EFFECTIVENESS - helps and hampers

[Ian Carmichael]

Hi all,
I was just browsing the OECD feeds the other day, and see they've produced a report on teacher effectiveness (it's listed on the Fireside right sidebar as delicious links) but, it's also here.
How do you respond to the helps and hampers question? The report suggests two main hampers: lack of incentive for one, and disruptive students for the second.

What of your reflections? What things are hindrances to your effectiveness - and more importantly - how do you overcome them?

I'm thinking I have to shrink my fields of involvement in order to be at my best for the students I'm responsible for. And I have to wrestle with everything else to be sure that in the educational morass, they get what they deserve - my best time, my best thinking, my best energy.
The thing that dogs my effectiveness are the distractions - and switching my focus from people to paper. (For example, I'm in danger of becoming focussed on writing up scopes and sequins to the detriment of engaging with others in a learning classroom.)

Any thoughts?

[Fred Deutsch]

No, I haven't read it. However I just placed an order for it on Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation. My role in the wonderful and fascinating world of education is to look at "big picture stuff." Resources such as Fireside and the text you've recommended help me to do a better job. Thanks!

[Fred Deutsch]

Hi Connie:

Thanks for your suggestion to read Tony Wagner’s “Global Achievement Gap.” I received it from Amazon just in time to bring it along on a trip to Michigan, and due to some horrendous connections through Mpls and lots of seat-time, I was able to complete it by the time I returned home late last night.

This is probably the best – most practical -- education book I’ve read in the last two years. It was so good that I’m planning to give it to our superintendent at tonight’s monthly school board meeting. I would like to plan time later in the year to discuss it with her.

The chapter that gave me the most to think about was the one on ‘Reinventing the Education Profession.” I’ll share with you are few of the questions I plan to discuss with our superintendent after she reads the book:

1. What is her definition of “good practice?” How does she assess it?
2. Wagner described his feelings as a new teacher as “feeling completely unprepared” for his new profession. Is that still common today? Do our district’s new teachers feel the same way?
3. Our building administrators perform annual teacher evaluations. Are the evaluators consistent in their ratings? How do you know? Based on Wagner’s observations, there is significant variability.
4. I was somewhat taken back by Wagner’s statement (P. 137) that as a new teacher he knew there were lots of times when he felt confused about why a lesson had gone poorly but didn’t know what he needed to do to be a better teacher. If a school district has proper developmental programs and teacher support programs in place, this should never happen! Yet, even in the best of districts, I wonder how much it does happen. Does it happen in ours? To what extent?
5. The discussion on teacher isolation was also fascinating. I wonder how widespread this feeling is among educators. It seems to me this is such an important component of developing high quality teachers that it should be a no-brainer for a district to address this – even in light of economic considerations.
6. Change leadership – thought not addressed in the book, the take-home question for me is - how can I as a school board member be a more effective change leader to specifically improve student learning in my district?
7. The section on “A New Kind of Teacher” (p. 150) has me dreaming about the possibility of sitting down with the teacher’s union rep to discuss the development of criteria that teachers could show to demonstrate they are effective teachers. Now I’m just brain-storming, but what if in addition to providing educators’ raises for credit hours and degrees earned, a lane was established to provide financial incentive to develop a professional portfolio and/or demonstrate professional effectiveness on the classroom? For example, what if the same raise a teacher receives for earning a master’s degree is likewise provided to a teacher that demonstrates critical classroom skills necessary for effective teaching?

What do you think, Connie?

[Ian Carmichael]

Hi Fred,
(Although not being Connie, I'd still like to respond!). Thanks for the thoughtful walk through Wagner. Point 4 connects with me. I'm no longer a new teacher, but there are still times when I'm confused about why a lesson went poorly, and what I can do to become a better teacher. (Well, actually I know the answers: take time to reflect, Get colleagues I can really talk to, keep teaching, learn new stuff about my subjects, teaching tools and learning research. And the killing thing is the first two words take time.)

[Mike]

Hi All... interesting list of questions Fred!

I will also take a shot..looking thru my personal lense as a teacher, administrator and now a department of education person.

1. What is her definition of “good practice?” How does she assess it?

Good practice is a huge topic.

My question would be does the entire district have a fairly common vision of what good practice is?

Would suggest Charlotte Danielson's- A framework of teaching as a great jumping off place to look at your districts vision.

Danielsons work will expand the view of the board too on the things involved with teaching and learning. Check her out here:

http://www.danielsongroup.org/theframeteach.htm

2. Wagner described his feelings as a new teacher as “feeling completely unprepared” for his new profession. Is that still common today? Do our district’s new teachers feel the same way?

