher in the Rye from the classroom and put it behind the library counter, the first student to check out the book was the son of the school board member who led the opposition against it.

There is no crisis in public education

2010-04-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

After a decade of the nonsense of No Child Left Behind and its deeply flawed offspring, Race to the Top, I am waiting for one courageous politician to come out and say what has always been the case- There is no crisis in American public education.
Most likely, that will never happen. Any politician who defends public education is quickly derided as a tool of the teacher unions. All the while, elected officials on both sides of the aisle make names for themselves by criticizing public schools, and battling to carry the “reform” mantle.
It would be inaccurate to say that all is well in public education. We have serious problems. We have failing inner city schools, high dropout rates in some areas, and a standardized test culture that is not preparing our children to do anything but take more standardized test and is rapidly disabling their ability to master critical thinking skills.
That last serious problem, as you probably noticed, is a direct result of the so-called reformers and their concept of turning American public schools into business operations, notwithstanding the fact that the very business principles they insist will rescue our educational system are the ones that have left many American workers behind as their jobs were outsourced to other continents.
The most crucial “evidence” politicians cite as they urge draconian reform in our educational system is our low scores in comparison to other countries in such areas as math and science.
Seldom, if ever, do they mention that the comparison is being made between elite students in these other countries, since nearly all of them have winnowed out those who are not destined for higher education.
Public schools are being punished for following the truly American belief that all students, whether they are born with silver spoons in their mouths, or in an inner city crack house with two strikes against them, deserve a quality education.
Glory-seeking politicians, seeking to climb that next rung on the ladder of success, are pounding the public schools and teachers because we sincerely believe that all students should receive the best education possible whether they have IQs in the genius range or if they are barely functional.

Which of these other countries that are supposedly providing their children with a better education than the United States can claim such a democratic approach to education?

The biggest threat to American education is not teacher unions and tenure like those who would blow up our current system and replace it with a business model are insisting.

If the American educational system is falling apart, it is due to the dumbing down of teaching caused by a tunnel vision testing process that has taken the joy out of learning both for students and teachers.

Instead of teaching children to critically think and be able to handle the problems of tomorrow, we are providing them with neverending drills designed to get the students to score better on poorly-written standardized tests provided by companies which are making a killing on selling tests, test preparation materials, and even curriculum designed toward the tests (instead of offering tests that determine if you have mastered the elements in the curriculum).

No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are now waving the carrot of billions of dollars in front of cash-strapped states to force them to move education even further in this direction. Unless you force schools to use failed business models and pay teachers based on standardized test results, you have no chance of getting the money. This is not the way to produce innovative results; this is a recipe for disaster.

Now is the time, before we go too far down this path, for intelligent, courageous politicians, if such a breed truly exists, to step forward and say what has been right before our eyes all along.

This country is not suffering because of a crisis in education. Our problem is a crisis of leadership.

Teachers must take the lead in removing bad apples

2010-03-25T05:03:00.001-07:00

Bad teachers must be fired.

That message was printed numerous times on the cover of last week’s Newsweek and it is a sentiment with which all of us, especially teachers, can agree.

Unfortunately, that cover, and the articles that accompanied it, gave the impression that subpar teachers are the cause of every problem that faces education today.

And in an effort to tackle this problem, we have the Obama administration’s simplistic solution- if schools have problems, fire all of the teachers. When it was done in Rhode Island, first Education Secretary Arne Duncan and later the president himself praised the “courage” of the school board that took this step. I might add that the board was following the recommendation of a superintendent, who only a few months earlier had been singing the praises of the same teachers that she put on the unemployment line without a moment’s hesitation.

Now that shows courage.

The problem is that it is much easier politically to go after so-called “bad teachers” than it is to deal with some of the other problems that are preventing students from receiving a quality education:

-Students who do not care and do not invest anything in the learning process. Through television and movies, we have had this myth of the self-sacrificing teacher who keeps knocking his head against the wall with recalcitrant students until somehow he manages to make the big breakthrough that sends the students on his way to a happy and productive life. Sadly, that does not happen as often as we would like. Even the most gifted teachers are going to have problems finding the “on” switch with a student who has tuned out education.

-Parents who have little or no interest in their children’s education. Teachers can make their best efforts, and do, but are thwarted by students who come from homes where education has no value.

-Students who are subjected to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. When our children have these problems in their home lives, it is easy to see why algebraic educations and the works of Shakespeare and Dickens have no meaning.

-The teach to the test mentality. By constant drill of test-taking skills at the expense of learning, we may achieve some short-term gains, but in the long run we are turning off students by robbing them of the chance of becoming engaged in learning.
Much of the blame for this demonization of teachers rightly should go to politicians, such as Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham, who has proposed a bill that would eliminate teacher tenure in my state, and others who file one bill after another designed to make the public think the educational system is a 2010 version of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But the blame can also be placed on teacher unions that have not taken proactive steps to get rid of the deadwood that does, from time to time, find its way into our classrooms.

It is the teacher unions, not the legislatures, who should take the lead on getting teachers who can’t teach and teachers who break the laws out of the classroom. Instead, union leaders throw roadblocks in the path of the removal of teachers who have had improper relations with students, or teachers who have resorted to violence, or who simply do not have any idea of how to teach.

As long as we show no inclination toward policing our own ranks, we are throwing the doors wide open for demagogues like Jane Cunningham in Missouri or Arne Duncan in Washington to turn the ranks of American teachers into a shooting gallery.

The attack against public education continues

2010-03-24T05:02:00.001-07:00

The first step in the attack against tenure for Missouri teachers came during the 2009 legislative session when a bill was passed granting merit pay in St. Louis schools to teachers who were willing to sacrifice their tenure rights.

Anyone who thought that would be the end of it was sorely mistaken, and did not take the hatred of Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, into consideration.

During her eight years in the House of Representatives and her first term in the Senate, Mrs. Cunningham has offered one bill after another designed to cripple public education. As a House member, she notoriously, and successfully, lobbied former Speaker of the House Rod Jetton for the chairmanship of the Education Committee, offering only one qualification- her ability to corral large amounts of campaign cash for House members from All Children Matter, a national group dedicated to putting public money into private schools.

And now, with SB 1024, Jane Cunningham has declared all-out war on tenure for Missouri teachers. Her bill would eliminate it altogether and not put any brake on vengeful administrators who want to eliminate teachers for personal disagreements or other petty reasons.

It would also create a paperwork nightmare for public schools, which normally would be something Mrs. Cunningham would frown upon, unless, of course, it involves public schools.

The bill calls for the following:

-The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must "prepare a report on the effectiveness of the graduates of state-approved teacher preparation programs. The report must include an analysis of public school student learning gains on statewide assessments. The first report must be prepared by March 1, 2011, and then every two years thereafter."

-"The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must annually prepare a report by December 31 on the number of classroom teachers, by school district, whose students' declining academic performance indicates educational insufficiency."

-Instead of tenure, teachers who have taught for five years would be eligible for "professional performance contracts," which would be limited to no more than five years. After that time, if a school board wishes to fire a teacher, it can do so, without cause, according to the bill.

-Superintendents will be required to send to the state commissioner the names of teachers who are fired due to "educational insufficiency." That will go on the teacher's permanent record.

-Each district must establish procedures to evaluate all educators, which will include parent input.

And, though the bill says that items other than test scores should be considered in evaluating teacher performances, there is no doubt that the scores are meant to be the final factor in whether teachers continue to be employed.

On the face of it, that sounds like a sensible approach. After all, if the students are not doing well on standardized tests, it would certainly seem like the teacher should be held accountable. Of course, that is a simplistic approach that does not take into consideration some important factors.

-No one ever talks about the serious problem we have with students who simply do not care and put no effort into their education.

-Many students have no support structure at home. With homes where the parents do not see the value of education, and in homes where children undergo physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, how well they bubble in a standardized test is the last of their concerns.

-Scores are not just affected by the quality of education students are receiving from their current teachers, but also from the quality of education they received from their past teachers.

-Schools (and teachers) are held responsible for the test scores of students who move into their school district well into the school year, many times right before the standardized tests are given. (Some school districts are notorious for "encouraging" low-achieving students to transfer to other districts so their scores will not affect the districts' performance.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to basing employment strictly on the results of standardized tests.

Of course,the opponents of teacher tenure have made it seem like there is no way to get rid of a poor teacher. That is simply not true. While we see the admittedly horrid cases in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities of teachers who remain on the public dollar despite low performance because union rules make them almost impossible to remove, that is not the way it is in most United States school districts and nearly all Missouri school districts. Teacher tenure laws do not say you cannot remove a teacher, they just require that the teacher be given due process.

Proposed laws like this one are part of a continuing effort to undermine public schoolteachers, most of whom are performing well at what can be a thankless job. Teachers continue to be the major target, simply because we are a convenient target.

I know of no good schoolteacher who wants to see bad teachers remain in the classroom. This, however, is not the path Missouri should be taking. This is a bill that needs to be shelved immediately.

Obama administration to release plan to overhaul No Child Left Behind Monday

2010-03-13T06:41:00.001-08:00

In his weekly address, President Obama outlined a plan to overhaul No Child Left Behind:

A tribute to a middle school principal

2010-03-10T17:32:00.001-08:00

From someone else it would sound corny but when Joplin East Middle School Principal Ron Mitchell greets his faculty each year, the message always carries a potent punch:
“We’re not here to teach math,” the tall, chrome-domed Mitchell says. “We’re not here to teach science or social studies…We’re here to teach children.”
I am about two and a half months from completing my 11th year as a classroom teacher and nine of those years I have had the privilege of working for Ron Mitchell.
He was the only principal willing to give an out-of-work newspaper editor, whose last classroom experience had been as a student teacher 18 years earlier, a break. What he saw in me at that point I will never know, but Ron has always had an unerring instinct for who can succeed in the classroom.
After my first two years at Diamond Missouri Middle School, Ron left to take a job at South Middle School in Joplin. It was a job no one else wanted, as principal in a rundown area of the city, which had a listless faculty and a group of out-of-control students who had no interest whatsoever in learning.
It did not take long for Ron to know who was “teaching children” and who was just there to pick up a paycheck. The teachers who did not care did not stay at South long. Ron cleaned house and began hiring teachers who knew their subject matter and loved the children, no matter how unlovable those children can be at times.
I missed the two years that began the transition of Joplin South Middle School into the best middle school in southwest Missouri.

