Always right, no wait, always wrong...

When I was a kid, my mother was very clear.   "When you are in school your teacher is like your mother."  Your teacher would not punish you unless you did something wrong.  And if you do something wrong at school, you will feel consequences again when you get home.  Translation, your teacher is always right.

Fast forward, a long time later.  The new message to kids is, "that teacher better not hurt you, holler at you, catch you doing wrong or I will be in that principal's office in a heartbeat."  Translation, your teacher is always wrong.

Neither approach is correct, but if I had to go with one, I would pick my mother's advise.  I say that not because I think of myself as a teacher or because my mother almost always gave perfect advise, although both are true.   I lean toward teachers being on the side of the angels more times than not for lots of reasons.

Firstly, teaching is hard work and not for the faint of heart.  Mostly people become teachers because of the kids and because they want to help children be better.  Even with the vastly improved salaries a person will never become breakout rich teaching school.  So there have to be other rewards.

Secondly, I freely acknowledge there are lots of lousy teachers who bully kids and like the feeling of authority over kids.  Every barrel has a bottom and some teachers live there.  However, whatever negative things are true about teachers' personalities are also true about the personalities of bosses kids are going to encounter when they grow up.  So they should learn to manage less than fair treatment.   And NO, I am not endorsing bad teaching as a good learning experience.

Thirdly, parents and teachers need to be on the same side of the battle to produce fully functioning good adults.  With all the distractions today, that is not an easy task and both parents and teachers need each other to fight along side of them.

Lastly, the teachers are always wrong position is bad for kids.  Human beings, including kids, need to learn to take personal responsibility when they mess up.   This acceptance of responsibility is key to a good personal relationship, good work experience, and a positive outlook on life in general.  It does kids no good to think that there will be a parent or other powerful figure ready to rush in and get them off the hook when they do something wrong.  Our jails are filled with people who think the rules do not apply to them and if they do, well they will still get off.

So in standing up for teachers, parents are also standing up for a good future for their kids- and who doesn't want that.

Where oh where have the teachers gone?

I can predict a news article every year at this time.  School systems are scrambling to fill teacher slots.   Baltimore City notably laid off about 200 people in a surplus teacher corps about  4 months ago to balance the budget.  Now they are looking to hire about the same number, but in different disciplines from those laid off.
So what's going on?  In the old days people said it was teacher salaries.  Not so today.  The average teacher salary in Maryland is about $65,000, not bad for working 190 days a year.  Nationwide the education of teachers is down 30%.   In Michigan there is a surplus; hello Scott Walker.
If the issue is not money or working hours, what is the problem?
Supposedly the decline in the interest in teaching began in 2008, about the same time as the great recession.  Many districts stopped raising salaries and coincidentally started measuring a teacher's ability against test scores.   High test scores meant you were a good teacher.   Low scores meant you were a bad teacher.  Then there were the pacing guides.  Teachers were told where they needed to be in the curriculum each and every day.  Again it was the testing program that was driving this race.  It would not be fair to test a child on material that was not "covered".  Notice advocates for the pacing guides do not use the verb learned.  Teachers just need to make sure the material is "covered" before the testing date.  Not to worry if a child didn't get the content or had a personal life issue.  The clock is ticking, just move on.
Teaching has really never been about money.  It is a very tough job.  If you go into teaching for the material rewards, energy in will never equal financial resources out.  Good teaching is all about emotion and watching kids learn.  It is about the hugs, high fives, and the bright eyes when a kid gets it.  Teaching is about showing a child that she can learn math even though girls are not supposed to be good in math and science.  Teaching is about telling parents that their child is doing well and really catching on to the content.  Teaching is about showing a child how he can get into college and make a future different from his family.  People do not need to live great lives; we need to find greatness in the lives we are handed.  Teaching used to be a wonderful way to do just that.
When teachers unions weren't looking, politicians and supposed education advocates turned teaching into an assembly line profession.  There was a reason automakers had the strongest unions with the best benefits.   The work is hard and mind numbing.  There needed to be tradeoffs.
Teaching has always been hard work; but it has never been mind numbing.  Pacing guides, standardized testing programs, off the wall threatening parents, lack of administrative support have all joined to suck the joy out of teaching.  Great teachers have great passion for their work and for the kids.  Over and over studies have shown that increased salaries do not correspondingly increase worker satisfaction.  We are killing the teaching profession by sucking the life out of teaching and replacing those teachers with folks who are content to measure what they do by test scores.   That is not great teaching.  It is no wonder fewer and fewer people want to do it.

