Will You Be Gettin' Some of the Governor's Good Merit Pay?

In his State of the State Address, the Governor held out the promise of dividing and conquering teachers through merit pay.  He went so far as to exhibit specimens of a super race known as "Master Teachers."  But does he actually believe "merit" can legitimately be measured across the State?  I guess if he believes that half the worth of teachers can be measured by their students' test scores (and in the case of an art, music or physical ed. teacher, scores in alternate subject areas), I guess he could believe anything.   

So, which teachers will have "merit" when you "incentivize" education?  Who will receive merit pay?  Will you be gettin' yourself some of that good stuff?

Here are some basic questions you can ask yourself to determine the answer in advance:

1.  Do you teach to a test?  Do you gladly sacrifice much of the richness and complexity of your discipline in the name of "blah"?  Do you deal in gross generalities or Common-Core concoctions?  Instead of developing thinking skills, do you devote more time to narrowly focus on how to ace a given test?  Do you put test prep above kids' emotional and psychological well being?   Success Academy proved with its scores on Citywide high-school entrance exams that teaching to one test (one that demands the issuance of standard-issue deodorizing powders to clean up barf) doesn't even transfer over to other tests.  Do you not let that bother you a bit?

2.  Do you tote the company line, lockstep style?  Are you a pollannish mouthpiece for the latest education gobbledygook and pander to a principal or AP?  Do you play the game instead of honestly ponder its harmful effects upon children?  Do you get pulled out to meet "factory inspectors" when they need someone to manufacture the right answers?  If so, given the right supervisor, you may be repaid generously via Danielson's perfectly objective domains.    

3.  Will you  dispense with scruples if something as simple as an eraser could help earn you an additional $20,000?  Do you remember the miracle that was Michelle Rhee?  Can you just overlook (or, perhaps, encourage) students to rush to the bathroom with hidden phones when necessary? 

4.  Do you work extra hours at school and volunteer your time and services for free?   Are you willing to sacrifice family obligations or do you have none?  Do you have no qualms about working outside of your union contract if it could eventually earn you $20,000?

5.  Will you turn over the data on kids and find ways to pass more students who cannot pass themselves?  Will you be a mole or sycophant, if asked?  

If you find yourself saying "yes" to many of the questions above, you are pretty much guaranteed your merit pay.  Spend it wisely.  It has been earned the hard way!

Let a new Machiavelli write an advice manual entitled "The Teacher."  A teacher must be both a weasel and a fox these days.  It is better to be prepped than to be taught.

If you want to do your best, given the Governor's vision of a more test-based system, find the best students.  Make the best match because without it, despite your best efforts and your generous intentions, your students will drag you down!  Watch teachers leave the neediest schools in droves.  Pity the students who are a liability to teach.  Pity society.  Teachers will focus more than ever on test prep.  Call us all Stanley Kaplan!  Is this the world the Governor wants?  It is the world he seeks to create.

Will the ends justify the means?  Perhaps it will, if your end is your own personal financial security and not the welfare of your students or of society.   

On the State of the Union and Getting Students' Priorities Straight

There's been a lot of big "States" lately, the State of the Union and the State of the State.  I asked my students regarding the former:

1.  Did you listen to the President?  Why or why not?
2.  Regardless, which issues would you most want the President to address?  Explain two.

In each class, I could count on one hand the students who heard the State of the Union.  Not entirely surprising, but so sad!  I'm betting not one heard Cuomo speak given it was during their school day.

Some simply forgot about the State of the Union, despite my reminder.  Some were not so much Republican or Independent as totally disinterested.  Some said it was their age.  Others thought it might be a lot of empty talk.  Many pointed to the necessity of studying for a barrage of midterm exams.  Alas, many had foreign-language tests, chemistry or physics the next day.  

I recognize the direct and immediate connection between their test grades and their academic welfare.  Yet, I wondered if education might not have its priorities wrong.  When test-taking takes precedence over listening to the President of your country, and a pretty powerful country at that, or cultivating good citizenship and an appreciation for the importance of current events, education seems misdirected.  I would argue with the high-stakes nature of more and more tests, we are more misdirected than ever.  I would argue that, had there been the ability to listen to Cuomo, students might have recognized the powerful direct and immediate connection between his words and their academic future.  Alas, many were probably taking midterms at that time.  I can vouch for a few who had chemistry.  