After those two years, when my job at Diamond Middle School was eliminated due to budget cuts and I was placed on a one-year unpaid leave of absence, I nearly returned to journalism and was one hour away from accepting a position as an investigative reporter and writing coach at a southwest Missouri newspaper, when Ron called and asked if I had any interest in teaching communication arts (English) at South. I jumped at the opportunity.
And for the past seven years, six at South and one at the new East Middle School, where the South faculty moved to in August 2009, I have worked for a principal who has put children first, hired the best teachers, then stepped out of the way and let them teach, offering encouragement and support every step of the way.
During that time, not only did Ron Mitchell offer a safe, inviting home away from home for the sixth through eighth graders who attended our school, some of whom come from homes where drugs, alcohol, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are staples, but he created a second family for his faculty, a group which has worked together as a team and has almost completely avoided the in-fighting and backstabbing that are the hallmarks of so many institutions of learning.
At East Middle School, the teacher’s lounge is just a place we use to heat up lunch or buy a soft drink or snack.
And all the while our school recorded improved test scores in math and reading, sometimes ranking at the top of our area of Missouri.
Sadly, all good things come to an end.
During a faculty meeting in the library after school today, Ron Mitchell announced his resignation. It had been rumored for quite some time. It was no secret that his leadership style did not mesh with that of new upper-level administrators who had come into the school district within the last few years.
These people had not seen Ron Mitchell transform an 80-year-old school building, which had been dark, dreary and drenched with despair, into a showplace for learning.
Some of us had already heard the news, so when Ron stepped into the library and quietly said, “I will not be principal here next year,” we were not surprised, but we were still not prepared for the emotional impact those words would have.
Being the class act he is, he did not say anything negative about the people who guided him toward this decision. He said only a few more words, his voice breaking, and he quickly left the room.
We sat there in stunned silence. I don’t believe any of us initially thought about what this development would mean to us. We were all concerned about the man who had supported and encouraged us through all of the high points and low points that happen in any school.
Thankfully, I have two and half more months to be able to work for Ron Mitchell, someone who will leave Joplin East a legacy of teachers who care and who can also get the job done.
Undoubtedly, it will not be long before he is snapped up by another school district. He is young, having just turned 40 a few weeks back, personable, has a proven record of educational achievement, and, above all, he believes in teaching children.
Any forward-looking school district with intelligent leadership would love to have a Ron Mitchell in the driver’s seat.

$22 million high-stakes test scam involves no-bid contract, conflict of interest

2010-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

A $22 million no-bid contract and a conflict of interest.
Sounds like a perfect topic for a New York Times investigation, doesn’t it, especially considering that the shenanigans have taken place under the watch of New York City officials.
Yet an archival search indicates that there have been no mentions of this scandal in the Times, and the only mentions anywhere have come in the form of self-serving news releases from the company involved.
Since the advent of No Child Left Behind during the early days of the Bush Administration, our nation’s teachers and students have taken a public relations hit while the testing and textbook industries have made a killing.

mong those who raked in the biggest bucks are the folks at McGraw-Hill. The company provides tests for states, provides textbooks designed to help students pass those standardized tests, and now has thrown itself completely into the test preparation business, charging the nation’s school districts millions of dollars for a battery of practice standardized tests, called ACUITY, which are designed to help schools improve scores on the high stakes tests at the end of the school year.

Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this?

New York City schools are paying $22 million (out of a no-bid contract) for ACUITY, which offers what are called diagnostic and predictive tests. The tests have been widely criticized by schoolteachers in the Big Apple because they are turning schools into test factories and taking away not only the enjoyment of learning, but learning itself.

Of course, perhaps I am a bit hasty since there is documented evidence that ACUITY works. A study was released Oct. 27 that proved without a doubt that ACUITY is God’s gift to education. Of course, the study was based on results from one Missouri school district…and was produced by McGraw-Hill and that school district.
In other words, New York forked over $22 million in what appears to be an effort to scam the testing system. After all, if the company that makes the tests is preparing materials to get schools ready for the tests, how can the schools fail?

And the McGraw-Hill scam has spread across the United States. Recently it was given the OK for use in California school systems. It is already in place in many other states, including Missouri where I teach and in the school system where I teach.

And who can blame school officials for latching onto ACUITY? With all of the ridiculous emphasis placed on standardized tests, school districts have to do anything they can to garner even a few points. It could be the difference between being a success and being termed one of those failing schools that fire their entire teaching staffs and get praised by President Obama.

Education has always been one of the most difficult subjects for the media to cover. School news is usually broken down to test score comparisons, violence, and union contracts. Yet with all of the emphasis on high stakes standardized tests, you will find that little, if any, investigative reporting has been done on the test industry and on the ways, such as ACUITY, that have been used to milk money out of the system.

If my success or failure and the success and failure of every teacher in the United States is going to be based on winner-take-all tests, educational consumers have the right to know everything they can about those tests.

And don’t expect that information to come from the testing companies themselves. According to SourceWatch, McGraw-Hill spent $1,320,000 on lobbying in 2007. And the company has certainly received its money’s worth.

Arne Duncan is clueless if he thinks Rhode Island school board made right decision

2010-03-08T05:59:00.001-08:00

If we needed any more proof that the Obama Administration is going to be just as clueless as the Bush Administration was when it comes to improving our nation’s schools, we received the topper this week from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
When Duncan praised the school board of the Central Falls, R. I. School District for firing all of its high school teachers, he was putting the stamp of approval on a feel-good, no-nonsense solution that not only will not help Central Falls High School, but will steer the children on a direct path toward failure.

The board members were “showing courage and doing the right thing for kids,” Duncan said, apparently without taking a close examination of just what that action means for those same kids he thinks the board is helping.

Of course, Duncan has to take that stance since it is the administration’s policy that pushed the school board into that decision.

“In order to remain eligible for a portion of financial aid,” a CBS News article on the firings says, “the Central Falls district had to either come up with a strategy to improve with its existing teaching staff or start from scratch.”
After early negotiations with union officials failed, the board took the easy way out, fired everyone, and started anew with a blank slate.

What a fine message to send to our young people, and to the country as a whole, as we continue to struggle through a recession- if we don’t get our way, everybody goes and we have to hire a completely new staff- with absolutely no guarantees that the new staff will be any better equipped than the old staff to handle the problems at Central Falls High School. Meanwhile, qualified teachers, and there can be absolutely no doubt that the axe fell on many qualified teachers, are pounding the pavement looking for work.

When the Obama Administration and school officials embrace an all-or-nothing strategy, they are following the same bankrupt thinking that so-called educational reformers like Michelle Rhee in Washington, D. C.- closing schools and firing teachers, without rhyme nor much of a reason, does not necessarily translate into a better education for our children.

Much of the problem has been brought about by the refusal of educational unions to cleanse their ranks of incompetent and immoral teachers.

When unions allow teachers to languish in so-called “rubber rooms” in our largest cities, when they have been accused of having sex with students or when they have been proven to be totally incompetent in the classroom, or when they allow these same teachers to be passed from one school to another, they provide the ammunition for public school enemies like former 20/20 anchor and now Fox Business News reporter John Stossel, who hammers public education at every turn.

Allowing just one of these teachers to remain in a classroom, or for that matter to remain on the taxpayers’ dole, is enough to give Stossel, All Children Matter, and the rest of the educational voucher contingent free rein to indict every public school in the United States. It is wrong, but when we don’t take strong action to police our own ranks, we are handing those who want to destroy public education a loaded weapon.
Teachers who have room for improvement and who are willing to work to better themselves need encouragement and mentoring. Teachers who are thoroughly incompetent or morally bankrupt need to be shown the door and not given another year to damage impressionable children.

That being said, a policy that encourages school boards to fire everyone or lose federal funding is as lazy and incompetent as any of the teachers John Stossell and the voucher supporters trumpet (with nearly slanderous abandon) as indicative of all public school teachers.

When you sweep out all teachers, including the ones who have given their all and who have succeeded with countless children, you are not improving schools, you are hastening the destruction of public education.

Merit pay based on test scores is a deeply flawed idea

2010-03-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

It would be a dream scenario for any high school basketball coach- arriving at practice every day with an athletic front line, averaging six feet, nine inches tall (and able to handle the ball) and a backcourt consisting of a lightning-quick point guard who can penetrate and dish off or shoot, and a nothing-but-net three-point shooter.
And even better, all five players are battle-tested seniors with three years of varsity experience.
A coach could guide a team like that to the state championship.
After that, there might be a letdown. The next year’s squad is raw, inexperienced, and does not have anyone over six feet, four inches, and no natural point guard.
Naturally, no one with any intelligence would expect the coach to be able to top the previous year’s record.
That would be impossible...yet the same thing is expected of public school teachers in the United States every year.

When pontificating politicians and pundits rail against the so-called "failing" American public school system, their answers to repair it always are led by an over-reliance on the results of standardized tests. In Missouri, where I teach eighth grade English, and in many other states, our elected officials are indulging in the tried-and-true national pastime of election year grandstanding at the expense of the teachers. Efforts are being made in our state to offer merit pay, based on standardized test scores, to teachers, on the condition that they give up tenure. The legislature approved a bill last year allowing this to be done in St. Louis schools.

And while I firmly believe teachers should be held accountable for the education received by those in their charge, standardized test scores are not the way to do it.

Too many variables go into students’ success on standardized tests.