Who is for a punch in the face?

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was recently interviewed on CNN.  He was in prime form.  Christie said that the best way to treat a bully was to give him a punch in the face.   The interviewer asked what national organizations deserved a punch in the face.  Without hesitation Christie said the national teachers' unions.  He said they were only interested in increasing membership and benefits and had no interest in improving the education of children.  He went on to declare the unions the "most destructive force in education".   He said that this was not a new position on his part, he has felt this way for nine years and had the scars to prove it.
So how much of this is political hype and how much is true.  Is this comment a hail Mary pass in a crowded presidential field or a Pickett's charge against a strong political enemy.   Probably a bit of both.
At the time of this writing there are 17 Republicans running for President.  That is the most crowded field in memory.  So clearly there is a strong need to distinguish oneself from the look-a-like field of people not in the least bit shy about making fools of themselves with their comments.  However, there is some truth to what Christie says.   While the unions are currently raging against the annual testing requirements, that is a new rant.   They must have been on a very long lunch break when NCLB with its boatload of testing was being debated in Congress.  Now they are embarrassing themselves by being the only national education organizations that is against the continued special examination of test performance by at risk groups such as kids with special needs, minority groups and those for whom English is a second language.  Makes them seem a bit callous with regard to the less fortunate. It has been quite some time since a union has argued for something that will benefit kids rather than put gold in their own pockets.
It could be easy to argue that attacking these strong unions is a lot like Pickett's charge as well.  These are among the strongest unions in the nation.  And their members are white collar teachers who work with our kids every day so how bad can these people be.  On the other hand, the Supreme Court is going to be hearing a case in the fall regarding the legality of continuing the mandatory service fee that closed shop states such as Maryland and California require of those teachers who do not want to belong to the union.  If the plaintiffs win that case, the strength of the unions will be severely impacted because lots of people will drop out since they will have the option of saving a considerable amount of dues money.   Given the economies of states since the recession, unions have not been able to negotiate for much in pay raises and a lot of what they have done is try to hold onto the benefits they already have.
All in all, my view is more inline with Christie than not.  I personally think the unions have ruined the profession I love.  They did this when they went from being a professional organization like the Bar Association or the AMA and decided to go with the trade union model.  Then they like to insist they want to be treated as professionals.  Act like a professional and just maybe you will be treated as one.

How ridiculous can this testing get?

The latest horror story around testing is that of a principal in New York City who committed suicide by jumping in front of a subway train.   The back story is that she was distraught over having falsified some test scores of her third grade students.

Last April the Common Core exams were given at the 49-year old Harlem principal's school.  Many third graders did not finish on time.  The principal concerned because she had promised parents that the kids would do well fudged answers on the tests of numerous students who could not finish the test on time.   Then she confided that sin to someone other than her clergy.  The person to whom she confided the violation filed a complaint with the Board of Education.  An investigation by the Board substantiated the allegation made by the complainant.  The investigation into the complaint was reported in the New York Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and picked up by the Associated Press.   REALLY!!!

Surely this is such an important issue that these highly respected news media needed to cover this terrible discretion.   Tongue firmly planted in cheek here.   The same day the complaint was made the principal threw herself into the path of an oncoming subway train.  The death was ruled a suicide by the city medical examiner.   The superintendent has sent letters to all 3rd grade parents saying that the exams had been tossed due to the investigation.  "The integrity of the assessment was compromised due to actions outside your child's control" the letter read in part.   Evidently the level of anxiety among some educators in the city caused some educators to walk out and refuse to participate in the administration of the testing.

Prior to this situation, the principal had posted on her college profile that this was a chance for her to build the school of her dreams.  Her husband has said she got great joy and pleasure from her students.

What are we doing???   It is not clear if this woman had other mental health issues.  What is clear from parental reaction to her death is that she was well loved by parents and students.  How large a factor was this testing event in her suicide, not clear.   But it certainly had some part in pushing her to this awful action.  People these are artificial assessments of a child's future success. In 10 years they will be meaningless to everyone.  They may not even exist in 10 years.  We are giving them a level of importance that they do not deserve.  We know they stir anxiety in kids and staff, make some kids ill, push other kids to lower self-esteem, and now have played a role in someone's death.  Enough- let's get rid of the things.