In respect to the second question above, many students were concerned about college, jobs and the environment.  The president, of course, addressed all these issues and many more, to varying degrees.  We discussed some of his proposals, including free community college, sick days and childcare.  Will we discuss Cuomo's plans today?  Probably not.  Alas, students have a full-period, cumulative history midterm!  Today is the multiple-choice section...

I was most interested in the subjects that the President barely touched upon or completely neglected.  To let you know the focus of my world, I wasn't so much thinking about Al Qaeda as the Common Core.  Its name was not invoked once.  If we do a close reading, silence is sometimes golden.  Of course, there may be new testing threats under different names, a re-branding of a botched high-stakes system.  If we consider Cuomo's words, and I have yet to hunt down a transcript and read it, word on the street says, "Teachers Beware!"

I am guessing in the future if I want students to listen to the President, I will have to turn it into a mandatory assignment.  If this is the case for high-school students, however, it seems we haven't quite managed to get our priorities straight.  Let me be "transparent," however, because I believe in honesty and it is also humorous!  The irony of it all is that following our limited discussion yesterday, I spent the remainder of the period reviewing with students for their midterm today!  From what I hear, the Governor, in his test-based world, must be loving that!  Alas and Egad!  

How Many of Your Great Teachers from the Past Would Have Thrived Today?

Do you want a fun mind game?  Take the teachers from your past and put them in the current educational landscape.  How many would have met Danielson's points in a highly-effective manner?  How many would have achieved high VAM scores?  How many would have survived to retirement?  How may would have thrown their arms up and quit?

Quite frankly, many of my old teachers might not have excelled by  Danielson's measures.  They didn't believe that, at the highest level, students must run the class.  Quite frankly, however, most of my teachers did very well by me.  They weren't quaking in their boots, pressured to prepare me for some test that might mean professional life or death.  They didn't have an evaluation system hanging over their heads like a guillotine.  They didn't have to turn over the data on me.  They had the time to give me the time of day.  They weren't always in a hurry to push through stuff.  Many were older teachers and I profited from their experience.  They were trusted professionals with tenure.   I wouldn't have had it any other way.  They helped make me who I am today.  And, I'm pretty sure, under their breaths, some might have cursed (or done a more polite equivalent) this new system; others would have quit!

If Teaching Is No Longer a Viable Profession...

As public education is driven ever more towards the realm of the business world and big tests, it loses much of its meaning for me.  My worth cannot be measured largely by the high-stakes test scores of my students.  Neither can the worth of my students be measured in such a way.  As to some charter schools, I  don't teach to make profits for someone else or pay the huge salary of a CEO.  I became a teacher to help kids.   Teaching to a test is superficial.  It does more to hurt kids, especially when Common-Core tests are designed to slaughter young minds.  It does not create the kind of lasting memories, we would we wish for our own children.

I first thought I might become a teacher when I was in elementary school.  It wasn't to prep kids.  I loved crafts.  In second grade, we made pillows.  Since I loved ice skating, I cross-stitched an ice skate on my pillow, not a #2 pencil.  I naturally thought:  How great it must to be paid to do things like this for life!  How great it must be to exercise your creativity and earn your living by making little children happy!

                                   
                        Out of the tragedy of 1961, a phoenix rose over the ice of Grenoble!

I gave that pillow to my brother as a gift.  For me, school and life seem to be so much about making things and giving them to other people.  As a teacher, I try to exercise creativity.  Now, I do so with higher-order thinking skills.  I would never teach someone else's lesson.  I share knowledge.  I encourage my students to do the same.  I try to ask the right questions.  I like to watch people think.  I like to watch people grow.  I don't like to watch people take tests.                             

I often wonder these days, if teaching had not been a viable option, what profession might I have chosen.  Where else can you be paid enough money to pay your bills and simultaneously exercise creativity with kids, craft things, share your knowledge and try to bring people together.  I'm not sure.  It bears further research.  Teaching seemed the obvious choice.  It is seems less so with every passing year of "reform."

Sometimes, I think there'd be no place in the world for people like me.  Yet, there are still children.  And as long as I can still shut my doors, I will do my best to survive this era of deform.  Children are not test scores.  Children need  caring teachers, not test-prep machines.  They need to learn how to think, not prep.  If ed. "reform" continues, we not only lose good teachers (fifty percent of teachers quit after five years), we endanger the futures of so many young people.  Public education is not a commodity.  Our children's futures must not be bought and sold.  The teaching "profession" is critical to the survival of humanity as we know it.  There may come a day when it is no longer a viable option...

