From Diane Ravitch

To say it has been a busy summer for me is to understate.  I regret that my blog has lain fallow all this time, and today the words I post are not my own, but they are my values.  Thank you Diane Ravitch.

http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/09/my-view-rhee-is-wrong-and-misinformed/

The need for comprehensive literacy

During the process of earning my National Board Certification I deepened my understanding of effective student learning.   Upon completion of my first whole group video, I brought it to my mentor who watched it and took copious notes.  The video showed me reading pieces of text with my students and asking reading comprehension and analysis questions.   It was entertaining, it was fun, and it was completely wrong.   After watching it, my mentor turned to me and asked a question that shifted the way I looked at teaching.   

            “You’re working really hard,” she said.   “What are your students doing?” 

The answer was obvious.   They were listening.   They were being entertained, and, while they may have been learning, it could have been much more efficient and effective.  It was this moment that I shifted my focus away from what I was teaching to what students were learning.  Now, I reflect on this moment frequently when lesson planning and even while instructing.  I rely on this experience to focus my vision of the effective school as a place where students do the hard work (the learning).

This was a defining moment that has shaped my vision of the effective school which now focuses on the following:  implementing a school wide literacy program, everyone reads and everyone writes.

            Implementation of a rigorous, developmentally appropriate literacy program improves a school’s effectiveness.  Every instructional staff member is responsible for developing the literacy of students and using direct instruction of sequenced lessons, especially important during a child’s formative years when it plays a critical role in his/her intellectual development (Carnine 2000).   Serving on the state literacy team, I developed an understanding of the primacy of early literacy instruction.   Although literacy skills can be acquired later in education, there is no surer way to improve literacy than by beginning early through direct instruction and close reading.   

            The second critical element to an effective literacy plan is writing.  There is a quantitative impact on learning improvement when students write on a regular basis.  Writing to learn strategies, effectively employed, not only provide regular feedback to teachers, but also deepen understanding.  If students write about it, they remember it.

As a teacher consultant with Puget Sound Writing Project, I was fortunate to collaborate with a literacy team opening a new elementary school whose core value is - everybody writes.  They dedicate forty instructional minutes every day to writing instruction, even their kindergarteners write.  Using effective strategies such as mentor texts lessons, writing to learn, and reflection the school has established consistently high performance on state assessments.  A comprehensive literacy plan, which includes writing and the reading/writing connection, improves learning and should not be easily dismissed.

            Even Doug Lemov (2010) in his book Champion Teacher discusses writing as a critical learning strategy.  He explains forty-nine techniques that impact effective teaching and learning, among them writing.  Additionally University of Washington Tacoma, Education Administration professor, Patti Banks (2012), stressed students do not know that they think until they see what they say.  Writing regularly solidifies knowledge. I have seen the impact in my classroom.  I used writing regularly as a strategy not only in my language arts classes, but also in my speech and drama classes.  My speech and drama students wrote in abundance, and not once did they complain or question the purpose.  They wrote about their learning, to demonstrate and explain their understanding.  Thus, the key to effective writing implementation is that the teacher does it so regularly that it is habit and so specifically that it seems natural.  The impact of implementing writing as part of a comprehensive literacy plan improves student learning in all core subjects.

In the midst of the budget crunch education funding should be preserved

In case you haven't heard, we have a recession.  For the fourth budget cycle in a row, Olympia is being forced to make cuts because sales tax revenues are down.  Education has been giving up their proveribial pound of flesh for years, and this year it's more than trimming the fat, it's removing essential organs for the livelihood of the process.

The $70 million dollars of cuts being proposed by the "bi-partisan" senate would undermine accomplished teaching by slashing the National Board Certification stipend in half, on top of a 3% reduction in teacher pay, and reducing funding for absentee students.

At the same time, Met Life has released a survey showing that teacher morale is at an all time low.  Is it any wonder?  Is it any surprise?  At the same time that we're working harder, under more pressure than I have seen in 18 years in education, our pay is being cut, our class sizes are going up, the state wants to take over and reduce our healthcare, and if you go above and beyond and earn your National Board Certification, you get nothing?  Well ok, not nothing.  You get reimbursed for the money you paid for the process, minus the taxes of course. 