STUDENTS’ HOME LIVES- While teachers work miracles every day in our public schools, trying to convince students who come from broken homes (or who have no homes), are physically, emotionally, or sexually abused, or come from homes where the parents are abusing drugs or alcohol that algebraic equations, parts of speech, and frog dissection are necessary for them to get ahead in life is virtually impossible.

PREVIOUS TEACHERS- A student’s learning can easily be derailed by running into a subpar teacher, or perhaps one who has to be gone for an extended amount of time due to sickness. The merit pay systems being considered never take into account that the educational process builds from year to year. If there is a detour along the way, it can have a negative effect on a student. Should it also be responsible for a teacher losing a job or a pay increase?

VERTICAL SCORING- Returning to the analogy that opened this post, we are not testing how much students learn from year to year, which would seem to be the only measurement that makes sense; we are comparing this year’s students with an entirely different group of students who took the class the previous year. Just as you have basketball players with different characteristics and capabilities each year, the same holds true for students. It not only is an unfair comparison, but it is a comparison that is absolutely meaningless. Yet this is the comparison politicians plan to use to hold teachers’ livelihoods hostage.

While teachers (and the American public) would be ill served by making these comparisons the basis on which our schools are staffed and our teachers rewarded (or shown the door), there undeniably has to be accountability in education.
So how can it be done in a way that works for the teachers, the taxpayers, and above all, the students?

USE LONGITUDINAL SCORING- Instead of comparing apples and oranges, determine how much the same students have learned from one year to the next. While there would still be flaws in this system, it would still offer a realistic picture of whether a student is moving forward or digressing in his or her education.

JUDGE TEACHERS ON THREE-YEARS OF RESULTS- If test scores fall by large amounts, take action, but there needs to be a built-in protection that keeps teachers from being penalized for years that they don’t have those all-star lineups of students available.

TEST STUDENTS AT BEGINNING AND END OF YEAR- If we test the students on what they are expected to know at the beginning of the school year, and then test again at the end to see what they have learned, that would be a far more accurate method of determining what learning has taken place.

ADD OTHER MEASUREMENTS TO THE MIX- Administrator evaluations and peer evaluations could be used.

Sadly, there is no perfect way of evaluating teachers. That being said, the biggest mistake we can make is to base everything on test scores. If we take that step- and we are leaning dangerously in that direction- our schools will be all test preparation all the time, and the joy of learning, a joy that has produced our best and brightest, will be only a dim memory.

Missouri state senator on the prowl for perverts in the classroom

2010-03-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, a public school basher through four terms in the House and her first year in the Senate is at it again.

For the third consecutive year, two in the Senate and one in the House, Mrs. Cunningham filed the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act.

Riding the publicity two years ago of an Associated Press series that showed Missouri had a large number of reported instances of teachers having inappropriate relations with students, Mrs. Cunningham immediately began hearings designed to push her personal agenda without even taking a close examination of the facts.

One of the reasons Missouri had such a high number of incidents is due to legislation that was enacted about a decade ago which made it mandatory to conduct background checks on those who would work with our children, and remove those who had committed crimes. Missouri's proactive stance enabled it to get some perverts out of the classroom, but its very success opened the door to demagogues like Jane Cunningham.

All that was needed was fine-tuning, but Mrs. Cunningham is brandishing a sledge hammer.

Provide the Highway Patrol with a list of the state's teachers and prospective teachers and make it mandatory that people who commit crimes have their names checked against this registry. That makes sense.

Require training so that other teachers and staff members recognize when an adult is not behaving properly with a student. That makes sense.

Add those provisions to the laws already in place and you have a sensible pro-active policy that will work.

That doesn't satisfy Mrs. Cunningham, who prefers to take the opinion that all teachers are guilty of crimes that only a minute number commit. Teachers are already fingerprinted before they are hired; so Mrs. Cunningham is asking that they be fingerprinted twice. This apparently will thwart evil teachers who have their fingerprints changed to evade the law.

Another part of her bill is one that is particularly irritating:

“Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and parents, or have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student.”

This, of course, is an attempt to stop teachers from communicating with students through sites such as Facebook and MySpace. I am one of those who has both Facebook and MySpace accounts, and I have students who have added me as a "friend." The opponents of this practice have jumped on the word "friend," but that does not imply an inappropriate friendship with a student. It is simply the term used by those websites. Students have asked me about papers they have been assigned, they have actually submitted papers through the websites, and sometimes they just want to say hi. It keeps the lines of communications open and helps me get through, in a thoroughly professional manner, to some students who may not normally like the idea of talking to a teacher, but are willing to do so through something like MySpace or Facebook, which they consider to be their territory.

My sites, including Facebook, MySpace, my blog, The Turner Report, my YouTube page, and my Journalism Club’s blog, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages are open to the public. Parents, administrators, students, and community members are all welcome to visit. I know of other teachers who maintain social networking sites and accept students as "friends." These are responsible professionals, not lurking perverts, or people who have problems maintaining a proper distance from their students.

MySpace, Facebook, and other such sites are simply a convenient target for Mrs. Cunningham and her ilk. If the legislature takes this step, it is simply taking another slap at teachers, treating the people who have been giving their all for Missouri's children as if they were children.

Of course, there will a predictable quote from Mrs. Cunningham or another supporter of this bill who will say, "If this prevents just one child from being harmed, then it is worth it."

It is hard to argue with that kind of logic...dead wrong though it may be...because your words will be twisted to make it sound as if you are condoning the evil acts that a small handful of teachers have committed.

I cannot recall any cases being reported of Missouri teachers who have used social networking sites to lure children into sexual relations. I can recount numerous cases of teachers who have been able to use such sites to communicate effectively and professionally with students.

If Mrs. Cunningham is successful in bulldozing this bill through the Senate and then the House approves it, what will she try next? People like this are never satisfied with one step. Consider these possibilities:

-Teachers could be prevented from going to movies which might be attended by a younger audience. After all, this would provide ample opportunity for a teacher and student to sneak away during the movie or sit by each other.

-Teachers should not be allowed to live within a certain distance of any house in which underage children are living. Let's cut down the access.

-Teachers must not have listed telephone numbers, since this provides them with unlimited chances to have conversations with young ones.

-Signs need to be placed in teachers' yards warning parents and children that someone Jane Cunningham considers to be unworthy lives only a few feet away.

Teachers should be required to have special license plates identifying themselves as teachers and offering a special 1800 number to call if the person who is driving this car ever waves at you or says hello.

At first glance, the last few items seem quite ridiculous, but if you examine the bills that have been proposed in Missouri every year for the past several years, there have been two types of people who have been targeted on a consistent basis- registered sex offenders and teachers.

No matter what Jane Cunningham is trying to insinuate, those terms are not synonymous.

***

Notes- When Mrs. Cunningham was in the Missouri House of Representatives, she became notorious for sending a letter to Speaker of the House Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, asking to be appointed chairman of the Education Committee. She listed as her main qualification the fact that she had been able to get numerous contributions to House members' campaigns from All Children Matter, the nation's top proponent of educational vouchers. Jetton, according to printed reports, is the target of a grand jury investigating corruption in the state legislature. He is also awaiting trial on a charge of assault involving rough sex with a woman.

Mrs. Cunningham spent one three-year term as a school board member for a public school in the St. Louis area. She failed to get re-elected after numerous attempts to work religion into the district's curriculum.

Amy Hestir, the young woman for whom the bill is named, was the victim of a predator teacher.

Don't blame teachers when violence hits our schools

2010-03-08T05:54:00.000-08:00

What lessons did we learn from Columbine?

When Klebold and Harris shot up the Littleton, Colo. high school April 20, 1999, I was in my final month as the editor of The Carthage Press, a small daily in southwest Missouri and far removed from both the carnage and any personal knowledge of what goes on in the classroom.

My introduction to teaching came less than four months later when I was hired as a creative writing teacher at the middle school in Diamond, Missouri. During the last 11 years, I have listened each time a shooting incident happens as know-it-all critics blame teachers every time a teenager picks up a gun and takes it to school.

he criticism came close to home in 2006 when Thomas Gregory White, 13, a seventh grader, took an assault rifle to Memorial Middle School in Joplin, fired a shot into the ceiling, then aimed the weapon at Principal Steve Gilbreth. Fortunately, the weapon jammed, sparing Gilbreth and keeping White from forever being added to the list of young criminals such as Klebold, Harris, and Charles "Andy" Williams, whose murderous actions forever damaged their schools and communities.

On the Joplin Globe website, following an article on Thomas White's preliminary hearing, a reader commented, "Why did his teachers not notice anything was wrong with the kid?"

That comment angered me, especially since I knew his teachers were asking themselves that same question.

I wrote the following response to that question on my blog, The Turner Report, on March 8, 2007,and I haven't changed my mind one bit:

Please do not put this off on the teachers. In the first place, teachers have 25 to 30 students in six classes or between 150 and 180 students per day. Don't expect them to be able to pick out one student who may eventually become violent when no one has yet determined what exactly leads to these incidents. (And we certainly try to keep our eye out for troubled students.)

In the wake of the Columbine shooting in 1999, the FBI released a 40-question survey, if memory serves me correctly, with a list of the traits that school shooters might (with an emphasis on that word) have. As I pored over that list, I discovered the items on it applied to nearly every student (and most of the teachers).

What is truly remarkable are the large number of students who are helped because teachers, counselors, and administrators reach out every day to students who have been bullied, students who until a teacher made an effort, thought that no one was in their corner.

Is there more that can be done to prevent bullying? Of course, and each year schools provide more training to teachers to help them deal with the problem. Bullying continues, but teachers are constantly working to lessen it.

We always hear about the students like Thomas Gregory White who slip between the cracks, but we never hear about all of the incidents that may have been prevented...because of teachers, counselors, and administrators who made the extra effort. Those are the stories that never get told."

Why do we never hear these know-it-all critics talk about the place where the intervention needs to be made- the home? Thomas Gregory White had ready access to guns through his father, a convicted felon who owned them illegally.