The Tale of Two Kings: Falsely Claiming the Mantle of MLK, Jr.

For too long, ed. "reformers" have touted their programs as an extension of the U.S. Civil- Rights Movement.  Former NYSED Commissioner, John King, now on his way from Albany to D.C.,  has invoked the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., in advancing his agenda.  See here and here for example.  I suppose if one can call upon the legacy of the true Dr. King, one can largely shield oneself from criticism.  His mantle is sacred.  But when the comparisons are so fake, then what?

The ed. "reformers" have promoted charter schools as a solution to issues of educational inequality revolving around minority communities.  Yet, it seems with the proliferation of charter schools, segregation has only grown worse.  The UCLA study points to the depth of the problems in NY State.  The evidence seems pretty damning.  According to one particularly scary part of its findings:

• "73% of charters across New York City were considered apartheid schools (less than 1% white enrollment) and 90% percent were intensely segregated (less than 10% white enrollment) schools in 2010. Only 8% of charter schools were multiracial  and with over a 14.5% white enrollment (the New York City average)."

Would the real Dr. King support these findings?

Then, there is the issue of national "reform" legislation, NCLB and RttT, sold to constituent communities as a panacea to inequalities.  If anything, the test-based system of Common-Core aligned accountability has managed to make the vast majority of people into failures without helping to pull minorities up.  In fact, minorities are still failing at greater rates than other subsets.  This Daily News article is particularly disturbing:  "90 city schools failed to pass a single black or Hispanic student on state tests, study shows."  Who would claim the real Dr. King would support ed. reform with such dire results?

Then, there are those "reformers" who would attack unions and strip protections from teachers.  Our tenure, pensions and health system seem to be under attack to varying degrees.  There are permanent clouds hanging over the head of labor.  Martin Luther King, Jr., died while defending the rights of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.  Who could truly believe he would favor attacks upon unions?

Then, there is the particularly ugly point that education "reform" has led to the elimination of the jobs of many minority workers.  Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, once famously bragged that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to education in New Orleans.  When public schools were swept away and replaced by charters, the City's African American teachers took the biggest hit.  Would the real Dr. King have supported Duncan's hubris and its damning side effects?  

Off hand, I would guess the real Dr. King would have supported none of the above.  And, I would guess those who claim his mantle to shield their own designs are either lying to themselves, the population or both.  The real Dr. King, of course, cannot stand up, but if there was still a "To Tell the Truth," I am sure I know who should remain seated.  

At any rate, today is the day of the real MLK, Jr.  So, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2015!

On Student Unions

At present, teachers seem severely limited in their fight against ed. deform.  They are easy targets, subject to multiple observations, bogged down by deformity.  Jobs seem fragile.  If student test scores don't soar, teachers will be shown the door.  Tenure is under attack.  Many teachers tread water on a daily basis, fighting for survival in the unfriendly waters of deform. 

When Parents protest, they are dubbed pawns of special interests.  If parents are the pawns, teachers are identified as the "special interest."  Yet, teachers' special interest is primarily helping kids.  That is what teachers do.  

Despite the fact that students, too, will probably be dubbed pawns, student unions often act boldly.  Student Unions in Chicago, Newark, Philadelphia, Providence and Philadelphia have been very active.  Some are very creative in the best way.  Remember the Providence Union protesting standardized tests disguised as guinea pigs.  Youth leaders like Hannah Nguyen of Los Angeles serve as role models for others.  Some of these kids are good role models for their teachers and their unions as well.

"Give a Shit," A Song for the David Colemans of the World

There's a pretty haunting, well-known quote by Common-Core-touting David Coleman, "as you grow up in this world you realize people don't give a shit about what you feel or what you think."  He makes this statement in opposition to expository writing of a personal nature.  I recognize that we don't want to encourage undeserved bloated egos, but on the flip side, neither should we deny the importance of lessons learned by analyzing personal experience through literature, or music for that matter.  Autobiographies have always been one of my favorite forms of writing.  

Moreover, we don't need to smack down a generation and brand them as failures in the name of Common Core.  Ultimately, there is nothing more important in life than one's faith in one's self.  It is more important than any formula or fact.  It propels one forward.  We are not standardized.  We have diverse talents and interests.  We need to celebrate them.  We don't need to label so many a failure by false measuring sticks.  If we do this, we do a grand disservice to students--because of someone else's bloated ego.