When Washington should be doubling down on education in an effort to repair and recover from the enormous loss of jobs, we are making moves to privatize education, stripping away benefits, and penalizing teachers.

Take a breath, WA and invest in your children.  Contact your legislature and advocate for the WA constitution and appropriate funding for basic education.

Separate and still not equal: K-12 Funding in WA

  On this Martin Luther King Day, as I sit reflecting about the contributions Dr. King made to equalize our society and impact our most vital resource, our children, I realize that in education “separate but equal” still exists.   We are ignoring the problem of the growing chasm between the wealthy and poor school districts.  Without leveling the funding formula, districts like Bellevue, Bainbridge, and Issaquah will continue to excel and districts like Clover Park will continue to struggle.  We can no longer afford to ignore the growing disparity and we certainly can’t afford to delay addressing this issue until 2018.  A generation of students is going through the public education system now, and they deserve to be addressed now.  Our court has tasked the legislature with developing a basic education program and fully funding it through regular and dependable tax sources.  The time to do so is now. We once asked Dr. King to wait for equality, and we are currently asking the youngest and least protected members of our state to wait for equality.  We need a new civil rights movement for our children; they can’t wait.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com//2012/01/15//the-future-of-our-childrens-education.html?storylink=fb#storylink=cpy

In Response to the Seattle Times Editorial

I can't begin to explain how disappointed I am in this editorial.  As a 17 year nationally certified teacher who has spent half of my career teaching in Arkansas in districts without collective bargaining and the last half of my career in a Washington district that has collective bargaining, I can't begin to explain the difference in my quality of life, my teaching, and the learning of my students.

However, I'd like to point out just a few flaws in their claim that "the biggest obstacle to education reform has been the WEA."

First, the WEA  has established a comprehensive support programs for National Board Certified Teachers. Their efforts now rank Washington rank Washington State as the 4th largest population of these highly qualified teachers.

Second, the WEA has worked hand in hand with OSPI to create a new teacher evaluation system that is currently being piloted, very effectively, across the state.

Third, the WEA has fought to keep health care as one of the last remaining benefits for the lowest paid, yet hightly educated work force in the state.

All this is evidence to prove that WEA is a leader in improving education across the state, not a barrier.

Finally, just a word about the last point, online education:  You want to replace actual classrooms with online learning and technology so that we can all be part of a high quality education that pays their teachers $12.00 an hour to care about their students they never see.  Welcome to public education via the University of Phoenix.

Do they seriously think that students without any face and seat time can get the same quality of education and caring as those in the classroom?  Some of my students don't see a significant adult at home for days at a time and I consider the time I spend with them every bit as important as the curriculum and thinking skills I teach.

For the state supreme court to expect the state to uphold the primary importance of education is reasonable and responsible and WEA can and will continue to function in a partnership that improves student learning and teacher quality. Stripping union rights is not the answer.

What's wrong with education? It's Poverty

Dave Sirota has it right.  He had it right when Waiting for Superman was released.  He had it right 10 years ago when I taught in a 53% free and reduced lunch school, in rural Arkansas. He had it right when I lived it as a kid. It's poverty not the unions that are hurting our kids.

In the 80's I grew up as a second generation welfare recipient and ward of the state in one of the most economically devestated areas, Flint, MI. I know the impacts poverty had on  me and the kids in my neightborhood.  I know that programs put in place helped me be successful and that I was lucky.

I had funded summer day camps to attend that kept me off the street, taught me how to make taco salads, and, of course, the ever popular love knot key chain. I had after school programs that allowed me to roller skate instead of sit at home waiting for someone to come feed me. These programs were provided by my school, my neighborhood school, the one I could walk to. The same school provided me with breakfast, lunch, a librarian who let me work with her after school and gave me discontinued books, Christmas gifts, etc. All of this was provided because of government funding, funding that doesn't exist anymore.