I have never read a story about a school shooting in which the parents of the shooter say, "I always knew someday he was going to take a gun and shoot up the school." A teacher is with a child for 45 to 50 minutes a day, for 174 to 180 days a year. And we are supposed to be able to read minds?

Believe me, teachers are on the lookout for aberrant behavior. We take our responsibility seriously. We work every year to deal with any bullying incidents, and we take pro-active steps to stop them from occurring in the first place. Our methods of dealing with bullying are revised each year, and all personnel receive training. Yet none of us have any guarantee that someday violence will not touch our schools.

Despite all of this, every study shows that schools are the safest place for our children, Even in 1999, the year of Columbine, there were actually fewer incidents of school violence in the United States.

Again, this is because teachers, administrators, and counselors do not have their heads buried in the sand. Unfortunately, the media never writes about our successes.

Sadly, students receiving an education in a safe environment is not considered news. Yet that is what takes place every day in schools across the United States.

Violence in our schools is rare. If teachers and administrators are going to be blamed every time an incident occurs, then shouldn't they receive the credit for maintaining the only safe, stable environment that some of these children will ever know.
***
A note: Thomas Gregory White was sentenced to 10 years in prison.for the shooting at Memorial Middle School.

Study shows standardized testing frenzy leaving more children behind

2010-03-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

As an eighth grade English teacher in a Joplin, Missouri, public school, I am exposed everyday to an ever-increasing emphasis on high-stakes, standardized tests, tests that I have seen sap children of their enthusiasm for learning.

Finally, a study has been issued that shows a direct correlation between this test mania and skyrocketing high school dropout rates.

In other words, by increasing standardized tests and eliminating the type of education that engages students and creates lifelong learners, we are leaving more and more children behind.

Schools across the United States, under pressure from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, began taking more practice tests to prepare for the high stakes standardized exams.
Then in a constant battle to stay one step ahead of the competition (neighboring school districts) schools began taking practice tests to practice for the practice tests that serve as preparation for the standardized tests.
Even that is not enough as the pressure to succeed mounts. Soon, since reading and math are the only areas covered by No Child Left Behind, elementary schools began eliminating science and social studies; they reduced the time allotted for art and music classes, and recess suddenly became an unnecessary frill that gets in the way of what is really important at school- scoring at a proficient level on standardized tests.
The last three paragraphs sound like the stuff of satire, but sadly, that is what American public schools are becoming in the 21st century.
Time that has been spent engaging students in the past is now being spent teaching them test-taking tricks, tricks that will not help them in any way when they enter the adult world, but may help them garner an extra percentage point or two on these all-important standardized tests.
And what has this unholy emphasis on high stakes testing done to American students? Ironically, a new study indicates it is causing more and more children to be left behind.
Test, Punish, and Push Out, How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline makes a convincing case that the test-crazed culture of 21st century schools has stripped American public school students of the one thing that guarantees they will become lifelong learners- engagement in the learning process.
As an eighth grade teacher, I have listened for the past few years to the frustrations of students who are so overtested that they no longer see anything special about tests. Schools have gone from one practice standardized test in the fall which is designed to let teachers know their students’ weaknesses to prepare them for the spring state test to monthly practice tests and weekly tests to prepare students to do well on those practice tests. In many schools, students who do not score well on these practice tests, have to take yet more practice tests so they will do better next time.
And to help make those practice tests scores shoot to the top, other days are spent drilling on test-taking skills.
The report includes this passage:

“Perhaps more important is the damage done by high-stakes testing to the student experience in school. Not only do formulaic, test-driven reforms neglect the important role
schools have to play in helping students become well-rounded citizens, they also turn school into a much less engaging, and even hostile, place for youth by eliminating the components of education they find most interesting.

“Additionally, the emphasis placed on test results above all other priorities has an alienating and dehumanizing effect on young people, who resent being viewed and treated as little more than test scores.

“The effects can accumulate even more when additional consequences are attached to the tests. For example, there is a long record of research demonstrating the consistent
association of high-stakes exit exams with decreased graduation rates and increased dropout rates.”

Hopefully, events of the past week will start a movement in another direction. The Obama Administration will recommend the removal of the ridiculous requirement of the original No Child Left Behind that 100 percent of all students score at proficient levels in math and reading by 2014. That was never anything but a recipe for public schools to fail. In Missouri, for example, proficient generally rounds out to about a B average. How realistic is it for 100 percent of students to have a grade of B or above?

A "C" grade is considered average. How can anyone realistically expect all students to be above average?

The new goal, according to published reports, is for all students to graduate from high school college-ready or career-ready. That is much more realistic. The first step toward reaching that goal is to stop this test-taking frenzy and restore the standardized test to its previous standing- as one weapon in our educational arsenal.

Until we do that, we will continue to see a growing number of children left behind.

Controlling a classroom isn't easy

2009-12-14T03:13:00.001-08:00

An article in today's Los Angeles Times explores the importance of discipline in a classroom"

Educators, administrators and experts say classroom management -- the ability to calmly control student behavior so learning can flourish -- can make or break a teacher's ability to be successful.

"It is probably one of the things that's least understandable and most complex about teaching," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "This is the hardest skill to master."

Among the top reasons why teachers are deemed unsuccessful or leave the profession is their inability to effectively manage their classrooms, according to records and interviews.

Many California teachers who were fired and contested termination to a state panel were cited for poor classroom management, among other issues, according to a Times analysis conducted last spring.

Key Republican legislator wants to scrap No Child Left Behind

2009-07-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Rep. John P. Kline, R-Minn. is ready to scrap No Child Left Behind, especially the strict testing mandates:

Unlike his predecessors, who gave Bush crucial support for the law, Kline said he is not committed to the core requirement of testing all students in reading and math in grades three through eight, and once more in high school. He said he wants to give states "maximum latitude."

"I'm not looking to tweak No Child Left Behind," Kline said. "As far as I'm concerned, we ought to go in and look at the whole thing."

President Obama is jettisoning much of the rhetoric and symbolism associated with No Child Left Behind, but he has yet to offer a detailed proposal to revise the law, which has waned in popularity and is overdue for reauthorization.

Experts say it is unlikely that the president would seek to scrap the testing requirement. If anything, he appears to want tougher tests.

Novice teacher support programs keep rookies from leaving the profession

2009-04-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

An article in today's Washington Post describes seminars and mentoring methods that are designed to keep first and second-year teachers from leaving the profession:

Today's novice, by contrast, gets an outpouring of support: a week of new-teacher seminars, regular follow-up meetings with a trained mentor, even cash incentives to stay at the school.

At Flower Valley Elementary School in Rockville, Koko Lawrence was a typical first-year teacher: good at some things, shaky at others, full of potential but lacking confidence. About Thanksgiving, she met with her mentor, Theresa Nebel Robinson, in her darkened kindergarten classroom, the desks covered with crumbs from snack time.

"How is your class doing?" Robinson asked.

"Okay," Lawrence said. "Still chatty."

The support initiatives have appeared in the past two decades and have steadily expanded, although they now appear vulnerable to shrinking budgets in some places. They aim to address the cycle of attrition that fills some of the neediest schools with some of the least-prepared teachers.

A Washington Post analysis shows students in the region's poorest communities are almost twice as likely to be taught by a first- or second-year teacher as those in the wealthiest communities, mirroring a national problem. Research shows beginning teachers are often less effective than tenured veterans.

Link provided to podcast of Mitch Albom show discussion on teachers and MySpace

2008-08-16T00:15:00.001-07:00

I just discovered a podcast of my interview with guest host Steve Courtney on WJR Radio in Detroit's Mitch Albom Show.

The discussion centered around the topic of teachers communicating with their students via MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites.

Expert: Approach to bullying needs to change

2008-07-10T14:50:00.001-07:00

The common approach to curtail bullying in schools has been to try to stop the bullies.

That approach is wrong, according to psychologist Izzy Kalman. Schools need to teach students how do deal with bullies:

Creating a world where everyone is nice to each other is unrealistic, Kalman writes. People tease other people because they enjoy watching them get upset. The more upset the "victim" gets, the more fun it is to tease him or her. So rather than encourage children to report bullying and then punish bullies, educators need to teach children not to be victims. The keys to that, according to Kalman, are to learn not to let bullies upset you and to treat bullies like friends so they become friends.

If that sounds unrealistic, Kalman says he has taught children how to do just that through counseling and role-playing. He also has anecdotes from others who have used his approach successfully. Kalman argues that society often has more to fear from victims than bullies -- in school shootings in the U.S. such as the one at Columbine High School in 1999, the shooters were not bullies -- they were students who had been harassed and felt like victims.

Washington D. C. teachers considering proposal to swap tenure for higher pay

2008-07-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

Teachers in Washington, D. C. schools are being asked to consider a proposal in which they would give up tenure in order to receive more pay:

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights, two union members familiar with the negotiations said yesterday.

Under the proposal, the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green, said the union members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential. Teachers in the red tier would receive traditional raises and would maintain tenure. Those who voluntarily go into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure.

Teachers in the green tier would be reviewed yearly and would be allowed to continue in their jobs only if they passed an evaluation and boosted students' test scores, the union members said.

Under Rhee's proposal, raises to the green tier would be more than the 19 percent increase over five years she is proposing for all teachers, the union members said.

Florida schools requiring middle school students to pass core classes to reach high school

2008-07-10T14:46:00.001-07:00

It is no secret that many middle schools and junior high schools do not require students to pass in order to continue to high school.
Florida has enacted a new law which requires students to pass core classes in order to move on to ninth grade:

BY NIRVI SHAH
Miami Herald
July 8, 2008

Failing English, math, science or social studies classes in middle school never kept Florida students from moving on to high school in the past.

That's not the case anymore.

Beginning this fall, a Florida law enacted two years ago will require all students to pass their core subjects in middle school in order to be promoted to the ninth grade.

The tougher standards have already forced tens of thousands of middle school students around the state, including those in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, to enroll in remedial programs during the school year and during summer school.