In that spirit, here is an answer to David Coleman, set to the tune of "Give a Damn" (1968) by Spanky and Our Gang

"Give a Shit"

If you sit in desks with me
Third floor, thru the misery
Of testing prep in morning light,
It's such a fright.
Take a window seat, put down your phone,
You can throw someone a bone,
Just meet the faces that you meet
Past the standardized test scores.

And it might begin to teach you
How to give a shit about a little kid.
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a shit about a little kid.

Or take your students' test sometime
With sasquatch in place of something fine,
With a rotten, talking pineapple
By his side,
And wonder if you'll share your head
With something else like pencil lead,
For fear may be inside you
Or it may creep down the hall.

[Chorus:]

Come and see how well despair
Is seasoned by the test-filled air,
See your school come the good old
Sizzling Common Core.
Suppose the students all became sick
Pounded down by false measuring sticks
Suppose you'd schooled there all your life,

D'you think that you would mind?
And it might begin to reach you
Why I give a shit about a little kid;
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a shit about a little kid
And it might begin to reach you
Why we give a shit

On Grammatical Errors and Missspellings

In addition to stretching a student's capacity to think, teachers are trained to look for errors and correct them.  In some cases, it becomes second nature.  Once or twice in my career, I accidentally started circling an error in an absence note handed to me by a student, but written by a parent.  I had to stop myself fast.

More times than not, when I reread one of my posts, I find a grammatical error or misssssspelling.  I know it could be damning because I'm a teacher.  And, as a teacher, I should probably be discouraged, but I'm not.

I once went to a protest in support of education with a group of teachers.  I made posters.  On one, I used the word "ain't" for literary effect.  I even put little quote marks around it.  I'm guessing the marks weren't large enough for some.  My poster was photographed.  A picture made it to the UFT Facebook site.  One person commented upon the improper grammar.  In some hands, red pens die hard.  In a way, it's charming.

When I make errors on my blog, it is usually not intentional.  For all the mistakes I make though, I'm pretty sure I manage well.  I correct most when I find them.  And, I try to pay particular attention to accuracy of details.  I try to write mostly about things I experience and things I understand, realizing that you will realize I embed my own opinions.  

I don't lament the fact that I will continue to find errors in my blog.  (I bet there's even a few lurking in this post--if you read it carefully enuff!)  I've pretty much accepted the fact that making mistakes is part of being human.  Shakespeare said it best, "To err is human.  To forgive is divine"!*

*Wait, I know that's Alexander Pope.  Just teasing you!

Is Education Becoming an Empty Purell Dispenser?

We once had Purell dispensers in our school--which actually dispensed Purell.  They might date back to the swine-flu outbreak.  I'm not sure.  I'm doubting they were the single most impotant factor deterring an epidemic in our school, but, doubtless, Purell has some benefits, for health and psychology.  

For years now, the dispensers have remained empty.  Is it because of the expense?  Is it because some argue antibacterial lotions have potentially negative side effects?  (A Wikipedia article dispels this notion, but it reads like an advertisement!  Wikipedia even notes this.)  Is it because they may not be the panacea that some hope?  Or, is it just due to inattention?  Probably the latter.

Occasionally, I see a student stagger in the direction of a dispenser.  I try to forewarn him about the coming disappointment.  Still, the empty dispenser sits on the wall, teasing those who would trust it, perhaps, waiting to be resurrected when the next potential plague arises.

Perhaps these vestiges of the past are metaphors for education today.  It holds out a promise.  In the case of the dispenser, the promise is health.  In the case of the Core, the promise is readiness for colleges (which may no longer be affordable) and careers (which may not pay a living wage).  VAM holds out the broken promise of accountability based upon students' standardized-test scores.  In all cases, the promises seem hollow.  Is education becoming an empty Purell dispenser?  

On "Pick-Up Lines" for Classroom Discussion

This year teachers at my school have been given the above poster to hang in their rooms.  I'm guessing it's Common-Core aligned.  Since I share rooms with other teachers, I didn't personally do the honors of hanging any of them.  You might think me lazy, but au contraire.   I have been working my mind over them a bit.   I guess they're meant to generate polite and elevated discussions. Yet, the underlying assumptions worry me.   "Do you agree with           me       , but for a different reason"?  Perhaps, you "don't think that is fair to say because _______________."