This question made me smile.... yes..very quickly the honeymoon phase of teaching ends and even veteran teachers in new assignments feel unprepared! Our teacher education programs are not that good Fred. Mastery the skills and the art involved in teaching takes hard, long, work and i would ask what kind of mentoring and coaching are in place to support any teacher attempting "new" work.

3. Our building administrators perform annual teacher evaluations. Are the evaluators consistent in their ratings? How do you know? Based on Wagner’s observations, there is significant variability.

What i see missing is step 1 here. Does the district have an articulated view of teaching and learning that everyone knows. If not...everyone goes in and evaluates looking thru their own lense of what is good "practice". For some....that might mean everyone is quit and doing their work...for someone else.... everyone is talking, active and engaged.

Until the leadership articulates what it is.... what it may look like...what it sounds like.... you will get what Wagner saw....not uncommon at all.


4. I was somewhat taken back by Wagner’s statement (P. 137) that as a new teacher he knew there were lots of times when he felt confused about why a lesson had gone poorly but didn’t know what he needed to do to be a better teacher.

Agree with Ian...this is not only a new teacher problem its a teacher issue and as long as we remain as isolated as we are it will continue to be a problem. Coaches can help here greatly as well as some good team teaching.

Well...enough for now.

I would ask you as a board member responsible for policy these questions Fred:

What current board policy gets in the way of innovation in our district?

What policy do we have to enhance teaching and learning?

be well..mike

[Connie Weber]

Fred, it's so good to have this conversation going; I love the depth. Thank you for taking the time to tell about your reactions to Wagner's book and your plans for the upcoming talk with your superintendent.

I just loved Wagner's book, as food for thought.

I'll be able to give some reactions very soon... just wanted to let you know I read what you wrote, and thanks.

It's hard to get enough online time these days. I'm outdoors all day in my Farm Camp, romping around in the forests and fields, playing whiffleball, tending horses and other farm critters.

Meanwhile, wanted to ask where you are in Michigan. Isn't it a beautiful state? Hope you're kicking back at a beautiful beach!

Ian, thanks for starting this conversation.

Mike, so glad you're in on this one, too. There is so much to talk about, and it's exciting that we'll have a number of different perspectives--we all play very different roles in education.

Wonder what we'll find we have in common, all of us. What are we after, ultimately?

[Connie Weber]

Hi Fred,

There's so much in your post, so many questions to respond to. I'll start with something that will help orient readers of the forum to Wagner's "What we don't knows," and his feeling of hope, the exact paragraph that made me recommend the book to you. (In the margin I wrote, "Here's a quote for Fred, with his Board questions.")

"We know that isolation is the enemy of improvement in education--and in all other professions--and that working more collaboratively to improve teaching and learning is really the only way educators are likely to get significantly better results. We also know that educators must be accountable for how they use their time and be able to show that students are learning more--including more of the content that really matters. What we don't yet know is whether American taxpayers and our government care enough about the future to pay educators a more professional wage and to provide them with the working conditions they need to succeed: smaller classes, teachers organized into teams with shared responsibility for groups of students, more effective coaching for continuous improvement, better and more frequent local assessments of students' progress, and more time to work and learn with colleagues. We also don't yet know whether schools of education and the education profession and its unions, even with the right incentives, are willing to rise to the new challenge and give up old behaviors and beliefs. However, based on my conversations with young people coming into the profession, as well as my experience with courageous veterans with whom I have had the pleasure of working, I think there is much reason for hope." (page 164, 165)

Ok, starting with what you may ask the superintendent in question number 7 above... It might overall be a very fine idea to develop a lane of PD that provided financial incentive for development of professional portfolios, and demonstrating professional effectiveness in the classroom. But there are a couple of alarms that go off for me as I think about it.

The first is that it may be difficult to develop such a system without eroding the already fragile collegiality in many educational institutions. It could lead to competition and decreased sharing, which would be antithetical to turning the profession around (in my view).

The second is about the people who judge the merits of an educator's portfolio--who would they be? And then, how would a teacher be judged? If not done properly, this, too, could lead to a nightmare, something also quite antithetical to good teaching/learning. What if (heaven help us) it were politicians deciding what makes for good teaching? (That is happening in a lot of places now, very scary.) What if the judgment were primarily based on test results or some other standardized measure? Then where would be be with all the ideas Wagner is putting forth for what is needed in today's learners? The default judgment seems to always be test results.

In the chapter "Testing 1 2 3," Wagner discusses this point in some detail. There's a whole lot to talk about from that chapter. We need to look into how assessment should go in this new age; it needs to be substantially different from what has been the status-quo model. There's a LOT of work to be done to figure out whether a teacher is facilitating competencies--or habits of mind--rather than just simple and specific knowledge of subject content.