The law, approved in 2006, was part of the work of a statewide middle school reform task force that wanted to make sixth, seventh and eighth grades more meaningful and ensure that more middle school students were truly prepared for high school. It applied to sixth-graders in 2006. Last year, seventh-graders were added to the list.

Under the old rules, ''they could fail in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade and they could go on to the next grade,'' said Carle Shaw, principal of Attucks Middle School in Hollywood.

Now, if a student at Shaw's school earns an F in any grading period, they forgo some of their time in elective classes for the next marking period reviewing the material in the failed class to make sure they understand it and move their grade to a D -- the minimum to go to high school. Or they go to summer classes.

GETTING MOTIVATED

At Pines Middle School this summer, soon-to-be seventh-grader Leyla Borges started the summer with a 35 percent on a science exam -- an F. She finished with a 90 percent -- an A.

Leyla, 12, said she skipped school enough this year to fail science and didn't heed her mother's advice to stay focused. She found that focus in Peter Colman's summer science class and said she's actually interested in the subject now. ''I wouldn't mind learning more about it,'' she said.

Shaw and other principals prefer getting kids help during the school year. Students shouldn't get used to thinking they can fail a class during the school year and make it up in three weeks over the summer, said Joel Smith, who oversees middle schools in Broward.

Nearly one in 10 of the district's 26,000 sixth- and seventh-graders were eligible for the summer classes. About 2,100 enrolled.

''What you didn't get in the year you're not really going to get in three weeks,'' he said. ``You want to make lifelong learners rather than just have them recover a course in three weeks.''

Not all of the summer students who finished classes Thursday will end up with the credit made up. If they haven't mastered the skills, they'll have to keep working for the credit, Smith said.

Students who fail one or two classes in middle school -- including English, math, social studies and science -- can still be promoted from one grade to the next as long as they fail no more than two classes. But they could get locked out of ninth grade without remedial work.

State and local education administrators hope that when this group of students advances to high school, dropout and graduation figures will improve. Florida's graduation rate is 72 percent, and it was just 66 percent in Broward and 64 percent in Miami-Dade County last year.

Many of the students who bring the graduation rate down drop out in ninth grade.

''Ninth grade's the toughest year for the students in Florida,'' said Mary Jane Tappen, the state's deputy chancellor for curriculum, instruction and student services. ``The whole purpose is to try to help with that.''

High schools already have enacted many reforms to keep ninth-grade students engaged and in school, said Chip Osborn, principal of Hollywood Hills High. Many schools separate freshmen from upperclassmen, give them unique schedules and pair them with mentors.

REQUIRED CLASSES

And while middle school students could move on to high school even without passing some of their classes, high school students can't earn diplomas without a fixed number of credits, Osborn said.

''You need four credits in English, four credits in math, three credits in social studies,'' Osborn said. The courses required of middle school students must also have a point, he said.

Broward Superintendent Jim Notter looks forward to seeing the effect of middle school reforms on high schools.

Although Broward scaled back on most summer school programs years ago, the district came up with about $400,000 to pay for middle school classes to give as many students as possible the chance to get to high school on time.

''I believe it's one of those reforms that was much needed,'' he said.

Teachers gone wild on the internet

2008-04-28T03:09:00.001-07:00

Today's Washington Post features an article on young teachers who do not have the common sense to be careful with what they post on their Facebook and MySpace pages:

One Montgomery County special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: "Teaching in DCPS -- Lesson #1: Don't smoke crack while pregnant."

Just to be clear, these are not teenagers, the typical Internet scofflaws and sources of ceaseless discussion about cyber-bullying, sexual predators and so on. These are adults, many in their 20s, who are behaving, for the most part, like young adults.

But the crudeness of some Facebook or MySpace teacher profiles, which are far, far away from sanitized Web sites ending in ".edu," prompts questions emblematic of our times: Do the risque pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?

Facebook and MySpace can be wonderful sites for teachers, if used properly. When they are used in the fashion described in this article, it makes you wonder about whether these teachers belong in the classroom influencing young people.

New publication has information on teen suicide

2007-11-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

A new joint publication of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Department of Mental Health features information concerning teen suicide and how school officials have dealt with the problem.
The publication can be found at this link.

Chairman: No Child Left Behind needs to expand

2007-07-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

Those of us who think the federal No Child Left Behind law leaves a lot to be desired were heartened Monday when Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said changes need to be made in order for the law to continue:

But Miller said yesterday that schools should be able to include measures besides the reading and math tests in determining progress, such as graduation rates or the number of students passing Advanced Placement exams. "Many Americans do not believe that the success of our students or of our schools can be measured by one test administered on one day, and I agree with them," he said.

Class time for everything except math, reading down

2007-07-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

One consequence of No Child Left Behind has been the decrease of time allotted to all subjects besides math and reading, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

The report by the District-based Center on Education Policy, which focuses on a representative sample of 349 school districts, found recess and physical education the only parts of the elementary school day holding relatively steady since enactment of the No Child Left Behind measure in 2002.

The survey provides grist for critics who say the federal testing mandate has led educators to a radical restructuring of the public school curriculum in a quest to teach to new state tests. But backers of the law, which is up for renewal this year, say that without mastery of reading and math, students will be hampered in other areas.

Final Joplin signing set for Devil's Messenger

2007-07-23T21:22:00.001-07:00

What is expected to be the final Joplin signing for South Middle School eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner's second novel, Devil's Messenger, will be held 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at Hastings Books, Music and Video in Joplin.

Mr. Turner's first novel, Small Town News, was published in 2005. He is working on a third book, this one non-fiction, this summer.

Teacher turnover costs U. S. billions

2007-06-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

An independent report issued June 20 says teacher turnover costs the United States more than seven billion dollars annually:

The study said that so many teachers leaving the profession creates a self-perpetuating cycle of failure in some school systems, as a lack of experienced mentors and a sink-or-swim environment lead to trouble in the classroom and demoralization. Nationally, about 50 percent of teachers leave their jobs within their first five years, according to a study last year by the National Education Association, a teachers union.

Survey: Parents, teachers, want NCLB fixed, not scrapped

2007-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

A survey commissioned by the Educational Testing Service indicates parents and teachers would rather fix No Child Left Behind than scrap it:

All groups surveyed agreed that lack of parental involvement and classroom discipline are two main problems in failing schools. They also agreed that those schools needed more funding to hire teachers and reduce class size and that administrators should be required to develop a real "change of plan."

Study criticizes states' teaching requirements

2007-06-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

A new study issued by the National Council on Teacher Quality criticizes states' requirements for teachers:

For example, the authors say states are letting novice teachers into classrooms before they have passed state licensing tests.

Just three states - New Jersey, New Mexico and New York - require new teachers to pass such tests before entering the classroom. Many states give teachers one year to pass, but 20 states let people teach for three years or more without passing, the report says.

"Licensing tests serve a critical purpose," says the report. "They provide the public with assurance that a person meets the minimal qualifications to be a teacher."

Former Bush Administration officials criticize No Child Left Behind

2007-06-26T09:52:00.001-07:00

Former Bush Administration officials are among those criticizing the federal No Child Left Behind law, lessening the chances the law will be renewed, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

Bush might have expected that Eugene W. Hickok, a relative of the legendary frontier lawman Wild Bill Hickok and the original sheriff of No Child Left Behind, would support his drive for renewal. As the No. 2 Education Department official in Bush's first term, Hickok wrangled states and schools into compliance with the law so forcefully that foes called him "Wild Gene."

But Hickok, who is now urging Congress to revamp the initiative, said in a recent interview that he always harbored serious doubts about the federal government's expanding reach into the classroom.

"I had these second thoughts in the back of my mind the whole time," said Hickok, a former deputy education secretary. "I believe it was a necessary step at the time, but now that it has been in place for a while, it's important to step back and see if there are other ways to solve the problem."

Some of the criticism comes because of increasing federal interference in local education, but some also comes because the law does not call for educational vouchers. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says vouchers are part of the plan.

New York schools to pay students for good grades, attendance

2007-06-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

This fall, New York City schools will begin offering cash incentives for good grades and attendance, according to an article in today's New York Times:

Under his plan, fourth-grade students will receive up to $25 for a perfect score on each of 10 standardized tests throughout the year. Seventh-grade students will be able to earn twice as much — $50 per test, for a total of up to $500. Fourth graders will receive $5 just for taking the test, and seventh graders will get $10.

Officials expect up to 40 schools to participate this fall, with a total of 9,000 students, in the pilot phase of the program, which will be monitored by Professor Fryer. After two years, they said, they will evaluate it for possible expansion.

Principals in the system's empowerment initiative — who have more autonomy to run their schools — can choose to join the program.

Similar, smaller programs for cash incentives to raise schoolchildren’s performance have been put in place elsewhere in the country. In Chelsea, Mass., for instance, students can receive $25 for perfect attendance. And in Dallas, some schools hand over $2 for every book a child reads.

Top 10 teacher movies of all time named

2007-06-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Education World has named the top 10 teacher movies of all time as chosen by teachers. The list:

Mr. Holland's Opus
(1995)

Goodbye Mr. Chips
(1939, 1969)

October Sky
(1999)

Stand and Deliver
(1987)

Dangerous Minds
(1995)

To Sir With Love
(1967)

The Blackboard Jungle
(1955)

Up the Down Staircase
(1967)

Teachers
(1984)

Dead Poets Society
(1989)

Survey: Teens don't think school is safe

2007-06-13T06:30:00.001-07:00

A nationwide survey indicates teens do not think schools are safe:

Students complained that metal detectors give the perception of safety without the actual protection. Reese, a recent graduate, said "a more concrete" system needs to replace Von Steuben High School's requirement that only every seventh student walk through detectors.

But the worst grade given, a "C-," reflected teens' perception of adults' ability to run the government.