The posters seem to assume that students do not know how to talk to each other.  I have not personally observed this phenomena.  Perhaps if I currently had a foreign-born class, there might be more impediments.  But, in that case, I don't expect this poster would help.  What kid would use his precious time to translate all this stuff when there is so much else swirling around him in the classroom?  I will inquire tomorrow, lest you corner me and ask, "What is your evidence?"

It's not impossible, but it seems unlikely that a student at a loss for words will suddenly turn in desperation to this poster and find inspiration.  How many people will actually take the time to read the poster?  And, if they do, what will they make of it?  Will they be as confused as me?   "Could someone help me understand....?"

Although I know the poster is well meaning, I doubt it will serve a useful purpose.  In my mind, it seems to speak more to a loss of faith on our part in the ability of our students to communicate with each other and, perhaps, even for teachers to model correct responses.  If you "have a different idea about that," please feel free to let me know.  I'll just be hoping you can get beyond these class-discussion "pick-up lines."  By the way, "Do you come here often?"

The Twin Sisters: A Student's E-Mail Meets the Paris Tragedy

A transcript of an e-mail written by a student's sister in Paris and forwarded to me, edited to preserve privacy (the blanks are in the place of my student's name):

I was your age and a freshman at Stuyvesant in downtown Manhattan when the Twin Towers fell next to me and thousands of New Yorkers lost their lives. 

It was a day that changed many things for my peers.  In the short term, we had to attend Brooklyn Tech for a month while our school was used as a triage center for the wounded.  

In the long term, it changed everything from air travel and our sense of security to politics and the way Muslims are viewed. 

It is terrible that people murder in the name of religion.  It is even more terrible that they kill for a religion that I am a part of, especially when that religion emphasizes compassion in the face of criticism.  

I feel for all people, everywhere that die as a result of senseless violence.  Such acts are cruel, unjust, and must be condemned.

Similarly, hate crimes against the millions of Muslims that do not commit terrorist acts must be condemned.  

Tensions are high in Paris and all over Europe, and already, Muslims in France have been targeted in revenge. 

In New York, our father was attacked while driving his taxi cab shortly after 9/11.

Recently, _______'s twin was pushed by an adult on an NYC bus and called a terrorist. Even though she is just a child, not a single person helped her on the bus.  

None of these acts are justified.  

My hope is that you will learn to be tolerant and open-minded and speak out against hate in all forms.  I hope that you will think of ______ and her kindness when you think of Muslims and not extremists who kill in cold blood.  And most importantly, I hope that you will get to know and appreciate people from all backgrounds and ask as many questions as possible.  You already have a head start on this, growing up in the best city in the world!

Best wishes from Paris

______________

This particular e-mail above was forwarded to me by a current student who has a twin sister.  The original e-mail was written by her oldest sister in Paris with the hope that we might discuss its contents in class.  I jumped on board.  After all, the study of history is so much about primary sources.  We are living history.  And, here was a primary source staring me straight in the face.

There are so many intensely important issues underlying the tragedy in France.  Intolerance seems to be exhibited in so many degrees.  First, there are the cartoons, disturbing to many and potential signs of intolerance.  I have not personally viewed them, but I have heard them described.  I join with Voltaire in defending free speech--even if I disagree vehemently with its content.  Let us know how others feel and if it is disturbing, let us condemn it through the same free speech.  

Then, there is the issue  of intolerance in the form of assassination and murder.  No one can afford to tolerate this, not even in the name of God.  There is, yet, a third type of intolerance in the form of revenge-based hate crimes directed against Muslims, as evidenced in the letter.  This must be condemned as well.  Free speech demands it.

In the immediate aftermath of the Paris tragedy, my class discussed the first two types of intolerance in some detail.  After reading the letter, I realized that we had not spent nearly enough time discussing this third type of intolerance.  The issue was so close to the heart of one student and probably a number of others.

The time had come to say more.  I was prepared to give the class copies of the letter, let the sister read it or read it myself.  I asked her how she would like to handle it.  She seemed to lose her nerve.  She opted for letting me read it aloud.  Since her name was mentioned in the letter, I did some minor editing to preserve her anonymity.

As I read the letter to the class, I looked around the room.  At times, my student seemed on the verge of tears, but I knew it was important to continue.  There seemed to be so much invested in how the class handled this letter.  I chose to focus upon a single question:  What, if anything, can be done to reduce hate-based acts or crimes perpetrated against peace-loving peoples?