What if we finally saw and solved the real problem? We knew what that was when I was growing up, and I can see what it is when I look in my high school classroom (a high school that because it ONLY has 25% poverty doesn't provide free/reduced breakfast, so I keep cereal bars in my room for those kids). I see it in my suburban neighborhood. Poverty looks different here. It's when a student doesn't show up for two weeks, and I finally call home to find out "this number has been disconnected" to find out later from her friend that she's now "homeless." It's bright orange signs that hang on houses that are foreclosed, but that families still live in until they're forced out as they wear their designer jeans and nike tennis shoes. It looks different here, but it's every bit as impactful.

Under the current competive funding model, schools have to qualify with test scores to "earn" funds that can change the lives of their students. Cuts have devestated programs, even in my suburban district where there are not full time librarians for elementary kids. It goes beyond free breakfast and lunch. It's educating parents who are stuck in the poverty cycle about how to parent. It's providing after school opportunities early and often for young students so that by the time they get to me they have skills that can help them succeed.

What if we saw the real problem? Stop blaming those in the trenches trying to make change? Began funding based on need not on performance? Looked at students as real individuals, not as performance statistics? Do you think it would make a difference? What if we began REAL reforms?

What real education reform looks like

Wear Red for Public Ed Nov. 28

What’s at Stake, Washington?

The legislative sessions starts on Monday, November 28, and you know your representatives are going to want to get done with the cuts in a hurry so they don’t miss out on Christmas shopping and family vacations, so before they sit down at the table let them hear from you.  With nearly 2 billion dollars in cuts looming, the biggest piece of the pie left is the future generations of the state, education.  Already I face 170 students or more every year, with less time, less money, fewer books, and more high needs.  In my district alone, we have trimmed every piece of fat there is.  We cut a generation of teachers; we have minor Para -support, dispersed our ELL program and have our specialists playing TWISTER trying to cover as many schools as possible, same with our librarians and music teachers.  What more is there to cut?

Well, some ideas on the table include:

·         Eliminating Levy Equalization (that means the balance of money we are actually SUPPOSE to legally get – voter approved and everything will just disappear)

·         Increasing class sizes grades 4-12 – You try getting more than 36 adult sized students into a portable and see how you can move around.

·         Eliminating Funding for all-day Kindergarten – What? This still exists?  Puyallup cut it two years ago; you can’t even PAY in my district to have your student go to all day kindergarten.

·         Reduce the school year by 3%, 5 days.  – Already I get to spend about 5 minutes a day with each student I see, wonder how that will impact my struggling readers and the state demand to “cover” curriculum.

·         Imposing an additional 1% salary reduction for K-12 employees – our principals haven’t gotten a raise in 3 years, and my salary went down when extra programs were eliminated decreasing my opportunities for stipends.

·         Reducing Healthcare – On my “Cadillac” plan, I already pay $600.00 per month to cover an underemployed college graduate and myself.

·         Eliminating state funding for transportation – In Washington?  Where it’s dark when we start, dark when we end and rains constantly?  Glad my kid won’t be walking along the roads that have no sidewalks at 6 am to be to school by 7.

·         Eliminating National Board stipends – I won’t call them bonuses because they’re not.  They’re earned, not given like a prize at the county fair for hitting the right balloon.  This is the ONLY thing Washington State does to increase the single factor that guarantees success for students, having a HIGHLY qualified teacher in the classroom.

So, maybe it’s just me, but I think not only do “cuts hurt kids,” but cuts also: drive good educators from the profession, discourage possible good educators from entering the profession, put stress on families, oh and here in the state of Washington, cuts are unconstitutional.  It’s time for the state to increase revenue and maintain the basic education that is guaranteed under our state constitution. 

Washington statistically has the highest number of college educated adults in the U.S.  We have the highest number percentage of library usage, the percentage of math and science (outside of NASA and MIT).  How come we’re not smart enough to figure out that education is an investment?

#cutshurtkids