Von Steuben graduate Lorell Pitts, 18, said most teens feel powerless because they can't vote, but still have to live with the decisions of those who can. He believes adults should show teens how to organize and speak out on issues.

"[Adults] need to recognize that they play a vital role in our lives," Pitts said.

Ruby Payne featured in New York Times article

2007-06-10T07:33:00.001-07:00

Most teachers are familiar with Texas educator Ruby Payne's theories on poverty and its effect on education, as popularized by her book, "Frameworks for Understanding Poverty."

Mrs. Payne's career and theories are explored in an in-depth feature in today's New York Times:

Your class, Payne says, determines everything: your eating habits, your speech patterns, your family relations. It is possible to move out of the class you were born into, either up or down, she says, but the transition almost always means a great disruption to your sense of self. And you can ascend the class ladder only if you are willing to sacrifice many of your relationships and most of your values — and only if you first devote yourself to careful study of the hidden rules of the class you hope to enter.

Payne’s critics say she is oversimplifying the complexities of poverty in the United States, perpetuating offensive stereotypes of irresponsible, disorganized poor people who play the TV too loud and like to solve disputes with their fists. Payne is quick to caution that her portrait is a general one. She would be "heartsick," she said on stage, “if anyone used this information to stereotype.” But she also says that if teachers and other professionals don’t look below the surface of class — if they don’t make an effort to understand the habits and styles and traditions that persist in many poor families — they will never be able to recognize the deep obstacles that poor people, and especially poor children, often face.

May 19 signing scheduled for Devil's Messenger

2007-05-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

A second signing for South Middle School eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner's novel, Devil's Messenger, will be held 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at Hastings Books, Music and Video in Joplin.

Free Jolly Ranchers will be given out, and drawings will be held for Natural Disaster CDS, copies of Devil's Messenger and copies of Mr. Turner's first book, Small Town News.

For more information, e-mail Mr. Turner at rturner229@hotmail.com.

Devil's Messenger on sale at Hastings in Joplin

2007-02-27T04:11:00.001-08:00

As of approximately 5 p.m. today, my second novel Devil's Messenger is on sale at Hastings in Joplin. Five copies were put on the shelves at that time and more will arrive later as the time grows closer for the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21, signing.

The book is on sale at three locations in Joplin- Hastings, the Changing Hands Book Shop and Always Buying Books. It is also available at Pat's Books in Carthage, and at the Lamar Democrat office in Lamar. More sites will be added in the near future, and more signings will be scheduled in late spring and during the summer.

The book also can be purchased directly from me. Send me an e-mail at rturner229@hotmail.com for more information. It is available from several internet outlets, including Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, BooksAMillion.com, and the publisher I-Universe.

The novel is a combination horror story/murder mystery about a teenage girl who communicates with her murdered father through Instant Messenger.

Dealing with problem students

2007-02-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

Sarah Overstreet's column in today's Springfield News-Leader on the woes facing the Reed's Spring School District in connection with its removal of award-winning teacher Mike Collins from the classroom after he swore at two bullies who were picking on disabled students, makes some valid points about the problems teachers have dealing with students who are virtually uncontrollable:

Some at the meeting wondered whether the school district does enough to train teachers to deal with unruly students. Having taught public school myself, I wonder whether in our current world of backboneless administrative backup, there's any amount of training that would prepare a teacher for that. So, decibel three: A lot of us are sick of teachers having to discipline narcissistic, uncontrollable and mean students with the little pack of "appropriate" tools they are given.

While I cannot condone a teacher's use of the F word in the classroom, in this particular situation, if the facts are what have been reported in the media, it would seem a different, lesser punishment might be called for in Collins' case, such as a temporary suspension.

The Collins case and the reaction it has received points out some of the biggest flaws in No Child Left Behind. The out-of-touch politicians on both sides of the aisle who created this law have no clue what teachers and administrators have to deal with in schools these days.

Teachers deal on an everyday basis with students who have no qualms whatsoever about dropping the F word or any other word in a classroom and who do not care about whatever punishment they may be given. In-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, talks with parents, many of whom can't be bothered, everything is tried, but many of these children simply do not care.

What could be the reason for that? The sad thing is the culprits are many- students with drug problems, parents with drug problems, students from broken homes, students who are victims of physical, emotional or sexual abuse, a culture in which the movies that the students watch and much of the music they listen to encourages vulgar language and poor behavior, homes that do not have any books or reading material. That's just the beginning of the list.

Every method is taken to deal with troubled students. If critics could see just how many times, against all odds, teachers and administrators have been successful in turning these young people around, we might stop hearing this nonsense about failing schools. It is a miracle how many of these children are not left behind, thanks to the efforts of teachers, many of whom have been the target of verbal abuse from the same students.

Teachers receive training in how to deal with students who act out, but the methods administrators used to help teachers in the past are sometimes unworkable now. At one time, a principal could solve a problem with two unruly students in a classroom simply by taking one of the students and putting him or her in a different class. What do you do when that number swells to six or seven troublemakers? There is not a teacher in a public school who has not faced this problem. It is remarkable how many students receive a quality education when the battle lines are drawn each day between teachers who are determined to provide a quality education and sullen, resentful students who get their way at home and see no reason why things should be any different at school.

But teachers keep on trying. They realize that despite the ever-growing number of troublemakers, the majority of the students are interested in learning...and dreamers that teachers are, they keep thinking they may be the ones who can reach some of these seemingly unreachable students.

What reward do teachers receive for their trouble? They have to listen to politicians blame them (though they disguise it by directing their venom at these "evil" teacher unions) for everything that is wrong with public education. Public school teachers have to listen to the constant push for educational vouchers, since seemingly all private schools provide a superior education, a myth that has been perpetuated through the deep pockets of people like Dick DeVos of Amway and his All Children Matter group and the Waltons of Wal-Mart fame, as well as the politicians who have been the recipients of that money. When teachers do receive well-earned raises, they are almost always accompanied by requirements that they do even more work than they already do, and that they have to fill out reams of paperwork to prove they have completed that work.

Teachers have to listen to critics complain that they are only in it for the three-month summer vacations or the short hours. If teaching is done right, and in most cases it is, teachers are working far more than the 8 to 3, nine-month schedule of myth. They are sponsoring before-school and after-school activities, taking the time to grade papers, to take classes and attend seminars to improve their work, and doing many more things that self-serving politicians, willing to use the children to fuel their ambitions, completely ignore. It is laughable in Missouri, for instance that legislators, who receive $31,000 a year for 75 days in session try to leave the impression that teachers, who are in session for 180 days a year (counting six days of in-service training) and many of whom receive less than the legislators, are willing to give the impression that teachers do not work enough for their pay. (And yes, I am aware that our legislators work on many other days when they are not in session. You would think the legislators would be aware that teachers do the same thing.)

When good teachers, and apparently Mike Collins is one of the best, make mistakes, everything has to be done to get them back on the right path and keep them in the classroom. The best thing that could be done for Mike Collins and the rest of Missouri's teachers would be for politicians to begin focusing on the underlying problems for student misbehavior and low grades. So many of these things have nothing whatsoever to do with the schools. Unfortunately though, this is not a problem that can be simply solved by the passage of feel-good legislation. This is something that needs total community involvement and until that happens, a good many children will continue to be left behind...despite the best efforts of Missouri's teachers and administrators.

Missouri MAP tests replaced by high stakes final

2007-02-17T07:09:00.001-08:00

Plagued for years by the problem of high school students who do not try on the MAP tests because their grades are not affected by them, the State Board of Education voted this week to head in a different direction.
The board authorized bids for high-stakes exit tests for seniors in algebra, English and biology for 2009:

While the details are to be worked out later, education staff proposed that students' performance on the new exams should count for at least 10 percent of their final grades, with districts able to give the tests more weight.

Some experts favor elimination of middle schools

2007-01-22T03:31:00.000-08:00

With so many middle schools receiving failing marks, many experts are suggesting eliminating middle schools completely.
Some favor high schools for grades 6-12, while others favor extending the elementary school years from K-8.
The issue is explored in an article in today's New York Times.

The undermining of teachers

2007-01-19T22:46:00.000-08:00

You need look no further than the reader response to the Joplin Globe internet story on Rep. B. J. Marsh's proposed legislation which would allow schools to waive making up five snow days to realize just how much success has been realized by those who have made it their mission to undermine public schools and public schoolteachers.
The comments are full of people belittling the work teachers do. You have those who claim teachers work one year, and then repeat their lesson plans year after year until they retire.
You have others who talk about how little work teachers do. After all, they have three months off in the summer, they don't work weekends, they get two weeks off for Christmas and a week for spring break, and they don't have to go to work when there's snow or ice on the roads.
At one time, teachers were among the most respected people in the community, and to some extent, that is still the case, but as the comments on the Globe website prove, years of undermining public schools and public schoolteachers are finally taking their toll.
So let's take a look at the truth about teachers:

Yes, there are a few who use the same lesson plans year after year, but those are the exception, not the rule. Most teachers look for ways to improve their lesson plans, trying new techniques, adding technology, or using the latest educational research to improve their results. During those three-month summer vacations, many teachers are attending seminars or taking classes aimed at improving themselves and therefore the quality of the instruction they offer to their students.

One thing the politicians' constant sniping at the "failures" of public schools (most of the schools are not failing, but you would never know that from listening to the rhetoric being offered by voucher supporters) has done is to give the impression that teachers are slackers who are living off the public trough. While there are teachers who fall short, the push for "qualified teachers" fails to take into account other factors that are playing much greater roles in the scores of students who are not making the grade, including:

-Students who come from broken homes, homes in which they are exposed to drug and alcohol abuse, and homes where the children are victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

-Students who come from homes where there are no books, only the ever-constant presence of television and the Internet.

-Politicians who demand that the schools handle all of society's ills, whether they be sex education, information on alcohol and drugs, personal finance information (which has become necessary thanks to politicians' coddling of those in the banking, credit card, and payday loan industries). Every time a politician adds something to the school's schedule, it takes away from the three R's that they say should be our focus.