Some kids favored greater police protection--not just for Paris Jews, but also for the city's Muslims.  Others favored education and advertising tolerance as panaceas.  Although our discussion focused on Paris, when it comes to these issues borders of place and time are blurred.

Some students thought little or nothing could be done.  In the face of ignorant biases, they favored the attitude that there will always be bad people.  As I thought more about my student's twin facing persecution riding a public bus, Countee Cullen's poem "Incident" came to mind.  When the stakes are so high, how can we let the hate and biases of a few prevail?

I was a little surprised no one offered the solution plainly before me--on that printed page of e-mail.  I saw my student's twin sister riding on that bus and as she faced the "Incident" of intolerance, the silence was deafening.  Not a single soul raised his or her voice to defend that innocent, young Muslim girl in her hijab.  

There will be bias and hate in the world, but it will not represent the majority.  When the good people cower, keep silent, can't be bothered or fail to rise to meet their opportunity to challenge wrong and do good, that is when we know our education system is failing us.  Perhaps we prep hard for tests, but do we pull the right lessons from history?   Perhaps we align ourselves to some high-stakes Core, but do we lose sight of humanity in the process?  

Should Anyone Care About My Overall APPR Rating?

A teacher is shadowed by his APPR score.

I read a Daily News article today entitled, "Parents make few requests for teacher evaluations in New York school districts."  I am not surprised when the state so nonchalantly rates close to 70% of NY's kids as failures over the past two years.  State evaluations seem to speak more to messed-up metrics than the ability of students.  My rating of "effective" tells you little to nothing about me.

It doesn't speak to my experience in the trade.  It doesn't speak to my academic achievements or my many interests in life.  It doesn't speak to my work ethic.  It doesn't speak to my outlook on life.  It doesn't speak to why I became a teacher.  It doesn't speak to the community I build in my classroom, my caring nature or the fact that I regard this whole evaluative system which seeks to disrupt education (both for student and teacher) as sheer nonsense.

The best way for a student or a parent to learn about teachers, including whether a teacher is easy or challenging, is through word of mouth, not some almost meaningless number.

So who cares about my rating?  Surely not me.  Surely not my students.  The only people who really seem to care are those who were hoping to justify the firing of more teachers.  Maybe, just maybe, it's not the teachers who are unqualified.  Maybe it's the "reformers" who need to be reformed.

In This Era of Educational Deformity, You Must Be the Bear!

How much more comfort do students in grade school need today when so many of their test scores repeatedly label them as failures?  I know many children will have supportive family members, immediate or extended, friends and other community supports.  But experience tells me, it doesn't hurt to have a teddy bear as well.  Let me briefly introduce you to a few.

Here is Hershey.  He comes from 1940.  He will be seventy-five this year--and as adorable as ever.  He did his job well to comfort a little kid while war raged in Europe and Asia.  He is spending his retirement in my house.  He has a few battle scars of his own.

Here is the elder statesman of teddy bears, quite simply, Teddy.  He is small in stature, but big in spirit.  He totes the big-time button in his ear.  He's seen a lot of wear and tear, but all of it due to excessive love.  He came from Kansas.  I was told that the man who owned him worked for the C.I.A.  This bear has stories to tell--if only he could.  They are top secret!  He is one-hundred and ten years old.  I am secretly sworn to take good care of him.  

Here is his great grandson.  He came to me in 2002 to mark the centennial celebration of his company.  He is a company man, through and through.  He hasn't left his box much.  He's a collector's item--unless one of my girls mistakenly stumbles upon him!  In the end, he must answer the call of duty--even if it means he loses his spot on the Antiques Roadshow!

When I was young, I had a teddy bear named Clyde.  I don't have his photo, but I know where to find him.  He is no ordinary bear.  He walks the docks at night with a shark upon his shoulder in place of the proverbial parrot.  You wouldn't want to tussle with him, so say the big brothers with big imaginations!  And, they know.

Lacking a portrait of Clyde, let me share with you a copy of this print given to me many years ago.  Let Ed. Deformers everywhere beware!  The Bear is real.  Parents and teachers must Be the Bear--in the name of comforting and protecting children who are so readily labeled as failures.