Those are giant considerations, and without going into quite a bit of detail into how it would all happen, it's tough to imagine. I'm worried that unless the "lane" was opened in an extremely thoughtful and collaboration-supportive manner, it could amount to further weakening of education.

But I'm glad you're there, asking the questions. Let's keep the discussion going. (Thanks again to Ian, and Ian, sorry the focus has been on an American-centered book. However, the issues seem pertinent to all countries, would you say?)

I think it's great that you're going to be having the conversation with your superintendent. You could bring her into Fireside, too, and have some parts of the conversation here--without putting her on the spot, of course. We could (and should) all be thinking about the Big Ideas together.

Thanks for your obvious depth of caring for education. You are certainly a model of a thoughtful Board member... we need more like you. (Bring other board members here, too, or other people you know who would like to get in on some networked discussions!)

[Ian Carmichael]

Funny you should ask about the ethnocentricity of Wagner. In fact when I was perusing on-line books, I decided to by bypass this one on that very basis. But there could be plenty of relevance, as seems apparent from the discussion so far.

Enjoy!

[Fred Deutsch]

Hello All:

Thanks for the great comments. A few thoughts and some feedback:

Ian, I appreciate the self-assessment that must go into trying to understand why a lesson doesn’t come across like you want. To me, just the process of recognizing there’s an issue and trying to analyze it is commendable. What I have to deal with on my end is trying to establish the environment and the expectations that “all” teachers in the district will aspire to the level you describe. It’s my belief that regardless of profession, there are those that aspire to excellence, those that are mediocre, and those that have not yet found their professional nitch.

Mike, thanks for your input. I appreciate what you say about teacher-training programs. I’m a really big, big, big believer in teacher development programs. I recognize that new teacher-grads are green, and I believe that professional development can make any teacher an even better teacher. It seems to me our country needs to do more to improve the programs that produce our nation’s educators.

In response to your thoughtful questions Mike, the enhancement of innovation and the promotion of learning and teaching, in my humble opinion, is what everyone associated with education (teachers, administrators, school board members, concerned parents and all concerned citizens) should be all about. Improving education is of course a policy matter, but as important and maybe more important are issues of attitude. What the purpose of education? What’s our common mission? And as policy makers, administrators, and educators, what’s in our hearts? The answers to these questions, and to questions like these, are what drives education in our communities and our country.

And Connie, of course thanks for your comments.

I understand you have teacher-alarms going off in your head. Might I suggest that development of a system to promote teacher advancement on things like professional portfolios and/or demonstration of professional effectiveness “should be” in the works in districts around the country (but in reality, I don’t believe they are with the exception of a few limited places). From everything I read and everything I’ve come to believe, the only way for such a system to work is in the context of a highly trusting and collaborative environment. Sometimes the irony get me – the whole focus of education these days is to develop 21st Century literacy skills in our kids, but when we look at the adults it sometimes seems like we act as if we’re in the stone age!

You say: In the chapter "Testing 1 2 3," Wagner discusses this point in some detail. There's a whole lot to talk about from that chapter. We need to look into how assessment should go in this new age; it needs to be substantially different from what has been the status-quo model. There's a LOT of work to be done to figure out whether a teacher is facilitating competencies--or habits of mind--rather than just simple and specific knowledge of subject content.

And I agree 100%. When is the best time to start the work? I think it is now!

You also say: Those are giant considerations, and without going into quite a bit of detail into how it would all happen, it's tough to imagine. I'm worried that unless the "lane" was opened in an extremely thoughtful and collaboration-supportive manner, it could amount to further weakening of education.

And again I agree 100%. The only way this could happen is in a collaborative-supportive manner. Connie, the days of butting heads between school boards/administrators and teachers is so, so, far past due to end.

What do you think???

Fred

[Connie Weber]

Fred,

Here's another suggestion. Come up with the money to send a whole bunch of teachers and school leaders to Project Zero next summer. You go, too.

It's not that I'm trying to push that particular program, although it's the best professional development I ever have been part of, across 30 years. There are a couple of other programs that might be in the same league, I'd say Coaliton for Essential Schools, NECC... and I'll try to think of a few more. NAIS does really well.

But I'm saying, get the educators out and learning and developing collaboration skills and thinking about deep thinking, thinking about what it takes to set up a classroom that is based on understanding, truly understanding what is studied.

Support the reinvigoration of a profession that's sorely embattled by societal forces; help build it up.

Do that by supporting the simplest thing: that teachers have time together. How about one half day a week for collaborative planning and study? Is that so out of the box?

Start it all up for the educators with immersion in very high-quality interactive participatory learning, with some of the world's best professors, researchers, and practitioners.

Just a thought--I've been pondering our discussion here and wanted to add more. Let's continue this conversation.

Thanks again to Ian for the questions that opened it all.