-Fears that students, teachers, and administrators have each time they hear of another school shooting incident

-Students who simply do not care whether they learn

I am so tired of the argument that teachers knew how much money they were going to get paid so they have no business complaining about it. It is true to some extent; we do know we are not going to become wealthy from teaching, but at the same time, do we ever accept that type of talk when it comes to other public servants, such as police officers and firemen? Obviously, those are high risk, stressful occupations, but nearly every study of stressful occupations puts teaching right at or near the top. Teachers who care about the success of their students (and I have only met a handful who do not fit into that category) agonize over the ones who are failing, the ones who are having problems at home or at school, even the ones who seem to resist everything we try and have no interest whatsoever in school.

Most teachers are not 7:30 to 3 people who take off for home the second the last bell rings. Many teachers work with children after school, sponsor activities (some of which they are reimbursed for, but many of which they are not) and work on lesson plans and grading long after they have taught their final classes for the day. We do have 48-minute planning periods, but much of that time is devoted to dealing with parents and grading papers. I know of very few teachers who do not do a great deal of work at home. It's part of the job. For the most part, we don't go around talking about it, but with the constant belittling that seems to be the norm these days, somebody has to tell the story.

Most teachers are in the business because they truly love to work with children and help pave the road for their students' later success. As long as politicians and sensation-seeking media (i.e. John Stossel) take a handful of public school failures and make them appear to be commonplace instead of describing them accurately as the aberrations they truly are, we will continue to see the kind of anti-teacher sentiment that was expressed this week in the Joplin Globe.
As long as self-serving politicians are willing to take those rare failures and use them as an excuse to open the door for vouchers and tuition tax credits, we are in danger of putting a torch to American public schools, the most successful experiment in the history of education.
When that happens, you can forget about No Child Left Behind. The children left behind will number in the millions.

Short tests offer preparation for standardized tests

2007-01-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

Regular assessments with short tests can help prepare students for larger high-stakes testing, according to an article in Education World:

According to one educational researcher, this process not only helps teachers evaluate students' skills, but also is an effective tool for helping students store information in long-term memory.

Definition of qualified teacher depends on state

2007-01-13T06:24:00.000-08:00

An article in today's Washington Post explores how different states handle the No Child Left Behind requirement for qualified teachers:

Legal loopholes and uneven implementation by states and the U.S. Department of Education have diluted the law's impact on the teaching workforce, some education experts say. They say that meeting the standards of quality is more about shuffling paper than achieving two vital goals: ensuring that teachers are prepared to help students succeed and reducing the teacher talent gap.

New book questions value of homework

2007-01-12T17:40:00.001-08:00

A newly-published book, The Homework Myth: Why Children Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn questions the value and even the existence of homework:

Kohn notes that current research shows homework provides no benefits to younger children, may not even help older children, and in contrast to popular belief, does not reinforce what students learn in school. Rather than automatically assign homework, Kohn argues, teachers only should give homework when it is truly necessary, and when assignments can be crafted to meet different students’ needs. Spending less time on homework, according to Kohn, gives children more time to learn outside of school.

Times editorial: exploding the charter school myths

2006-08-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

The recent study that showed performance of public school students in math and reading was, on the whole, better than that of charter school students, should say once and for all that public money does not need to be put into these ventures, a New York Times editorial says.

Charter school advocates denounced the new federal study even before it was released and took issue with its methodology, which is not perfect. But this study does not stand alone. The evidence so far shows that charter schools are not inherently superior to the traditional public schools they often seek to supplant — and that they are sometimes worse.

Most states failing to meet No Child Left Behind requirements

2006-07-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Times features an article that says most states are failing to meet the requirements, particularly in testing, having qualified teachers, and allowing parents to move their children from failing schools.

Study results look good for public schools

2006-07-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

If there is any doubt how the Bush administration feels about the subject of educational vouchers and how much it supports public schooling, that should have been erased by the way it handled a study released Friday that shows public school students do just as well or better in math and reading than students in private schools.
If such a study had been commissioned by the NEA or some so-called liberal think tank, the administration would be all over it, screaming how biased the report was.
This study, however, was done by the National Center for Educational Statistics, part of the federal Education Department.
While the study confirmed that students in private schools score higher than those in public schools, that advantage was completely erased except for eighth grade reading among students of similar racial, economic or social background.
The study, of course, was released without comment by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
There is nothing wrong with sending students to private schools, whether it be for educational or religious reasons. What is wrong is centering public policy around promoting private schools. Supporters of that concept say competition will improve schools; and perhaps in some instances it would, but the problems are deeper than voucher-supporters would have us believe.
While there are low-performing schools, reasons for that go deeper than just poor administration or faculty. I am angered when I hear the phrase "No Child Left Behind" and see the entire blame for these children being left behind being placed on the educational establishment. Sure there are weak links in public education, but I have never known a teacher or an administrator who said, "We need to leave these children behind." The goal was always to help every child to succeed even before it became a catchy slogan.
Unfortunately, children are going to continue to be left behind as long as we have parents who do not care about their education. We have children whose opportunity for a solid education is nearly eliminated because of home lives that include drug and alcohol addicted or imprisoned parents, physical or sexual child abuse or poverty.
Many times these students fail to attend school on a regular basis, and receive no encouragement from their parents to do so. Many of them live a vagabond existence, moving from school to school, never staying so long enough to establish an educational routine and falling further and further behind at each stop.
Many of the students who the public schools are castigated for not educating are those who have become addicted to drugs or alcohol, or became pregnant and elected to drop out rather than to tough it out and stay in school.
What is almost never mentioned in these gloom-and-doom scenarios for public education is how many of these seemingly lost students are rescued because of caring teachers, counselors, and administrators in public schools.
As long as society has poverty, drug abuse, violence, and children who are abused, there will be children left behind. That's not because of the teachers; they're the ones who are on the front lines.

Columbine papers to be made public

2006-07-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Any time we hear about violence in a school, we wonder, "Could that happen in my school?"
The Columbine killings took place in April 1999, a few months before I began my teaching career, but they are still in the back of our minds more than seven years later.
According to an article in today's Denver Post, 936 pages of papers seized from the homes of the killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, are going to be made public.
Hopefully, these might give mental health professionals a clue as to how something like this can happen.

Teachers selling lesson plans online

2006-07-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Some teachers have discovered a new source of revenue, according to a CNN article.
They are selling lesson plans, study guides, and other materials online.

Editorial examines problems with NCLB testing standards

2006-07-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

An editorial in today's New York Times examines one of the glaring flaws (and there are many) in the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The problem is that each state devises its own tests. Scores in Missouri cannot be compared to scores in New York. At one time, Missouri's tests challenged the students. As a result, Missouri did not come off as well as some other states when annual yearly progress (AYP) was evaluated.
It is a sad commentary that we acted as if it was a step forward when the General Assembly approved Sen. Gary Nodler's law lowering our expectations for our students so we could compete with states which had already done so.

Myths about bullying exposed

2006-06-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Every school, even the best ones, face the problem of bullying. This article from Education World explores some of the myths about bullies.

Internet reading may require different skills

2006-06-17T04:01:00.000-07:00

A scientist is claiming that reading items on the internet requires different skills than other reading...and students are not being taught the proper approach.
A University of Connecticut professor plans to test his theory, according to a Hartford Courant article.

Web-based plagiarism causing teachers to abandon research papers

2006-06-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

The 10-page research paper may soon be a thing of the past.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, teachers are abandoning them because the world wide web has made it too easy to plagiarize.

Students being excluded from NCLB statistics

2006-06-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Associated Press reports states are finding ways to exclude students from No Child Left Behind statistics, using loopholes in the system.

Google launches Shakespeare site

2006-06-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Teachers planning on using Shakespeare in their classes will have a new Internet resource to use.
USA Today reports Google is adding a Shakespeare search engine.

NCLB rules send veteran paraprofessional to bench

2006-06-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

A prime example of one of the problems with No Child Left Behind is offered in Denver Post columnist Diane Carman's profile of a paraprofessional who will be removed from the classroom because she could not pass a test in higher level math. Of course, she has never been required to help her kindergarteners with any kind of higher level math, but then again, that's our federal government for you.

Missouri schools still not meeting NCLB requirements for qualified teachers

2006-06-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

School districts in Missouri (and in every other state) are having a hard time meeting the No Child Left Behind requirement that every classroom has a qualified teacher. The problem is explored in an article from today's Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian.

Teacher quality most important factor in student success

2006-06-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Many factors go into the success or failure of students, but a recent study conducted by a Southern Illinois University research council shows the most important factor is the quality of the teachers who instruct these students.
The results are featured in a Chicago Tribune article. (Registration is required.)

New Bloomfield MAP scores in question

2006-06-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

A high school teacher who improperly proctored MAP tests has lost his job in the New Bloomfield School District and his actions may cause the district not to meet its annual yearly progress goals, according to an article in the Fulton Sun.

House panel cuts funding for education

2006-06-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Funding for education and health were among the cuts made by the U. S. House Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee.
On a party line vote, committee Republicans voted to cut funding for the No Child Left Behind program, a program which critics say is already woefully underfunded. The cuts included $272 million in technology grants, $300 million for grants to recruit and train qualified teachers, and 10 percent of funding for safe and drug-free school programs.

Texas law allows private takeover of non-performing schools

2006-06-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest problems with the so-called education reform movements is that every person who suggests any kind of private method for improving education is considered to be some sort of educational messiah, while everything that smacks of a public school is wrong.
An ESchool Today article says that private takeover of non-performing Texas public schools will be allowed under a new law, with possible preference given to technological giants such as Dell and Microsoft.
I wonder sometimes if the rapid movement in education toward all technology all the time is going to end up hurting our children in the long run. Sure, we are providing them with state-of-the-art equipment and teaching them how to use keyboards and input data, but if they don't have the proper educational foundation and the ability to think, we are just turning out a nation of robots.
Or is that the whole idea?