(Copyright, Imaginary Realities)
"My Teddy Will Protect Me"
By Charles J. Lang

On Grading a Huge Stack of Papers in This Era of Educational Deformity

I collected five sets of document-based (DBQ) essay responses this week.  In NYC, this means about 175 papers, all requiring some outside information (in this case, research) plus the use of a number of documents.

I staggered the due dates for my classes for the sake of my own sanity.  Two sets of ninth graders handed in their papers on Tuesday.  Three sets of tenth graders handed in their papers on Friday.  Since I don't take kindly to lateness when an assignment has been announced several weeks in advance, I only accept papers one day late, and, then, at the cost of ten points.  In this way, I give myself a chance to make serious inroads on the first batch before the second batch arrives. 

This project is broken into parts.  My ninth graders handed in their short-answers (or scaffolding).  Then, we discussed the DBQ.  Students were advised to state their thesis in a separate intro., use more than half the documents, topic sentences, good organization, overwhelming "outside information" and a conclusion that doesn't fizzle.  The ninth graders handed in rough drafts.  My tenth-graders handed in outlines; a few volunteered drafts and, obligingly,  I added them to my enormous stack of papers.

There are strengths and weaknesses to the project.  Students need to balance evidence and do additional research to defend their thesis in an organized, well-written manner.  Students receive feedback before the final draft.  It will better ensure more polished finished products.  

So far, I have only found one instance of plagiarism.  Given they were forewarned, the penalty is the insufferable zero.  The student resorted to Britannica online.  In his favor, at least it's more credible than plagiarizing Wikipedia.  Unfortunately, many students lack the ability to distinguish the credibility of their sources as well recognize biases.  

I don't look forward to grading papers.  Who would?  A ninth-grade student asked if I would hand back the papers the next day.  I told him "no," but I often surprise even myself.  A tenth-grade student was shocked to learn the papers might come back the next week.  How could I do it so fast?  I smiled.  I wanted to ask him if he had heard of the labors of Hercules, but I restrained myself.  I will clean my house this weekend, as usual, and grade like a maniac.  It will be telling to see which task offers relief from the other!  

Although it seems like this paper should be an easy way for students to score high grades, sadly, it is not.  Since the project requires work outside the classroom, there will be a small part of my clientele which fails to do a single thing.  They would rather suffer the insufferable zero.  They will hope for a miracle.  My calculator does not perform miracles.  I have told them so.

Given the world of VAM or the educational gulag, I suppose it is ultimately my fault if students fail to turn over the work--in the same vein as I must take the hit for a student who fails to study and bombs his high-stakes test.  But I didn't work so hard to share the zeroes of other people.  So much for the idea of personal responsibility in this era of educational deformity!  So much for teachers!

Scapegoat I am!

Here I am, on the far right, posing with two colleagues, following a professional-development session.

Scapegoat I am, I am supposed to take the hit for low student test scores in NYC.  A lifetime of scholarly pursuits and five NYC marathons means absolutely nothing!  I am a lazy bastard!  When my students fail their Common-Core Regents, it will prove I suck.  How can you argue with such logic, especially from self-anointed "reformers"?  

Scapegoat I am, I should be fired and twenty-five years of teaching history should be washed down the drain.  A fresh face should replace me.  Experience is counterproductive.  A fresh face will work miracles--if it survives the year.  What a savings in pensions!  Can you imagine?  What a blow to the heart of hard-won workers' rights!  


Any teacher could tell the Governor that there are more plausible explanations for low student test scores, if he cared to listen.  These explanations don't involve branding teachers as scapegoats.  

Try the logic of these reasons:

5.  Technology and other distractions are too powerful in this day and age.  Students fail to complete homework.  They fail to study.

4.  Classrooms are seriously overcrowded.  The kids who need a lot of individual attention will probably not receive it.

3.  Poverty, drugs, violence and death make the Common-Core curriculum seem overly complicated and overtly irrelevant to some.  Its tests are an anathema to all.

2.  Many kids have special educational needs.  Many students do not speak English.  The system is stacked against them. 

1.  In most schools, the biggest problem is sporadic attendance.  If students come to school late, miss class, leave early or fail to show up, even if only occasionally, they cannot succeed.  Since may students will not complete work outside of class, there is little hope if they do not come.  We can call homes, but we can't chauffeur them to school, lock them in or round them up.  

If you can't digest all of the above, and you find it so much easier and cost-cutting to label teachers as scapegoats, I have but one comment, scapegoats will not always be passive victims!