Better Late Than Never-Maybe Not

No Child Left Behind expired seven years ago. It has continued to be enforced although major exceptions and allowances by the Feds have pretty much chipped away at its most offensive aspects.
Finally the Congress has decided to address the issue. But since this is our current Congress, its first issue was to address image over substance. No Child Left Behind has a terrible branding problem. There have been lots of jokes from the beginning.  No Child With A Behind to reflect the huge testing requirements.  No Teacher With A Behind to acknowledge the adequate yearly progress expectations for all kids but especially for several sub-groups such as children at risk, minority groups, children with disabilities and those who speak English as a second language.  One of the first bits of foolishness to go was the promise that all students would be on grade level by 2014. I for one was waiting to celebrate the miracle that never came.
The Senate and the House have approached the branding issue separately. The Senate has the Every Child Achieves Act (SB1177).  The House is working on HR 5, Student Success Act.  Both bills
leave in the heavy testing obligations. We still think testing equals accountability.  However there is considerable flexibility on the kind of test. There are also few to no consequences from the Feds for bad testing results.
The Senate bill does require federal monitoring and reporting by states, the House bill not so much. Most important to the President is that neither bill identifies the sub groups for special monitoring. An amendment in the Senate that would have done that has failed.
What is really interesting is that while 37 civil rights and education organizations supported the amendment, the National Education Association, essentially the teachers union, did not support the amendment. Exposing yet again the myth that the Association values the education of children when it clearly is all about protecting the backs and benefits of teachers.
The President has said he could support the Senate Bill but not the House version.
And to add to the stew, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the requirement in many states that all teachers must pay a union service fee if they choose not to be a member. A victory by the plaintiffs would seriously weaken the NEA, but that is a blog for another day.
The fight to re-establish a national education bill is far from over and far from resolution.
Yet come this fall teachers and kids will go back to school and continue to muddle through, some on grade level, some below and others above.  Makes you wonder why we are spending all that money on Congress.

Cowboy Bob is Watching

Texas has decided to allow cameras in self-contained classrooms for children with special needs. Any parent,student or teacher can request the cameras be installed. The bigger question is why only in self-contained rooms. Let's face it a child with special needs is much more likely to be abused in a general education classroom where plain kids an frequently see a ready target. The other issue is why assume that special education teachers in self-contained classrooms are more likely to abuse kids than are special education teachers who are co-teaching with general education teachers.
There is also the issue of the privacy of the rest of the students in the classroom. Suppose I request a camera in my child's classroom because I am concerned that my child is being bullied. How does that camera only watch my child and the child that I believe is bullying my child. Now all the other students no longer have the privacy of their classroom.
Teachers should have the expectation of privacy too.
Perhaps we are carrying this voyeurism too far. The next thing you know students and teachers may be spending so much time videoing each other with cell phones there will be little time to learn. It is about time we had some level of trust in the people who are in our classrooms because there aren't enough cameras or time in the day to watch all that video
Texas has always been a state with its sights firmly set to the rear. Looks like they are at it again.

Is that death knell for a union near you?

The Supreme Court has served notice that it will take up a case that threatens the ability of government employee unions to have dues checkoffs for everyone.   In many states, including California, all teachers must either belong to the union or pay a service fee that is equal to full dues minus the amount spent by the union for political activity.   Teachers have no choice, it is either full membership or the service fee.  A group of teachers from California are challenging this rule.  Their position is that all union activities are political in some manner; and therefore, they should not have support political activity they do not approve of.  The union's position is that all teachers benefit from the rewards it negotiates; so all teachers should pay to support it.  Teachers say their First Amendment rights are being violated.
Thirty-eight years ago the Court ruled that unions can require non-members to pay for collective bargaining costs so long as the fees don't go toward political activities and the unions are the lawful negotiating arm of the government workers.
Court watchers think next year could be the session when this decision is changed.  The Court is more conservative now and there is less national support for unions.
From my perspective, I would be delighted to see unions weakened.  If they lose the dues checkoff and service fees, many teachers may choose not to join.  Many join now because the service fees are almost as much as the full dues.  In my view there was a time when education unions served a real purpose.  Initially they functioned more like professional organizations and were a value to the profession.  Now they are clearly operating like a blue collar union.  The positions taken by the unions are almost always for the health and welfare of the teachers.  If they were a professional organization, their concerns would also include the children they serve.  But they don't.
Wonderful teachers need to be paid well.  Average teachers need to be paid a decent wage and lousy teachers should be paid not at all.  That can't happen with the unions in charge.   All teachers, the good, the bad and the ugly- get paid the same salary if they have the same experience and education.  Good teachers work very hard and they deserve merit pay for that hard work.  Unions support mediocrity and our kids deserve a lot better than that.