New website collects educational research for teachers

2006-06-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Professors at Rice University have created a website that links teachers and administrators to educational research. The new database, should enable educators to more quickly find research that suits their needs.
The creators talk about the database in this article from E-School News.

Father substitutes for son who is serving in Iraq

2006-06-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

There are so many positive stories that can be told about education in the United States and Education World has a feature about a middle school technology teacher in North Carolina whose father volunteered to substitute in his classes while his son's National Guard unit was serving in Iraq.

Article explores 65 percent movement

2006-06-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

The so-called 65 Percent Solution to educational problems was not approved by the Missouri General Assembly, but it continues to be used in more and more states and others have put it on ballots for later this year.
This Education World article explores the issue with comments from the First Class Education group which is pushing the movement and information about two studies which question its effectiveness. Links to the First Class Education website and to the two studies are included.

The pluses and minuses of year-round schooling

2006-06-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Year-round schooling is an idea that is constantly being bandied about by educators and politicians. Education World has posted an article that examines the positive and negative aspects of the idea.

Recess becoming victim of NCLB

2006-06-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

Many schools are decreasing recess time or eliminating it to allow time for more instruction to meet No Child Left Behind requirements. This trend is explored in an article in today's Washington Post.

Low pay, esteem contribute to lack of male teachers

2006-05-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

One of the continuing problems in American education is the lack of male teachers. Not surprisingly, the states with the lowest pay, one of which is Missouri, are the states with the fewest number of male teachers.
Some of the assertions made in an article in today's Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian about why men and women go into teaching are questionable, but it still makes for fascinating reading.

Dropout rates questioned

2006-05-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

There has always been a question about the accuracy of dropout rates given by public schools across the United States. Tuesday's Washington Post features an article examining the truth behind dropout and graduation rates.

NCLB experiment could be a change for the better

2006-05-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

One of the criticisms that has often been leveled at Missouri's MAP tests has been the inherent unfairness of a system in which student improvement from one year to the next is really not measured.
For instance, seventh graders have been given the communication arts MAP tests, then instead of being tested again in eighth grade to determine how much, if any, they have improved, it is the next group of seventh graders which is tested.
The Washington Post reports that two states, North Carolina and Tennessee, have been given the green light by the U. S. Education Department to devise a growth model, tracking how students do in math and reading over an extended period of time.
Surprisingly, not only was Missouri not selected to be a pilot state for the program, but the article indicates the state did not even apply.

The danger of relying too much on technology

2006-05-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Though I have tried to help the educational process through websites such as those in the Room 210 family, online MAP practice tests and other use of technology in the classroom, I do sometimes wonder if we are not sacrificing basic educational concepts in favor of keeping students entertained with computers.
Apparently, I am not the only one who has these kinds of thoughts. Jay Mathews of the Washington Post, in his most recent column, asks the same question with some fascinating results.

Minnesota standardized tests may go online

2006-05-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

Minnesota students will try a new method of taking standardized test, according to an article in E-School News. The students will take their achievement tests online on a trial basis. If it works, this could become the wave of the future.

Students opening the door to the future

2006-05-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

Though there have been times when I have regretted not going into teaching after I received my degree in 1981, I wonder how I would have managed without the technical advances that took place between 1981 and when I stepped back into the classroom 18 years later as a writing teacher at Diamond Middle School.
How would I have managed without the internet? E-mail has simplified communication with students, parents, faculty, and administrators. In my three years at South Middle School, I have yet to have the copy center run off any tests, since I set up my tests on the Room 210 website and have students take them in the computer lab.
That's not even to mention the various educational websites I have worked on here at South and at Diamond, or the various research projects students have undertaken. For the first time, they have the ability to latch on to primary source documents without going to some far-off library.
Technology is marvelous, but as much as it has helped teachers, we are still behind the students in its use. An article at ESchool News points out the irony that now that 35 percent of teachers report using e-mail to communicate with students, students have moved on to Instant Messenger. Old fashioned e-mail is a little too slow for them.
I have been on Instant Messenger for the past five years or so. I don't get on often, but every once in a while I sign in and talk with my students and former students.
I never will forget my first evening on instant messenger when I was talking with one of my eighth graders and another eighth grader signed in under one of those wild names they somehow manage to create. The second eighth grader immediately began using the vilest, most obscene language you can imagine. Finally, he wrote, "Who is this Randy we're talking with?"
The other eighth grader, fully enjoying the moment I am sure, replied, "Oh, that's Mr. Turner."
"Oh, (fill in four-letter expletive)," he wrote, and quickly signed off. A few moments later, I noticed another person had signed in, but with the same e-mail address.
After he began cussing, I wrote, "How come this new guy has the same e-mail address as (name of student).
The conversation did not last long.
That was about the only time a student has ever used vile language while instant messaging with me.
I keep hearing about the dangers of the Internet, and there are many, ranging from cyberstalkers to perverts, to computer viruses, but it is time for the adults to realize that we need to take major steps toward using technologies, such as blogging, instant messaging, and e-mail in our classrooms. As far as the internet is concerned, students have shown us the future, it is up to teachers to use these tools to enhance and broaden the learning experience.

All states falling short on qualified teacher requirement

2006-05-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Not a single state will have a qualified teacher in every classroom by this year's No Child Left Behind deadline, according to an Associated Press report.
While I have never been a fan of No Child Left Behind, the idea that every classroom should have a qualified teacher in it seems to be the least we can do to provide a quality education for our children.
Nine states are so far behind they will face penalties, the article said, while Missouri is one of 11 states that are still being checked out.

NEA study: Young teachers are leaving the profession

2006-05-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

The good news is new teachers should not have much of a problem finding a job during the next few years.
The bad news is 50 percent of those same teachers will be out of the business in less than five years, if current trends continue. The reasons most often cited in an NEA survey, poor working conditions and low salaries.

Math/science panel includes only one public schoolteacher

2006-05-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

It is hard to argue with Governor Matt Blunt's decision to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to devise a plan of attack to improve math and science education in Missouri.
Unfortunately, the 19-member panel includes only one public schoolteacher.

Harry Potter remains on Georgia school's shelves

2006-05-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

It was one of the most rewarding sights someone who loves books could ever want to see.
It was about 10 p.m. on a Friday night and every parking place at the Books-A-Million store in Joplin was filled, except for one. I wheeled my car into that space and went into the store.
It was still two hours before the official release of the latest Harry Potter and nearly every aisle of the store was jam-packed with customers. Teen, pre-teens, and parents alike wanted to get first crack at the latest installment in author J. K. Rowling's series about a boy wizard. I did not wait until midnight. I wasn't there to buy the book, but to have the chance to see young people ready and eager to read.
I left feeling pretty good.
What could be wrong about books that encourage our young people to read? Unfortunately, there are always those who feel that if something conflicts with their beliefs, no one else should have access to it either. The Harry Potter series has become a battleground for people who say it encourages witchcraft and all sorts of evil things that children should steer clear of at all costs. The most recent battle took place in Gwinnett County, GA., where Laura Mallory fought to have the book removed from the shelves, even though she had not read the entire book, and her children were not being forced to read it.
Thankfully, the school board voted unanimously to keep the book available for the students.
In an era when it is so much easier for children to sit in front of the television or stare at a computer screen or play video games, books that children enjoy reading must remain available.
Children who develop the reading habit are going to be more successful in school and in life. Undoubtedly, evil influences abound in children's lives today; Harry Potter is not one of them.

Battle of the Books encourages reading

2006-05-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Though the media has been filled with nothing but gloom and doom about the Internet and teens, the fact remains that the World Wide Web also offers educational opportunities that have not been available to previous generations.
Two years ago, during my first year of teaching eighth grade communication arts at South Middle School, my classes were two hours of length, with one hour devoted to reading and the other to writing and grammar. During the fourth quarter, I decided to take advantage of websites that offer links to classic books in the public domain. I researched these books and came up with a reading list for the students, which included classics ranging from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to The Phantom of the Opera.
We spent one hour in the downstairs computer lab each day, with the students hunched over their laptops reading for an hour. I would be lying if I said all of them were absorbed in their assigned tasks, but a clear majority of them were enjoying reading. In the background each day, we played music selected by the students. Some of it was quite beyond my comprehension, but I was surprised how many times the students selected music from artists such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys.
A few students were not comfortable with reading from a computer screen, so they found copies of the actual books in our library and sat out in the hall reading.
Since many of the students were reading the same books, we formed discussion groups, which met during the last half hour of our Friday classes. Students who were the only ones choosing the books they were reading had a discussion group in which they compared their selections.
All in all, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in education. I have not had the opportunity to do that again. The Joplin R-8 School District decided the next year to abandon the two-hour reading/writing block and offer individual one-hour classes in reading and communication arts.
Sheri Medlock has taught reading to the eighth graders for the past two years and has done a wonderful job of inspiring them, while I teach communication arts and continue to work with the students to improve their writing and knowledge of the English language.
Still, that one-year experience convinced me that with few exceptions students still can enjoy reading. My thoughts wandered back to that experience when I read an article in Education World about the "Battle of the Books," a program which has elementary and middle school students reading classic books then competing with students from other schools in a quiz bowl type setting to test their knowledge.
Reading can be fun and it, combined with writing, are the keys to success in today's society.

Welcome to Room 210 for Teachers

2006-05-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest in the Room 210 websites.
The first, Room 210 at www.room210.com was set up on Tripod as a website for my eighth grade communication arts class at South Middle School in Joplin. When some of my former students told me they missed the discussions we held in that class, I set up Room 210 Discussion, followed this past March by the South Middle School Journalism Club website, Room 210 News, which features news and information about South.
This website, is designed for educators, though anyone is welcome to view its content. I hope to provide links to interesting articles and website and provide a forum for teachers, parents, and students to comment on news about schools and trends in education.
If you have suggestions, please leave a comment on this blog or e-mail me at rturner229@hotmail.com